Exporting from Quicktime for optimal editing in FinalCut Express

I've read that it is recommended to export H.264 for best quality in Quicktime, but Final Cut Express doesn't play H.264 in real time. It forces you to render if you want to edit in the timeline. What is the best format to export from Quicktime in to enable real time editing in FCE?

To convert the file so that FCE doesn't need rendering you need QuickTime Pro and do the following:
- open the file
- menu File > Export...: then select +Export: Movie to QuickTime Movie+ and click Options.
- In the +Video > Settings+ dialog select:
- Compression Type: DV/DVCPRO-NTSC (or DV-PAL) and make sure that:
- Frame Rate: 29.97 (or 25), Quality is Best, Scan Mode: Interlaced, Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (or 16:9 if anamorphic)
- In the +Sound > Settings+ dialog select:
- Format: Linear PCM, Channels: Stereo (L R), Rate: 48000, Quality: Normal, Sample size: 16 bits
The result is a .mov file (not .dv) that doesn't need rendering when imported to FCE to a sequence with setup DV-NTSC (or PAL).
Piero

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Exporting from iMovie for additional editing?

I have an iMovie sequence that took a long time to edit, but I need to export the footage to another editing app (GoPro Studio). I invested a LOT of time creating the iMovie, but need to merge much of it with other GoPro footage. GoPro studio has a few features that can adjust for GoPRo wide angle lens etc that iMovie can't do.
I am concerned that once the footage has been rendered/exported FROM iMovie then rendered again in GoPro studio for final, that I will have an extra generation of interpolation that will further degrade the image quality. Is there a LOSSLESS export option form iMovie? (I'm using the most recent version)
I'm obviously not a pro video editor, but I am a pro photo retoucher, and would never create a second copy of a file using JPG format. I'm assuming that video rendering (exporting) also INTERPOLATES the pixels, resulting in a noticeable image degradation.
So is there a "LOSSLESS" export option? Or a format that is virtually indistinguishable form the original? I hope I'm being clear enough on this.
thanks!

Do you have a MobileMe account? If so an alternative is to publish directly from iMovie to a MMe gallery. You can include several sizes of the same movie in the gallery to accommodate visitors with different connection speeds. This demo page has an example: Adding a MMe Gallery from iMovie 09.
Or, there are a couple of ways of embedding a QT movie into a web page that does not require the movie to load with the page, only when the play button is selected. See these demo pages: Opening Item in a New, Precisely Sized Window and QT Movies via Export for Web in QT Player.
This demo page has seven examples of the first method: PhotoPresenter Animated Slideshow Themes
OT

Exporting from Quicktime to reduce file size

I'd like to export from quicktime to a smaller file size. That is, I have a 16.9 meg file I want to optimize for my website. When I try exporting it using the share function, there's no audio on the exported file. I've tried the Export function as well, using Movie to Quicktime movie settings, and the default H.264 compression. Same result...no audio. What settings should I use that will retain audio and shrink the file size so it'll load faster? Thanks.

QuickTime Pro can't extract audio from MPEG-1 files (muxed) so only the video is converted.
MPEG Streamclip (free) can export to QuickTime formats and include the audio track.

Best way to export a quicktime for crisp/clear text

I created a few 60 second text animations and they look perfect when viewing on my NTSC monitor but the text is fuzzy in the NTSC DV quicktimes I made. I exported them at DV resolution because I was originally told the final piece would be on DVD but it turns out they will be projected from a laptop. What are the best settings for exporting a quicktime for this purpose?
-Jon

When you created them, did you scale them using the "Scale" option under the Motion tab, or the "Size" option under the Control parameters? You should be using "Size".

Exporting from FCP for use with PC

Hey all,
Trying to deliver a high-med quality 8 minute video from FCP for use with a PC. I've tried exporting both a .mov and .avi using DVCPro50, but neither are readable through the PC. Best I can get is sometimes audio will show up. Does anyone have a good solution for exporting from FCP for use with a PC?
Thanks again for your help!

I don't think DVCpro50 codec is available on a PC. I think panasonic has a special license with apple only, so you need to try a different codec for the avi.

Firewall nags every time I start an export from quicktime!?

Every time I start exporting from quicktime the firewall asks me to allow incoming network connections and to enter my admin user name and password.
I've checked the firewall in system preferences and quicktime is on the application list and set to allow incoming connections.
I've also tried reinstalling quicktime but to no avail.
Any ideas on what might be causing this?

Go to "/Library/StartupItems/LexSleeper.app” and delete the file. You'll likely need to use an admin password and be prompted to enter your password before the app will be Trashed. Reoboot and the message should be gone and you should be able to empty the trash.
Clinton

Optimal export from Canon Vixia HV30 via Final Cut Express for Blip.tv

I am looking to optimize the export of my videos from Final Cut Express (4.0.1). I shoot HD Widescreen on a Canon Vixia HV30. I've been having problems getting good quality in a smallish package.
For some reason, the videos come off the camera at the odd ratio of 496 x 279. This means I have to export them that size, but the final product ends up being huge. Literally, the screen is larger than the computer screen, and I have to view it on half size. I feel I could get more bang for my buck if these videos could be exported smaller initially.
Here are my settings for export (as Quicktime Movie with Quicktime conversion):
Compression: H.264
Quality: High
Key frame rate: 24
Encoding: Multi-pass
The only tweak I make is to set the kbits/sec to between 3000 and 3500, which gets me a decent looking video that's about two minutes long and between 40 and 70MB.
If I try to tweak the ratio or the format, the picture gets squeezed or the quality drops significantly. I've also been running into the problem of skipping playback on Blip.tv, which recently switched to a new version of Flash.
Any help on how to shrink the video and keep the quality?
Regards,
Philip

Export to where? Where are you trying to get to? Export QuickTime Movie is the original converted FCE media file.

Photoshop CS5 won't open a PNG pct exported from Quicktime

I exported a move to still from Quicktime Pro, using the PNG compression settings, and when I try to open it in Photoshop CS5 I get the error message "Could not complete your request because the PICT contains data that is no longer supported in this version of Photoshop." Photoshop CS4 has no such compunction. And I was able to open them in CS4 and recompress them and get CS5 to open them, but this is really annoying. I often have to make screengrabs of Quicktime movies. Looks like I will have to do it staight from within Final Cut and not use Quicktime to do it.
I have included a still of the error message:
And a still of the Quicktime compression settings:

"I am curious. How can changing the the extension of a file format trick photoshop or software in doing something that it can not do.
I thought that it did not have the engine to translate the data. So what happens to a file by simply changing the extension. Is the data altered ?"
That's a real good question and something that's been a frustration since the introduction of OS X. Such behavior was never a factor in an Apple OS until Unix. Such nonsense was always part of Windows behavior. It seemed to me it was actually worse immediately after the transition from OS9 to OS X, then improved, now is very stringent again.
I have thousands of Illustrator files (suffix .ai). I have been working with several other vector programs lately, including Intaglio, a Cocoa product. Intaglio refuses to recognize a .ai file, although it is nothing but a plain text file with proper PostScript code. If I save the file out of Illustrator as an EPS file (suffix .eps) Intaglio has no problem opening it. The difference between a . ai file and the same image as a .eps is only a subtle change in some of the PostScript comments in the file, but nothing that really changes the graphic data. So why does the program give an error message with the .ai file that it is an Unsupported File type?
Even more perplexing, if I simply change the .ai suffix to .eps, Intaglio is perfectly happy with the file. It opens and displays perfectly. Nothing has changed in the file data by changing the suffix.
This kind of behavior seems to be an interaction between applications and the OS. The application calls the OS to perform certain functions and the OS demands a particular convention of the file name, or it sends back an error message and the application stops at that point.
Have you noticed that the OS asks if you really want to change a file name suffix? That's how insistent it is that the name be a certain type.
TextEdit is a program with no graphic capabilities. If I try to open a PostScript file with it, it balks. (I don't want it to display the graphic page layout - I want to edit the content of the file) A PostScript file has mostly plain ASCII text that can be read and changed by anyone who is familiar with PostScript. (There also can be some long streams of binary image or font data. Such data can't easily be edited, but a programmer could locate it, remove it, or move it around in a text editor program). TextEdit will not open a .ai or .eps PostScript text file as text, unless I change the suffix to .txt. Older (OS9) editors have no such problem and other "programmer editors" ignore the suffix also.
Programs should (and can) open and display (or reject) files correctly by the nature of the data in the file without any need to examine the file name.
Apparently, some applications (Graphic Converter?) have decided to ignore the file name nonsense and deal with the actual file data, as they should just like OS9 and previous Mac Oses did. But OS X "conforming programs" insist on the strict Unix way of doing things.
I have always felt there was some kind of passive-aggressive, arrogant insistence on this by the Unix/NeXT programmers who came with Steve Jobs when he returned to Apple. Early NeXT/OS X implementations of the Mac Desktop were very un-Mac-like and were eventually changed after howls of protest from the Mac community. But they never relented on the file suffix thing, apparently insisting that the human-readable file name was critical to the machine's understanding of the file type.
All this nonsense is unnecessary as the very simple workarounds prove and very inconvenient for the user. There's just finger pointing and standing on principle and insisting on adherence to some pedantic specification, rather than operational effectiveness.
Rich

Exporting from FCP for iPhone...

OK... So we have almost 100 videos on our website from the last couple years. I was under the impression they worked on ipods/iphones..... I was wrong. Here is step by step how I export them from FCP, I'm hoping someone can point out why they wont play on iphones.
Export / Using Quicktime Conversion
Video Settings: H.264, 29.97 fps, automatic keyframes, frame reordering off, data rate at 700 kb/sec, optimized for streaming
Size: QVGA: 320x240
Sound: AAC, 48.000khz, VBR at 112 kbps
Prepare for internet steaming: Fast Start - Compressed Header
I know I could used the apple devices setting from compressor but I tend to get not-so-good results when using the preset options. Any help getting these working is greatly appreciated.

trc,
This page lists encoding option that are suggested in the "Ensuring a Great Audio and Video Experience" collapsable menu:
https://developer.apple.com/iphone/devcenter/designingcontent.html
In addition to the encoding, I would verify your server supports all the requirements in that link as well.
This page has additional information on embedding:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed.html
Hope this helps,
Nathan C.

Best way to export from FCE for compression?

Hi again, folks!
I've read/learned that, when you plan to compress your video, you should ideally export from your editing program in the final resolution (size) that you want the video to be. Apparently this is because editing programs do a better job of sizing the video than do compression programs (such as Sorenson Squeeze, which does its best work doing only compression). What I'm wondering is this: When I export to QuickTime from FCE, I have two options, namely Export as a QuickTime Movie, or Export Using QuickTime Conversion (which allows me to save as a QuickTime or other format). So, my question is, if I Export Using QuickTime Conversion, does this actually "convert" the video to some 'bastardized' version of QuickTime, or does it just reduce the size? I'm asking because I don't understand why, on the one hand, FCE refers to exporting a full size video as simply "Exporting as QuickTime" while on the other hand (eg. when I'm lowering the resolution), it's called "QuickTime Conversion" (which is lumped in with a whole bunch of other output format possibilities such as .avi, mpeg4, etc).
I'm probably not being as clear as I'd like, but more simply put, why does FCE consider going from hi-res QuickTime to low-res QuickTime a 'conversion'?

One suggestion I received (just tonight) from another forum was to export the video from FCE, but not as a self-contained movie; this way (I'm told), the video is not being compressed or otherwise altered, and hence will give me the best results when I compress
The information you received on the other forum was half right and half wrong. The difference between a self-contained movie and a movie that isn't (known as a 'reference' movie) is NOT the quality; it's that the self-contained movie is an exact copy of what's in your Sequence while the reference movie only refers to the original media and renders ... it doesn't copy it. Since reference movies rely on the original media (and render files) for playback or when used in other applications (like Sorenson Squeeze), they will not work properly on any other system nor will they work if any of the original media or render files are moved, deleted or otherwise altered.
The quality of the two types is identical.
-DH

Exporting to Quicktime for FCP Import

I just finished a project (digital pictures) using Still Life software from Granted (www.grantedsw.com). I want to export my project to a Quicktime movie for import into Final Cut Pro 4.5, to add transitions, music, etc.
When I go to export to Quicktime it asks me under "Motion" for how many frames per second (it is by default at 12 fps) and key frame (which is by default at 24 frames.
I want the best quality for importing into Final Cut. How many fps should I use and what is the best key frame?
I am also given the option for the size:
160x120
320x240
640x480
720x480
720x576
Not too sure what size is best, as well. Any help would be great. Thanks!

I'd be matching the export settings to the sequence settings you intend to edit this movie into... so for say DV NTSC: 720X480 at 29.97 fps...
Jerry

Export from Mac for Windows Media Player - square pixel widescreen

Hello:
I'm working with a square pixel wide screen iPad animation video. I built comps in AE and am editing in Premiere. I'm having issues with playback in Windows Media Player. Keyframe interpolation and cross dissolves are causing glitches. My pixel ratio is 872x486 And I want to export from Premiere with better results in WMP.
Your help with export settings is greatly appreciated.
Regards

Hi:
Thanks so much for your response.
my sequence settings are
see attached
My export settings
see attached

Export from QuickTime: Just the music

Posting this under QuickTime and GarageBand2.
Is it possible to export just the music from QuickTime Player? If so, how?
To, for example, iTunes. And/or burn song to a CD?
Brought in some music I created via keyboard and a music program called Band-in-a-Box. Plays perfectly in Quicktime, but I want to get it into iTunes, or burn it to a CD.
When going through GarageBand 2, I lose some of the original sounds and effects I created.
It comes into QuickTime as MIDI.
I'm using QuickTime Player 7.5(v149.5) Computer specs are below.
Thanks.

MIDI isn't really "music" (in the CD sense).
QuickTime Pro could export what it "hears" into an AIFF file (like those found on CD's).

Flash Export from Quicktime not available

Just installed Flash 8 on my mack book pro (os 10 .4.9) but
the option to export to .flv from quicktime pro is not coming up in
the menu. Does anybody know why this is not appearing. The
component is installed but not showing up in quicktimes pull down
menu.
Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

I am having the same problem. Except I had installed CS3 and
I had encoded quite a few quicktime files to FLV. Then today for no
reason the flv option is gone from the quicktime menu. I haven't
done anything different from yesterday to today. I installed the
new version of Mac os X last week but that didn't change anything
in my quiktime. So I am really getting annoyed at this and really
don't have time to be chasing ghosts all day.... You know you just
want your tools to work when you pay for them... So if anybody has
any info that would be great.

Export from Quicktime to Flash

Hello, I have several Quicktime trailers (1 minute and 8
minutes long) that I want to encode in Flash so that I can place on
my website. I can either export from Final Cut Pro using the FLV
codec or use my Flash 8 encoder. These are my questions:
1. Does one way produce better quality than another? I have
also heard that Sorenson Squeeze produces better quality
compression than either of these two methods. Is this true?
2. I imported the QT movie (.mov) into the Flash 8 encoder
and saved using Flash 8 medium quality. I then placed the FLV file
on my site. However, when the link to the Flash file is clicked,
the flash movie does not play; it asks you if you want to download
the file. When I download the file, it will not open. What am I
doing wrong? Shouldn't the flash file stream open?
3. Are there any tutorials available on QT to Flash that can
help me?
Thank you for any advice you can offer me.

Hello,
I think you posted this in the wrong forum, here is the Adobe Captivate forum.
Lilybiri

Exporting from Quicktime for optimal editing in FinalCut Express

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