Final Cut Express 4 - Creating Video in portrait orientation

I'm just curious if there is any way to set the resolution of a video I'm creating in Final Cut Express for a display in portrait mode (turned so its tall instead of wide ie 720 x 1280). Assuming you can only use included presets does that mean I'd need Final Cut Studio?
If nothing else I can just fake it by making the text/images all sideways and then rotate the screen without changing the resolution settings.
thanks!

As far as I know (which isn't all that distant) it is not possible to do as you wish.
However, you can fake it by cropping a normal image to give an upright rectangle but the result would be the same as using a "portrait" still photo.

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Using Final Cut Express for video editing without attaching external device

Hello,
I am a newbie to Final Cut Express as well as Mac's in general. I am wanting to use Final Cut Express for video editing of files, but without an attached camera. Is there any way to have Final Cut Express startup without having it prompt for an external A/V device? I just want to do some basic editing and use the chroma key feature. Can anyone help?
Greatly Appreciated,
Knight2000
iMAC Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi Zak,
Unfortunately, I've tried that and I get into an issue that was addressed in this posting: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=836595&tstart=120 where FCE will show the splash screen and then the program doesn't start. I then have to delete FCE preferences and then I will get the Easy Setup dialog box prompt me again for choosing the external device.
I am looking for a way to use FCE for video editing of files that I already have on my computer that I created using iClone software and is in .avi, or .mp4 format. I get FCE to work one time without the external device actually being attached, but then when restarting the program I get the dialog box asking for the external device and if it's not there, the program just closes, and to get it to work again, I have to delete the preference files and go through the process all over again which is time consuming especially when this is at work. If FCE is not the right program, can anyone suggest a good video editing program that doesn't require an external device and is as good or better than FCE?
Thanks again for your help and support,
Knight2000
iMAC Mac OS X (10.4.9)

When using Final Cut Express, the video in the Viewer window looks fine, but when I insert the video into the Canvas Timeline it appears to lose resolution, and look fuzzy and blurry. Are there preferences or settings for the Timeline that cause this?

When using Final Cut Express, the video in the Viewer window looks fine, but when I insert the video into the Canvas Timeline it appears to lose resolution, and look fuzzy and blurry. Are there preferences or settings for the Timeline that cause this?

Thanks David. I had to convert the mts file to Quick Time (using AunSoft Conversion software) before I could import it into Final Cut Express. And I made sure I kept the size of movie (720 X 480 with letterbox) to compliment what I set my Panaconic AVCCAM video recorder at (720/60). Even after I fully render it, it still looks fuzzy in the Canvas window at the right that plays what I have editing down in the Timeline. A friend that edits some using Final Cut Pro helped me to narrow things down to this problem. This is also wierd. If my Viewer window at the left is set to 200% to get the person's head the same size in the Canvas window at the right we needed to put it to 400%. Does this make any sense. We think we need to control the Time line resolution somehow but cannot find any options from my manual, or the help, or in the various drop down menus. Do you have any clue? What is going on?

Final Cut Express moving videos off hard drive

So I started capturing some footage on my laptop because I didn't have an external drive available. I finished the project, and now I'm back home with my external drive. My internal drive had 1.5 gigs free now, and I want to move all the footage I captured from FCE onto the external.
I know iMovie has an option to export the project and all the files into a single file. Does FCE have an option like this, or do I need to go through finder to where it saved all the footage and move them like that? How can I do this without losing all the links and having to reconnect my media...
hopefully this all makes sense, I've never really used FCE

Hello Drew,
FCE doesn't have that option. You will have to use the Finder to copy the folders/files to your external drive and yes you will have to Reconnect Media after moving the files.
Be sure your external drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended and is connected via Firewire.
In FCE, close your Project. Then in FCE preferences reset your scratch disk location to the new Final Cut Express Documents folder on your external drive. Then exit FCE.
The default FCE scratch disk location is /Users/yourusername/Final Cut Express Documents. Normally your FCE project file and related material is in this folder. Under it you will find the following folders:
Autosave Vault
Capture Scratch
Render Files
Waveform Cache
Thumbnail Cache
and there may be an Audio Render Files folder too
At this point you should be able to find a Final Cut Express Documents folder on your external drive; it should have automatically been created when you reset your FCE preferences earlier, along with an Autosave Vault and a Capture Scratch folder. Copy the files from your internal drive's Autosave Vault and Capture Scratch folders to the corresponding new folders on your external drive. Don't bother copying the render files or cache files - it will be better to re-render after you move your project. Also, if you have any other source media such as photos or music, copy them to a new folder on your external drive. Keep your FCE project file on your internal hard drive but do make a backup copy of it somewhere.
After copying everything, verify & double check that you have good copies of your clips on your external drive because the next step is to delete the originals of your captured clips that are on your internal drive. Don't delete any folders, just the captured clips themselves ... and all the render files. This is necessary so that when you reopen your FCE project it will be forced to reconnect media and you can point it to the new location on your external drive. Otherwise it will just continue to use the clips that are on your internal drive.
Then reopen your Project File that you left on your internal drive and reconnect media when prompted.

Final Cut Express issues: Video and no audio

Ok.. sorry about before. I posted in someone elses message, for that I'm sorry.
My name is Justin Smith. I'm a freelance videographer out in Kansas. I have a brand new Macbook Pro. I'm shooting with a Dvx-100. I took my camera and tried to import video into Final Cut Express. When the short video clip was finished capturing, I tried putting it to the timeline, but only the video was added. So I have video, no audio and a bunch of questions. How do I get my orginal audio from the tape onto the timeline? Also, I have a question about importing audio from say Itunes. I can import the song fine, But when I lay the track down on the timeline, I'm getting a continuous beep noise. I read the FAQ and it told me I have to convert the track to AIFF? How do I do this?

As for importing audio from iTunes, yes, you must convert it to AIFF first. iTunes can do this unless you purchased the songs from the iTunes Music Store. If you did, they are protected AAC files and won't convert. There are ways to do it but since it most likely violates the copyright, no one on this forum can legally tell you how to do it.
If they are not protected, then go to iTunes preferences, select the Advanced icon at the top and click the Importing tab. Select AIFF encoder from the "Import Using" popup menu and make sure the settings are 48khz. Then select the song from the library and choose (from the menu bar) Advanced->Convert Selection To AIFF. A new music file in AIFF format will appear in your library.
Another way is to use Quicktime Pro (the paid version of Quicktime). Open the music file in Quicktime, choose Export and select AIFF, 48Khz, 16bit for the format. Again, this won't work if its an iTunes protected file.

Final Cut Express 4 - video converter

I need a video converter software for Flip and GoPro videos. Any idea what to get? Thanks!

All Flip cameras except the Mino and Ultra record video as MP4/H.264. Use MPEG Streamclip to convert the video to Quicktime/Apple Intermediate Codec.
The Flip Mino and Ultra record video as standard def MPEG4/AVI. You should be able to use MPEG Streamclip to convert these videos also. If that doesn't work, then you should use Flip4Mac WMV Player Pro + QuickTime Pro. Since these are standard def 4:3 aspect ratio videos, convert them to QuickTime but you could select either Apple DV/DVCPro NTSC or Apple Intermediate Codec compression as you prefer.
The GoPro Hero cameras record to MP4/H.264. Use MPEG Streamclip to convert the video to Quicktime/Apple Intermediate Codec.
The GoProSD Hero Wide cameras record to AVI-MJPEG. Use MPEG Streamclip.

Final Cut Express problems galore

It's hard to know where to start with regard to problems relating to Final Cut Express. How about this: the 3 simple steps for importing a project into FCE from iMovie, as set forth in the 'getting started' book, result in nothing more than a message telling me that the File is of the wrong type. And that's that. Not much to go on there. Any suggestions? Most of the other problems with 'getting started' - and there are quite a few - have resulted in masses of 'rendering' issues, complete with hundreds of numerals, decimal points, and acronyms which are entirely meaningless to me. Having spent years on iMovie 06 generating lots of highly edited movies, and enjoying every minutes, I gotta say that FCE is somewhat beyond daunting. Is there, perhaps, a book out there that would be useful to the likes of me? Something that begins: 1. Sit down at computer. 2. Turn computer on. 3. Launch Final Cut Express, and so on?

Hello and welcome to the forum.
FCE is a totally different animal compared to iMovie. It does have a steep learning curve, but there are good resources available and good people here to help you learn it. Once you have the basics down, it gets a lot easier. Here's what I'd recommend for learning FCE:
Tom Wolsky's Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop book and Final Cut Express Made Easy training DVD
Izzy Video's Learn Final Cut Express 4 videos (online, free)

IMovie vs Final Cut Express and Pinnacle Studio

Before I had the Imac (6 months now) for my video or photos I use Pinnacle Studio 11. Now I want to update the IMac to Leopard with ILife 09. Now I also want to use Final Cut Express for video editing. However since I seen the introduction of IMovie 09 I'm not sure which investment to make.
My question to you: with my experience with Pinnacle will Imovie 09 apply for video editing or should I also get the FCE. And what about my projects done in Pinnacle Studio.
Thanks in advance for all your reactions.
Ron

I migrated from using a PC and Pinnacle Studio 11 to a MacBook Pro and Final Cut Express about 9 months ago. I had no previous experience with a Mac, so it has been a very steep learning curve for me. But I have been studying the bright minds on this forum for awhile and have also been taking advantage of various Final Cut tutorials on the web. I eventually stopped regretting leaving Pinnacle behind and I have come to love Final Cut and the greater creative control it offers. As for iMovie, I found it a little too basic for what I want, but it may be suitable for your needs.
As far as your Pinnacle projects are concerned, finish them up and then immerse yourself in Final Cut. I think you'll be glad you did.

I have been creating a film on Final Cut Express and half of my film has disappeared- what can I do to retrieve it back!?

I have been creating a film on Final Cut Express and half of my film has disappeared! What can I do to retrieve it?! Furthermore, command Z doesn't appear to be working! Any help would be much appreciated!

Check the capture/scratch disc to make sure the media is still there. If it isn't your hard drive may be going bad. If it is, then you may have inadvertently cut part of the video from the Timeline or deleted it from the Browser.
As for the Command z issue, see how many levels of undo you have set in FCE preferences. Also keep in mind that Command z will not work if you close the project and reopen it.
-DH

My current os x is 10.9.5, using final cut express vers. 4.0.1. I have imported .mov clips created with a older mac os x (lion) and converted them to import into fce. after doing this as well as putting clips on the fce timeline when playing back t.h

My current os x is 10.9.5, using final cut express vers. 4.0.1. I have imported .mov clips created on a older mac os x (lion) and when I wanted to import them into fce, a quicktime conversion window opened up and converted them (I haven't experienced this in the past). I then imported the converted quicktime clips into my fce project. After doing this I took selected clips and put those edited clips on the fce timeline. When playing the video back in the fce timeline,I noticed
1) the video wasn't playing back smoothly like the original content
2) when looking at the timecode reading of the timeline, the timecode was sputtering as well as the video and audio. I exported to quicktime just to see if that was consistent, it was.
When I play the converted quicktime content independently of fce, it plays normally (no sputtering of timecode, video and audio. Need help to resolve the sputtering playback of converted video content in the fce timeline. I've never experienced this before. Any suggestions?

When you say you converted the clips before importing them into FCE, did you convert to AIC or DV and do the converted clips match your FCE Sequence settings exactly? If not, go back and convert the original files again, using the intended Sequence settings as a guide.
-DH

Latest advice on creating .flv advice from Final Cut Express?

IN our newsroom, we have a recently purchased MacBook Pro running Final Cut Express 4.0.1 for the creation of videos for our website - problem is the the website can only take .flv files and they can be no larger than about 20 MBs. I have looked at most of the posts in this forum on creating .flv files, but I wondered what the llatest, best advice for doing this is? I know that:
1/ I can export a .mov file and just change the extension to .flv, but that creates a file as large as the original .mov file - too large for the website.
2/ The powers-that-be did not include Adobe Flash on this computer so I am supposing I cannot use Adobe Flash Encoder as a standalone app.
3/ DV Kitchen looks like it might work, but it is $79 and has a lot of bells and whistles we don't need. Plus, the beancounters will have to approve the purchase.
4/ What other cheaper options can create an .flv file from a FCE .mov file that would squeeze it down to about 20 MB?
Thanks, Douglas

If you dont have Flash the only worthwhile converter for flv is Sorenson Squeeze:
http://www.sorensonmedia.com/video-encoding/

How do I add a title to a video clip w/ LiveType 2 and Final Cut Express 4

I have Final Cut Express 4 & LiveType 2.1.4, I'm not sure how to add titles or test to a video clip, and the tutorials for Final Cut Express 4 don't say how to get started in LiveType. How do I simply add text? The tutorials say how to add effects to the text they just don't say how to add it to the clip or how to get the clip into LiveType.

Well, you don't actually _add text_ to a video clip, you _create a text clip_ and add that clip to your timeline, either adjacent to an existing clip or on the next higher track if you want to layer the text with an existing video clip.
The very simplest way to add text is to use one of the *text generators* built into FCE. Lower Third, Text, Scrolling Text, etc. allow you to create various text clips and give you basic controls over fonts, positioning, size, color, etc. You can find the text generators in the Effects tab in the FCE Browser.
LiveType is a separate and more sophisticated application that enables you to do all sorts of things with text (much more than can be done with the FCE text generators). The basic process is - create your title in a LiveType project. Save the LiveType project. Then in FCE, import the LiveType project; from there, you can treat it just the same as any other clip.

Iam trying to import a short video in final cut express and I'm getting this error... File Error: 1 file(s) recognized, 0 access denied, 1 unknown. How do I solve this problem? The video is on my desktop it's an mpg.

Iam trying to import a short video in final cut express and I'm getting this error... File Error: 1 file(s) recognized. 0 access denied, 1 unknown. How do I solve this problem? The video is on my desktop and it's an mpg file. Please help me

Get a copy of MPEG Streamclip and convert your MPG file to QuickTime/Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). In FCE, select one of the setups that uses AIC that best matches your clip (say, 1920x1080i60). Create a new sequence, then import the converted file.
Note that if your MPG file is actually MPEG2 you will also need the QuickTime MPEG2 Component in addition to MPEG Streamclip.
What was the source of the MPG file? How about if you open it in QuickTime, then do Window > Show Movie Inspector. Tell us what it says for codec/compression, frame size & frame rate.

Created project using Final Cut Express 4, can I open it with Final Cut Pro

Created a short video using Final Cut Express 4, will my teacher be able to open this project up with Final Cut Pro???

Depends on exactly which version of FCP your teacher is using.

Flip Video on Final Cut Express

How do i get HD video files shot on my flip video camera to play in final cut express? It doesn't seem that FCE is recognizing the video format created by flip video.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Hi David,
here's a link to a really good explanation complete with a short video - it's for the Kodak Zi8 but should work the same for whatever you're using.
http://www.reelsocialmedia.com/2010/01/how-to-use-the-zi8-with-final-cut-express /
Key seems to be the file import settings. I'm still experimenting with my Zi8 and these.
Hope this helps you
Best
JC

Final Cut Express 4 - Creating Video in portrait orientation

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