Quicktime conversion

Feel a little silly raising this here, QT conversions are something I thought I knew enough about not to need advice, indeed I've often given it, but I've had some quite strange results exporting my latest project and wondered if any one had any comments on my observations.
My projects are AIC 1440 x 1080, my main video source is a sony SR8 (AVCHD 1440 x 1080i) but I invariably add a number of stills, titles and sometimes even video from other sources. My output is aimed at my tv and web gallery for general viewing over the internet, but I maintain my projects intact for someday when I may want a higher quality delivery format.
As such I have generally found the easiest method with reasonable results has been to export from FCE as a quicktime movie and import that into imovie 08 which will handle all the export formats and resolutions I require as well as undertake the uploads to my web gallery. I have exported numerous projects in this way and been reasonably happy with them in the past.
However I was dissatisfied with my latest 960 x 540 h264 export from imovie in that large areas of similar colouring were not satisfactory (sky, walls, water etc) and there was also too much motion judder introduced. (I've come to expect a little motion judder with panned shots and h264, but this was above my expected level)
Resulting from my dissatisfaction I tried a few different export techniques from both FCE and imovie, but bare in mind I've tested various export options on many occasions before and have not seen the results I'm about to describe.
I'm not as worried about my exports for my web gallery as I am about my export for the tv, so the settings I experimented with were made with this in mind. I tried exporting as a MOV with h264 encoding, as an MPEG4 with h264 encoding and exporting using the tv preset and with the exception of the preset I tried both 720p and 540p (I'm working with 25 fps). I was surprised that in every instance I found that imovie provided a better output and indeed the best output was provided by the simple export to movie (540p) from imovie (which I don't believe has a comparable setting in FCE.
To add to what I thought was already very strange, I noticed that settings appeared to be getting stuck, I'm not so sure I can explain this very well but I'll try.
During one test, which I think was an export to MOV, I checked the de-interlace source video and ended up with de-interlacing artefacts in the export that had not been there when I exported using the same settings but without checking the de-interlace option. I didn't actually think there was very much odd about this until I unchecked the de-interlace option and exported again and the artefacts remained.
To summarise:
Export 1 - de-interlace unchecked, no artefacts in export.
Export 2 - de-interlace checked (other settings = the same), artefacts noticeable.
Export 3 - de-interlace unchecked (other settings = the same), artefacts noticeable.
I also noticed that if I made an export (call it Export A) and noted the settings and then made a few changes for subsequent exports that if I returned my settings to those I had used for export A and exported again, that the new export was significantly different to the original export A.
I don't believe these things should be happening, anyone noticed anything similar or know of anything that might be causing this.

I've tried with to source formats; the first was beta sp transferred to mini dv which I captured from my deck. the other was 24p mini dv captured from my deck.
settings: VIDEO: vid. comp= h.264; qual = High; key frame = 24; frame reordering = yes; encoding mode = multipass AUDIO: format = uncompressed; sample rate = 44.1; sample size = 16; channel = 2
I need to convert to a normal quicktime file and use in a premiere project. I've done it several times before but now something's weird.

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hello,
i am editing a hdv project and want to export to quicktime. the client needs it in a specific size (700x394). they do not want the video in the file compressed, just the size of image. they are compressing the video through flash for the web. anyways, i used to just use quicktime conversion, custom size and use 700x394, but now when i do that the audio and video are sparadically out of sync in the product. the wierd thing is that the project plays fine in the timeline, but when i export the problem occours. i then, exported to a full res fcp movie and it is fine. then tired reexporting through qt pro to 700x394. when i did this their were no sync issues but the quality of the file was not so good, it look more pixely, certainly not as good as when i did it using quicktime conversion.
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What format are you converting the HDV to?
If it's animation, it is quite possible your computer can't pull the data rate. In this case it would be a processor / hard drive issue not an out of sync issue.
x

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Sorry, if you want to make a DVD, Compressor is your best bet. I mean, you CAN skip it, and take the export directly into DVD Studio Pro to author the DVD...but Compressor will do a much better job.
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#42 - Quick and dirty way to author a DVD
Shane's Stock Answer #42 - David Roth Weiss' Secret Quick and Dirty Way to Author a DVD:
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THATS ALL!!!
NOW...if you want a GOOD LOOKING DVD, instead of taking your REF movie into DVD SP, instead take it into Compressor and choose the BEST QUALITY ENCODE (2 pass VBR) that matches your show timing. Then take THAT result into DVD SP and follow the rest of the steps. Except you can choose "16:9 LETTERBOX" instead of PAN & SCAN if you want to see the entire image.

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http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24195?viewlocale=enUS&locale=enUS
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Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

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this is my first time using final cut pro.
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Message was edited by: ec84
Message was edited by: ec84

let's put it this way. if you do File>Export>Quicktime you'll make a quicktime file with the same compressor as your sequence and it'll render faster. If you select File>Export>Quicktime Conversion you can make a quicktime file with a compression of your choice. (although the conversion process takes time). so you could compress it into a DVCPRO 50 quicktime, or an uncompressed quickime or H.264 quicktime. any of these settings will play in quicktime. These you can select through the options button in the converter window. we just suggest you use Export>Quicktime because it's faster easier and it's useless in your situation to convert.

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I'm gonna make this as simple as possible.
Please do me a favour and read this first: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1611
So I cant export as 'Quicktime Movie', instead follow the instructions and export using 'Quicktime Conversion' Ok thats fine but..........
WHAT ABOUT THE CHAPTER MARKERS?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!
.........thanks

https://discussions.apple.com/message/9408556#9408556
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make sense?
Patrick

Export using quicktime conversion only exports 23 seconds of my project...

Hi,
I am trying to output a promotional video to .wmv format using the quicktime conversion. It only exports 23 seconds of footage before stopping, which is no use at all.
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I have tried setting ins and outs around the video, and I have tried selecting all the content in the timeline, but nothing seems to help.
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DOC EDITOR wrote:
Thank you, very much. The cost of the flip version needed is only $49 so that is not bad, but why would you actually need something extra when the conversion option is available in Final Cut? I would understand if the option did not exist at all and the flip 4 mac would make the option available.
Not on mine. I had to buy a third party product to do that.
AFAIK, the ability to be exporting to wmv is not included with FCS or Compressor or QT. If it appears in your options, you may have installed another app that includes the transcoders and codecs.
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I am using FC Express HD, and for some reason, when I export a Quicktime movie, the final movie will only play audio, and the video is black. I only get the actual video if I export as self contained, or if I exportusing quicktime conversion. Why?

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Hi, welcome to FCP forum,
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With regard to what is and isn't allowed on this forum take a look at the [Help & Terms of Use|http://discussions.apple.com/help.jspa] page.
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Quicktime conversion

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