Significant quality loss and jagged diagonal lines when exporting from FCP

I've been working on this problem for several days and I'm going insane! Every time I export my movie from Final Cut, there is a significant quality loss. It is most noticeable in two ways: diagonal lines become very jagged (looking somewhat like diagonal lines in an older video game -- more a diagonal sequence of blocks); also, in some areas such as faces, the colors get a little blurry and there seems to some "pooling" of colors around the edges of the face.
I'm pretty sure the problem's not in capture: the Quicktime clips that I captured from the camera are all pristine. When I play them in Quicktime, I can blow them up several times their original size, and they maintain their sharp lines. (I also Reverse Telecined them all with Cinema Tools, if that's relevant.) I also know the problem's not just my computer monitor; when I play these movies on my external monitor and TV, they look bad too. The clips look bad after I bring them into Final Cut, and while I'm editing, but at first I figured that was because Final Cut sometimes doesn't show full resolution in the timeline. Still, when I export, the quality of the original captures just isn't there.
Some details:
Captured from 24A progressive, Sony HVR V1U HDV.
Using Final Cut 6.0.1, Compressor 3.0.1, Quicktime 7.2.0, OS 10.4.10 (all the most recent versions I believe).
I've exported in many different ways: using Compressor (and have tried a number of different settings: the DVD Best Quality 90 Minutes default Setting, as well as using a variety of bit rates from 3.0-8.0, One pass CBR, Two pass CBR, Two pass VBR, Two pass VBR best; Video Formats NTSC, HD 1440x1080...I have tried many combinations. Regardless of the size of the m2v created, the files seem to have the same problem over and over. I've also tried exporting from Final Cut as a Quicktime Movie and with Quicktime Conversion. Same result. I also tried using different compressors with my Final Cut sequence: Apple Intermediate Codec (which I used when capturing -- you have to with the Sony HVR), HDV 1080p24, HDV 1080i60, Apple Pro Res 422, H.264...
What's happening? Why is Final Cut turning my nice pristine captures into jagged foulness? What can I try that I haven't yet?

Welcome to the forums!
Unfortunately, you seem to have tried everything I can think of, and I don't have the latest versions of FCP to know if it is a bug. However, in the off chance that you haven't given this a shot:
Take a problematic 10 second section of your timeline (set in and out points) and the Export -> Quicktime (not QT Conversion) and make sure that you have it on Quality settings that you captured, and select the "Make Self Contained" box.
Look at that in Quicktime and see if it's bad. If it's not problematic, use that video file in Compressor for your render.
Hope that helps!
~Luke

Similar Messages

Where XML and related file belong when send from FCP to Color?

Hi(Bonjour)!
Where XML and related file belong when send from FCP to Color?
I want to start a fresh project and delete all previous tests.
Michel Boissonneault

Hi(Bonjour)!
I messed up with preference for home directory.
Thank you.
Michel Boissonneault

Audio and video not synchronized when exporting from Premiere Pro CS6

Hi
We have made a project in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 that´s intended to be exported to DVD (it´s a weeding). We are working with NTSC DV Widescreen. The exporting is 720x480
We have 2 audio lines activated and sounding on this project.
The question is:
When exporting the entire video (the entire timeline sequece) using Adobe Media Encoder to formats like H.264 (NTSC DV Widescreen)... Quick Tile Movie or AVI without compression (we tested these formats) the 2 audio channels get unsynchronized from the video. The same problem occurs if we get a direct link of the timeline from Premiere to Encore.
And Inside Premiere Preview audio is preety correct.
Does anyone here are getting such problem?
Also..can I ask another question (as I´m not expert on video production)?. What´s the best format for our purpose? Export a video to be played to DVD (we record weedings, birthdays..social events). No problem the time to export. We´d like the best quality for output.
Thank you for the help
Gustavo.

Hi John and techkid123
We have 4 cameras here. 1 is Sony model HD1000 (since it works with Mini-DV cassete we need to capture the image via Firewire). 2 cameras are Sony HD2000 (it generates *.MPEG files if I remember well). And 1 camera is a Panasonic AG-DVC7 (it generates *.MTS files)
We start a new project using the Standard NTSC Widescreen 48Khz format. When we drag to the timeline for example the MTS file...Premiere ask us if we want to Keep and Change timeline to suit the file specification. Anyway we always have 1 or 2 camera files that has a yellow line over timeline.
But I renders correct...no problem to edit...and we had no problem with Premiere CS5.5 :/
We are downloading the latest update of Premiere. I´ll make some test and publish here if the problem persist.
Thank you a lot for the help
Gustavo.

XL-H1 aspect ratio error when exporting from FCP 1080p24 to compressor

PLEASE HELP
I have a finished project in fcp in a 1080p24 project.
My source footage is 1440 x 1080i 24f from an xl-h1.
When i export from final cut pro to compressor, compressor squeezes my footage into a square.
if i export to dvd from compressor the ratio is fine.
when i export in quicktime thats where the skewed image happens.
Please help
thanks

Hi StingoArmy,
There is an easy fix for this. Once you export your file to Compressor, you can apply an export option, let's say we're going to export a LAN Streaming Quicktime movie for Internet. Now click on the new bar that's been placed inside your media tab. The settings for this export item appear below in the Inspector. Just below the DESCRIPTION line are a series of options buttons. Clicking the option 2nd from the right (Geometry) opens up a new tab where you can change the dimensions. There are several ways to go about exporting to 16:9, the one I use is to change the Frame Size to "Custom (16:9)", however, you can also do the same thing by changing the Pixel Aspect to "HDV 1080i (16:9)" You should test results for both and see which is the preferred method for your final output, depending on what type of Quicktime movie you are creating.

Error when exporting from FCP

When I try and export to Compressor(1.2.1) from FCP HD 4.5 i get an error saying that a file of this name already exists (obviously not the case). The Batch then fails within 5 secs or so. Could this be a restriction on the academic version of fcp or something - ie one can only export a project x many times or something? i've seen the related string but turning off anti-virus software doesn't seem to help me at all. any ideas?
also - I can export as a self containded qt file but even if I do it at the highest settings the finished dvd (made using dvd studio4) doesn't look as good as an old dvd i have that was encoded by exporting to comp. from fcp. is it just my eyes having seen the video so many times that i am seeing things or has anyone else noticed this?

there's also reports of incompatibility with compressor3:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4968107&#4968107

My Additive dissolves lose their brightness when exported from FCP.

I'm trying to export a short music from FCP. While the additive dissolves look really bright, like a camera flash within final cut pro, as soon as I export the video, the bright white flash of the dissolve goes away. I don't want to use dip to color, because I like the cross dissolve quality of the additive. Does anyone know why and how to prevent this?
Thank you.

Apparently he did a reinstall and it started working...

Strange lines when exporting from Illustrator

I am having an issue that's driving me crazy, I've tried everything and I still can't figure out why it's doing this.
I created a template in Illustrator, very basic, just some 1 inch circles.   The goal is to color them in different color palettes and then save it as a PDF.   In Illustrator, they show up completely fine, the pattern fills sometimes have those little seam lines but those don't show up at 100% so I'm not worried about that.
My issue is that when I bring these graphics into Photoshop, these little white lines appear in random places,   these are not pattern seam lines and there's no reason I can think of for them to be there. I figured it may have been a corrupt file, so I started from scratch and the lines are still there. I've tried copying it directly from Illustrator and pasting it into Photoshop, same issue. Saving as a TIFF, same issue.
Here's an example of the line I'm talking about, it's faint but noticeable on my screen,   any idea what might be causing this?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/hazelsmrf/line.jpg
The only thing I can think of is that when I turn off all pattern fills and only use solid color fills, these lines don't show up. I'm not sure why a pattern fill on a circle two circles away would cause a line to show up on a solid colored circle that's completely unrelated to the pattern fill though.   I am using CS5.

My Illustrator is fully up to date so that doesn't seem to be the issue.
I loaded the PDF into Acrobat reader and those lines don't show up there, they only show up in Photoshop, strange?
How I've brought it into Photoshop: save as, PDF, or Tiff, these didn't work.
Copied it directly from AI into PS, did not work.
Saved as .AI and loaded that into PS, did not work.
I just tried it as PSD and it worked! However I've not been able to duplicate that because every time I've tried to export it to PSD since then it says I don't have enough memory, argh.   Not sure why it worked the first time and not after.
Oh and the pattern fills were created with a blank no fill square on the bottom, then a color filled square on top, and then a few circles in a diagonal to make a polka dot pattern. Nothing goes past the square, there's nothing in outline mode to show why it would do this.

Aspect ratio problems when exporting from FCP and creating DVDs

Hi there
Can anyone help? I'm using FCP to edit material shot using a Sony z1 in SD 16:9 mode. My media displayed correctly in FCP with the 'anamorphic' option ticked in the browser.
I then exported my short films as QuickTime movies and created a DVD in iDVD using those video assets.
When I then viewed the films on a widescreen tv, the films did not display at the correct aspect ratio. They were horizontally elongated, as though they had been stretched twice over, so that objects, people and text appeared fatter than they should.
Can anyone let me know whether there are any settings I could change in either FCP or iDVD to stop this happening?
Many thanks!
Jacqui

this thread may help
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7422463

How does a 1.6-gig clip become an 11-gig clip when exported from FCP?

I captured some video and had to do it in two sessions because my camera kept dropping frames. My first clip was 600 megs, my second was 1 gig. I put them into the timeline and synced them up at the break spot. I wanted to have just one file to work on in Shake, so I exported the two clips as a Quick Time movie -- no compression, self-contained -- a 720 X 480 NTSC file.
Even with no compression, I expected to get a 1.6-gig movie out of the export, but it was 11 gigs. Where did the extra data come from? And what is the extra data? It cannot get any more resolution than there was to begin with in the original two clips, right?
Any tips on a more efficient way to handle this situation much appreciated.
JimBe

The two segments were each about three and a half minutes long. The camera was a Sony Handycam DV. I did not have any special settings when I captured, I made one choice, to capture both video and audio. Yes, I did select uncompressed when I exported.
So the camera is acquiring with a codec, it sounds like, but if I select uncompressed on export does that mean FCP will uncompress the compressed footage captured by the camera? I did not think that was possible. Isn't all the information thrown away by the camera when it acquires the footage with its codec?
I was thinking that "uncompressed" export would just give me back what I put in, a 1.6-gig file. I did not want to compress a second time.
Is there an export format choice that just gives you what you had without any manipulation of the original data?

Do I get a faulty EDL when exporting from FCP?

I must create an EDL for a final DI to be made from film negative. When I export an EDL the Source Time Code In of each clip reads the same as the first frame in the clip, then the Source Time Code Out of each clip reads on frame higher than the last frame in that clip. E.g. if one clip ends on a frame with the timecode 02:00:15:01, the EDL out point reads 02:00:15:02.
Is this wrong? and if so does anybody know what the promblem could be?
the film is shot on 25 frames per second and the telecined to Pal dv tapes that run 25 frames per second, so that should not be a problem.

No, that's not a problem, it's just a difference in the way FCP reports timecode numbers and the way EDLs expect timecode to be.

QuickTime error when exporting from FCP 4.5 - Compressor

I'm still on Final Cut Pro 4.5, waiting to get money for a hardware upgrade before I can move to FCP 6, etc.
I have upgraded to QuickTime Pro 7.2.
This setup worked fine until today.
I selected a sequence in FCP and tried to Export to Compressor (the source material was NTSC MiniDV video footage in FCP) using an MPEG-4 Fast Cable Streaming 320x240 export setting. I used this setting successfully to export a very similar project only last week. This evening when I tried exporting via Compressor the attempt failed, and Batch Monitor's log noted a "QuickTime Error -50". I tried this repeatedly this evening, and it produced the same results even after restarting the machine.
I'm baffled by this. I had no such problem last week.
Any clues?

there's also reports of incompatibility with compressor3:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4968107&#4968107

Out of sync in/out points when exporting from FCP

When I import a sequence from FCP6 as both an XML and straight into using Send to, a lot of the clips in my timeline contain incorrect in/out points.
On some clips it is a completely different shot altogether although the durations are correct.
I have read the release notes about issues with importing sequences and the boxes are checked this end.
Has anyone been experiencing these problems too? If it helps, this only seems to be on sequences shot on the Panasonic HVX200 at: 720p25
I would appreciate any help!

Has anyone discovered the source of this problem? I just ran into this today. This is a VERY serious problem in my opinion. The whole benefit of Color (from my point of view) is to allow high end color correction without having to re-export your clips into an external app, adding another layer of degradation to your clips, or having to deal with huge uncompressed files. This bug makes that workflow useless so I sincerely hope this is fixable.

Jumpy Video when exported from FCP 5

I am exporting HDV 24p footage. Befoer I even apply a settting the video is very unstable. But it does not jump and compresses fine when the same file is brought in from compressor.
Thanks
Phil
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8) Intel 3.0, 4gig mem, quad 23" cinema display 1TB External WD Drive Raided 0 Firewire 800

I am exporting HDV 24p footage. Befoer I even apply a
settting the video is very unstable. But it does not
jump and compresses fine when the same file is
brought in from compressor.
Thanks
Phil
Mac Pro Mac
OS X (10.4.8) Intel 3.0, 4gig mem, quad 23"
cinema display 1TB External WD Drive Raided 0
Firewire 800
I'm Sorry. I think you have to explain this one a little better. I am just not getting your workflow here.

Poor Quality When Imported From FCP

Hello I have been having issues when importing a QT files into After Effects. When exported from FCP and imported into After Effects the footage loses significant quality, maybe a little interlaced. Ive checked and double checked fields, Im exporting in animation. Ive done both QT movie and QT conversion with the same result. Also it happens with files exported from FCP from other computers. Ive checked export settings & coposition settings. Any Ideas?
Thanks

bogiesan wrote:
-DWS- wrote:
Thanks. That is what makes the most sense to me. How do I elect how After Effects interprets the footage? I went to preferences but couldn't find anything that fixed the problem there.
See the help system for Interpret Footage.
It's a right-click dropdown form the project pane. Select a footage item, Interpret Footage.
Thank you Lower Fields first was selected

"Milky" or faint results when exporting from AE to FCP

(Accidently posted to FCP Express forum-- whoops!)
I've been using After Effects for years now to create graphics for our Avid projects, and the QT results have always been great. Clean, sharp moving graphics. But now that I've been using FCP, I'm not exactly happy when I export my Quicktime graphics from After Effects to FCP: they're extremely "milky" and faint/fuzzy when viewed from FCP over an NTSC monitor. I have tried various codecs when exporting: DV/NTSC, Animation, Component-- all with the same results.
I have read other threads with similar comments (even the thread that mentioned "milky" results when exporting from FCP to AE and back) but none of the suggestions/remarks helped in my situation.
I'm sure others have experienced this. Any suggestions?
Settings:
After Effects comp: NTSC/DV Preset (720 x 480, lower field, etc.)
Export Codecs: DV/DVCPro-NTSC, Animation, Component (all with the same milky results)
Final Cut: Sequence Preset "DV/NTSC 48 Khz"
Also tried using, as one thread suggested, the "Uncompressed 8 bit NTSC 48 Khz" preset and no difference
Side note: I'm using Final Cut in this system outputting to both DV video and Betacam video, using an Aja card for the Beta. Both DV and Beta results look the same (going straight thru the decks-to-NTSC monitor) and they both use the same "DV/NTSC 48 Khz" sequence preset-- except where I changed it to "Uncompressed 8 bit". If I use Animation or Component as my export codec from AE, naturally, I have to render to play the clip back in the timeline. It even looks milky or faint on the FCP source/viewer screens!
And yes, I've checked the NTSC monitor-- a Sony Trinitron PVM-20 monitor. And I've looked at the results on other monitors and even regular TVs. Milky/faint video all around.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!!

Is this on files with alpha channels? Have you tried
changing the Alpha type? Are you having
pre-multiplication problems?
No, they don't have alpha channels. But I did try, when rendering with Animation, changing the colors to "Millions +" which was something I read on another thread. Same results.
Basically, these are After Effects projects with simple backgrounds and moving text. I'm not doing any layering with alpha channels-- like lower third supers.
However, whenever I use Apple programs like LiveType or Motion, the NTSC results look like they did while I was creating the projects with these programs before I rendered them.

Significant quality loss and jagged diagonal lines when exporting from FCP

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for