exporting final cut pro

B

bobbylong

Active member
hello, i am having problems getting good quality out of my dvx100b. it looks fantastic in my viewfinder in FCP, but no matter how i export it something is wrong. its either stretched, full of interlacing lines, or just has blotches in the backgrounds. i filmed my last project in 24p and stretch mode, can anyone tell me the best way in FCP to export my project as a full quality .mov (and to make it so its got the widescreen look without the black bars on the top and bottem like most the projects i see on here are)
and also, whats the best way to export it for the web as higher quality, and also getting rid of the black bars at the top and bottem?

sorry if i sound really new but ive exported about 2 dozen times with different settings and its alwways different sizes and i cant tell which ones are stretched and which is the right picture, and i cant crop the black bars on the top and bottem either.
 
First off, how exactly are you exporting the files? Are you doing a simple Quicktime Movie export? Are you using Compressor? Where are you ultimately trying to go with the export (DVD, Web, full resolution movie for archiving)?

And when you say its okay in your FCP viewfinder (Canvas?), you mean you're getting a clean 16x9 image with no letterboxing? So I'm assuming then you've used the correct sequence setting (turned on the Anamorphic flag). If this is all cool in FCP, then exporting using Compressor and using a 16x9 preset should have good to go.

As for the web, again I would use Compressor. You can custom define the screen size (its up to your or to where you're uploading to know what you need it to be), and you can do handy things like set it to exactly 100%, 50%, 25% of source (maintains aspect ratio and uses a friendly % that will keep it looking better). There are a lot of powerful options there. You might want to consider investing the $20 in the Apple Pro Training Series Compressor Quick Reference guide.

cheers.
 
thanks for the reply, here is what im trying to do though:

Im trying to store as full time resolution for archiving. i dont know what i should use to export it, im using quick time conversion b/c i figured it was the best thing in FCP. i just found out i can get pretty good quality if in quicktime conversion i go to options, filters, and set sharpen to 3 or 4. but i feel like most people dont have to do this? and my video keeps coming out different widths, and i dont know which one is stretched and which isnt. what should i set the size to keep it full quality and not stretched

also i meant my canvas in FCP was great quality, i still have the 4:3 look with it letter boxed to fit my stretch video. i didnt know if i was to change a setting while editing or in exporting, ill try to find that now. thanks for your help
 
Okay, if you're just wanting a Quicktime movie to archive then you don't need to do any of that weird conversion stuff. All you need to do is use the Export > Quicktime Movie (not conversion) option. As long as the sequence settings are all good, then the movie created by that is perfect for archiving.

One thing though, if you are doing a bunch of color correction work, effects, or titling, you should do all of those in a better quality sequence (higher end codec). So if your project was SD and DV, then you should color correct and the like in say the DV 50 sequence and then output your quicktime movie. But if you're already done all of that then there's no point in doing it again, and just proceed with the output of the file.

Also, your canvas shouldn't be 4x3 letter boxed if you shot squeeze mode. You should make it an anamorphic full 16x9 sequence. That's the raw format of what you shot. Then output the quicktime file when you have it setup for that so that you're preserving it as best possible. You can always go back to tape, DVD, or another quicktime file with the 4x3 letterbox later (but you can't go up to 16x9 from the 4x3 without degrading the image).

cheers.
 
ok

ok

ok thanks for you help, but exporting it your way makes the image come out much less clear and kind of blurry, but the way im doing it the video is more clear, but the video size is a different ration. im not sure which is the right size and which is getting stretched.

is there a setting i can change when exporting as a quicktime movie that makes it more clear?

also, to change the canvas to 16:9, i assume i go to FCP/audio video settings and change both the sequence presets and the capture presets to anamorphic 16:9 and 23.97fps. after doing this the canvas looks good, but when i export the way you said, the video comes out stretched up to 4:3 agian. i dont see where to change settings in exporting to fix this
 
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Where are you making these decisions about clarity and quality of how it looks? Your computer monitor isn't really meant for that purpose. So for example if you use FCP's text and then output a Quicktime movie and try to view that on your computer monitor, it'll look awful compared to the rest (for the DV codec anyway). But view it on a broadcast monitor, not so bad. So remember to do your quality control checks using an external broadcast monitor, not your computer monitor.

As for the stretch issue, basically here's what happening. You shot squeeze mode, so 16x9 squeezed into 4x3. It sounds like your FCP settings are okay because its showing up 16x9 unsqueezed for you. But then somewhere in your export your losing the anamorphic flag so its squeezing it again (hence the as tall but not as wide). If you could perhaps show a screen grab at the point where you have a summary of all your export settings that might shed some light on the situation (use several grabs if need be).

As for the anamorphic setting, no, you can set that whenever. The footage is still SD and 4x3 on your raw tape. Its simply squeezed into that frame. So the anamorphic setting is simply a flag to tell FCP that this 4x3 material needs to be unsqueezed (so it will adjust the frame sizing appropriately). You can tell FCP to do it upon digitizing or later on, it doesn't matter. Its just a flag you turn on and off. Sometimes though FCP doesn't refresh the setting very well though. So sometimes I've had to create a new sequence, set it anamorphic, then copy and paste from the old sequence into the new one and get it to kick into gear. Not always, but its happened a few times.

cheers.
 
thanks so much for going into detail for my stupid questions... im new to macs, is there a print scrreen button, if so ill show you my 2 videos side by side and show you how the one is blurry and not very clear at all unless i change the sharpen level (which you cant do in qt movie, but only in qt conversion)

also i figured out how to export it the right size. i just have to custom the video size to 720by405 (i remember seeing that size somewhere). is this the best size i should export it in quicktime movie for best quality?
the only problem is its still coming out unclear in qt movie.
 
Print Screen - If you google "Apple Print Screen" you can get a good run down of the various options there (one allows you to print only regions of the screen). Anyway, the quick and easy method is: Shift + Apple + 3

As for your file size, 720x405, that is still 4x3ish as its 720 still. That's not unsqueezing it. What you have done in that case is taken a 4x3 letter box and removed the black bars so that you only see the video and thus a kind of "fake" 16x9. If you shot in squeeze mode on your DVX100 and you flag anamorphic correctly in FCP, then your frame size should actually be 853x480 (QT will often list it as 720x480 (853x480)).

And again, do not use your computer monitor to be your quality control judge. You need to use an external broadcast monitor or just a tv set to help you make those decisions. If you have a camera, a cheap solution is to go firewire out from your computer to your camera and then run the RCA from your camera to your TV.

cheers.
 
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