Final Cut HVX Quicktime/16:9 Question

[kgb]

I'm somewhat new to Final Cut Pro. Professionally, I'm a sound guy. :beer:

1. So I've finished a rough version of my edit in Final Cut. I set an in and out point to output a Quicktime file using the "i" and "o" shortcut keys. I try and bounce using "Export Quicktime" but I've only been getting about 70% of the duration of the timeline I select. Is there a different in and out point marker that I should be using? It's driving me nuts because I need to burn DVD's, which brings me to my next question.

2. One project is in 720p, the other is in 1080i 24p. Do I use the Quicktime DV NTSC anamorphic setting to "Export Quicktime" if I want to enable a 16:9 proportioned DVD? Then when I burn it in iDVD or DVD Studio Pro, I'd imagine there is some kind of option to burn an anamorphic 16:9 DVD.

3. And one last question: I tried to uprez a 720p shot to 1080i 24p using Quicktime's export function. It works fine now, but I see some edge pixelation in Final Cut...though RT Extreme is set for less quality on playback, so I'm not sure if that's truly there. Is exporting from Quicktime detrimental to the quality; would that add any compression to the 720p shot? Should I use Compressor instead?

Thanks in advance...

 

[bbalser]

1- Not clear, are you setting in and out points in the Timeline? Do you not want to export the whole Timeline? Or are you doing clips in the Viewer for export?
2- Yes.
3- Uprezing is a bad idea. I know that Studio Artist does it better than anything else, but still, that's not perfect. Down res your 1080 to 720. Set RT to dynamic. Make sure the whole Timeline is fully rendered, make sure you're not judging by a non-HD capable monitor.

 

[VaricamLife]

1) Don't know why that would happen. But you don't have to have in and out points on the timeline to do an export of your assembly. If the timeline window is active (selected/highlighted/whatever) and you use an Export function it should export that entire timeline, without any in or out point set/required.

2) Like Ben said yes. If you export from the timeline using Compressor it has some ready to go presets for you that will export and compress your footage into 16:9 MPEG-2's for DVD encoding. I've never done it just using the Quicktime Conversion method as I really like Compressor a lot frankly.

3) I would make sure to check the quality of the up-rez on an external monitor before passing judgement on your up-rez. I disagree with Ben here about it being a bad idea. All the stuff I've read and all the examples I've seen of going HD 720 to HD 1080 have help up wonderfully. Now I would fully agree to not up res from SD to HD in any way at all, but I think 720 to 1080 is okay.

cheers.

 

[kgb]

1- Not clear, are you setting in and out points in the Timeline? Do you not want to export the whole Timeline? Or are you doing clips in the Viewer for export?
2- Yes.
3- Uprezing is a bad idea. I know that Studio Artist does it better than anything else, but still, that's not perfect. Down res your 1080 to 720. Set RT to dynamic. Make sure the whole Timeline is fully rendered, make sure you're not judging by a non-HD capable monitor.

It seems if everything except one single clip was shot in 1080 24p, I should probably just uprez the one 720p shot. What I've been doing is setting the in and out point using the "i" and "o" buttons in the timeline. I thought this would mark the duration of the exported clips. So if I don't make any marks, it should output the entire timeline? How would I just choose a smaller part of the timeline?

 

[VaricamLife]

If you use option + x to clear your In and Out points from you timeline, so it has no in/out points, then yes, when using any of the export functions, the entire timeline should be processed. Final Cut Pro basically assumes at that point that you want everything exported. However, if you put your In point at your first frame and your Out point at your last frame, that should still work for exporting the entire timeline. Its just a step I've never found necessary to do.

If you only want a section exported, then I would use the In and Out points. Myself though, if I was only exporting a section, I would copy and paste those materials into a new sequence and label the sequence accordingly. That way, at least for me, it would be easier to go back to it later on (incase I needed to do it again or do any form of trouble shooting). That's personal preference thing though. Everyone's organizational sense is going to be different.

cheers.