GH1 and Final Cut Pro - I Need Help.

L

larrys

Well-known member
Well, I did my first video today, as posted here on the forum. Quickly put it online via iMovie '09.

I am not trying to do the same edit in Final Cut Pro to see the differences. But I having BIG PROBLEMS.

Log & Transfer with Pro Res worked fine. I have the clips in the browser and canvas and they look fine.

But with shooting in 720/60p, what are the exact sequence settings I shoul be using and then, for exporting, what should those settings be. I just tried and the exported video has terrible skipping problems. Something in my settings must be off.

Will someone please tell me how to set up FCP for use with 720/60p GH1 footage?

Thanks so much!!
 
When you export just do to Quicktime Movie (not conversion) and see if that has a problem. Then take that movie and recompress it for the web with compressor, etc.
 
Thanks Ben,

Yes, there are big problems. I did an export as Quicktime Movie and in my Quicktime Player, it stutters like crazy. I know it must be my settings because the iMovie export plays perfectly in my Quicktime Player.
 
Post a screenshot of your export settings. I am going to guess you are exporting a high bitrate .mov which won't work.
 
Perrone,

I think I figured it out, here are the settings. Is this enough information. I really need to get this working! Thanks!!

1260661040.jpg


1260661165.jpg


1260661192.jpg


I have tried to export using "current settings" and in "custom" as you see in the photos above. In custom, I do not see a setting for 1080x720. Isn't this what 720 should be set at? Also, I do see one mistake I have, the "editing timebase" was wrong, it should be 29.97, yes?

Also, when you export using "current settings", are those the settings I have set up in the custom window? Or the settings of the sequence?

Thanks !
 
Last edited:
Why Apple continues to treat their users like idiots is beyond me. I was going to rant about this earlier in the week and decided to pass on it.

Ok, a few things I see. First, you say you are shooting 720/60p. But your sequence preset is 720/30p. So you just threw half the frames away.

Second, your sequence editor is set to 1440x1080 which is HDV. You don't have an HDV camera, not sure what you're doing here.

Third, your compressor setting is h264 (good) but at 100% (whatever the hell that means). If you open advanced does it allow you to select a bit rate? Apple really needs to get rid if these ridiculous and worthless sliders and let pros type in what they want. Leave the sliders for iMovie.

So looks like you have:

1. Mismatched editing parameters
2. Mismatched rendering parameters
3. Unknown and undoubtedly too high bitrate issues going into Compressor.

I'm not a FCP person so hopefully someone can help you clean this mess up.
 
Yes, it's a mess. I need to get back into FCP class, I have not used it in a few years. So, if anyone can give me some specific instructions on getting FCP set up for my GH1, I would appreciate it VERY much. I am in "beginners mind" and ready to learn.
 
OK, I have to get this working by Monday, so I am working on it. I think my new settings are working, but please, would a FCP user please advise if this is correct.

I am attaching the new screenshots of the settings. Still confused about export, I do not see a 720 export setting for frame size, so is my choice correct. And in Quicktime copression, is that the right setting. What if I want to use h264?

Thanks!


1260665401.jpg


1260665432.jpg
 
Well, still here working on this. I have the log and transfer working fine now. I just can't export it. I can tell you one thing, the Pro res looks MUCH better then the AIC in iMovie. Big difference!
 
Also it's very easy to set your sequence settings just by dragging a clip into a new sequence and telling it yes when it asks you if you want to use the clip settings.
 
Ben_B said:
Also it's very easy to set your sequence settings just by dragging a clip into a new sequence and telling it yes when it asks you if you want to use the clip settings.
Click to expand...

Exactly, this is how I do it all the time. But only do this with new, fresh, empty sequences.
 
PerroneFord said:
Why Apple continues to treat their users like idiots is beyond me. I was going to rant about this earlier in the week and decided to pass on it.
Click to expand...

Well you're ranting now, but Apple isn't the problem; you are. Apple and FCP are fantastic for editing GH1 footage and if you have a problem with Apple, keep that negative emotion for yourself instead of bothering people with it in here or give people wrong thoughts about FCP. If someone can't get FCP to work properly he/she is doing something wrong and then in here we can help that person. I do all my GH1 editing on FCP on a MacBookPro which I bring to all my shoots. Directly after each shoot I copy all footage to the harddrive, select my shots, import into FCP and start editing.
 
larrys said:
OK, I have to get this working by Monday, so I am working on it. I think my new settings are working, but please, would a FCP user please advise if this is correct.

I am attaching the new screenshots of the settings. Still confused about export, I do not see a 720 export setting for frame size, so is my choice correct. And in Quicktime copression, is that the right setting. What if I want to use h264?
Click to expand...

Export in h264 from FCP:

export / using quicktime conversion / mpeg-4

Then click on options:
video tab:
mp4
h264
bitrate: start trying 2500kpbs
video options: best quality
Then back on video tab: optimized for download

I must add that Quicktime isn't a very good h264 encoder, I use Telestream Episode for this which has much more effective compression and also works faster than Quicktime. But if you want to publish on Vimeo or YouTube I think you can upload uncompressed Quicktime .mov and then Vimeo/YouTube will deal with the compression.
 
I'll mention this again, but add a few more details.

If you don't want to be bothered going into Compressor and deciding what the best settings are I strongly suggest using the awesome "Share" feature Apple has thoughtfully included in FCP 7. It's actually like a little app residing within FCP that seamlessly hooks into Compressor.

If you want you can go behind the scenes and check out the settings it's actually using. I was pleasantly surprised to see that when using the YouTube preset it's selecting all the settings I would have selected myself had I gone into Compressor and set up my own Vimeo preset. It's H.264, 2pass VBR -- everything. The data rate is a bit higher than I normally would use, but that's fine.

To use Share for a Vimeo export, go to the File menu and select Share... Now select the YouTube preset. FCP will use your sequence settings for size and frame rate. If exporting a 720p 24 sequence, for example, that's what you'll get and the results will work perfectly for Vimeo.

Maybe I'm just easily impressed, but I think this is a killer feature. And it doesn't tie up FCP since it works in the background.

And it does a whole lot more. In addition to exporting sequences, it can export individual clips, or even combine clips from your FCP browser. It will even upload to YouTube (or MobileMe) right to your account once it's done; using its built-in FTP client. And it batches to a bunch of other useful presets including iPhone, DVD, and Blu-ray to name a few. It even puts videos into iTunes for you - ready to distribute to your portable devices. Plus it makes it easy to create your own presets using Compressor -- all from within FCP.

Read all about it here:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_7_share_stone.html
 
Tflak,

Thanks so much for all the advice. I am using FCP6, so I don't have the "share" feature. Do you think it is worth moving up to FCP7. I am not sure what features it has, bsides the "share" feature that would justify the upgrade. Maybe best to wait for FCP8. What do you think?
 
RieniO said:
Export in h264 from FCP:

export / using quicktime conversion / mpeg-4

Then click on options:
video tab:
mp4
h264
bitrate: start trying 2500kpbs
video options: best quality
Then back on video tab: optimized for download

I must add that Quicktime isn't a very good h264 encoder
Click to expand...

Umm... export through Compressor instead of Quicktime conversion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top