How do I export a high quality movie?

When you’re finished with your edit, how should you export?

Well, it depends.

METHOD #1. Reference movie

If you want to export a temporary file as quickly as possible, export a reference movie.

File > Export > Quicktime Movie

UNcheck “Make Self-Contained”

Pros:

  • If you’ve rendered your sequence, this is the fastest way to export
  • The file size is very small - it only contains audio and pointers to the video files, no actual video

Cons:

  • The exported file is fragile and not portable. If any of the referenced video files (including render files) are moved, renamed or deleted, or if the ref movie is moved to a different computer, the reference movie will not open. This means you should use the ref movie right away, for example, to import into DV Kitchen to publish on the web. It is definitely useless as an archival movie to save for future use.
  • If your sequence is in DV format, the quality of text, graphics and animations will be very poor.
  • If your sequence is in HDV format, the quality of text, graphics and animations will not be as good as it could be, especially fast moving or intricate CG.

If you are converned about quality, try a short test export of a section containing titles, graphics or an animation and view it in Quicktime Player.

METHOD #2. Native format movie

If you want to export quickly, but want an exported movie that is permanent and self-contained, export a native format movie.

File > Export > Quicktime Movie

Make sure “Make Self-Contained” is checked

Pros:

  • If you’ve rendered your sequence, this is faster than the 3rd option below

Cons:

  • If your sequence is in DV format, the quality of text, graphics and animations will be very poor.
  • If your sequence is in HDV format, the quality of text, graphics and animations will not be as good as it could be, especially fast moving or intricate CG.

METHOD #3. lossless PNG movie

If you have completed an important project, and want a perfect quality export, and don’t mind if it takes a while, this method quickly, but want an exported movie that is permanent and self-contained, export a PNG codec movie.

This way, now or anytime in the future, you can:

  • encode this movie to x264, H264, FLV or WMV (or any other format) with DV Kitchen
  • drag it into DVD Studio Pro or iDVD to author an SD DVD
  • import it into Encore or Toast to author a Blu-Ray DVD
  • take it on a Firewire drive to a dub house to transfer to a broadcast format for cable/satellite, or for a film festival
  • or any other conceivable use.

You can copy the exported movie to a cheap terabyte Firewire or even USB drive to archive it and save room on your main drives.

I recommend the PNG codec, because it is lossless, and it is compatible with almost any software that accepts Quicktime files.

If you are concerned with how long it will take, try a test export (with a 5 second sample) and time it, then try one of the methods above and time that. This way, you can easily calculate how long the entire export will take. If the 5 seconds took 10 seconds to export, this is a 2-1 ratio- so a 2 hour timeline will take 4 hours.

Here are the steps:

1.

In Final Cut Pro, go to File > Export Using Quicktime Conversion

In iMovie, go to Share > Export Using Quicktime

With other apps, look for something called “Export Quicktime Movie” or similar

2.

Choose ”Quicktime Movie” (or ”Movie to Quicktime Movie” in some applications) from the format popup menu

3.

Click the “Options” button:

4.

Click the “Settings” button in the Video panel and set Compression Type to PNG and Depth to Millions of Colors.


5a.

If your project is DV anamorphic (16:9/widescreen), click “Size”, choose “Custom” from the menu, and type 720 for width, 405 for height. (Otherwise, skip to 5b)

5b.

If your project is any other format besides DV anamorphic, click “Size” and choose “Current” from the menu. (Ignore whatever numbers pop up in the fields)

We generally recommend checking “Deinterlace”.

But what if your footage was shot progressive? Like 24p pr 30p?

Well, if you shot 24p, and are editing in a 60i timeline, you still have interlacing due to the 2:3 pulldown. Also, if you edited your show in an interlaced timeline, any title moves, animations, zooms and pans of still images or even dissolves will appear interlaced, and you will get better perceived quality if you deinterlace.

The only exception to this would be if you are editing in a progressive timeline.

6.

Click the “Settings” button in the Sound panel and set it up like this:


7.

Uncheck “Prepare for Internet Streaming”, then click “OK” and “Save”.

That’s it!

Now your exported movie is safe and ready to delivery in any format - regardless of what happens to your source footage or files.

For more info, check out:

Final Cut Pro Foundations

Final Cut Express Foundations

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79 Responses to “How do I export a high quality movie?”


  1. 1 Jake Kilgore

    Well, that makes since, however, would it not be super large, like if you where running a 30 minute film it would be easy 7 GB so, that will not really work for the web….

    [Reply]

  2. 2 Josh Mellicker

    Once you’ve exported using this method, you can encode into any format with the best possible results.

    [Reply]

  3. 3 Daniel Wilson

    I’m trying this method right now but I have a question. Are you saying to export to this uncompressed format, then take that into Compressor to make the m2v files or are you saying avoid Compressor and take the uncompressed files directly into DVDSP and let that encode the m2v files?

    Thanks,

    Dan

    [Reply]

  4. 4 Josh

    Daniel, you can do either, the quality is the same. Try both and see which you prefer.

    [Reply]

  5. 5 Josh

    I have done what you said with the exporting process within FCP, and the file is 80+GBs. When I import it into DVDSP and starting encoding the file, the video bit-rate was too high came up. I went into preferences and lowered the minimal and max size to 5mb/s and 7mb/s and it still did it. Any ideas?

    Thank you

    [Reply]

  6. 6 Josh

    The longer your video, the lower you have to go with your bitrate. Try a bitrate calculator (there are many on the web)

    [Reply]

  7. 7 JD

    Using your settings, my export from FCP went up from 45minutes to 7 hours for a 110min video.

    [Reply]

  8. 8 JD

    Turns out it eats up a lot more disk space (well, duh). I ran out space, so I can’t report back about my results.

    I will run a short test using the new settings and compare it to the old settings.

    [Reply]

  9. 9 larry

    I tried burning a disk using IDVD with the source being uncompressed Quicktime 4:2:2 8 bit… and have field image break ups. Does IDVD (consumer verison included in “I Life” package) not do uncompressed video?

    [Reply]

  10. 10 Josh

    Please ask questions in our forums:

    http://dvcreators.net/discuss

    [Reply]

  11. 11 francisco

    I’m digitizing 8-bits uncompressed and encoding with compressor to mpeg2 dvd best quality 90 minutes… DVDSP4 gives me the error… I import the Uncompressed file to DVDSP4 and let it do the encoding, and still gives me the error…

    i little help would be nice! thanx!

    [Reply]

  12. 12 Josh

    What error?

    [Reply]

  13. 13 Daniel

    Thanks a lot for this tip!!!

    It´s works fine !!

    [Reply]

  14. 14 Edward Reyes

    Hi, I read your suggestion and I try it, but that’s waht happend I capture some test clips like 45 seconds, from a mini Dv panasonic camcorder usin the easy setup from FCP 5, DV-NTSC (match the sequence to that settings) and exported using the current settings method then I used you’r method, then I view the two exported clips in quick time and I was very happy with the cuality of the titles in the 8 bit format there were great. Then I make a DVD using iDVD and when I look the clips in my TV the DV look good and the 8 bit look like crap, so I re-capture the clip using the 8 bit uncompressed settings (match the sequence to that settings) and exported using the 8 bit uncompressed make another DVD in iDVD and the titles still look bad in my TV. I’m doing something wrong?
    Thanks

    [Reply]

  15. 15 exithp

    HI,

    i’ve been trying your suggestion and i’m quite satisfied with the result.
    i used idvd after exporting my video clip in uncompressed 8-bit.
    after burning it’s all fine.

    but now my question is, i need to give the file to my boss and he will himself include the clip to a final dvd.
    when we export using quictime movie, the file is using FCP application to play it but i don’t really know if they are using FCP or Premiere. is there an export that still keeps the same quality but become a quictime file so they can use it with different players other than just FCP.
    it need to be as good quality as possible and i’m working with Dance video so there’s a lots of fast movement.

    i would really appriciate if you can help me since i’m fighting with this exporting since ever!!!

    other wise if i’m burning the dvd myself it’s just perfect and i thanks you again for the tip.

    [Reply]

  16. 16 billy

    Hi,
    I’m reading that it’s better to export to dvd-r 4x or lower for good results. Is this true? What’s the difference between 4x and 16x?
    Also, a very basic question (first time exporting to dvd) - does my project remain as it was in the fcp timeline even after export - that is, am I exporting a duplicate of the project or the actual project?.
    I have about 86 minutes, shot on mini dv PAL & need to create dvds for film festivals and tv braodcast. Please, explain it to me as if I were a child!!!
    Thanks.
    Billy.

    [Reply]

  17. 17 rich

    I am tring to export my final project, it is a wedding so the video is 1hr.58min. and i have been tring to export as a mov or in comppression now i am working on hd formate i understand that it is a huge file etc. what is the best setting in hd to export from compressor, and when i did the project it compressed at 20 gig. i know that is to big but i did a test and tried to import into dvdspro 4 and it says incompatible file, everytime…HHHEEELLLPPP

    [Reply]

  18. 18 Fernando

    Howdy,

    I followed the procedure. My movie is 17:41 min. long anamorphic (2:35:1). When I export uncompressed as suggested the movie gets cut off at 14:10 min. I tried opening in both FCP and Quicktime. Same result.

    Everything has been rendered. If I export using Quicktime Conversion iinstead, at HD DVCPRO 720p60 at 24fps I don’t have any probleems and the movie will get exported in its entirety.

    I have a 24 inch Intel Core Duo Mac with 1 GB RAM. 23 GB available in hard drive (after movie has been exported), using FCP 5.1.4.

    1. What happened with the remaining footage? Why is the movie getting cutoff?

    2. Also, when exported uncompressed, why is the movie not in anamorphic format?

    3. Will I get a similar result (in terms of quality) if I export using HD DVCPRO 720p60 instead of uncoompressed?

    Any suggestions will be very much appreciated.

    Fernando

    [Reply]

  19. 19 Luke Luoh

    Just to clarify, did you guys turn on the “High Quality” toggle (apple-J in quicktime pro, inside video track) when viewed in Quicktime? It’s normally turned off, resulting in bad image “viewing” quality. However it should still look fine once you put it into DVDSP and rendered.

    IMHO, DV’s good for 80-90% of the applications out there… while 8-bit uncompressed is only for “ABSOLUTE” pro work. Even then, if your original source was DV then you are just decompressing them, recompressing them, and then compressing again (DV -> 8-bit -> MPEG2). This is redundant, time consuming, space-hogging, and the resulting quality isn’t that much better.

    The only reason for me to use 8-bit uncompressed is if my original sources where Digital-Beta from film or something, and I’ve captured it uncompressed to begin with.

    [Reply]

  20. 20 Josh

    Only titles, graphics and animations will benefit (quite a bit, as seen above) from exporting uncompressed. DV footage won’t look any better.

    [Reply]

  21. 21 tj

    As long as you render the titles, graphics and animations in a uncompressed timeline.

    If you render them in a DV timeline quality still gets lost.
    So if you’re working DV/HDV render your fx/titles to 8 bit /10 bit SD or ProRes. Export quicktime movie uncompressed. And encode in application of choice.

    [Reply]

  22. 22 Randy

    How can you do this for Final Cut Express? When you choose to export to quicktime, it does not offer any settings options!

    [Reply]

  23. 23 Jermaine

    I’m with Randy on the FCE question. I’m having a horrible time exporting a decent copy of my game footage.

    [Reply]

  24. 24 Josh

    With FCE, you could output with QT Conversion, then choose PJPEG at 75% or better.

    [Reply]

  25. 25 Jason

    I did the png export with a 24p 16:9 project, following the directions here precisely. The titles look great but when I create a dvd in idvd using the 16:9 setting, it seems to be letterboxing it. I do not have the “preserve aspect ratio with letterbox” checked. It doesn’t seem to matter if I convert from the original fcp movie to h.264 or use the fcp movie (which is beautiful quality 16:9 and not letterboxed in QT). As soon as the dvd pops out, it will only play on the pro monitor correctly with the 4:3 setting. On the 16:9 setting, it is stretched. I have successfully made 16:9 dvd’s using the regular dv export from FCP but at the cost of my titles looking bad so I don’t want to go backwards. Any idea if there is something in the png codec that maintains the 720×480 aspect regardless of the aspect of the actual project? Is there a fix? Am I missing something? I am baffled. Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks.

    [Reply]

  26. 26 Josh

    Did you create a 16:9 project in iDVD?

    [Reply]

  27. 27 Jason

    Yes. This is why I am baffled. Everything seems to be set up correctly but the mysterious letterboxing still occurs.

    [Reply]

  28. 28 Josh

    Hmmm… can you post your question in the forums? People who use iDVD a lot than me are there…

    Here is the link:

    http://www.dvcreators.net/discuss/forumdisplay.php?f=45

    [Reply]

  29. 29 Tom

    I’m currently trying to import a Qtime movie created in FCP into DVDsp. it wont allow me to import as an asset claiming unsupported format. i understand i need to convert my original film in FCP using Export-Qtime conversion- then putting the format to Mpeg2… in my format drop down menu i have no Mpeg2 option only Mpeg4. Any ideas??

    [Reply]

  30. 30 Josh

    Just export using the procedure in the article above, then let DVDSP encode your assets.

    [Reply]

  31. 31 Guy

    I performed the test using a 60i timeline with DV footage. I did a test

    1. Using export to compressor and
    2. export with PNG as you stated above.

    Then I used compressor with 90 min dvd best quality on both sources. I then created DVD using DVD Studio Pro.

    The method using PNG creates much more artifacts and interlacing issues when there is motion in the video vs export using compressor via dv. Any thoughts?

    Thanks.

    [Reply]

  32. 32 Josh

    Both those methods will output an interlaced movie if the footage and sequence were interlaced.

    Are you saying when you export to compressor your video is getting deinterlaced?

    Do you want your video deinterlaced?

    Where are you seeing interlacing, DVD preview? On a TV?

    [Reply]

  33. 33 Guy

    Sorry Josh for the lack of clarity. The footage is DV 29.97/60i footage. It is on 29.97 ntsc timeline with DV codec.

    As far as the quality of the footage…..when the comedian (in this case) moves quickly on the stage you see much more of an “interlaced artifacts” (like more lines in the footage) vs the footage that was exporting using the DV codec. So I dont know how to answer the question of do I want it deinterlaced or not. I want the best footage. The PNG footage is not as “smooth” during motion as the DV codec. I see this issue both in the quicktime movie and when I go to DVD. I am viewing on Plasma monitor.

    Thx,

    Guy

    [Reply]

  34. 34 Guy

    ….Using a burned dvd

    [Reply]

  35. 35 Josh

    If your DVD looks “jittery” this is probably the cause:

    http://www.dvcreators.net/why-is-motion-in-my-dvds-so-jittery-and-stroby/

    [Reply]

  36. 36 Guy

    I’ll check it out. But once again I burned two copies one using PNG and one using DV codec (directly to compressor). I used the DVD 90 best quality setting in compressor for both. The DVD without using PNG worked fine. It is the PNG version that is jittery but only on rapid motion parts.

    Thx

    [Reply]

  37. 37 Josh

    Because you use the word “jittery” my guess is that Compressor is reversing the fields.

    [Reply]

  38. 38 Guy

    Not a great defintion - I know. So i googled some more and came up with a way to describe it which actually came from one of your posts :) -

    ” interlacing artifact called “combing” on the blue circle, because it was moving between fields. Combing is also referred to as “interlacing artifacts”, “serrated edges”, “the jaggies”, “weird horizontal lines” or “mice teeth.”

    That, above, is what I am referring to. Once again this happens where the person is moving quickly in the footage. Compressor 3.0 is not the issue. Field dominance is set to automatic, which is the same compressor setting used for the footage created file-export->using compressor…. So my point is for me, I do not get a better quality DVD using the PNG method stated above. I may try uncompressed and see if that is a problem.

    Thx,

    Guy

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    You will only get better quality using PNG on titles and graphics, not footage.

    [Reply]

  39. 39 Michel

    Hi there,

    When I’m exporting an edit from FCE with the H264 codec I Loose contrast and saturation. And checking the Internet I’m not the only one with this problem.

    Will the workflow at the beginning of this topic solve this problem and will I get the colors, saturation and contrast like I see/edit the footage in FCE?

    Michel

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    First, if you are talking about the Canvas Window, it is not giving you an accurate picture of your footage.

    Read these articles:

    http://www.dvcreators.net/tag/monitoring/

    [Reply]

  40. 40 Michel

    I did the steps with FCE. And then used DVKitchen. But the film is looking the same as exporting directly to QT (H264). More washed out and loosing saturation. And I though that this problem would be solved with DV Kitchen.

    I’m I doing something wrong?

    [Reply]

  41. 41 Michel

    Now I see that I have to choose de X264 encode en not (ofcourse) the H264. Didn’t see that on the bottom of the menu the first time. Now it is working fine with the colrs and saturation I edited in FCE. Great.

    thanxs
    Michel

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    Great, glad to hear it.

    [Reply]

  42. 42 Michel

    I Used PNG in FCE. Is it better to use JPG >75%

    Michel

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    I like PNG better because it is lossless, and preserves the gamma- JPEG makes the image a little darker.

    [Reply]

  43. 43 Michel

    Now I did a test (yes its a very short film..) and in FCE I used the x264 codec directly, with the same settings as I used in DV Kitchen. And now it also looks like in FCE. So at this point it looks like there is no reason to go through DVkitchen? Or am I overlooking something?

    Michel

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    You can do this, but you will have to set up the same settings over and over and over every time you export. Soon you will want to throw your computer out the window, which is not good for your computer :)
    Also, to find the best settings, SampleLab is the only efficient way to determine the best bitrate. And without DV Kitchen, you lose all the other features, uploading, HTML page and code creation, shadowbox, Flash and WMV encoding, the bitraterate budget calculator, and so on.

    I designed DV Kitchen so that I would never have to go through these nightmares again. And now, you don’t have to, either!

    [Reply]

  44. 44 julia

    hi.

    i am exporting my movie and it says that the quality is “medium.”
    will this quiktime movie look good when projected on the wall and played by a DVD player?

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    If you follow the procedure above there is no quality slider. Are you sure you set compression type to “PNG”?

    [Reply]

  45. 45 doctorforward

    hi
    i’m experiencing exactly the same problem with my png file as Jason back on sept 3rd 2008
    but…
    i’m importing my 16:9 film into a DVDSP 16:9 project
    as i say, the symptoms are exactly the same -
    the original file is definitely 16:9
    the simulator in DVDSP shows the film as 16:9
    but…
    the end dvd is stretched horizontally when played on a tv at 16:9
    (no stretching occurs when played as 4:3, but much of the screen is not used)
    i’ve never experienced this problem before
    it has cropped up only with the use of the png file
    it is a problem i would love to resolve, as the picture quality of my films is greatly enhanced using the png format
    any ideas?

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    Weird! Maybe try Animation codec?

    [Reply]

  46. 46 Chase

    This worked GREAT

    Thank you

    [Reply]

  47. 47 Nikki

    Hi, I followed the suggested method of exporting my FCP movie to PNG settings and the quality looks great. However, when I moved the file from my Mac to my work PC to view it, it wouldn’t open. The file size was almost 7 G on my Mac and when it appears on my PC the file size appears as 0 KB. Do you know why this is? Also, if I want to keep the same quality movie file, how can I get the file not to be as big without losing the quality. I could not even burn it onto a DVD without using IDVD. I dropped the PNG file in IDVD to create a menu and also to have the movie play once you inserted the DVD and it worked fine on my Mac but once again, when I tried playing the DVD on my work PC it would not play automatically. Confused in Massachusetts, help!

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    There is some problem copying the file to your PC.

    To create a DVD, you must convert to MPEG2 with iDVD or another app.

    Maybe your PC cannot play DVDs.

    [Reply]

  48. 48 dave

    I am having the same problem with out of sync audio and video. and the only solution i see at the moment (other then going through the dvd studio pro [dsp] timeline to manually attempy to sync) is to export a native ntsc standard video because this is what has worked in the past.

    The problem i have is this: i have exported each chapter of a movie into its own HDV movie. sync is perfect, each is tested to make sure. compressed using compressor for SD ntsc (bitrate set for 120 minute movie) DVD. The audio and video is not synced. I have in the past for the same movie exported a NTSC SD movie via fcp, taken into compressor with no issues. Personally I am not a fan of HDV and I would easily blame the issue on this although I cannot varify this at the moment.

    And another side note… to import into dsp you need a file that will fit into the program, not a 7 gb file. It has to be the file size that will fit onto a dvd: 4.7 gbs. And to be more specific, the a/v file should most likely not be more then 4.3 gb because you need buffer space for the extra data that will be burned onto the dvd (give or take for whatever authoring files you include.

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    1. Try exporting as HDV and bringing directly into DVDSP. Is that in sync? How about iDVD?

    2. How are you ascertaining whether the resulting movie is in sync?

    3. You are incorrect in your last paragraph- you can bring a 200 GB uncompressed 2 hour movie into DVDSP and DVDSP will compress it to fit on a 4.3 GB DVD.

    [Reply]

  49. 49 Steve

    Hey, I havn’t seen the results of these settings yet, it’s saving now. But like Julia said, it says the quality is “medium” after I changed it to PNG. It changes in the options menu from high quality after you press ok in the compression settings. Should that be changing? Does yours change? Does that thing know what it’s talking about? Or does it just assume it will be normal with the different settings?

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    The quality will be perfect. Disregard the “medium” setting.

    [Reply]

  50. 50 Tafa

    I cannot export to dvd with imovie HD. I tried converting to Quicktime but the quality was so poor. Any suggestions on what i could do? I tried exporting to a .mov file but the quality was horrible. Any suggestions for settings under the advanced tab? Please respond asap!!!!! thanks.

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    Did you export using the process in the article above?

    [Reply]

    Jose Reply:

    Hey! I am a new guy on the block. I am working on a project and found a huge problem - quality! I created a few video clips in iMovie with the following compression settings:

    H.264, Rate: 29.97 fps, Quality: Best, Data Rate: Automatic; Size Settings: Dimensions: HD 1280 x 720 16:9; Sound Settings: Format: Linear PCM, Channels: Stereo (L R), Rate: 48.000, Render Settings: Best, Sample size: 16 bits, Little Endian (checked).

    I really liked the quality of these video clips. But now, I want to put them together with chapter marks using Final Cut Express, but when creating the “one” video, the quality is reduced significantly. By doing this, am I compressing those video clips again? Is this the reason why I get very poor quality with FCE. What am I doing wrong? How do I fix this problem? How can I keep the quality presented in the video clips previously compressed?

    I am really lost and any help would really be appreciated. I just don’t have time for trial and error. Rendering these videos take hours! I start feeling frustrated.

    Please help!

    Jose

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    Jose, this is a question that would be better for our forums:

    http://www.dvcreators.net/discuss/forumdisplay.php?f=72

  51. 51 Hayne

    I recently followed the instructions above for a high quality movie.
    AMAZING quality when coupled with DV Kitchen to a quick specs!

    To try something different and use the png in DVDSP…
    I followed all png export directions to the “t”… but when I dropped the png file into DVDSP… the video on burned disc was very poor quality and the sound was even a bit warped. I tried another disc and had the same results.

    Should I just drag the png into DV Kitchen and encode it to DV NTSC Widescreen?

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    What bitrate did you use? Try increasing it.

    [Reply]

  52. 52 Trevor

    Is there a way to export a highest quality version, but keep the chapter markers?

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    You could do METHOD #1 and include markers, then extract that track and add it to your other high quality movie… what format is your footage?

    [Reply]

    Trevor Reply:

    Thanks for responding so fast,
    They are Quick Time Movies, just imported from a DV tape.

    I exported with Method #1, and have also exported a high quality PNG movie.
    How can I extract the first track and add it to the PNG movie?

    [Reply]

  53. 53 Jason

    I got an error
    “Unable to export movie
    The movie could not be exported because an error occurred. (-2125)”
    Any help???
    Please

    [Reply]

  54. 54 Guillermo

    When exporting 20 min of a 90 min film the exporting crash about 30% of working. telling me Error:file too big. I don´t know the problem because i have a 500 gyga bytes free space in my external hard disk its only 20 min im exporting. Whats wrong?

    [Reply]

  55. 55 Nick Hansbauer

    I’VE GOT A REALLY IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR ALL THE PROS OUT THERE!!!
    I’m following these stpes, but when I filmed my short film, I used an HD (AVCHD) camera. –it’s 1920×1080. when selecting size, should I still use 720×405 or should I select 1920×1080 HD?! PLEASEEEE SOMEONE ANSWER ME! YOU DON’T KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS!!! — it would be great if you replied directly to me at nikolas.onthego@gmail.com!

    THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYON!

    [Reply]

  56. 56 Sam G

    Awesome stuff but is there no way to make the file size a tad smaller?

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    It’s a big file because it’s lossless. You could try PJPEG codec at 90% and see if you’re happy with the quality.

    [Reply]

  57. 57 Greg O

    Tried Option #3. Worked great for the photos and titles in my FCE project but seems to make the video quality poorer (choppy). It is just regular DV footage. Anything I could be doing wrong ?

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    The video quality is fine, it is just not playing smoothly on your machine, but the file is meant as an intermediate, not to be played directly. Run it through DV Kitchen to play from your hard drive or the web.

    [Reply]

  58. 58 Jared G

    I’m converting old VCR tapes to DVD. I have iMovie 06 HD, iMovie ‘08, FCE 3.5, and I’ve just ordered FCE 4.0.

    I have a 1.5 TB external HD - Space is NO issue. I don’t care how big of a file(s) I create, I just want the best quality I can get from a VHS tape, to the DVD. I can burn 4.7 and 8 gig disks.

    Is there any way to record onto the mac, edit, and then convert/render/burn/whatever onto a disk with NO Compression? I’m willing to do up to one hour on a 4.7 and just under 2 hrs on a dual layer. I care if 4:3 or 16:9, I don’t care how big files are, or how much time it takes to render, etc. These are older home movies that I can’t replace, I need to save in the highest quality for the family (weddings, births, etc)

    Any recommendations or settings I should do?

    I am using iMovie HD for editing (sound won’t port over to FCE 3.5) and then iDVD 08 for burning in Professional quality. I always keep it well under limit of space.

    For Recording, I have the Canopus ADVC 300 on firewire 400. Quality is cleaned up a bit from it. It’s burning and viewing where the disappointment comes from. Looks really grainy.

    BTW, I’m not sure, but I take it we can’t buy iDVD pro without buying FCP, right? I wish there was a really good Pro-sumer version of iDVD like there is a Pro-sumer of Video editing (FCE).

    [Reply]

    Josh Reply:

    For the highest possibly quality, capture through S-video from your VHS player to this:

    http://www.dvcreators.net/blackmagic-design-intensity-pro/

    [Reply]

  59. 59 Jared G

    Sorry Typo:

    … I DO NOT care if it’s 4:3 or 16:9 ratio…

    Thx

    [Reply]

  60. 60 Ben

    Hi, I have a 6 and a half minute long music video which i need to export both onto youtube and onto DVD for examiners (this is for my A-Level coursework). It is shot on 3 seperate domestic DV cameras, 2 of which were 16:9 aspect and 1 was 4:3. I cancelled out the changes in FCE by just scaling up the 16:9 footage to 135% so it filled the viewer slug with no widescreen bands at the top and bottom. I followed the steps above exactly to try and export with high quality and as promised, the LiveType animations at the beginning are higher quality, but the video has lost its contrast and has become very ‘liney’- it has many small horizontal lines which seem to worsen with movement. Fast movement such as a drumstick is also lagging slightly, so the image appears to have a trail, and the audio has slightly gone out of sync.
    Is this something that i’ve done wrong, or is there anything that i can do to fix it?
    Any comments/answers would be greatly appreciated, and as my deadline is fast approaching, time is a factor!
    thanks

    [Reply]

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