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Final Cut Express 4, 720p & YouTube

LaMerVipere

LaMerVipere

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 19, 2004
971
1
Chicago
I'm currently using FCE4 to edit 720p H.264 footage from a Kodak Zi6.

Currently, exporting even minute-long video at 1280x720 produces a file size of 200MB!

I need to be able to upload this footage to YouTube (it's for a website I work for) and am looking to use a format that will give viewers the HD option on YouTube.

Does anyone have any tips?

Is there some sort of compression I could be using? Also, is there any format that FCE4 could export the videos as that kept the resolution but lowered the file size dramatically.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
i cant imagine what google will do, when HD youtube videos become the norm within the next 3 years.
ISP's are gonna get raped.


to answer the op.
that is a normal size.
when i uploaded a 30second 1080P video from my jvc averio it was like 190mb
 
I had the same exact questions and just used this tutorial myself tonight:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage...e_hd_gary.html

While the tutorial is specifically for FCS and Compressor, it's pretty easy to apply to FCE or iMovie. My video at 2:52 was a little over 62MB and looks pretty good to me. My footage was not from a 'true' HD cam, but a Canon Elura 70 that shoots DV in 16:9.

Good luck -

Wayne
 
The last two posts are helpful, but aren't accurate at all.

FCE will export as Quicktime, in which case it uses an Apple Codec to do the encoding. Your minute long clip in 1280 x 720 will be that large, given that full HD is gigabyte per minute, that size is about accurate.

You're going to have to either get QT Pro and use QT to convert the footage to an MPEG4 file with the H.264 codec, or download a free video encoder like MPEG Streamclip, and convert the video using that.
 
Digital Skunk said:
The last two posts are helpful, but aren't accurate at all.

FCE will export as Quicktime, in which case it uses an Apple Codec to do the encoding. Your minute long clip in 1280 x 720 will be that large, given that full HD is gigabyte per minute, that size is about accurate.

You're going to have to either get QT Pro and use QT to convert the footage to an MPEG4 file with the H.264 codec, or download a free video encoder like MPEG Streamclip, and convert the video using that.
Click to expand...

In FCE, can't you choose File -> Export -> Export Using Quicktime Conversion to be able to select the Compression type?

-Kevin
 
kbmb said:
In FCE, can't you choose File -> Export -> Export Using Quicktime Conversion to be able to select the Compression type?

-Kevin
Click to expand...

As far as I remember the only thing you can do is export at QT, using the Apple Intermediate Codec or some variation of it. I know that it won't let you choose how you want to compress it or which codec to use.... just a straight dump to QT.

That's still effective since it doesn't compress the footage, it just spits it out at whatever rez you imported it as, but as a .mov file.

We have our still shooters using FCE4 with some AVCHD cams and we all tell them to get MPEG Streamclip (sorry for the spamming, it's really a wonderful app) or any other free vid converter and just convert/compress it into whatever they need.
 
Digital Skunk said:
As far as I remember the only thing you can do is export at QT, using the Apple Intermediate Codec or some variation of it. I know that it won't let you choose how you want to compress it or which codec to use.... just a straight dump to QT.

That's still effective since it doesn't compress the footage, it just spits it out at whatever rez you imported it as, but as a .mov file.

We have our still shooters using FCE4 with some AVCHD cams and we all tell them to get MPEG Streamclip (sorry for the spamming, it's really a wonderful app) or any other free vid converter and just convert/compress it into whatever they need.
Click to expand...

Here's a couple screen shots from my FCE.

When I choose Export, if I choose just Quicktime Movie, I don't get any options. If I choose Using Quicktime Conversion, I get the next screen to choose the compression settings.

I'm guessing this is kind of like exporting from FCE, then re-encoding via QT Pro all in one step?

I'm no expert on FCE editing, so if I'm missing something...let me know.

-Kevin
 

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kbmb said:
Here's a couple screen shots from my FCE.

When I choose Export, if I choose just Quicktime Movie, I don't get any options. If I choose Using Quicktime Conversion, I get the next screen to choose the compression settings.

I'm guessing this is kind of like exporting from FCE, then re-encoding via QT Pro all in one step?

I'm no expert on FCE editing, so if I'm missing something...let me know.

-Kevin
Click to expand...

Don't worry, I am not either and I think you just proved one part of my statement wrong. Looks like you can actually choose the compression settings when using QT conversion. That window in the second photo is the one I get with QT Pro, and I know that QT Pro does have worlds more options for video than regular QT.

Do you have QT Pro, or is that the standard QT? It's it's standard then I am wrong and the OP can just change the settings during export to give him any MPEG4 with H.264 at their current res to get a smaller file size.
 
Digital Skunk said:
Don't worry, I am not either and I think you just proved one part of my statement wrong. Looks like you can actually choose the compression settings when using QT conversion. That window in the second photo is the one I get with QT Pro, and I know that QT Pro does have worlds more options for video than regular QT.

Do you have QT Pro, or is that the standard QT? It's it's standard then I am wrong and the OP can just change the settings during export to give him any MPEG4 with H.264 at their current res to get a smaller file size.
Click to expand...

I do have QT Pro....however, I got FCE before getting QT Pro. Now I can't be sure.....maybe the OP can see if he has those settings or not, but I thought I did a bunch of video in FCE with those settings, before installing QT Pro.

Not sure though....it was way back in 1/2008 and I can barely remember last week! :p

-Kevin
 
kbmb said:
I do have QT Pro....however, I got FCE before getting QT Pro. Now I can't be sure.....maybe the OP can see if he has those settings or not, but I thought I did a bunch of video in FCE with those settings, before installing QT Pro.

Not sure though....it was way back in 1/2008 and I can barely remember last week! :p

-Kevin
Click to expand...

I told another friend of mine the same thing. "Just use QT to trim the movie files and you'll be fine." Then he informed me that the standard version doesn't allow for editing movies (i.e. splicing and trimming them).

It's been almost 2 years since I've used the standard version, and I used to think that the $20 was a bit too much.
 
have you tried going to export>quicktime conversion.
once you are there, there will be a a box with a downwards arrow, it should say quicktime movie, click on the downwards arrow, after you do there will be a lot of different file formats,i personally choose Divx movie. it does not take up that much space at all!! phew!! there's a relief when uploading to youtube.


now go to the youtube sit and click upload>choose file

now choose the file that says .divx at the end. it is farby one of the best ways i use to put it into youtube,not too blurry, actually, not blurry at all.

P.S. in order for this to work, do not forget to highlight the whole video, last time i did not do this, only a section of the video will be put into .DivX format. SO HIGHLIGHT!!!!!

and also for the video to work (i sort of forgot to say before, sorry :p) when you are in the quicktime conversion menu go to options>Settings. then set everything there to max quality only to ensure the best video quality, 100% blur free :p
 
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