Highest quality Snapz Pro X settings for export...

[budha]

Hey everyone,

I am using Snapz Pro X to do some video captures w/ audio for a tutorial I am making. Does anyone have any optimum settings they use to export so that I can make them as high quality as possible on youtube?

The steps of your work flow would help as well.

I will be using Final Cut to Edit.

Thank you very much for your help.

 

[ppc_michael]

The "Animation" codec is about as high quality as you can get, you should try that.

 

[budha]

Lets say I do use the animation codec...

What file format will it be in, because I have to make sure I can open it in quicktime and convert it to something that works in FCP.

 

[LethalWolfe]

It will be a QT, but the file will be huge (possibly too big to playback smoothly depending on your setup) and while Animation will playback in FCP it's not an optimized codec to use so you won't get Real Time effects or anything. Is the tutorial going to be put on DVD, the web...?


Lethal

 

[jayeskreezy]

I was wondering the same question. I will be using my vid for playback on a huge screen though. It's a google earth tour. Any help would be appreciated.

On a side note: Lethalwolfe I love the avatar. That's my fav team. It's a shame we aren't ending the season as well as we started. Perhaps we'll spend more $ on quality offensive players next year and stop leaving it up to defense to do everything?

 

[budha]

Lethal,

It will be used to put on youtube. I just want it to be as high quality/clear as possible so viewers can make out what I am doing. Converting for FCP is always a pain, and I would be trimming it down for editing so it will have to be usable in the FCP timeline.

 

[geeman]

Lethal,

It will be used to put on youtube. I just want it to be as high quality/clear as possible so viewers can make out what I am doing. Converting for FCP is always a pain, and I would be trimming it down for editing so it will have to be usable in the FCP timeline.

Save your Snapz screenshot movies in Animation codec. Edit in FCP. Output using the "H264 LAN Streaming" preset using Compressor. Note that you may need to tweak brightness/contrast settings in compressor because of the color issues when converting to H264.

Using the "H264 LAN Streaming" preset in Compressor gives absolutely awesome results from high-quality original footage, IMO.

HTH

 

[LethalWolfe]

How much editing is going to be involved and are you going to keep the video captures for future use, or are you going to delete them as soon as they are up on YouTube? If there is going to be a fair amount of editing involved and you want to keep the files on hand for possible future use I'd do a test using DVCPro HD 720p60 or 1080p60. That will give you good quality at a manageable file size and you should be able to play it back from a FW400 drive w/o a problem. If the quality isn't good enough then I'd give Apple ProRes 720p60 or 1080p60 a try. The file size will be much bigger so you'll need an eSATA RAID to be able to play it back (a FW800 RAID might work).

If there is barely going to be any editing involved and you don't want to keep the files for future use animation will give you the best potential amount of quality (I say potential because to the naked eye there may be no difference/no significant difference between animation and other codecs) but it will be a cumbersome codec to work with.

jayeskreezy,
How big of screen will it be playing back on, how will you be connected to that screen, and what are the specs of the computer that will be playing back the footage?


Lethal