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hfpanther

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2009
5
0
Can anyone advise me - I have an fcp file that is 244 mb - but when I export it to quicktime to convert into mov - it ends up being 2.2gb!! What am I doing wrong? My final mov final needs to be less than 1 gb for where I am submitting it. I even tried cutting and pasting only the 10 min sequence I want from fcp into a NEW PROJECT (in fcp) and then exporting only THAT sequence into mov---but it still makes it 2.2 gb. Need this asap--any help is greatly appreciated!
 
What sequence settings did you use in Final Cut Pro?
Is the project in SD (Standard Definition, PAL or NTSC) or HD (720p, 1080i/p)?
Did you capture the video from a camera or is it an imported highly compressed file?
220MB doesn't seem that big for ten minutes of video.

For example a DV encoded file, from a (mini)DV camcorder takes ca. 210 MB per minute, so you source file must be highly compressed.

Also what settings did you use to export the video to a QuickTime (.mov) file?
.mov is only a container for video and not the codec like MPEG-4 (.h264).

So you have to give us a little bit more information about your settings in order for us to help you.

PS: What version of Final Cut do you use?
 
Are you sure that the final cut file is 200mb's, and that's not just the size of the rendered scratch for the file? I know it sounds silly, but that's such a huge difference...
 
I have Final Cut express..on my work computer. I am VERY new to MACs and didn't even make the video - and have yet to figure out FC... Have been kind of thrown into figuring this out on my own. The recording is from an operating room video recording - pretty sure it is in HD though not sure if 1080 or 720. It's not from a camera or video recording. Have a feeling it is very compressed..
To convert, I just clicked on export--quicktime--and then saved it. I didn't chose any settings....
 
oops - i meant kb---does that make more sense. Sorry - have been trying to make this work for hours
 
The final cut save file is 224kb? If that's the case, that makes more sense. The way that final cut saves files, it just makes pointers to the video files. It's just an XML document without any footage. When you export it, it takes the starting and ending time points and creates a single video file from it.

If it's HD footage, having over 2 gigs sounds reasonable. If you go into export -> Quicktime Conversion, and change the resolution to an SD image size, it will be much smaller, but you will lose a lot of detail as well.

P.S. It will also take a long time to render, as it needs to re-process each frame individually, and at 24 frames per second times many minutes of film means a long long time.
 
The .fcp file is NOT a video. It is a database file that describes where the original video files are located, and what changes were made to them during the project. You can export a Quicktime movie in a similar fasion by doing Export > Quicktime Movie and unchecking the "Make self-contained" box. However, all the original files will need to be kept with this "reference movie". This is probably not what you want. You should probably be doing Export > Export Using Quicktime Conversion. You can set up your compression settings here, and it will crunch it down for you.

Just as a warning, saving the movie like this will take some time.


EDIT: Thoroughly ninja'd. Good job, thejadedmonkey. :p
 
when I am in the export settings options - should I choose the MPEG-4 option? Not sure what to choose to compress it - I know this will take like 10 hrs...or so...
 
Still working on it, but just wanted to say thank you to both of you for all your advice and help!!
 
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