Urgently Need your help

[Vickygrech]

Hi All,

Sorry as I am a complete newbie when it comes to video! I am a photographer who is trying to use final cut express to make a slick slideshow for a huge london wedding fayre on saturday. ( have 300 copies to burn before then too!!)

We have played around with final cut express but all the outputs to export look so low resolution its awful we must be doing something wrong. I have now changed the options to full HD instead of nt... I am only using still images in transitions to music. my images are very high resolution from a 21mpx camera so the quality should be good enough.

we are really struggling and need to get burning 300 copies at high resolution before friday so any help would be greatly apreciated.

ps I keep seeing information about encoding ??? I need to know how to get the slideshow out of final cut express and burnt on a disk so clients can play the slideshow on their desktops or tv's. high quality not VGA like fuzzy images please !

A very desperate Vicky!!

thanks

 

[simsaladimbamba]

1. What sequence and clip settings do you use and be as precise as you can.
2. What method and settings did you use to export the finished sequence?
3. Do you want to burn a data DVD or a video DVD?

Btw, if you burn a video DVD and you seem to be in the UK and therefore use the PAL broadcast system, your final resolution will be 720 x 576. VGA is 640 x 480, thus not that far away from PAL.

Btw 2, how did you check the exported sequence and can you maybe post a sample (screenshot or short clip)?

"How to maximise your MacRumors troubleshooting experience" created by mad jew in 2006​

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[Vickygrech]

1. What sequence and clip settings do you use and be as precise as you can.

I changed the settings from DV NTSC48KHZ to Apple intermediate codec 1920 x1080i50 ( this has increased the quality but its still not great)
2. What method and settings did you use to export the finished sequence? esporting changed the settings to png unchecked the interlaced option, changed the size to HD 1920 X1080 16:9 Checked preserve aspect ratio using letterbox ( do no want my images widen or stretched not sure if this is the right option)
3. Do you want to burn a data DVD or a video DVD? want a client to be able to put in the dvd disk into thier laptops and the video run automatically if possible, same with playing on a dvd player. not sure there was a difference between dvd data disks and video disks

I will try to upload but think its going to be too big a file size. I am using large images with fades to music and just want the images to look as good when we view them on the screen on windows viewer or mac ..

 

[Vickygrech]

Sorry forgot to mention just viewing in quick time. I have encore and idvd and have seen people taking about encodeing after the export from final cut ?

thank you again for your quick response. being in london I have a 5am meeting tomorrow so will be logging off soon but will have a look and try the suggestions tomorrow morning

 

[chrismacguy]

Sorry forgot to mention just viewing in quick time. I have encore and idvd and have seen people taking about encodeing after the export from final cut ?

thank you again for your quick response. being in london I have a 5am meeting tomorrow so will be logging off soon but will have a look and try the suggestions tomorrow morning

1) you want a Video DVD, so it works in a DVD Player
2) Encoding happens after youve made a movie your happy with and it transcodes it into DVD Video format, which is needed before you burn the disc.

 

[Vickygrech]

Thanks Chris that now makes sense, would it make the quality much better than the intial export from final cut express? I'm guessing we are just exporting it out the wrong way or format so the resolution looks terrible.

ps any links to how we encode the slideshow to burn to disk ? I have encore and idvd neither have I used them but sure I will work it out soon!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

1. What sequence and clip settings do you use and be as precise as you can.

I changed the settings from DV NTSC48KHZ to Apple intermediate codec 1920 x1080i50 ( this has increased the quality but its still not great)

When did you change the sequence settings? After you finished editing? What resolution are the images?
Why was it set to NTSC in the first place? The UK uses PAL as broadcast system. NTSC has a different frame rate than PAL, 29.97 vs. 25 fps.

2. What method and settings did you use to export the finished sequence?

esporting changed the settings to png unchecked the interlaced option, changed the size to HD 1920 X1080 16:9 Checked preserve aspect ratio using letterbox ( do no want my images widen or stretched not sure if this is the right option)

I don't have FCE at hand, but can you be more precise what steps you have taken?
Did you export it as .mov or as .png image sequence?
And if you used a 16:9 sequence, and 1920 x 1080 uses a 16:9 ratio, then checking the "preserve aspect ratio" box is correct.

3. Do you want to burn a data DVD or a video DVD?

want a client to be able to put in the dvd disk into thier laptops and the video run automatically if possible, same with playing on a dvd player. not sure there was a difference between dvd data disks and video disks

Video DVD it is. There is a huge difference between data DVDs and video DVDs, as video DVDs need a certain folder and file structure and codec (MPEG-2) for the video.
Data DVDs just act as data storage for files and folders, just like a USB flash drive or an external or internal HDD or even Floppy Disk.

I will try to upload but think its going to be too big a file size. I am using large images with fades to music and just want the images to look as good when we view them on the screen on windows viewer or mac ..

That will hardly be possible, as PAL only has a fifth of the resolution of HD ( 5 = 1920*1080 / 720*576 ).

Sorry forgot to mention just viewing in quick time. I have encore and idvd and have seen people taking about encodeing after the export from final cut ?

When you have the exported video open in QuickTime, can you open the Movie Inspector (CMD+I) and post the settings displayed there here?
You could also use VideoSpec (I prefer that, though it hasn't been updated since 11/2009), MediaInfo Mac (10/2010) or MediaInfo (10/2010, there is a Mac OS X version to download, VideoSpec and MediaInfo Mac are using the same library as MediaInfo) though.
And as video DVDs need to use a certain codec, iDVD and Encore will transcode the exported sequence again into an MPEG-2 stream split into several 1.x GB sized files. Just take a look at any of your commercial or private video DVDs in Finder. Look into the VIDEO_TS folder.

thank you again for your quick response. being in london I have a 5am meeting tomorrow so will be logging off soon but will have a look and try the suggestions tomorrow morning

As long as it's on Jamaica Road or Abbey Wood ,,,

 

[huntercr]

You're not going to be happy if you want to do this in Final cut.

Buy FotoMagico. ( http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/overview/)

It will do everything you want, and do much of it automatically. It's got everything you're looking for and it's cheap.

They've even got a trail version IIRC.

You can export it to iDVD or import the resulting file into Final cut if you prefer. It's all very well done.

 

[Vickygrech]

Got to say im knocking my head against a brick wall now! ok we moved on and the export seems to know look at least presentable. after changing the canvas default and starting the whole project again it looks sharper. but..... when we play the clip in quick time its fine but try to encode it through idvd and encore, the fades flicker between the transistions of the photographs....

If i can get this right tonight I have to resort to adding single files to a disk for the weekend. 300 disks to burn in two days just isnt going to happen and cant afford to lose another days work tomorrow.

any help truely apreciated. additionally when I look at the same clip on our network its blank it seems the desktop ( mac its exported out from fce is the only one that can see the clip)

 

[simsaladimbamba]

any help truely apreciated. additionally when I look at the same clip on our network its blank it seems the desktop ( mac its exported out from fce is the only one that can see the clip)

I don't want to sound rude, but can you please answer the questions in more detail especially when it comes to settings in FCE (export) and iDVD and Encore (transcoding)?
You can use VideoSpec to analyse exported files, if you don't feel comfortable using QuickTime Player.

You could also use screenshots if that is easier.

We, or me, would just like to know more specifics, as it is more of a guessing game right now.

"How to maximise your MacRumors troubleshooting experience" created by mad jew in 2006​

 

[KeithPratt]

What about just using the slideshow feature inside iDVD? You may not be able to create exactly what you had in mind, but there isn't time for you to learn the whole video thing in time to have 300 discs done for Friday. (How are you going to burn all those discs, by the way?)

 

[Vickygrech]

Sorry sim, i managed to get the inspector information up

its apple intermediate codec 1440x1090(1888x1062) frame rate 25 443.8mb data rate57.17mbits current size 1888x 1062 pixels actual.

the slide show is doable I just cant work out now how to encode it through encore - the transition / fades look lines running across the images and the idvd ( might have done this wrong has very blurry output not like the quick time movie.

sorry guys but I have such a tight deadline and would love to get this disk burnt at the same quality as the quicktime clip???

if not going to try the idvd basic slide show but we have another wedding fair next week which means another 300 disks and then another fair the following weekend another 300 again. would love to use the better slide show but willing to give up if by tomorrow it doesnt work.