Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 10, 2011 at 2:30:01 pm

Hey guys,

I have been using FCP for a couple of years now but nobody ever taught me in school compression settings or output settings or anything like that. I am trying to export a 5 min long piece that contains DVCPRO1080i60 footage as well as "animation" for some of the shots I keyed in After effects and motion. The footage was shot on a Panasonic AG-HVX 200P.

It seems like no matter what I try to export it to, shots come out grainy. I exported it as DVCPRO1080i60 but it does not look very good, the shots look grainy. It's really frustrating because the shots look great in FCP but look like crap exported. I tried exporting the entire thing as animation but the file was 30 GB and my computer couldn't even play it without freezing.

Any ideas? I really appreciate it.

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 10, 2011 at 4:46:40 pm

Best output settings for...what? DVD? Web? tape? Tapeless broadcast delivery?

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD...don't miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 10, 2011 at 4:49:12 pm

It will be for web as well as put on a large projector, most likely off of a DVD. I just tried exporting as h264 and that didn't help either...

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 10, 2011 at 5:05:27 pm

Three DIFFERENT reasons then. That calls for three different outputs.

For the Web, H.264...there are presets in Compressor, but compressing is a dark art, so getting things to look their best can be tricky. People earn livings only compressing. So learn how to do it, or go with presets. I'm still learning, so I can't make lots of pointers. I use presets.

Projector...played from what?

DVD...use Compressor and the DVD presets. Know that it will be SD and not HD anymore...so quality will be less. But for BEST looking DVDs, having a professional author them will get you better results.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD...don't miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 10, 2011 at 5:08:20 pm

Projector hooked up to a computer, so it would play from quicktime... I guess the issue I'm running into is that especially my text and motion files look grainy and choppy compared to how the files look by themselves outside of FCP...is there a happy medium I can find where my motion and AE animations look crisp without losing quality for footage?

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 10, 2011 at 5:14:51 pm

Make a full sized H.264...and then in the QT preferences, enable FCP COLOR COMPATIBILITY.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD...don't miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 10, 2011 at 9:02:14 pm

Do I do that by using the compressor application or in FCP?

Also, I just exported the video and some of the footage is lagging and blocky looking, but in FCP it looks great...is this a frame rate issue? How can I resolve this?

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 10, 2011 at 11:52:51 pm

[Nick Dyer] "Do I do that by using the compressor application or in FCP?"

Compressor. First export a Quicktime Movie, self contained...do not recompress...sequence settings.

[Nick Dyer] "I just exported the video and some of the footage is lagging and blocky looking, but in FCP it looks great...is this a frame rate issue?"

Exported HOW? I am not there to see what you did, so you need to explain everything, details, on how you exported.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD...don't miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 10, 2011 at 11:56:12 pm

I have tried exporting it in FCP quicktime conversion to h264, dvcpro1080i60 and dvcpro1080p30.

I do not see where to change settings in Compressor, are you saying I should take the video in FCP export as quicktime, then take that quicktime file into compressor?

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

on Aug 11, 2011 at 12:46:03 am

[Nick Dyer] "I have tried exporting it in FCP quicktime conversion to h264, dvcpro1080i60 and dvcpro1080p30."

DOn't use CONVERSION...that recompresses. Use QUICKTIME MOVIE...that does not.

[Nick Dyer] "are you saying I should take the video in FCP export as quicktime, then take that quicktime file into compressor?"

Yes. And then use one of the presets.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD...don't miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

Re: Best ouput settings for DVCPRO1080i60? Cannot get footage to look good.

by Chris Tompkins

on Aug 11, 2011 at 6:40:57 pm

Export from FCP using "CURRENT SETTINGS" Make self-contained. This is your digital master.

Drop that file into compressor and create:

DVD Delivery
WEB Delivery
QT Playback Delivery

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC