Quick Lad

Q: Exporting proxy 1080 from 4K?

I am working on a project where we are shooting 4k, editing 4K and our final output will be 4K. The screeners we share with the client, however, are 1080. The finished pieces are between 30 to 60 minutes and this leads to some longish times to get a finished 1080 from a 4K project. We are trying to figure out the fastest way to output a high quality 1080 clip, while still being able to output a 4K after review and final edits.

 

We have a gone through a number of workflows, some more successful than others. Because I and a 2nd editor are working on different systems, what works best for one may not work best for the other - but here's what we have tried so far-

 

• Export a 4K master and use Compressor and/or media Encoder to make a 1080, this can take up to 4 hours and eats up drive space.

 

• Export a 1080 direct from the timeline (Share to 1080 Apple Devices) this can take about two hours but can lead to quality issues  - which may've been solved by some settings tweaks and hardware upgrades.

 

• Making a 1080 project duplicate of the 4K project, rendering and exporting from the 1080 project. This leads to some of the titles and graphics we move on and off the frame to start at the wrong place on screen. The edit time to fix this negate time savings from using a 1080 project.

 

Since the proxy files for 4K are 1080 (right?), is there a way to use the proxy media that fcpx generates and export a 'native' 1080 file - which would be much faster than having FCPX render out a 1080 file on the fly from the 4K timeline? Would this lead to the same location problems of the titles and graphics?

 

Thanks for any help

Eric

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 29, 2016 6:10 AM

Close

Q: Exporting proxy 1080 from 4K?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Russ H,

    Russ H Russ H Aug 29, 2016 7:30 AM in response to Quick Lad
    Level 7 (21,770 points)
    Quicktime
    Aug 29, 2016 7:30 AM in response to Quick Lad

    Hey Eric.

     

    Yes, 4K Proxy is 1080. It's also a lower bit rate.

     

    But unless you change your resolution (modify settings) it will export a 4K version @ the lower bit rate.

     

    I ran a quick down res test UHD to SD and I didn't find any text positioning problems; I was starting with 3840x2160.

     

    The fastest exports will be exporting a Pro Res timeline to Pro Res.

     

    For H.264, you might test Send to Compressor. Select a range of your timeline – perhaps 5 minutes. Apply a higher bit rate single pass setting, time it and evaluate to see how acceptable it would be as a screener.

     

    Good luck.

     

    Russ