Quicktime conversion taking too long

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Level 1

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Quicktime conversion taking too long

this is my first time using final cut pro.

for my class, i've created a video that is 7 minutes long using mpeg-4 clips with AAC audio. they're pretty small clips, 320X240, and fully rendered.

we're supposed to present our projects next week to the class and so today i tried exporting the video i created using Quicktime conversion, but the status bar told me it would take 40 minutes to fully convert, and it only kept going up from there.

what am i doing wrong? under movie settings window that pops up, i clicked on default settings, but changed compression to h.264 (cus everywhere i've read has said it's faster), changed the dimensions to match 320X340, and changed the audio format to AAC with a 128 bit rate.

is this correct? i know i probably shouldn't have used mpeg-4 files to edit, but i hadn't known that until i read it here, today. i've also read that since i'm using mpeg-4 files, i shouldn't have tried exporting it as a h.264 file. is that true? could that have been the reason why the conversion was taking so long?

your help/advice is very much appreciated.

Message was edited by: ec84

Message was edited by: ec84

Black MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Dec 5, 2007 2:56 PM

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Answer 1

Wes Plate

Level 4

2,859 points

Dec 5, 2007 3:02 PM in response to ec84

How about just do File -> Export -> QuickTime Movie... ?

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Answer 2

budakhan

Level 3

940 points

Dec 5, 2007 3:06 PM in response to ec84

Wes is correct. File>Export>Quicktime will not convert the file using another compression. It'll simply create a quicktime movie file with the same compression settings as your sequence. this will knock down your render time significantly.

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Answer 3

ec84 Author

Level 1

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Dec 5, 2007 3:12 PM in response to budakhan

but i thought that if you export using "quicktime movie" the file size would be extremely huge and it would open and play under fcp. i want to be able to save my video on a flash drive and transfer it and view on my macbook at home.

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Answer 4

Wes Plate

Level 4

2,859 points

Dec 5, 2007 3:24 PM in response to ec84

The movie created will be of the same frame size and codec as your sequence settings are.

The movie created will be able to be played QuickTime Player on any Mac that has the proper codec installed.

What you originally posted is one way to export a movie with different settings than your sequence settings, and it can make for a very long export as the whole movie is recompressed and resized and generally recalculated.

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Answer 5

ec84 Author

Level 1

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Dec 5, 2007 3:33 PM in response to Wes Plate

hmm... i'm just going to assume my professor had her information all wrong. i'll try this first thing next class. i see what you're saying and it makes complete sense. saving it as a quicktime file will make it playable on quicktime player.

thanks!

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Answer 6

budakhan

Level 3

940 points

Dec 5, 2007 3:44 PM in response to ec84

let's put it this way. if you do File>Export>Quicktime you'll make a quicktime file with the same compressor as your sequence and it'll render faster. If you select File>Export>Quicktime Conversion you can make a quicktime file with a compression of your choice. (although the conversion process takes time). so you could compress it into a DVCPRO 50 quicktime, or an uncompressed quickime or H.264 quicktime. any of these settings will play in quicktime. These you can select through the options button in the converter window. we just suggest you use Export>Quicktime because it's faster easier and it's useless in your situation to convert.

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Answer 7

ec84 Author

Level 1

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Dec 5, 2007 4:03 PM in response to budakhan

sweet, thank alot. what you guys are saying makes perfect sense. i'll be sure to reply once i get a chance to work on my movie again.

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Answer 8

budakhan

Level 3

940 points

Dec 5, 2007 4:08 PM in response to ec84

good; nice to know that we know more than your professor.

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Answer 9

Dec 5, 2007 10:24 PM in response to budakhan

Just a quick note: remember to click 'self-contained' if you go the Export>Quicktime Movie route. If you don't, the file you create will play the video based on the clips you have saved to your hard drive, so if you ever take the quicktime file off the hard drive you edited with and try to play it, it won't work. By clicking 'self-contained' you make the file all-inclusive and it will play anywhere because it's got all the information it needs.

You also might have to manually open it in Quicktime; I believe the default program to open the file is FCP.

Hope that makes sense. Good luck!

jesse.

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