Q: Compressing Final Cut Express Exports

When you have edited your project in FCP try these settings:-

Select File>Export>Using QT Conversion.

Click the "Options" button and when the the Options window opens you will see "Size", "Settings" and "Sound" buttons.

Click the Size button and set 1920 x 1080

Click the Settings button and select:-

Compression Type . . . . H.264

Frame Rate . . . . . . . . . Current

Key Frames . . . . . . . . . Automatic (or the same as your frame rate).

Compressor Quality . . . High

Encoding . . . . . . . . . . "Faster" encode will give almost the same quality as "Best" but is twice as fast - your decision!

Data Rate . . . . . . . . . . Restrict to 10,000kbps (Don't use a comma when you enter the number)

Then click the "Audio" button and make sure that AAC has been selected.

These settings should give very good quality results fairly quickly, which should play well. Your file size will be around 5GB per hour.

Some people prefer to use the smaller 1280 x 720, in which case the Data Rate should be 5,000kbps.

Note that the data rate figures I give are a guide and can be modified.

If your movie contains mainly slow or little motion, you can drop the figures to about 6,000kbps or 3,000kbps respectively.

These last 2 settings will give around 3GB and 2GB per hour of video.