Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!
Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >
Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >
I have a question about the final exporting render times. What if you aren't working/editing h264 files just compiling them together using FCP. I have about 3 hours worth of mostly h264 encoded video and for the sake of a shorter final export rendering time should I transcode all the h264 files to XD CAM or ProRes? My issue is time
Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
Let me see if I understand.
• You have 3 hours of h.264 clips on a timeline.
• You want to export a single 3 hour clip.
Is that correct?
How will this material be used?
x
Correct. Thanks for the timely response!
It will be on a disc projected from a projector.
Disks do not project by themselves.
Is this a DVD or Blu-Ray disk played on the appropriate player device to the projector?
Or something else?
x
Right. It will will be played on a DVD in a mac mini connected to a projector.
DVD Video discs use MPEG2 video and an AC3 audio file, not H.264.
You make those in Compressor and author the disc with DVD Studio Pro.
If you export H.264 from your FCP Timeline, it will need to be transcoded a second time to MPEG 2. Both are lossy. This is bad.
Export your Timeline with Current Settings and Self-Contained.
Bring that file into Compressor and use one of the time based presets that the running time of your movie fits into.
I do not have Compressor. Do I have other options?
Compressor comes with FCP. Installs by default. Grab the installer disk and install it. You can custom install only compressor.
I do not have the install disc available to me.
If you have Snow Leopard or Lion (MacOS versions) you can download and install Compressor from the App store.
OK I had it unknowingly.
I see DVD: Fastest Encode 150 minutes under Settings
150 is a bit short. 180 is more like it
So, the file to be burned to disc must be an MPEG-2 for a video disc?
The DVD format is MPEG-2. To get that specific format, you need to use the Compresser DVD Presets. Well, you can just take a raw file into DVD SP and it will compress to MPEG-2...but it won't look nearly as good.
So -
When I am in Compressor with my 3 hour video file do you know what I should do? I have no experience with it. Thanks.
And to go back to my first Q. The extremely long export times in FCP are what I am most concerned about now. In my experience rendering times over 5 hours occasionally NEVER finish exporting anywhere near the 'estimated time remaining.' If I reformat the h264 files to a different codec would that help?? As I understand H264 files make FCP work harder/slower.
I'm probably missing something obvious, but it seems to me you could also play out from an h.264 Quick Time file on the Mac Mini to the projector and avoid the compression hurdles. Does it need to be a DVD?
Russ
Good call! I dont have to worry about the file to DVD transfer so that is relieving but any ideas on how to reduce Final Exporting time in FCP?
Does ProRes export faster than h264?
