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Getting quality GoPro outputs through FCP X/Compressor

For a couple years I have struggled getting crisp HD output from FCP. My source files are pretty good and I work with the colors and contrast in FCP to get them the best I can. They look great while I am still within the FCP editor. Once I export via Compressor, the quality is pretty bad. All the crispness is gone. The result is something that is good enough for facebook uploads, but anyone that has appreciated a crisp HD profresional video, can tell the difference. It's grainy. I see people getting good output, who are not pros, so I'm looking for tips.


In the past I was told that I should convert my GoPro Hero3 Black footage to an apple friendly format, like H.264, in the GoPro Cineform Studio App, and then import it into FCPX. The thought is that extra step will yield better results since GoPro takes better care with the conversion of their files than FCP would. I ran several tests and didn't notice a significant difference other than color varitations. I would take two 15 second clips...one raw 2.7K foorage from the camera, one converted to 1080P by Cineform, put them in movie, sent to compressor. Both videos were grainy. I have also trying to use the FCP "create optimized media" selection when I import the files. That does not seem to alter my completed export significantly, what it does is take up a lot of hard drive space.


However I did find something that worked...


By default, my Vimeo settings are exporting with a "high" setting (Compressor Standard Video Compression Settings/Compressor/Quality/HIGH)

This 30 second movie yields a 24MB file.

I then tried changing this to the "best" setting.

This 30 second movie yielded a 660MB file.


The quality was great! Finally I had the crisp image that I see on many other HD uploads, but the file is huge! Most of my videos are about 3:30 in length, which would mean I'm looking at a 4.6GB file. I think I'm usually around 200MB in size.


Is there a way of improving the image quality without such a signficant jump in file size? I think Vimeo will end up downconverting/compressing the file anyway if I were to upload something that large. The thing is, I do see GREAT HD quality videos on Vimeo, from amateurs, so somehow people are doing it. When I last asked for help from Vimeo, they said that I shouldn't need a file size in the gigabytes to get good results.


Appreciate any tips. Thanks!

Posted on Nov 12, 2013 8:39 AM

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Posted on Nov 12, 2013 9:54 AM

I don't have this camera and what I know about Cineeform Studio is what i read. So take this with a grain of salt.


My suggestion is to bypass the Cineform app and take (import) your clips directly into FCPX. Check off the Optimize box in the dialogue box.


Create a new 1080P project and drop a few short, but representative clips into your timeline. Export as a Pro Ress Master File. Bring that exported file into Compressor and use the stock Video Sharing preset. (Don't crank the quality to Best because then you will get unrestricted data rates and (as you note) enormous files.


If the output file doesn't meet your quality expectations, my guess is that something is going on with the scaling - which could be done instead in Compressor. However, my guess is that it will look good and be a reasonable file size.


Russ

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Nov 12, 2013 9:54 AM in response to toddjb

I don't have this camera and what I know about Cineeform Studio is what i read. So take this with a grain of salt.


My suggestion is to bypass the Cineform app and take (import) your clips directly into FCPX. Check off the Optimize box in the dialogue box.


Create a new 1080P project and drop a few short, but representative clips into your timeline. Export as a Pro Ress Master File. Bring that exported file into Compressor and use the stock Video Sharing preset. (Don't crank the quality to Best because then you will get unrestricted data rates and (as you note) enormous files.


If the output file doesn't meet your quality expectations, my guess is that something is going on with the scaling - which could be done instead in Compressor. However, my guess is that it will look good and be a reasonable file size.


Russ

Nov 12, 2013 12:09 PM in response to Russ H


(1) My suggestion is to bypass the Cineform app and take (import) your clips directly into FCPX. Check off the Optimize box in the dialogue box.


(2) Create a new 1080P project and drop a few short, but representative clips into your timeline. Export as a Pro Ress Master File. Bring that exported file into Compressor and use the stock Video Sharing preset. (Don't crank the quality to Best because then you will get unrestricted data rates and (as you note) enormous files.

Russ, thanks for the feedback. Two questions from your analysis;


(1) I thought that optimization happens automatically when you export. It's just if you do it on export, you only take the time and HD space hit for the cuts you are using in your video as opposed to optimizing the hours of footage you bring into your event. It seemed the only advantage to doing it all beforehand was that editting/playback will be more seamless when you are building your project.


(2) When I am done with a project I use the "Send to Compressor" menu option. I figured this hard coded connection to Compressor will allow one Apple program to pull the best data it needs from another Apple program. Who am I to second guess that? Are you saying I should do a Pro Ress export manually, and then bring that into Compressor? What is the advantage of this extra step that gives data Compressor can't pull from FCPX on it's own.


Thanks again for the ideas on this...as I'm out of them. 🙂

Nov 12, 2013 2:34 PM in response to toddjb

Try my earlier suggestions and see whather the results are better.


For this test you don't have to import a ton of footage. Connect your camera with USB and you'll even be able to bring in partial clips if need be.


Pro Res 422 is an intermediate codec – as opposed to things like H,264 which may be both an acquisition and delivery codec.


Delivery codecs use a lot of compression and clever algorithms to produce a good-looking image. But they start to break down when multiple generations of compressions are applied, and/or they're scaled.


Pro Res 422 is an Intra-frame codec, and while it too is compressed, it allows far more image information than the delivery codec will carry.


I seldom use the Send to Compressor workflow, but there is certainly no harm in doing so. Exporting a Pro Res master is extremely fast in FCPX on a recent Mac. When I'm done, I have in fact a master file that I can repurpose for several forms of delivery and to many different specifications – now and in the future – by running it through Compressor as a stand-alone file.


Good luck.


Russ


Nov 12, 2013 5:10 PM in response to Russ H

Oh man I wanted this to work! I was hoping this master file export was the elusive golden egg there to solve all my grainy export problems. Here is what I tried…


First, I tried a quick test which was to take the test file I was working with yesterday and export it as the Pro Res master file. I imported that into Compressor with standard Vimeo 1080P settings. No luck. Looked the same as other exports.


So I took the added suggestion and first imported my clip as optimized media. Then did the Master file export. Then did the Compressor import. Same result.


Am not noticing a difference in exported quality.



Does it have anything to do with my frame rate? I don’t think it would but all my GoPro footage comes in as 29.97 FPS (when it should be 30) so sometimes I export it as 30 and sometimes as 29.97. I figure the only change here is a minuscule delay between frames that won’t make a difference. And it doesn’t seem to.


Still confused why at "best" it looks great, but at "high" it looks bad, and there is no in between setting I can find.

Nov 12, 2013 7:57 PM in response to Russ H

User uploaded file

This video starts with 15 second clip imported from GoPro Cineform Studio, followed by the same 15 second clip imported as you suggested.

I had been making test videos with two different import methods so I could compare them after export. I don't know if that skews the results of what you see on this screen.

Getting quality GoPro outputs through FCP X/Compressor

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