FCP X Export Tips?

[KiterTodd]

I have edited dozens of movies on FCP X (Mac) with Compressor. While the quality is okay for smartphone viewing, on a computer monitor or television it's just very soft. While editing, the edges and colors are crisp. After export it looks like it was filmed with a potato.

I see many crisp HD videos online and I have heard people do this with normal file sizes (500MB or so for a 3 minute movie). That said, even if I change settings and have very large file sizes, the export quality is significantly degraded from what I see while editing. I must be missing something in the export process.

I had found the VBR exports to greatly increase file size, so I have been using constant bit rate at 20,000 kbs for 1080P compressor exports. It seems to give me decent quality with reasonable file sizes. However, now that I'm starting to edit with the Mavic I really want exports that better represent the original video quality.

Thanks for any tips you can share!

 

[halley]

You mentioned compressor, I assume you mean Apple's Compressor. Have you looked at the intermediate result before the compressor takes it? Maybe screenshot your export settings provided in FCPX itself.

Personally, I don't use Apple's Compressor. I don't see the point in their little money grab. The video suite should produce usable video without extra pay. Especially for what feels like a simplified feature-poor shareware style applet. I output 4K that I am happy with, directly to master file .mov or streaming h.264, and I downconvert to HD for tablet viewing using a free well-regarded portable tool called Handbrake.

 

[KiterTodd]

@halley, there's an intermediate prior to Compressor?!? I just hit "Export to Compressor" in the FCPX many and figured it starts with all the raw files and then exports to your settings. If there is an intermediate layer.... oy. I'll have to look.

I don't output at 4K, but 1080P streaming figuring most devices are only benefiting from 1080 anyway, if not 720. As I then upload to Vimeo for sharing I also had heard that it is better to do the conversion to 1080 yourself than trust YouTube/Vimeo to do their own down-converting.

I'll open a video up and show the settings, but it is pretty straight forward - I use H.264, 1920x1080, 30fps, progressive CBR, Target 20 Mbps.

 

[halley]

Not "hailey."

As for intermediates, Share> instead of Send to Compressor. Apple likes the word Share instead of Export these days.

 

[KiterTodd]

Not "hailey."

As for intermediates, Share> instead of Send to Compressor. Apple likes the word Share instead of Export these days.

Thanks! corrected that... darn near vision going and all those i's can easily look like l's.

Ahhh, okay. I see what you mean. I thought you were indicating there is an Export setting before it goes to Compressor.

Master file exports/shares must be huge! Do you find the handbrake downconvert to give a pretty crisp rendition at 1080P, for example, of your 4K FCP export?

 

[halley]

Yeah, there are a number of presets (and you can add more). The "Fast 1080p30" is quite good quality but they also offer "HQ" and "Super HQ". I noticed that the approximate bitrate for their "Very Fast" (low quality) is twice the bitrate you are targeting. The units look different, I might be comparing apples to oranges. Might be your cause there.

Video data... it does add up. Luckily 1TB externals are pretty cheap.

 

[KiterTodd]

@halley, thanks for the tips thus far. Your simple suggestion to export the master file changed my paradigm a bit. For some reason, I got locked into running a 1080 project and exporting a reasonably sized file. It looked crappy.

All the streaming services are setup to handle 4K now so that's the project size I worked with. My test file (work in progress) is about 4:30 in length and it's exporting a 2 GB H.264 master file. I'm not sure if that is oversized, but Vimeo isn't complaining and the quality at all resolutions is stellar.