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Final Cut Express v Pinnacle, etc

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  • 29-10-2010 1:25pm
    #1
    Freddie59
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,679 ✭✭✭


    I bought an iMac in June and was really looking forward to using the video editing software (FCE) on it. I had been using Pinnacle Studio for six years.

    Now, Pinnacle was never perfect:D and I tore much hair out because of it! That was mostly due to the fact that, during the editing process, it would stall, crash, freeze, etc - no matter how much RAM you had or how good your processor was. But the quality of the finished product (when you eventually got there) was superb.

    Both in terms of things like moving thumbnails, choice of transitions, etc. While Final Cut Express has taken some getting used to, it lacks many of the home editing offerings of the pinnacle system.

    Transitions are, to put it mildly, fairly basic. Capturing a frame of video an endurance test. You have to burn the DVD in a separate program (iDVD). In Pinnacle studio this was all in one self-contained program with just three tabs (capture, edit, burn). Finally, I don't think the quality of the final DVD output from FCE is as good as the finished Studio product.

    When you capture in FCE the imported footage is fine. The problem seems to arise when you export the movie in QT (either as a movie or self-contained movie).

    I have no problem with adding chapters, burning to DVD, etc. I learned these over the past few months.

    Having said that, FCE does not crash, etc. It just works.

    I'd be interested to hear any opinions.


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    #2
    AnonoBoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,559 ✭✭✭✭AnonoBoy


    If the footage is fine in the program then it's your export settings I'd imagine.

    What settings/compression are you using to make the QT files?


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    #3
    Freddie59
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,679 ✭✭✭Freddie59


    AnonoBoy wrote: »
    If the footage is fine in the program then it's your export settings I'd imagine.

    What settings/compression are you using to make the QT files?

    File>export>quick time movie> make movie self-contained.

    I find this gives the best quality.


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    #4
    AnonoBoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,559 ✭✭✭✭AnonoBoy


    Freddie59 wrote: »
    File>export>quick time movie> make movie self-contained.

    I find this gives the best quality.

    But what export settings are you using?

    I have never used FCE only FCP but can you go into export settings and check the compresser you're using, the data rate, frame size etc?

    You might be using a DV compresser when something like H.264 will give you better looking results.


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    #5
    Freddie59
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,679 ✭✭✭Freddie59


    AnonoBoy wrote: »
    But what export settings are you using?

    I have never used FCE only FCP but can you go into export settings and check the compresser you're using, the data rate, frame size etc?

    You might be using a DV compresser when something like H.264 will give you better looking results.

    Sorry - should have typed file>export>quicktime movie (not file>export>using quicktime conversion).

    Should I use the latter? The settings in there are h.264; quality - high; key frame rate - 24; frame reordering - yes; encoding mode - multipass; dimensions - 720x486 (current).


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    #6
    Ooa
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3 ✭Ooa


    This is really useful information on exporting from FCE, as with iMovie there is insufficient choice (only export for phone, web, utube or in QT). Thanks for that.


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    #7
    AnonoBoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,559 ✭✭✭✭AnonoBoy


    Freddie59 wrote: »
    Sorry - should have typed file>export>quicktime movie (not file>export>using quicktime conversion).

    Should I use the latter? The settings in there are h.264; quality - high; key frame rate - 24; frame reordering - yes; encoding mode - multipass; dimensions - 720x486 (current).

    Try it with with the H.264 but be sure to change your frame rate to 25 (24fps is what film is shot at).

    Also if you've shot 16:9 your framesize should be 1024 x 576 I think.

    Also the problem may be the software you're using to burn the DVD. Does the QT you produce at the moment look better than the DVD? If the DVD software isn't great it could be reducing the quality.


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    #8
    Freddie59
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,679 ✭✭✭Freddie59


    AnonoBoy wrote: »
    Try it with with the H.264 but be sure to change your frame rate to 25 (24fps is what film is shot at).

    Also if you've shot 16:9 your framesize should be 1024 x 576 I think.

    Also the problem may be the software you're using to burn the DVD. Does the QT you produce at the moment look better than the DVD? If the DVD software isn't great it could be reducing the quality.

    Thanks for that. The settings i quoted were for QT conversion (which I don't use) and which the Apple forums advise against using. You cannot change any settings in exporting QT Movie unfortunately.

    1024 x 576 is what I use. I suppose the anomaly is that FCE captures widescreen SD as 4:3 (no matter what you do - again another issue with it) and you have to open the exported movie in QT Player. This is where I believe the degradation occurs.


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