Need help to on Export...

Hi,

It's another funky situation got me working all night. Please help!
Source material- HDV captured and edited with Apple intermediate Codec
Final output - WMV with Windows Media 9 Codec and WM Audio 9.2 4:3 aspect ratio 640by480 frame size.

My approach - try to keep the file to its highest quality, I first edited in HD then nest the cut in another sequence that's NTSC 4:3 with Animation Codec. Didn't want to setup the sequence with DV, because the text looks extremely ugly in DV. Because squeeze's VC-1 codec for WMV is not accepted by client, I need to go over to my windows machine and use Windows Media Encoder to finish. But the encoder only takes AVI and WMV. So I had to output to AVI from FCP. There are several options when convert to AVI. I tried everyone and only the uncompressed AVI had the best quality. So I output the 12 min timeline and got a 20 GB AVI file, however the file couldn't be recognized by any softwares. It will play back in mplayer osx, but that's it. Tried VLC, it repair the AVI index. The clip plays, but the first two mins.
squeeze didn't recognize it, neither would windows media encoder. before I took this route, I did a test with a smaller portion of my timeline and it worked fine. But I couldn't get it to work with the entire movie.

Any suggestions? If I don't go with uncompressed AVI what's my option? If encode to WMV with VC-1, once i take it over to Windows, it's going to get compressed twice. I don't know if that's a good idea. Please help, i really need to get some sleep...
Thanks...

Forget Squeeze. I use Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro HD via Quicktime Export.

I get my deliverable timeline looking the way I want it to, export a QT Reference file so it is eaxactly like my timeline (resolution-wise), open that reference file in Quicktime and export it from there using WMV Studio Pro HD. No issues - and it's VERY fast.

[dynamic.telestream.net]

The trial is a full version...just have to buy the serial number for $179.00. If you do a lot of WMVs, this is the way to go.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

If you want to use a PC, use the freeware SUPER encoder.
Use it all the time, and on an i7 it is fast!

Bring it in as a QT ProRes and into the PC (make sure you have the latest WinQT)


charlie909 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi,
>
> It's another funky situation got me working all
> night. Please help!
> Source material- HDV captured and edited with
> Apple intermediate Codec
> Final output - WMV with Windows Media 9 Codec and
> WM Audio 9.2 4:3 aspect ratio 640by480 frame
> size.
>
> My approach - try to keep the file to its highest
> quality, I first edited in HD then nest the cut in
> another sequence that's NTSC 4:3 with Animation
> Codec. Didn't want to setup the sequence with DV,
> because the text looks extremely ugly in DV.
> Because squeeze's VC-1 codec for WMV is not
> accepted by client, I need to go over to my
> windows machine and use Windows Media Encoder to
> finish. But the encoder only takes AVI and WMV.
> So I had to output to AVI from FCP. There are
> several options when convert to AVI. I tried
> everyone and only the uncompressed AVI had the
> best quality. So I output the 12 min timeline and
> got a 20 GB AVI file, however the file couldn't be
> recognized by any softwares. It will play back in
> mplayer osx, but that's it. Tried VLC, it repair
> the AVI index. The clip plays, but the first two
> mins.
> squeeze didn't recognize it, neither would windows
> media encoder. before I took this route, I did a
> test with a smaller portion of my timeline and it
> worked fine. But I couldn't get it to work with
> the entire movie.
>
> Any suggestions? If I don't go with uncompressed
> AVI what's my option? If encode to WMV with VC-1,
> once i take it over to Windows, it's going to get
> compressed twice. I don't know if that's a good
> idea. Please help, i really need to get some
> sleep...
> Thanks...

thanks.

Mark,

I just tried output to prorez 422 HQ NTSC 48, but the quality is not as good as the uncompressed AVI. I mean the difference is obvious. So I tried Prorez 4444 and it's amazing, just like if I was outputing with animation codec.

what I don't understand is that 640x480 is not a big format, yet only animation, uncompressed, prorez 4444 gave the most clear picture. I did the comparison by changing the sequence setting and then output to the setting format accordingly. All the other formats that I tried, the color weren't as deep, and the text were as sharp.
I remember when I used to do titling in DV, the output quicktime looks horrible on the computer, but not as bad when looked at on a TV monitor. Back then the monitor was the issue, cause CRT TV has low resolution. But nowadays, is it safe to say that, for sharpness, we can trust the computer monitor (macbook screen or cinema display in my case) when viewing the final result?

Thanks guys, I am now going to get some sleep while the batch rendering to prorez. ZZzzzZZ

Out of interest, how are you moving the 20 GB file from Mac to PC? Central server?

poor man's way~

my window's system is NTFS and it's running windows 7, so no problem holding large file.
I dump the file on an external firewire drive and use HFSexplorer (free) to extract the file to the HD.

so time consuming...

ah, hadn't heard of HFSexploer - it looks good, thanks

>ah, hadn't heard of HFSexploer - it looks good, thanks

That sure is one helluva name!



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