Final Cut Express: Horrible export quality

[Kionon]

OK. I have a solution.

If you have x264Encoder installed, then you can encode directly out of FCE into the MOV container. Normally this is frowned upon, but the results I came out with worked well. You should see this screen:



Options allows you to mess will all sorts of things. But for the successful test, other than using a 2500kbps rate and changing to multi-pass, I pretty much didn't really stray from the defaults.

Set Size to NTSC 720x480 16:9 just like before and audio to AAC.

Use MPEGStreamClip, save as to move your video into a more appropriate .mp4 format.

You should be done.

I have no idea how you are introducing interlacing, as I never encountered it at all.

[Anicsi]

Thank you very much, I just installed the component and exported the clip again with the new settings.
The quality looks really fine, only that I encountered a little colouring problem.
left is the x264 compared to HUFFYUV to the right.





However, as it isn't too visible I can keep that simply in mind when editing and take some slight changes.
*sigh* We just don't seem to come to an end, I am sorry. I can save it with MPEGStreamclip just as you suggested, but this flagging-thing doesn't seem to work. Now again I get the final resolution of 720x480 instead of the above mentioned.

Well... interlacing happens either if there are very fast movements presented in the clips (not always), if I use text in FCE (always!) or if I change the speed of a clip. It doesn't matter if it is slower or faster, it just produces interlacing.
But as I said, I don't have this prolem with Apple Intermediate Codec so I will probably work with that in the future.

[Anicsi]

Oh well, something just occured to me. I can set up the final size of the video manually, I mean the aspect ratio. This setting won't interfere with the quality, right? So MPEGStreamclip should keep the size, shouldn't it? Just in case it has something to do with my MPEGStreamclip that it won't keep the original size...

[Kionon]

Thank you very much, I just installed the component and exported the clip again with the new settings.
The quality looks really fine, only that I encountered a little colouring problem.
left is the x264 compared to HUFFYUV to the right.

That's colorspace differences. I believe you can change that in options, and keep the YUV colorspace, but I didn't notice enough of a difference in my tests to personally care.

*sigh* We just don't seem to come to an end, I am sorry. I can save it with MPEGStreamclip just as you suggested, but this flagging-thing doesn't seem to work. Now again I get the final resolution of 720x480 instead of the above mentioned.

...what? *headdesk* If you play the resulting file out of MPEGStreamclip in QuickTime Player it doesn't have flagging? Keep in mind, MPEGStreamclip itself ignores flagging in its view window. This is not to be confused with how the file will be presented in actual players.

I am pretty sure I didn't have to tell it to reset the flagging, and I am pretty sure it just kept it.

Well... interlacing happens either if there are very fast movements presented in the clips (not always), if I use text in FCE (always!) or if I change the speed of a clip. It doesn't matter if it is slower or faster, it just produces interlacing.
But as I said, I don't have this prolem with Apple Intermediate Codec so I will probably work with that in the future.

That definitely sounds like you have the defaults set up to interlace. I'm working my way through the English FCE tech manual, and as soon as I figure out how to turn it off, I will let you know. As I said, I didn't encounter it at all. I know FCE has the annoying tendency to open each time with the same project settings (no, darn it, FCE, different projects mean different settings!) because of Easy Setup, so it's possible you initially checked something by accident, and FCE has just stuck with it.

Oh well, something just occured to me. I can set up the final size of the video manually, I mean the aspect ratio. This setting won't interfere with the quality, right? So MPEGStreamclip should keep the size, shouldn't it? Just in case it has something to do with my MPEGStreamclip that it won't keep the original size...

You mean manually resize the actual video to 848x480? You can, as a last resort, but you really shouldn't need to.

[Anicsi]

That's colorspace differences. I believe you can change that in options, and keep the YUV colorspace, but I didn't notice enough of a difference in my tests to personally care.

Oh okay, maybe I can find that option. If I don't it is not too important.

...what? *headdesk* If you play the resulting file out of MPEGStreamclip in QuickTime Player it doesn't have flagging? Keep in mind, MPEGStreamclip itself ignores flagging in its view window. This is not to be confused with how the file will be presented in actual players.

I am pretty sure I didn't have to tell it to reset the flagging, and I am pretty sure it just kept it.

Yes, I am very aware that MPEGStreamclip ignores flagging. But... yes, neither Quicktime Player, nor Mplayer or DviX Player show it with the right proportions ^^" Honestly .-.

I also looked through the settings in MPEGstreamclip but I couldn't find anything...

That definitely sounds like you have the defaults set up to interlace. I'm working my way through the English FCE tech manual, and as soon as I figure out how to turn it off, I will let you know. As I said, I didn't encounter it at all. I know FCE has the annoying tendency to open each time with the same project settings (no, darn it, FCE, different projects mean different settings!) because of Easy Setup, so it's possible you initially checked something by accident, and FCE has just stuck with it.

Yeah, right... Well maybe I am going to reset FCE once I have finished all my current projects. Don't know if this is going to help but it is worth a try...
Thank you very much ^^

[Kionon]

Yes, I am very aware that MPEGStreamclip ignores flagging. But... yes, neither Quicktime Player, nor Mplayer or DviX Player show it with the right proportions ^^" Honestly .-.

I also looked through the settings in MPEGstreamclip but I couldn't find anything...

I wish I had your macbook in front of me, because that's just craziness that shouldn't be happening.

[Anicsi]

Yes, I am very aware that MPEGStreamclip ignores flagging. But... yes, neither Quicktime Player, nor Mplayer or DviX Player show it with the right proportions ^^" Honestly .-.

I also looked through the settings in MPEGstreamclip but I couldn't find anything...

I wish I had your macbook in front of me, because that's just craziness that shouldn't be happening.

Aww .-." This seems to be really, really weird ^^" Well, thanks so much for your hep so far, I am just going to type in the final size manually. Might not be the best method, but as my MacBook just does what it wants it could be the only solution for now...

[Kionon]

There is honestly no reason I can find that would dismiss the flagging when moving from containers that both have flagging enabled.

I honestly just don't know what's happening, so I would have to physically follow the process on your macbook and see why.

[gotenks794]

4. Well, once the video is converted I get actually 5 files, each at about 4 GB. I have to type in the .avi ending manually. Is there any way to get one file instead of 5? Or would you say it is better this way as they aren't t hat big compared to a whole video?

Not to necropost, but I felt this needed to be said for the record; you can turn the splitting off by clicking Avidemux > Preferences > Output and clicking on the box for Create Open DML Files. Although when I tried this the file behaved strangely. It only played (in final cut) up until where the 4 GBs would've been but the file was much larger than 4GBs. In VLC, however, once it reached where it stopped in final cut, it kept going almost as if it was streaming. It was indeed odd.

On a side note, thank you, Kionon, as this thread also helped me (a fellow FCE4 user) out greatly.
Kionon for most helpful 2010!

[Anicsi]

Okay..... I've come once again across a problem with FCE xD I am beginning to believe that the program just hates me.
The case is:
I need to encode a video with fps 23,976. So, I just took the settings Kionon mentioned above (all 24 frames), but I get 29,xxx fps.

So, I tried to type in 23,976, it doesn't work but sets to 23 frames per second. Fine, I think and encode it ---> 29,xxx fps.
Third attempt, setting the framerate to automatic ---> 29,xxx fps.
This drives me crazy, I have NO idea what to do, no matter what I type in the outcome is always the same x.x

Anyone an idea?