Final Cut Pro Web Compression Settings
- Edit your clip with Final Cut Pro. When you are done, export the timeline by going to File => Export => Use QuickTime Conversion. click
- Once selected, a save window will open up, select the Options box. click
- From there, a Movie Settings window will open. This gives you all the current settings that will be used when exporting the clip. These are the default settings that it will always revert to. We do not want to use these settings. To begin adjusting, select the Settings button. click
- This is the Compression Settings window. What we will do here is change the settings to create a smaller sized, but better quality file. Use the MPEG-4 video codec with medium quality selected (You will not be able to notice the difference. Your frames per second should be at 29.97 (NTSC Standard) or current and we should have key frames every 150 frames. No need to limit the data rate. Once everything is set, select OK. click
Note: You do not have to use the exact settings above, it is just what I find works well and gives great quality with a small file size. Feel free to play around, but I feel these work best.
- Now you will be back at the movie settings window. Now click the Size button under Video.
- The Export Size Settings window will now open. Select the pull down window and select QVGA 320 x 240. Doing this will half the initial size of the DV video. If you would like to keep the video the same size you can use 720 x 480. Click OK to continue. click
- Overlook the window and make sure that everything is still the same and nothing is back to default. Click the Settings box under Sound. click
- This opens the Sound Settings window. I have found that it is much better to just stick with MPEG-4 Audio as it is a great compressor that instant to file intensive. After changing to MPEG-4 select the Rate pull-down and set it to 32.000 kHz. Make sure that 16 bit and Stereo are still selected. Click OK. click
- Review and make sure that all the changes are still there and click OK for the final step.
- Time to export your file. Name the file whatever you want, select a destination, and click save. Check your file once it is done and make sure that it looks how you want it to look. If you see lots of interlacing lines in the footage, go back into the Video settings => Advance Settings => Check de-interlace source footage. click
