Final Cut Express: Horrible export quality

[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?

[gotenks794]

I was noticing the same thing actually... So what I did was check the box marked 'deinterlace' in the size options upon export. I believe it worked for me....as far as I can tell.

[Kionon]

Say wut?

If your source is 23.976 it should stay 23.976, and deinterlacing shouldn't have a thing to do with that, unless the source is also telecined, but then we'd be dealing with NTSC formatting, and isn't Europe PAL?

[mirkosp]

Say wut?

If your source is 23.976 it should stay 23.976, and deinterlacing shouldn't have a thing to do with that, unless the source is also telecined, but then we'd be dealing with NTSC formatting, and isn't Europe PAL?

Europe is mainly PAL, but some countries (France and Russia, not sure about others inside Europe) use SECAM. Both of these are 576p25 or 576i50. In any case, telecined content is possible for both, specifically 2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:3 pulldown.

Either way, I was thinking that the solution might be stupid yet right:

[...] I tried to type in 23,976, it doesn't work but sets to 23 frames per second.[...]

When 23,976 doesn't work, try 23.976. Sometimes, it's really just that. Considering how you just get 23, the comma might get ignored and you might need the dot.

[Anicsi]

Either way, I was thinking that the solution might be stupid yet right:

[...] I tried to type in 23,976, it doesn't work but sets to 23 frames per second.[...]

When 23,976 doesn't work, try 23.976. Sometimes, it's really just that. Considering how you just get 23, the comma might get ignored and you might need the dot.

I tried that, too xD It didn't work. Whatever, I tried another video and there I could handle it manually. However, you are right, Kionon, the footage itself is 23,976 but the project settings are set to 29,97. So I wondered how I could change that.
I use the Apple Intermediate 720.

That's why when I leave the settings to "Frame Rate" -->Current
it stays 29,97 regardless of the original fps.


Oh yeah, btw. my MPEG-Streamclip still keeps bitching around and won't give me videos where flagging is still working xD Only when using 720x480 however, 1280x720 seems to work fine. *headdesk*


Oh another question. I am using now the x264 encoder just as you suggested, Kionon. If I used H264 (normal setting) and set the kbps to 2500, just as you suggested, would the quality be a lot worse? Could I move it to an mp4 container, too? Just curious because of the colorspace differences (i noticed while watching the preview today.)

[gotenks794]

I am noticing the same problems as Anicsi. FCE is changing my frame rate, introducing interlacing etc. And Mpegstreamclip and Avidemux are both ignoring the 16:9 flagging. I have to manually enter the frame size to 848*480. I also noticed a problem when trying to export from FCE uncompressed. The resulting file seemed...corrupted. Both times.