Exporting from FCP4

X-30 · Criminal Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 51 City: Pleasanton

Hey guys i'm still a little new with FCP4 and i'm wondering how all of you guys export your videos into something to burn on a dvd. I noticed that if you export videos as a .mov file, it seems you still need the rest of the project files like all the hidden stuff. If that didn't make sense I want to be able to export a movie and then delete all the other files associated with that movie but still be able to play it without any problems. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

X-30 · Criminal Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 51 City: Pleasanton

Did anyone understand what i said? It might be really confusing but basically what do you do once you finish editing the video?

89comp · Posted: Aug 13, 2005 2:53 pm Post subject:

X-30 -
Export your movies as "DV stream" with the checkbox of "Make Movie Self-Contained" checked. This will make your finished movie that you export capable of being played on other machines that don't contain your source media (hidden stuff as you call them). Plus as a DV stream it will be full DV quality vs. compressed as an MOV.
I'd use the media manager function in FCP to archive your media files vs. just exporting the finished product then deleting all the source media. Media manager will package all your FCP files and source media so you can easily re-open it and make changes in the future if you want.
Are you planning on using iDVD or DVD Studio Pro to make your DVD?

X-30 · Criminal Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 51 City: Pleasanton

iDVD...

Wake Geezer · Newbie Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 City: Calgary

Wake Geezer · Newbie Joined: 26 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 City: Calgary

89comp · Posted: Aug 14, 2005 6:57 am Post subject:

X-30-
geezer has good advice, BUT ! -

if you do this:

"then delete all the other files associated with that movie but still be able to play it without any problems."

then the movie file won't play when you delete your source media. That's what a "self-contained" movie is - one that contains all the source media. A non-self contained movie just points to the media files where they were when you imported them, so if you move them, then the movie won't play.

Self-contained movies take up more space, but for what you want to do - edit, then remove your project from your machine, they are the only option.

You can make the movie not self-contained, burn it to DVD, then delete the file and your DVD will still work, but you won't have a non-compressed backup.

X-30 · Criminal Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 51 City: Pleasanton

hey thanx but i'm confused in where the "DV Stream" option is...Is it in the media manager??

89comp · Posted: Aug 15, 2005 6:12 am Post subject:

File > Export >Using Quicktime Conversion > DV Stream (in format drop down list) when the Save as window appears

or you can just do

File > Export > Quicktime Movie. Quicktime Movie is a DV stream

X-30 · Criminal Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 51 City: Pleasanton

Is there a difference in quality with the DV Stream and the Quicktime Movie. I thought the quicktime movie is compressed.

89comp · Posted: Aug 15, 2005 12:34 pm Post subject:

If you do "save as quicktime movie" then it is a DV stream.

If you do "save as quicktime conversion" then it will convert the DV stream to some other format (MPEG-2. H.264, .mov, etc)

X-30 · Criminal Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 51 City: Pleasanton

got it. Thanks that solved all my problems.

JamesWatts · Addict Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 685 City: Santa Monica

comp 89... you do .DV ? ive always done "uncompressed" quicktime, ill have to try .dv next time to see what looks better. FCP captures to uncompressed quicktime dosent it?.... thats why ive always just exported it as uncomressed quicktime... ?

-James