Final Cut 7: Apple Pro Res Export Drops In File Size?
We are noticing a 30% drop in file size when, after importing a 5-minute Apple Pro Res HQ file into Final Cut and performing minor editing (essentially removing a few frames from the ends), the resulting export (also Pro Res 422 HQ) is noticeably smaller, going from roughly 2.5 GB at the start to 1.7 GB at the end. Has anyone seen this? Is this normal? Does it affect file quality? If so, is there a workaround? Thanks for any and all help!
Sequence and imported clip settings both match and are at the highest quality. The original file was captured from a BetaSP into Final Cut as a Pro Res 422 HQ via a Sony DVW-A500 deck.
Sequence and imported clip settings both match and are at the highest quality. The original file was captured from a BetaSP into Final Cut as a Pro Res 422 HQ via a Sony DVW-A500 deck.
Comments
Has your audio track been compressed?
Audio is uncompressed. Are there any settings in Final Cut that would allow us to export a Pro Res without losing data? As in, get back a file the same size as the one we put in?
Audio is uncompressed. Are there any settings in Final Cut that would allow us to export a Pro Res without losing data? As in, get back a file the same size as the one we put in?
If you want to chop a few frames off the end, you can do it in Quicktime Pro. Scrub to in-point hit 'i', scrub to out-pount hit 'o' and hit command-x to cut just like in Final Cut, reset the markers back to the start, make sure view size is actual size and save as self-contained.
Final Cut should be doing the same thing if your sequence settings match the imported clip and you just export as Quicktime Movie, not using Compressor or Quicktime Conversion. I'd still expect the latter options to be the same too though because ProRes is an intra-frame codec and the VBR encoding should come out at a similar size for the same content.
When you open the source and exported clips in Quicktime and check the information panel, is there anything that immediately looks different? I'd expect the data rate will be different but is everything else identical besides the data rate?