Exporting High Quality Video Source Files with Popular Video Editing Programs

Product
Video Cloud
Applies to Roles
Publisher
Version
Brightcove 5
Edition
Pro, Enterprise
Created by Mary Clark.

The step-by-step best process for exporting your source file in an H.264 format using Final Cut Pro 7 and Camtasia Studio, iMovie and Snapz.

A key to delivering high quality video with Video Cloud is starting off with a high quality source file. This article covers, step by step, the best process for exporting your source file in H.264 format using Final Cut Pro 7 and Camtasia Studio. It also addresses exporting from iMovie and Snapz.

For step-by-step export to H.264 instructions see:

The Final Cut Pro video and audio compression settings are identical to those for iMovie and Snapz. If you're exporting from iMovie or Snapz, consider Guiding principles when exporting from video software, and reference the Final Cut Pro 7 compression processes described in Exporting from Final Cut Pro section of this article.

Brightcove recommends uploading a video source file encoded in H.264 format to leverage optimum quality for the widest range of delivery targets. If you don't know the format of your video, the QuickTime movie inspector is a great tool for checking your video source file format. See Checking your video's codec for how to use the QuickTime movie inspector.

For best practices of video compression, specifically, as well as the encoding and transcoding workflow in general, see Best Practices: The Video Creating, Uploading, and Transcoding Workflow.

Exporting from Final Cut Pro

Steps here apply to the Mac OS version of Final Cut Pro 7. For even more detail on this process, see Exporting a High Quality Source File Using Final Cut Pro. Brightcove recommends the following process for exporting your video to an H.264 source file:

  1. Select File > Export > Using QuickTime Conversion...
  2. In the Save window beside the QuickTime Movie format, select Options.

  1. Now assign the QuickTime movie settings from the Movie Settings window. First, select Settings from the Video section.

  1.  Set these Standard Video Compression Settings:
  • Compression Type: H.264
  • Frame Rate: Current fps. If the export frame rate setting is not the same as the source, your video and audio tracks might get out of sync.
  • Key Frames: Every 24 frames
  • Data Rate: Restrict to 3000 kbits/sec
  • Optimized for: Streaming
  • Compressor Quality: High
  • Encoding: Best Quality (Multi-pass) 
  1. Save, return to the QuickTime Movie Settings window, and select Size from the Video section.

  1. For Dimension, select the size of the original, or smaller as long as you select a size larger than any resolution where your video will show. Be sure that your selection maintains the aspect ratio of the original in order to avoid letter boxing. Video Cloud automatically takes care of filling your video to the dimensions of a player, so selecting letter boxing here might add an additional row or horizontal bars or in some cases add the look of horizontal and vertical bars around your video within the player.
  2. Save, return to the QuickTime Movie Settings window, and select Settings from the Sound section.

  1. Set the audio Rate at 44.1 kHz.

Tips when exporting from Final Cut Pro

Create a profile in Compressor

If you are using Final Cut Pro to export multiple videos for uploading to  Video Cloud, you may want to use a component application in Final Cut Studio called Apple Compressor to create and save a QuickTime pre-sets export profile. This lets you use the same compression settings without needing to select them each time.

Remove In & Out Points Before Exporting

We have been able to reproduce issues when exporting video in Final Cut Pro while 'In' and 'Out' Markers were placed inside of the Sequence while exporting your file. The issue appears when two different sets of 'duration' metadata are being written to the file. One set is written to the video track, and another written to the audio track. This causes the Video Cloud player to read one set of metadata upon load (the correct metadata), but the Adobe Flash Media Server (FMS) to read the In/Out set of duration metadata upon playback, which is usually much shorter in length. To avoid the issue, make sure to remove any Markers from the Sequence before exporting.

Check your metadata

If you are interested in checking your metadata after exporting, a good tool to use is MediaInfo, which you can download from SourceForge.

After you install MediaInfo, open the program, and use File > Open to open one of your video files in MediaInfo. You can then select View > Text to view the video's metadata. You will see duration metadata for both the Video Track and the Audio Track. These should match. If they don't, there will be a problem upon playback.

Exporting from Camtasia Studio

Steps here apply to the Windows version of Camtasia 7. Brightcove recommends the following process for exporting your video to an H.264 source file:

  1. From the Camtasia editor, select Produce and Share.

 

Note: If you intend to show your videos to audiences with generous bandwidth and resolution, you might try producing your videos using the HD setting. When exporting videos using the HD note the following requirements:

  • Do not use the HD setting for 4:3 aspect ratio videos. Camtasia’s HD option changes the aspect ratio to 16:9, so you will not maintain the original aspect ratio and will distort your video. 
  • Be sure you have imported any clips to your video using the HD format.
  1. In the Production Wizard Welcome page, select Custom production settings.

  1. Next, choose the recommended format MP4/FLV/SWF - Flash outputs. We're going to export to MP4.  
  1. In the Flash Controllers page of the Production Wizard, set the following:
  • Controller: No Controls
  • File Format: MP4
  1. Click Flash Options, then on the Video tab of the Flash Options dialog set the following:
  • Frame Rate: Automatic
  • Key frame every: 10 seconds
  • Encoding mode: Quality
  • Quality: 80%
     

  1. Click Flash Options, then on the Audio tab of the Flash Options dialog check Encode audio and set the Bitrate to 56kbps.

  1.  In the Flash Options dialog, click OK, then in the Production Wizard, click Next. 

  1. On the Video Options page of the Production Wizard, set all options to your preferences, except be sure to uncheck Embed video into HTML.

  1. On the Produce Video page of the Production Wizard, set all options to your preferences, except be sure to uncheck Upload by FTP.

Note: Camtasia Studio is often used for creating screen casts for tutorials. Creating screen casts with clear, crisp, and legible text is especially challenging when creating software tutorial videos you intend to play both from a player within a browser and in a full-screen mode. See Creating Crisp and Legible Screen Casts and Encoding Tips for Screen Casts for recommendations on recording and transcoding screen casts.