anything media

Several years ago (about a decade) my desk at work had a PC on one corner and a MAC on the other. Lot’s of OS water has crossed the bridge since those days so when I purchased a used MacBook Pro to begin learning Final Cut Studio for video projects I had some catching up to do.

I’ve started catching on to some of the keyboard shortcuts already. What I miss is the delete key AND having a backspace key on the PC. I’ve grown accustomed to being able to destroy keystrokes from the front or back but it seems on a MAC you can only destroy them from the back.

That said, one of the challenges I’m going through right now is establishing a workflow for exporting video shot in HDV (on my Sony HDR-FX7 cameras in 1440 x 1080 60i) and edited in FCP so it will upload and play in the new HD format (not just the widescreen player, but the really pretty actual 720p HD that YouTube implemented on 12/18/2008). Part of the challenge is pixel aspect ratio. The HDV is not square and the 720p is.

All the settings I knew how and where to manipulate in Sony Vegas and Premier Pro on a PC are just different on a MAC. What I think I am noticing is it just takes more steps to do EVERYTHING on the MAC.

The more I edit in FCP though the more I become attached to it. Today I have been working on igniteboulder footage I shot Wednesday 12/17 and learning the multi-cam editing in FCP. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to sync up the tracks and to adjust a track if necessary. Props on that FCP!

So, if anyone has solved a complete workflow from FCP to take 1440 x 1080 60i footage to YouTube’s 720p HD format successfully I’d definitely welcome the suggested steps.

UPDATE (12/20 11am): I was successful in getting a format that does go to HD on YouTube. The key is, as I thought, making sure your project video/audio settings have selected something with a square pixel aspect ratio. Then, I chose export a quicktime move and did a custom size (YouTube’s recommended 1290 x 720 -anyone know why 1290?) export of h.264 at a constant bitrate of 2000kbps. It seems to have worked, though it took a little longer for the View in HD link to show up than the actual video. Hooray! Now to refine and improve.

UPDATE (12/21 11:33am): Well, the first one either had some kind of fluke and the other two I didn’t fluke right, or I’m seeing why YouTube emphasizes that the HD functionality is still undergoing some tweaks. I thought I had created all three files identically, but there may be an outside chance I used 48kHz on the first and 44.1kHz on the other two. I read some info in Google Groups and it seems that may be it. So I’m tweaking and testing a 48kHz version of a 44.1kHz version I uploaded a minute ago.

UPDATE (12/26 8:00am): Eureka! While it’s been several days (Christmas distractions and editing/posting backlogged video from an event), I’ve been editing and posting a slew of videos using the specs that seem to be working. It appears the kicker IS the 44.1kHz vs 48kHz audio and/or the AAC audio format and making sure you have a square pixel aspect ratio. Here’s my current setting for exporting 1440 x 1080 60i from Final Cut Pro 6 to YouTube HD:

I’m editing in both 1440 x 1080 60i and Apple’s Intermediate HDV (captured into project with both sequences and it works fine). I’m EXPORT > USING QUICKTIME CONVERSION > QUICKTIME MOVIE and then setting the following (items not mentioned are left to default):

1280 x 720 (custom set not the 1280 x 720HD which may make no difference but I’m not taking the chance at this point), de-interlace the video, and constant bitrate of 8,000 kbps (multipass)
AAC audio at 256 kbps

And shazaam… there you have HD settings for 1440 x 1080 60i export to YouTube HD. Check them out at http://youtube.com/igniteboulder

UPDATE (11/26/2009 8:24am): Little did I know when I began to post about this YouTube HD workflow journey that the post would be as highly trafficked as it has over the last year. Since I created it and last updated it, my process has changed some so I though I would update.

Using the Quicktime Conversion I found it annoying that Final Cut was tied up the whole time it was exporting so, thanks to Andrew Hyde I discovered a great new FREE piece of software and have tweaked the export process for videos where I just need to crunch out some volume. Now, I EXPORT > QUICKTIME MOVIE (skipping the conversion at this point) and don’t make it a self contained movie (checkbox) naming the file something like “whatever_I_name_it_Ref.mov” – The “Ref” tells me it’s not the self contained movie, but only a file which REFerences all the original assets and knows what I’ve used where. Quicktime will play it on my computer as long as all the assets I used in Final Cut to create it are in the exact same place they were when I created it. Benefit: Lightning fast initial export.

Then I open this nifty program called MPEG STREAMCLIP by Squared5 and use a preset I can load once I’ve drug the REF file into the main viewer and shazaam I’m exporting a final, uploadable .MOV file in no time. It’s faster encoding and it doesn’t tie up my Final Cut so I can go back to editing another while the first is still encoding in MPEG STREAMCLIP. (I don’t have my Mac with my preset on it with me right now, but I’ll post the settings I’m currently using in MPEG STREAMCLIP here when I can get back to it and think about it. Happy encoding!