Video quality in FCE
 

Hey guys,
I am working in Final Cut EXPRESS and shooting with a Canon XHA1 and recording in HDV 108060i. I am obviously capturing with the Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60 and then exporting in MP4 at 1280x720 for the web. My question is: what is the Apple Intermediate Codec? Is it the same codec and quality of HDV? I ask because, while editing and viewing the footage within FCE it looks very good with few motion artifacts, however when I export with quicktime conversion (MP4/5mbps) the video becomes fairly washed out with more motion artifacts. Would upgrading to Final Cut Pro give me a vast improvement by being able to capture in ProRes or some other format? Any insight or help would be appreciated, thanks!
-Steve

When using AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) at 1080/60i, the data rate is around 14MB/second (112Mb/second) which is much higher than HDV. The AIC is intended for editing, so it uses a higher data rate.

I've never seen the washout effect you have seen, but I haven't tried everything on FCE. Someone else will need to help you there...


Bob Diaz

I see the same washed out problem. Adjust the gamma when you export to MP4. For some reason, it exports to a PC gamma.

How should I go about adjusting the gamma? and to what to extent? Thanks.

What tool are you using to create your MP4? That's the first place to look.

There's a good discussion on the whole topic here:
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/983595

I don't know if FCE has a gamma video filter but FCP does and I'd be surprised of FCE does not. So, push comes to shove, you can apply it on the timeline.

I apply the filter using Compressor. Squeeze has it. Cleaner has it. Quicktime lets you set one for .MOV but not MP4. I don't know what that thread's poster is referring to when he mentioned a QuickTime Preference for "Final Cut Pro compatibility".