Settings

Video Editor Settings

Introduction

Here are some video editor application settings. See also: Software.

Final Cut Pro: Clip a Video

File, Import, Files. You need to import the same video file as many times as you make clips out of it.

On the Untitled Project tab, double-click the video and the video should appear on the Video tab.

Choose a position on the video and click the Mark In button (arrow to right).

Choose another position on the video and click the Mark Out button (arrow to left).

Click the red Overwrite button. Click Yes.

Save the project in case Final Cut Pro stops working, so you can restart Final Cut Pro by double-clicking the project file.

File, Export, QuickTime Movie (you may get General Error 34). If you choose "Video Only" the exported video file might not work.

Recycle project file. You can recycle a project file for the next project. Why would you avoid creating a new project file for each project? Because Final Cut Pro crashes easily the first time you import a video to a project. See a warning with this approach.

Tip: on the Canvas window and on the Timeline window you can close the tabs for the other Sequences you have created (if you are using Sequences instead of importing the same video file again and again).

Tip: create a shortcut to your working directory. Then move that shortcut to the Documents folder as Final Cut does not remember your last used folder.

Problem: Final Cut Pro crashes after pressing the "Overwrite" button. Solution: double-click the Final Cut Pro project file after the crash, so that Final Cut Pro will open and immediately try to make the same procedure again. Solution: try the Insert button instead of the Overwrite button. Solution: there is something wrong with the area of the original video from Final Cut Pro's perspective. Find any other place on the original video that can be clipped without Final Cut Pro crashing. Then try again the same area of the video that caused the crash. This solution does not work with all videos, I may get a "Final Cut Pro quit unexpectedly while using the KGCore plug-in" message if I select part of the video from the beginning to some minutes after the beginning. One possible solution could be re-installing Final Cut Pro or removing the preferences [source 1, source 2, source 3]. One possible solution is to disable settings "Abort EET/PTV on dropped frames" and "Abort capture on dropped frames". A possible solution (not really) could be removing a folder Final Cut Pro creates automatically, which is "Final Cut Pro Documents" in "My Documents" [source 4]. A possible solution (not really) could be to right-click the Sequence, select Settings and change the Compressor (default "H.264") and disable "Filters" and "Frame Blending For Speed". A possible solution (not really) could be to use short names for imported videos on the Final Cut Pro interface, such as abc1 and abc2 instead of having spaces and hyphens. A possible solution (not really) could be to go to Final Cut Pro "System Settings" and empty application cache, but there is no such option. A possible solution (not really) could be to go the OS X Applications folder and at the bottom of the applications list choose "Open in Finder", right-click "Final Cut Pro.app", select "Show Package Contents" and empty application cache, but I see no cache folder there (latest file has been changed in 2014). You could go to folder ~/Library/Preferences and open com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist with a text editor, but I don't see anything wrong with the contents. You could go to folder ~/Library/Preferences/Final Cut Pro User Data and you should see files Final Cut Pro 7.0 Prefs.fcset and Final Cut Pro Obj Cache.fcmch, and open them with a text editor, but I can't say if anything is wrong with them by just looking at the contents of those files. You could go to folder /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Studio, but I don't see any cache files there. You could go to folders ~/Library/Logs and ~/Library/Containers, but I don't see any files related to Final Cut Pro.

Problem: Final Cut Pro crashes after pressing the "Overwrite" button (for the first time in a project) to add a time frame to Sequence 1. Solution: create more time frames (with different times) and one by one select one of them and press the "Overwrite" button (remember to save the project each time and mark each one failed so you know which ones failed). I had to create more than five time frames until one of them worked. After that I was able to press the "Overwrite" button with the actual time frames I wanted to add to Sequence 1. After that I cut away the unnecessary time frames from Sequence 1.

Problem: Final Cut Pro says "File error: 1 file(s) recognized, 0 access denied, 1 unknown" when trying to import a video. Try to open the video with QuickTime and if the video is black, there is something wrong with the video.

Warning: always check the length of the clip to see if it is the same as the length of Sequence 1.

Bug: the fifth time frame maybe missing, because there is a bug in Final Cut Pro how it handles the fifth time frame. Correction: Final Cut Pro does not give a warning if it is unable to include a time frame to the clip.

Problem: the video is black 1. Solution: you may have selected a time frame ("My Video.mov") instead of Sequence 1. In that case Final Cut Pro may suggest "Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i50" instead of "Current Settings". Solution: select Sequence 1 before exporting.

Problem: the video is black 2. Reason: one of the time frames can not be exported by Final Cut Pro as part of the clip. Solution: change the problematic time frame's starting point or ending point or remove the problematic time frame entirely.

Problem: the clip is only one minute long. Solution: you have selected a time frame that is only 1 minute long to Sequence 1. Explanation: very short time frames cause problems with Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Pro creates a clip only of the shortest time frame.

Problem: the clip contains only one of the time frames you have created. Theory: there is a problem with the fifth time frame and Final Cut Pro will only make a clip of the fifth time frame.

Warning: if it takes a long time (more than hour) to export a video, you may have forgotten a previous clip from a previous project (if you are recycling a project file for the next project). You can use the horizontal drag button to go to the beginning of the timeline in the Sequence 1 tab to check if you have left old clips in there.

Warning: if you recycle the project file for the next project, the project file may get so corrupted you need to use a new project file. Always check the exported video clip that the clip has all the content you need.

Final Cut Pro: Export from MOV (original) to MP4

OK

Final Cut Pro: Sequence Preset

Blackmagic HDTV 720p 60 - Apple ProRes (HQ)

Final Cut Pro: Capture Preset

Blackmagic HDTV 720p 60 - Apple ProRes (HQ)

QuickTime: Export from MOV (original) to MV4 (iPad)

File, Export, Format: iPad...

VLC: Convert (Broken) MOV File

File, Convert / Stream, (Format:) Video H.264 + MP3 (MP4) → .mv4

If you have "repeat current item" (in Preferences, Playlist) enabled, you need to force quit VLC after this as it will try to create the same file again forever (OS X).

VLC: Convert Video File for Web

File, Convert / Stream, (Format:) VP80 + Vorbis (Webm) → .webm

If you have "repeat current item" (in Preferences, Playlist) enabled, you need to force quit VLC after this as it will try to create the same file again forever (OS X).

Last modified: January 6th, 2023

Author: Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@gmail.com)

URL: http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/video-editor-settings