Final Cut Pro X to Vimeo

Hello,

First timer here. I took video of a wedding, cut it down to 10 minutes, and wanted to upload it to Vimeo. Note, I do have Vimeo Pro, so I paid for the best service.

First I tried to upload the video it said it would only take 136 hours - ha ha... So I I tried to export using "Share" and picked 720 quality, with Multipass option, but it's basically still saying it would take 12 or more hours so I cancelled the upload because the time kept increasing.

I should note I am using a Wifi Connection.

Anyways, as a first timer using final cut pro and uploading to Vimeo Pro, how can I get a 10-minute HD video to upload in a reasonable amount of time with great HD quality too. I see on Vimeo ALL THE TIME other users with AMAZING quality videos that are 15 minutes long - so how did they manage to get their videos to upload???

I use a Canon AX10 - which is a decent HD quality Professional Camcorder, and while it's not a $10,000 Pro Camera, it's capable of taking great quality, so I know I have the camera to produce great quality.

I just don't understand how these videos upload in a timely manner and how these people still have amazing quality pictures.

OH BY THE WAY, DON'T LAUGH, BUT MY ORIGINAL 10 MIN VIDEO IN 1080 WAS 10.68 GB. LOL...

What settings are you using to export the video from FCPX before you upload it? You're doing the right thing by resizing it to 720p because that's what Vimeo likes. I think if we knew exactly what settings you were using to export we could suggest changes to make the file smaller and still good looking, yet able to upload to Vimeo without taking a few weeks.

Hi and welcome,

Is this the first time you upload to Vimeo or have you been able to upload before?

If you have Vimeo Pro you usually don't get any waiting time, so that's not the issue. Have you checked the up/down speed of your internet connection? Some providers cap the upload speeds to prevent overload. If your upload speed is low or when you try uploading during peak hours it can take forever.

Ronny and Redifer,

I can't thank you enough for taking time to respond. I'm not proficient, but am learning, heck, it took me 5 minutes just to figure out how to respond to you on here.

Redifer: as far as settings go, the first time I began a "NEW PROJECT" I set it up as the 1080p settings and didn't adjust anything (so max settings I guess), once I was done it said it was 10 minutes and 10.68 GB big.

I then realized that vimeo wants 720, so I clicked on that video that's now on my desk top and basically told the system that I want it converted to 720 p. However, I also started another "NEW PROJECT" and was basically just going to do the entire video over again by clicking the settings from the very beginning of 720p HD, 1280 x 720 resolution, 30 fps, Apple Pro Res 422, Audio sample 48 kHz - which I believe is all the standard stuff.

I thought about trying something like HandBreak (compressor I downloaded that some youtube video people recommended), but you can only compress it by 50%, and so basically I would have had a 5.34 GB video - ha ha...still way too big.

RONNY......................
As far as the upload, I am wondering if the fact that I'm trying to upload via WIFI, if that is making a difference too. I'll try to plug in directly to the modem and see if that makes a difference tomorrow. But yes, I do have the PRO account - OBVIOUSLY NOT MUCH OF A PRO THOUGH.

Thank you for this information. Much clearer now. Even when you convert your 1080 project to 720 ProRes your file size stays quite big. So I don't think the issue is with your internet connection but with the way you are preparing your video for uploading. I think Joe has far more experience with Vimeo than I have. So I guess he or some other experienced uploader will be able to give you some good tips on how to best prepare your file for uploading.

I'm not too familiar with Handbrake but I'm betting it can do better than that.

What you could do is export your project from FCPX to your computer (either 1080p or 720p). Download MPEG Streamclip (free, search for it on Google and you will find the Mac version to download). Now, take the file you exported from FCPX and drop it onto MPEG Streamclip. Go to "Export to MP4" under the file menu. Turn the quality all the way up to 100%. Check/ebable the "limit Data Rate" box and type in the number 6 and change kbps to mbps (make sure the 6 stays in the text box). You can also select 5 mbps for a smaller file size if you want to upload a bit faster. You can leave the sound stuff alone or you can turn the bitrate down to 160 to shrink the file a tiny bit more. For the "Frame size", make sure it's at 1280x720. If it's not already at that size, then select it and also select "better downscaling". Go ahead and MAKE MP4 (bottom right blue button) and the export will begin.

Now upload that file to Vimeo. I have a feeling you may have been trying to upload a file that was several GB in size before. With the compression settings I gave you, your video should be in the neighborhood of 500MB for 10 minutes which is still pretty big.

Like Ronny said, your internet connection plays a big role in this. WiFi is generally pretty slow so you might want to just let it upload while you're sleeping.

REDIFER,

As far as HANDBREAK goes, it is just a free compressor I'm assuming just like the MPEG Streamclip you are telling me to download, and no, it can't resize more than 50% without severely affecting the video quality. Every review I read about it and ever youtube video I watched stated the same thing.

I will go ahead and download the STREAMCLIP and try all the settings you stated. I'll let you know how that goes.

It appears that one of my issues also lies with the fact that the way I initially prepare my video when I'm first trying to "create a new project" is probably also an issue - which I don't understand. I mean, if I "create a new project", pick the normal settings of 1080p, 30 fps, etc etc - which are the standard settings. Then why do I end up with a ten minute video that is 10.68 GB's? How can I get it smaller from the very beginning? If I re-create the video from the very start (CREATE A NEW PROJECT) and chose the 720p settings, will this make it smaller? I'm guessing it will still be in the GB size range once I'm done creating the video. From what I'm reading, anything over 50 MB starts to get too big, but I could be wrong

From what I believe, even after the steps I take that you gave me for StreamClip and with a ethernet cable plugged directly into modem, isn't 500MB still extremely large and probably going to take too long to upload? I don't mind letting it sit overnight if I have to, but heck, wouldn't that even affect the upload-time when someone clicks on it to watch it?

ronny courtens wrote: I don't think the issue is with your internet connection but with the way you are preparing your video for uploading.

So RONNY, can you give me recommendations for how to prepare my video from the very beginning? When I "create a new Project" and start dropping clips into the timeline, do you have any recommendations as to how to keep the file size smaller from this aspect when I'm done creating a 10-minute video?

Regarding upload speed, connecting to the Internet with a cable to your router or direct to the modem rather than using its wifi will make very little improvement in the speed for your upload.

When we think about speed on the Internet, most people are concerned with how fast files will download to our computers or devices. In other words how long will it take for your viewers to see your Vimeo movie.

Many Internet service providers have very slow upload speeds as that means they can provide faster download speeds. There's only so much bandwidth from your provider and they have to make a choice of how to parce it. The speeds available are quite varied and dependent on your country, urban or rural location, tech used by the providers, etc.

Knowledge is power. Best to learn the whys than simply following steps. With that here's some basics.

First, test your internet speed.
www.speedtest.net
The upload will be the important number in this case. Keep in mind that Vimeo itself may (or may not) be able to handle your full upload speed. At least you'll know how fast you should "potentially" be able to go.

Be aware of your own computer's compression speed. If you have Compressor you can create an internal cluster which can speed up the compression a bit. This works best with Quad i7 or multicore MacPro. The speed will depend on the number of cores and the "vintage" of the processor.

How big of a file are you uploading? The basic math.
File size is equal to duration times data rate.
I'm actually a bit shocked by how many people are thrown by this. It's Junior High School math where I come from.
Just as
A car going 50mph (speed) traveling for 2 hours (duration) goes a distance of 100 miles (total)
kbps (speed) x HoursMiniutesSeconds (duration) = kb (kilobits). You convert the results to MB (Megabytes) as needed. Key is knowing 8 bits to a byte for the conversion. KBytes to MBytes to GBytes is simple metrics although some use 1000 vs 1024... a bit of computer math behind which but either will get you close.

Personally I find the workflow that gives me the best control is to export out of FCPX as ProRes and then encode separately in the encoder of your choice. Handbrake is a good choice because it supports High Profile CABAC encoding for better quality. Something Compressor or other software using Apple's H.264 can't do.

So all you need is File Size and Upload Speed to understand how long your upload should take, at least under ideal conditions although conditions aren't always ideal.

Handbrake vs MPEGStreamclip. They are not the same.
Handbrake uses the x264 codec which has better quality at lower bit rates than Apple's H.264 codec.
MPEGStreamclip I believe uses Apple's H.264 codec which is probably one of the lowest quality H.264 encoders available.

There is an x264 Quicktime components freely available but development stopped over a year ago. Is suspect the reason for that is that Apple is moving aways from Quicktime Frameworks (and components) to AVFoundation and CoreMedia.

CSEEMAN,

the information you gave me appears to be very good info, but it's a little foreign language to me, however, I will take all the points you made and keep reading and researching them, and I'm sure I'll begin to understand more as I continue to study. I'm still at the "hold my hand as I learn to walk" stage, so much of what you said went right over my head. However, I still appreciate it, and I'm going to research the things you told me to gain more knowledge.

CEESMAN,

if you recommend HANDBREAK then, do you have a step by step guide as to importing my video and putting it on certain settings to get a more compressed video. I have VIMEO PRO so I'm wanting the quality too.

Ask questions. IMHO it's mission critical.
When I first started in video post production the place one would start was in making dubs. The modern equivalent is file delivery. As my boss told me then. the thing the client sees is the dub. All the great quality recording and editing is undermined by a bad dub.

IMHO the most important thing for a newbie to learn is file delivery. Whether you're delivering for festivals, TV spots, wedding clients, if your stuff is encoded poorly, that what the client sees and that's what they'll often react to.

If you have questions you should ask. Mistakes here can undermine one's entire workflow. Alternately just as one would hire a place to do dubs, one would hire a professional compressionist for delivery.

videogopher wrote: CEESMAN,

if you recommend HANDBREAK then, do you have a step by step guide as to importing my video and putting it on certain settings to get a more compressed video. I have VIMEO PRO so I'm wanting the quality too.

Handbrake basic instructions
trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/MacGuiGuide

Vimeo's guide to settings
vimeo.com/help/compression
If you look on the right they have instructions for many encoder including Handbrake.
vimeo.com/24008730
You may want to set the bitrate much higher they recommend in their video tutorial.
The text page says up 20,000kbps for 1920x1080 video and up to 10,000kbps for 1280x720 video.

The most important thing though is not paint by number but understanding so you can customize as needed and there are many times when that's needed.

Hi Mike,

As to your FCPX project: you don't have to do anything special here. Just import your footage, make your edit and export as a ProRes master file. This has the best possible quality but its file size will be too big to upload to Vimeo within a reasonable time.

The detailed information above should get you on your way to convert the ProRes master file to an H.264 file using Handbrake. This H.264 file will have a much smaller size while preserving a very good quality. Uploading this file to Vimeo should go relatively fast.

If you have any further questions don't hesitate to post back.

ronny courtens wrote: Hi Mike,
Just import your footage, make your edit and export as a ProRes master file. This has the best possible quality but its file size will be too big to upload to Vimeo within a reasonable time.

Not only that, but it's very likely that Vimeo doesn't understand ProRes and will reject it. After you upload the entire thing, of course. I know Youtube is like that.

ALL THIS INFO IS GREAT.

I've got a decent pro camera Canon AX10, very nice HD picture, but what good is it if I don't do all this exporting/compressing correct?

I'm the youngest child, which means I grew up learning by doing. I'm not one that you can sit down and explain things too, I just go do it, then evaluate and learn that way - which is basically what I'm doing now, just learn as I go along.

Slowly this is starting to make sense. So when I get home tonight, I'm going to try to go through these steps you all are recommending. and the links you've provided.

Joe is correct: Vimeo does not accept ProRes. Youtube, however, does seem to accept ProRes files: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL522B9308F3C97A22

-Ronny

Just to establish a baseline here, I upload client review work to Vimeo Pro virtually every week. I never use any interim steps nor do I use interim software to prepare my files for upload. From the FCP-X timeline, I simply open the Share Menu and select one of the three Vimeo Accounts I've got in there (2 for clients who I publish work for) and that's IT.

Other than setting up the internal FCP-X login and password settings - I don't do anything else and the work looks wonderful. (I most often shoot DSLR footage and let X transcode to ProRes.

But I never waste time using third party programs to encode stuff.

If you're facing encoding times that are as long as you say, I'd suspect that either A) you're working with files that are in a format that X has to transcode, perhaps something with a long-GOP structure or your ISP's upload speed is really poor.

Also, sometimes Vimeo can get hit with lots of traffic, and I've had stuff take a long time to sit in the queue. So depending on time of day, you might need to be patient. But I've been pushing work up there for nearly a year, and it works simply and well for me.

FWIW.