FCPX video is exported to "Master File" Audio stops working when Quicktime plays it (times two tries)

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Level 1

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FCPX video is exported to "Master File" Audio stops working when Quicktime plays it (times two tries)

Having successfully prepared a number of videos that I've edited in Final Cut and then exported to youtube, I thought I had a knack for success. Whatever settings I was employing were working and playing just the same way they did in the timeline.

I now have a problem with one video which I have been working on for a couple of years. I don't believe that I have done anything different. The video is longer than most I have created and the length is around 22 minutes.

Here is a screen grab of the export setting and I see a couple of anomalies:

First, I thought I was recording at the initial setting of 1080 resolution but what is shown in the box below reads 2048 x 1152.

The finished product come in at around 52.6 GB but down in the lower right corner below is reads that the estimated size is 59.82 GB.

Once exported or "shared" to Master File, the audio on this particular video does what it is supposed to for only a couple of seconds and then cuts out. I pause the video and start it again and the same pattern repeats...two or three seconds of sound and then it breaks up and is silent while the video portion continues. The entire audio track seems to exist but it won't play successfully.

First, understand that other videos I have created in FCPX and posted on my youtube channel work fine and those same videos also work well when played on Quicktime version 10.4.

This one behaves differently.

The audio levels that I use for voice over and full volume sound are kept somewhere between -6 and 0 db just like the other videos. Other audio levels like music in the background are set at -25 or lower.

I try to keep everything on the audio meters below 0 db.

So the question: How Do I Fix This? The sound has to remain and function with the video.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 6, 2020 4:29 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,971 points

Sep 7, 2020 4:51 PM in response to murderhill

I don't know anything about your computer. The non-standard frame resolution makes the file bigger than it should be. I think you may have used a different ProRes codec based on the size and the length. Playback of high data rate media can be difficult on some drives. Where were you playing back the original export from? Was it on the system drive? What kind of drive? Was it on an external drive?

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,971 points

Sep 6, 2020 4:36 PM in response to murderhill

If you want it to be 1080, you should copy/paste the content into a 10180 project.

This sounds like a playback problem. Select the exported file in the Finder and press the spacebar. Does the same thing happen? Does it always cut out in the same place? Try the QuickTime player. Try different sections. Does the audio always cut out in exact the same place? If this continues, you'll have to give complete details of the system, computer specs, OS, FCP version, drive specs, how it's connected, and how much free space. system drive and external drive if there is one.

The estimated size is just that, and it tends to be higher than reality.

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Answer 3

murderhill Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 7, 2020 1:53 PM in response to murderhill

Thanks for the response. You make a good suggestion that I wasn't picking up on which is that if I start at the beginning, the audio starts to break up and disappears at the 36-38 second mark.. every time. If the video keeps playing, the audio remains off.

If however, I stop and restart the video at just before the 36 second mark it plays well for another ten seconds, then breaks up again.

So all the way through the video at any given and random point, the audio lasts somewhere around six to ten seconds before it breaks up and shuts off. As I wrote above, the audio appears to be there in full but as you suggest the problem is in the playback. And that is always QuickTime.

Ah! I just moved the video into my "Home Videos" category in iTunes and it plays through without the audio breaking up. So, it seems that it's Quick Time! But why? I want to share this video and have it loaded on a couple of flash drives to distribute. People should be able to plug it in and view it.So the question is whether playback programs other than Quick Time can play the video. But again, why Quick Time? It has always been pretty trustworthy through the years. Is there some correction to the video or Quick Time that can occur to eliminate this?

Finally, the fact that I expected 1080p at 30 FPS but got 1152p at 60 FPS doesn't bother me. It has to be whatever I did to set up the project when I started it two years ago and I have no idea what I was thinking back then. I don't care what the settings are as long as folks in my family get to watch the video(s) that are family oriented.

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Answer 4

murderhill Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 8, 2020 10:55 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

I just wrote a reply and it got lost somehow. I took your advice and used the H.264 codec and the file is one tenth the size of the 52 GB file exported with ProRes 722. It plays just fine in iTunes or on Quick Time. Problem solved. Thank you.

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