Digital Commons at Penn State

If you are exporting from Final Cut Pro and you want your video to fit on a CD then using Compressor is a good way to ensure that it does.

1) First Click on your timeline in Final Cut Pro then Click FILE > EXPORT > USING COMPRESSOR

2) Compressor will automatically load up, now you want to locate the H.264 Settings file and drag that into your sequence. The H.264 settings file can be found under APPLE > FORMATS > QUICKTIME

3) Now we need to click the ENCODER tab in the Inspector.

4) Here we will click the Settings button Beside Video, this will open the quicktime options window. Here you will want to click "RESTRICT TO" under Data Rate: and type in a number starting with 3000. (Note: if your video is short this number will need to be higher and if your video is longer it will need to be lower)

5) Now check the Estimated file size, our size here is perfect, you want to aim for about 600MB, if it is too small then go back to step four and increase the Data Rate. If the size is larger than 600 go back to step 4 and Decrease the Data Rate until you get near 600MB.

6) Once you have achieved your Estimated File Size then click submit, Compressor will create the file and you can copy that quicktime file to a CD.