when exporting a finished project in final cut pro, what are the best settings to maintain maximum quality?

You mean exporting a Quicktime? Choose the Quicktime export that is NOT Quicktime conversion.

wont he just end up with a useless reference movie then?

quote:

wont he just end up with a useless reference movie then?

That's what a lot of people originally think when then first see the icon produced with exporting using that quicktime method. It is a quicktime file, but it is set to open within Final Cut Pro. An easy way of getting around this problem would is to right click (ctrl click) on the icon and select get info. There is an area in the grey info area about 3/4 of the way down that lets you select the program that opens the file. Click on the drop down menu that is set to Final Cut Pro and select Quicktime from the list. The icon should change staright away to the typical Quicktime logo. Doing it this way saves you selecting Quicktime with the open with function.

To get the best possible exported file, wouldn't it be best to export the film with no compression at all. Although it is very likely your project already has some sort of compression on it, exporting uncompressed would save you losing quality at the in the final export. Your file will be large, but then you could resize it for your specific purpose. To do this choose the custom setting from right down the bottom of the export settings list and then in the options area make sure that ytour quality is set to the highest.

NB: This is all from memory so some of the info might be a touch off on how to access the areas in Final Cut. I also forgot to mention that changing the open with area on the file will allow you to open the movie on a PC without fiddling around.


Hope this helped.

CJK

I have exported to quick time and have had this problem aswell. Thanks for clearing that up CJK.