In this lesson, we’re back to basics talking about Settings again, and we’re going to expand our look at the Export settings, and talk about taking HD timelines and exporting them for SD, as well as the new 8.3.1 update that let’s us export DNxHR QuickTime movies.

In part one of our two part look at the export settings, we covered the two most imporant ways to export your footage.  Same as Source (using the same codec you imported/transcoded to/captured to) and then exporting and recompressing the file to a new codec like ProRes or H264.  In this lesson, we’re going to look at a common situation that a lot of editors run into, and that is the need to export an SD clip from an HD timeline.  Most people think that you want to export as HD and then attempt to use Adobe’s Media Encoder or Sorenson Squeeze to do the conversion, but if you miss a step, or set up your encode wrong, you’re in for a world of hurt.  Why not just let Media Composer do the conversion for you.  We’re also going to look at the new 8.3.1 update, and how you can export 2K, 4K and UHD as Same as Source QuickTime exports, which is a much welcome update, as opposed to having to export DPX sequences. 

Now, in case you haven’t updated to version 8.3.1, here’s the main new features you will find, once you update:

• QuickTime Export for DNxHR: 
  Perform Fast Imports and Exports in Media Composer8.3.1 using resolution independent DNxHR media wrapped as Quicktime and exchange files with a wide variety of applications·      
• DNxHR OP1A MXF Export:
  Prefer a more open and standardized format?  MC 8.3.1 now has the added convenience to export DNxHR MXF OP1a media in a single interleaved file, with up to 16 channels of audio and ancillary data.·      
• GPU Support onMac for AMD and NVIDIA Cards:
  Effects acceleration by GPU is now available on the Mac platform, including the latest Mac Pro.
  ·       
• XAVC-I UHD and 4K Writeback:
  You can now create XAVC-I UHD and 4K masters directly from Media Composer.·      
• Support for ProTools Duet and Quartet:
  Capture your audio using best in class Duet and Quartet devices connected to Media Composer 8.3.1.·      
• Improved XAVC-I UHD  and 4K Performance:
  General performance improvements of the 4K experience as well as faster decode of XAVC-I media.·      
• Media Creation Default Changes:
  The AMA Source/Scaling Quality option in the Media Creation Mixdown & Transcode Setting now defaults to Full Quality instead of Half Quality. 

These are all welcome changes to larger than HD workflows, and if you haven’t updated, you really should update as soon as possible.

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