Preparing HD files for

WD TV Live HD Media Player:

Recommended Workflows
!. Final Cut Pro will automatically export compression markers at all edit points and at the start and
end of any transitions. You may want to add additional compression markers where there is rapid,
This will, in essence, alert the
MPEG encoder to pay special attention to those moments in your piece.
". Go To File > Export > Quicktime Movie.

the marker, and the second allows you to edit the marker.
In the Edit Marker window, click Add Compression Marker.
Repeat this process through the entire sequence.
#. Go to Sequence> Settings and click on the Render Control tab.
For Codec, choose Apple ProRes 422,
and change the Quality to Best.
For HD footage, choose Apple ProRes
422 1920 x 1080 60i 48 Hz, or choose
the 24p or 30p options if you are using
those frame rates. If you shot in SD
select Apple ProRes 422 NTSC 48 kHz.
This workflow demonstrates how to compress your videos for playback on Western Digital TV Live
HD Media Players. Compressing your video inevitably degrades the image, adding pixellation, motion
artifacts, and other distortions that would not be evident (or nearly as evident) as in the original video
format.

The purpose of this document is to help you minimize those distortions so that your video does as
much justice as possible to your original image without playback errors. We will start by outputting a
master file Final Cut Pro at the final edit stage of your project, in a timeline, before you have rendered.
rev. 03/13/12
Also, make sure that Recompress All Frames is de-selected.
In the same window make sure that your Pro Res
Quicktime file will include the compression markers
you made in step 1. In the Markers field either choose
Compression Markers or All Markers which will
also include any Chapter Markers.
4
.
5
. Now well create custom compression settings by modifying an existing preset. In the Settings window,
go to Apple>QuickTime>QuickTime H.264 video with AAC audio at 44.01kHz. Settings based off the source
resolution and frame-rate.
Double-click on settings in the Batch window
to open the Inspector. The Summary tab
(below) shows the details of the preset. We are
going to make a custom preset by making
adjustments to this one. Well start by clicking
on the Encoder tab in the inspector.
Once youve opened the Encoder tab click the
Video settings button. If your orginal material
was shot at 60i, 29.97, or 30p set the Frame
Rate to 30. If you were working with 24p set
the Frame Rate to 24. Set the Quality to
Best. The Audio Settings should be changed
to a rate of 44.100.

6. Now lets adjust the Frame Controls. First, click on the
button to the right of the Frame Controls tab, then use the tab
to set Frame Controls to On. Set the Resize Filter to
Better (Linear filter).
Your footage will look better on the hard drives if you dein-
terlace it. Do this by changing the Output Fields. If your
original footage was shot in HD you will want to change the
Output Fields to Top First. If the original was shot in SD
then set the fields to Bottom First. Do NOT change to
Progressive. This averages the two fields and generally
results in a softer image.
Next make sure Deinterlace is set to Better and Rate Con-
version is set to Better (Motion adaptive). Choosing these
settings will improve the quality of the compression without
taking a tremendous amount of time.
If youre not satisfied with the results, you could try changing
any of the appropriate fields to Best, but keep in mind that
this will drastically increase the compression time and could
result in unwanted artifacts. All other settings remain the
same.
7. Moving on to the Filters tab (to the left of the Encoder tab). This tab allows you to make adjustments to
the images black and white levels, brightness and contrast, gamma, etc. Doing color correction in the Color
application or another software program before encoding in Compressor would be the ideal way to fine-tune
your image, but heres a good tutorial on making such adjustments using Compressor:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/preprocessing_hodgetts.html
8. Next you will need to downsize your video to 720p
using the Geometry tab. Select the Geometry tab and under
Dimensions choose a Frame Size of 1280x720 from the
drop-down menu. Leave everythinge else the same. You
do not need to make adjustments to the Actions tab.
9. Lets save this preset. Save As (via the save
button at the bottom of the Inspector) as WD TV
Compression or another name that makes sense to
you. Once your setting is saved it will appear in
the Settings window under inside the Custom
folder.
Now you can make a Droplet! A Droplet is a simple drag and drop application that will apply these com-
pression settings to any video you drop on. No more clicking around!

To designate a destination for your output file other than the
default (Source, the same location as your original source
file), open the Destinations window (accessible from the
Window menu) and drag a destination onto your file in the
Batch window.
Then click Submit--this brings up the submit dialog window.
The name field here only refers to the name of
your Compressor batch--it doesnt affect the
name of your output file. Click Submit again to
submit your batch to the Compressor queue.
10. Youre now ready to compress your MP4 file using the preset you just created. Compressor will auto-
matically add an extension to the name of your output file based on the settings youre using (ie. DV
NTSC Anamorphic in this case). Click in the filename field if you wish to change the name of the file that
youre about to output.
To create your Droplet select your setting and click the center button. Give your droplet a name, or allow
it to keep the same name as your compression setting. Select a location for your droplet and its output
files. Your droplet icon will look like this.
11. Transfer your compressed file onto a flash drive and plug it into the WD TV Live Hard Drive.
Navigate through the menu to find and play your video.