Creating Chapter Markers in H.264 Video

[ This article was first published in the April, 2007, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]

Pieter Dekkers, from the BCIT Learning and Teaching Centre, writes:

Thanks for your newsletter. It is, as always, a great resource and also a good confirmation that I am not the only one who is sometimes struggling just trying to keep up.

 

I have a question for you:

 

In my work I get more demands for Podcasts/Video-Casts. Sometimes it involves lectures (audio and video) up till about 45 minutes.

 

I have experimented with various compression settings with very good results. I am quite happy with Quicktime Conversion > MPEG-4 > H.264 compression and managed to get the file sizes to an acceptable minimum. However when I try to add chapter markers using FCP, I have some issues: the chapter markers do not come across in various experiments.

 

The easiest way of doing it is using Garageband. However the files are huge. I am trying to figure out which settings Garageband is using (It must be using the same compression engine as Quicktime-Pro/FCP/Compressor) and next I hope to lower the data rate/frame rate etc. Any advice? Other ways of doing this, through Cleaner for instance?

Larry replies: Pieter, there’s no need to use GarageBand, the problem is how you are exporting the file. When you export your file using File > Export > QuickTime Conversion, the chapter markers are removed. If you export your file using File > Export > QuickTime Movie, and set the Markers pop-up to DVD Studio Pro Markers, all your markers are retained.

Using Compressor you can compress the file into an H.264 QuickTime movie.