To export your edited sequence as a QuickTime movie using your clip or sequence's current settings, use the Export Final Cut Pro Movie command. This quickly creates broadcast-quality, full-resolution, compressed QuickTime files. For example, if you've edited DV compressed video, you can use this command to output your program as a DV QuickTime file.

Note: You can create two kinds of QuickTime files with the Export Final Cut Pro Movie command: a self-contained movie and a reference movie.

To export a Final Cut Pro Movie:

1. Select a clip or sequence in the Browser or open a sequence in the Timeline.
2. Choose Export from the File menu, then choose Final Cut Pro Movie from the submenu.
3. Choose a location and enter a name for the file.
4. Choose the compression setting you want to use from the Setting pop-up menu.

* Current Settings: This uses your clip's current compression settings (found in the Item Properties window) or, if you're exporting a sequence, the current sequence settings (found in the Sequence Settings window).
* Other sequence presets: Choose a new sequence preset to recompress your clip or sequence in another format.
* Custom: Choose this to customize the existing sequence preset.
5. Choose a render quality from the Quality pop-up menu.
This determines the render specifications used, such as field rendering, motion blur, filters, and frame blending. Lower render quality levels process more quickly but do not provide a high visual quality. For more information, see Working with render quality settings.
6. Choose Audio and Video, Audio Only, or Video Only from the Include pop-up menu.
An audio track with nothing in it can still take up disk space. If your Final Cut Pro movie doesn't need an audio track, choose Video Only.
7. To export a QuickTime movie with all video, audio, and render material self-contained in one file, click the Make Movie Self-Contained checkbox.
Leave this box unselected to export a reference movie, which is a small movie that contains pointers to audio and render files located elsewhere. For more information, see About self-contained and reference movies.
8. To rerender every frame of your clip or sequence before exporting the new file, click the Recompress All Frames checkbox.
Note: This option is available only if the Make Movie Self-Contained checkbox is checked.
This is useful if you've edited a sequence using clips with very different data rates and you want your final rendered movie to have one uniform data rate. However, the rerendering process takes time.
Leave this box unchecked to export a file using the current capture and render files on disk. Final Cut Pro copies frames from existing clips into the new file with no rerendering. If you have DV clips or sequences, leave this unselected because the DV NTSC and DV PAL codecs have a fixed data rate and rerendering frames is unnecessary.
9. When you're ready to export, click Save.
A dialog box shows you the progress of the export. To cancel your export, press Esc or click Cancel.