Final Cut Pro X: Use Compressor presets as Share Destinations

Over at the fcp.co forum, a user named ‘parchabg’ was trying to get better results when exporting interlaced PAL from Final Cut Pro X. I suggested using Apple Compressor’s ‘DV Stream’ setting. It allows control over interlace field order.

If you use a Compressor preset very often, you can use that preset as a Share Destination from within Final Cut Pro X.

Compressor keeps presets in .setting files.

If these .setting files are in

Your user name/Library/Application Support/Compressor/Settings/

…you can use them within Final Cut Pro X.

I haven’t bought Compressor 4, I still use Compressor 3.5.3. It stores its .setting files in a place that Final Cut Pro X cannot see: Your user name/Library/Application Support/Compressor/

That means if there’s a .setting file I want to use in Final Cut Pro X, I need to move it into a sub-folder named ‘Settings’:

To add a Compressor setting as a destination, go to the Share submenu of the File menu. Choose ‘Add Destination’. Double-click the Compressor Settings icon:

The dialogue box that appears shows the Compressor presets stored in .setting files:

Choose the preset you want as a new Share destination and click OK. Once you close the Preferences dialogue, a new item appears in the Share menu: your new Share Destination:

No Compressor 4 needed

If you need a custom destination but don’t have Compressor, you can copy custom .setting files from people with Compressor and this technique still works. This is because Final Cut Pro X includes all the code required to run these presets.

If you’d like to try this PAL DV Stream preset, you can download it from here.