Best Final Cut Pro Export Quality Options

Question

I'm importing MP4 videos into Final Cut Pro v10.3.4 and making a simple movie. I make proxy media for quick scrubbing and wish to export the best quality that I can find. I need the best quality, and the MP4 file provides great quality to begin with. But I can't find anything similar. I'm exporting various grades in the settings panel on export, and I have over 5 GB for a file that is exported all the way down to 56 MB, given the options I have available. But nothing comes close to the source files (the MP4's).

How can I make this export the best quality? Doesn't look like I have the incoming quality as an option for export. My options right now are:

Source (Proxy media, which is bad)
Apple ProRes 4444 XQ
Apple ProRes 4444
Apple ProRes 422 HQ
Apple ProRes 422
Apple ProRes 422 LT
Apple ProRes 422 Proxy
H.264
Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2
Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2

AVC-Intra Class 50
AVC-Intra Class 100
AVC Intra Class 200
DVCPRO HD
HDV 18 Mbps
XDCAM EX 35 Mbps
XDCAM HD44 50 Mbps

Answer 1

Apple ProRes 4444 XQ is a super high quality format, but it's probably overkill. This would be used for the final online edit. It depends on your use case. If this is going to a color studio, then Apple ProRes 4444 XQ is the way to go.

If you're publishing to the web, compress down to H.264. No big deal.

The quality will be limited by your source files in either case.

Answer 2

I've seen that you didn't try the Apple Devices 4K..., which will export a video with high quality and small file size, namely heavily compressed video. Just give it a try.