Mp4 preset guide for Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro has some good export presets but one thing it doesn’t do is mp4 exports. Or it does, but not by default.

Mp4 might just be one of the most common and popular video formats out there. While FCP offers a good H.264 MOV preset which gives you a similar image quality/file size balance, sometimes you might specifically need an mp4 file. In this quick tutorial we’ll walk you through the process on how to create an mp4 preset for Final Cut Pro, allowing you to export mp4 files directly from Final Cut without needing to send your exports to Compressor. It’s worth noting that you’ll need to have Compressor installed to create the plugins, but once created, you don’t need to open Compressor to make exports.

With this tutorial, you can set your preferred bitrate, choose between H.264 or HEVC codecs, and adjust pretty much every detail about your export. This is also the workflow for creating any export presets for Final Cut Pro so you can use the same steps to create presets for virtually any video format.

Exporting mp4 files using Compressor

If you’re not editing anything but simply need to convert a file to mp4 using Compressor, you can skip the above tutorial and watch this instead. The process is the same, but for simple conversions you won’t need Final Cut Pro.