Editing 1080p in FinalCutPro: What output format for WD TV Live?

Hi,

We have 30fps 1080p footage that we are editing in FinalCut Pro. So far, we are unable to figure out which output format/compression to use to play on WD TV Live. Can someone suggest specific settings? Our videos are simple talking heads that will be shown on a large video wall at 1080p.

My editor is pretty good with the editing, but she doesn’t know the various formats or codecs. This may be her first high-end HD job.  

Thanks!

I did a bunch of experiments and found the answer: MPEG-4 works spectacularly. HD footage with great sound coming out at about 13 MB per minute. Nearly indistinguishable from Quicktime, which was coming out at about 600MB per minute. Both of these files play great on my WD TV Live. 

The live only plays 1080p at 24 fps as far as I know, I exported from Final Cut Pro in quicktime with a very high bitrate of 30000 kbs but found the mov files had smooth playback issues. I ended up converted them to mkv in handbrake, and they look awesome