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Apple TV, H.264 and Compressor question
Concerning Apple TV, from the thread below and Apple’s product page…
“Video formats supported: H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile.”
Question: If (if) it turns out it’s relatively easy to move unprotected H.264 video files from, say, a Mac to an Apple TV box and play it, my question is what are typical render times in Compressor for creating highest-quality 720p H.264 video from an unprotected high-quality source — for example, from a clean, uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 480p 16:9 24p/30p video source?
In other words, using a MacPro, is it real time, slower, faster?
… if I want to play my own personal, unprotected, long-form, high-quality video via an Apple TV, how painful is that likely to be?
Comments/conjecture appreciated.
– Peter
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5 Replies
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its my understanding that right now H.264 is the most processor intensive codec in terms of encoding and decoding.
I don’t think it will be real time for quite awhile.
a 720P encoding will likely take 3-4 times longer than an equivalent
high quality mpeg2 HD transport stream. -
[Peter DeCrescenzo] “In other words, using a MacPro, is it real time, slower, faster?”
H.264 is a long ways from being realtime using software only. I have no idea if there is a hardware encoder out there yet, but it will be processor intensive with software.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[Borjis] “I don’t think it will be real time for quite awhile. A 720P encoding will likely take 3-4 times longer than an equivalent high quality mpeg2 HD transport stream.”
Thanks for this, but can you or anyone tell me what are typical render times to create “MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile.” per hour of original high-quality SD source video?
– Peter
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Peter I’m not sure for times.
Though I have heard that the people compressing Blu-Ray H.264 HD video for Fox’s BR titles say it is still software and will be for some time and that they can spend weeks compressing a movie.
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Hi “Borjis”,
Apologies if that’s your real name; if so I’ll remove the quotes next time. 🙂
(I recently moved to Portland; perhaps I can visit your studio some time?)
Meanwhile:
The following was posted on the http://www.MacInTouch.com website today. It might point to a solution for getting our unprotected video onto an Apple TV, although we won’t know if there’ll be compatibility or quality issues, etc. until after Apple TV ships:
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Dan B. writes:
Harris U. writes: “You still can’t rip DVDs as you would CDs”Yes, you can. Download Handbrake [HandBrake-0.7.1-OSX.zip] and you can rip most DVDs to .mp4 files that any Mac can play. I’ve run across only 2 or 3 DVDs out of the 200+ I own that I’ve been unable to rip.
https://www.macupdate.com/download.php/12987/HandBrake-0.7.1-OSX.zipTo play your movies on your iPod, download iSquint [iSquint1.5.dmg]
https://www.macupdate.com/download.php/19769/iSquint1.5.dmgOr just use the “Convert Selection for iPod” command under the Advanced menu in iTunes.
==============As they say, stay tuned …
– Peter
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