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compressor reading fcp video
I’m trying a new workflow for using compressor on fcp video and don’t know if this was a bad choice.
Although I’ve used the previous version of Compressor, this is the first time I’m using Compressor 3.0.3
i used to export a QT movie and separate audio file from fcp and then import those to compressor.
I’m testing what this video will look like if I compress it for internet download using h.264. The footage was shot hdv, captured as 8 bit ProRes 422, sequence and render ProRes 8 bit.
For the first time, i didn’t do any export from fcp. Instead, from within compressor i set up the target and settings (h.264 download for medium bandwidth) I don’t know if i remember the exact steps to describe here . . but anyway, after clicking “submit”, compressor is reading the fcp project and the progress window is counting frames.
In the history window, the progress bar incrementally is showing an increasing, rather than decreasing “remaining” Now it says 3.03.10 remaining.
Is this going to take forever for this 67 minute video? I don’t know if it’s just getting it into compressor, or is it now actually doing the compression direct from final cut pro? I assume this will be an overnight thing, but just wish i knew more what to expect.
If I decide to bail out, do I just click the “x” in this window? I don’t want to do anything the might corrupt my project.
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3 Replies
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When you send to Compressor from the FC time-line, even if you have already rendered your full sequence, everything is re-rendered.
Also if you have set “Frame Control” ON you can multiply the duration of the process.
And if you have choose a Double Pass, multiply by two.
Export a Self-contained or reference movie to Compressor. You will avoid the re-rendering.
Anyway you shouldn’t trust too much the info in the History window. With some codecs, Compressor is completely unable to properly calculate how long a process will take. Specially with H264 . You will see that when it seems that still have a long way to go, suddenly the job is finished.Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table. -
H.264 always takes a long time to encode in a software encoder like Compressor. That’s it’s biggest negative.
Last week, someone posted about this little hardware encoder:
https://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/Accessories/Turbo264/product1.en.htmlArnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
Manual Page 280 Vol.IV, says “The advantage of exporting a sequence to Compressor directly from fcp is that rendering happens as part of the transcoding process, potentially saving you time and eliminating unwanted artifacts”
I had already rendered my sequence because, of course, I needed to evaluate the full image quality etc. So, I guess it just replaces those render files?
10 hours now elapsed and it’s been showing half hour remaining for the past 2.5 hours at least.
If I thought I’d at least end up with good quality for my purpose it wouldn’t be a total waste. However, late last night when I set this up, I did not see any customizable settings after I had dropped the Apple preset for h.264 med. bandwidth download.
I definitely would have done custom tweaking had I seen it. Now, this morning, I’m seeing there are non greyed out choices in the inspector Encoder window (thought for sure these were greyed out last night).
It lists the file format as QuickTime Movie, compression h.264, frame rate 15fps (worries me), key frames every 75 frames (worries me), frame recording, med. quality, best quality multi-pass, restrict to 220 kbits/sec, optimized for download, streaming: fast start (I would have chosen none, instead of streaming).
Geometry: 320 x 240 (ok with me)
To have avoided all this I see now (in the light of day) I could have changed “File Format” in the Encoder window to Mpeg-4 and continued from there, right?
Will the above settings give me such a bad result that I should bail out now even though 10+ have passed?
The footage is a 3 camera shoot of a dance concert shot on Z1Us in hdv, capture and the rest in ProRes 8 bit. With all the movement I want to encode with that in mind.
Later, I’ll be making std def dvds, for now I am just trying out a downloadable (not live streaming distribution) version I thought I might put up on a .mac account.
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