-
Apple’s got to be having a laugh at our expense!
For a day or so now I’ve been experimenting with different compressions for HD web streaming by using Compressor out of FSC2 and with a deadline looming.
I really appreciate the little progress bar that Compressor displays to give me ‘some’ indication of how long I’ve got to wait (and believe me h264 means you certainly do some hanging around!)
But WHY OH WHY do Apple’s software engineers give the totally meaningless time remaining readout??? As I sit here waiting for for next test result, it turns out to be about a 25min render on my MBP, I’ve watched the indicated remaining time jump from a predicted 5 mins to about 55 minutes in the first few seconds and then sit hovering around 50 mins, neither reducing or increasing much for the next 25 mins!
Am I alone in thinking this is less than useless and more of a sick joke at our expense?
Even the progress bar climbs to half way and then suddenly the job’s finished.
Rant (okay it’s only cos I’m bored) over.
Alan
-
15 Replies
-
It has always been that way.
My first brush with this was when I first started editing on Avid.
Eventually it will just be a memory and story we all tell about, “Remember when we use to have to WAIT for rendering so LONG that they had a little “thermometer/timer” on the screen?”
-
[Alan Lacey] “I really appreciate the little progress bar that Compressor displays to give me ‘some’ indication of how long I’ve got to wait (and believe me h264 means you certainly do some hanging around!)
“Our G5 Quad 2.5, Mac Pro Quad 3.0 and Mac Pro Octo Core 3.2 all display time remaining correctly. We had an issue with one combination of Leopard and Quicktime causing this issues, but the latest updates all took care of it.
And run in a Cluster mode. Doubles to quadruples the speed of the compressions. Better than realtime with the Octo. I.e. a 9 minute clip takes 3 – 4 minutes to compress.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
-
Walter,
Where can I find info on Cluster Mode? I did a Cow search, but not luck.
ThanksErnie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
Ditto here. What is Cluster Mode?
-
Walter is referring to a virtual cluster and it only works best in machines with more than two cores. Your MBP won’t benefit from it. Check out barefears.com and they talk a bit about it. What happens is the job gets segmented into pieces and rendered separately then recombined into one piece. It works swimmingly and h264 jobs and also mpeg2 jobs really fly. Flip4mac does not benefit from it as it doesn’t use compressor’s utilities like that.
I should add that if you turn on deniterlacing or retiming or resize to best quality. It really slows things down.
Tell us a bit more about what you’re doing.
Jeremy
-
Is this a setting in Compressor? I don’t see a setting for Virtual Cluster. I do see a setting for “Allow Job Segmenting” which is checked by default.
-
How would it speed up Compressing Mpeg2 for DVD from HD and SD timelines? I’m running a Intel Pro (Quad 2.66 8GB RAM)
Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
Here is a great little video about troubleshooting compressor. It also talks about setting up a virtual cluster.
https://www.pixelcorps.tv/macbreak89
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity! -
Haven’t watched Zane’s link, but here’s an easy one I just found that happens to be from Ben Scott:
https://www.benscottproductions.com/etc/Virtual_Clusters.html
[Ernie Santella] “How would it speed up Compressing Mpeg2 for DVD from HD and SD timelines? I’m running a Intel Pro (Quad 2.66 8GB RAM)”
It takes your movie and basically divides and conquers using multiple instances of Compressor and efficiently spreads the workflow over the number of instances you have defined in the QMaster prefs. At the end, everything is put back together in one movie. It works very well. Does that answer your question or were you asking something different?
\\ Jeremy
-
[Ernie Santella] “Walter,
Where can I find info on Cluster Mode? I did a Cow search, but not luck.
Thanks”Open Compressor, Go to Help. The manual is right there on how to set it up.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up