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Compressor Using Youtube Settings or DVD Best Quality Settings?
While trying to compress a wedding video for a client last night I noticed that experimenting with different compression types led to an interesting set of results that I’m curious about…
When using Apple Compressor and choosing the “Youtube” option, the compressing took quite a while and the file size for the 20 minute wedding video ended up being 1.12 GB in its own self-contained file including both the video and audio. Then when I used Apple Compressor to export but with the “DVD Best Quality 90 Minutes” option, the video file (audio not included) took a reasonably short time to compress and the file size is 864.9 MB (the separate audio file is 26.9 MB and would be synced with the video in DVD Studio Pro).
Now I know this may seem like a neurotic and insignificant observation but wouldn’t it be better to use the compressed version of the video that was made with the Youtube option since the file size is larger and seems to have been compressed in overall better fashion?
Both of these are great file sizes for placing onto DVD’s as they are under the 4.7GB limit but I would really love to hear what others think about this. Thank you to all those who shed some light on these questions.
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3 Replies
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If you’re trying to make a DVD Video Disc you have to compress to DVD which requires a separate video and audio file for authoring. Compressor, depending on the version I believe, can burn a simple “screener” DVD and has an automated workflow for that.
If you just want to burn a file onto a disc the customer can play on a computer usually an H.264 .mp4 can work which is easy to do in Compressor 4.1.1 but not in Compressor 3.5.3 which can only do H.264 .mov. That can work as well but there are some variables depending on the age and operating system of the computer.
H.264 is leagues ahead of the MPEG2 encoding used for standard def DVD, quality and can be HiDef frame sizes..
File size is always a function of data rate and duration of the source.
DVD preset is to create files used to author a DVD Video Disc.
YouTube preset which is H.264 .mov will be much better quality but it has nothing to do with DVD authoring.In short
[Jeremiah Westcott] “Now I know this may seem like a neurotic and insignificant observation but wouldn’t it be better to use the compressed version of the video that was made with the Youtube option since the file size is larger and seems to have been compressed in overall better fashion?”
Better for what?
[Jeremiah Westcott] “Both of these are great file sizes for placing onto DVD’s as they are under the 4.7GB limit but I would really love to hear what others think about this. Thank you to all those who shed some light on these questions”
It depends what you want the DVD to be used for. DVD Video needs to be authored. DVD to store a file to be copied to a computer could be any file you want that the customer might be able to play on their computer.
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But if the quality is better, wouldn’t using the H.264 “Youtube” setting in Compressor would be a better idea then? If the compressed video is then brought into a DVD authoring application and burned onto DVD?
The video will be burned to DVD simply for playback on dvd players.
Thank you for your response and help. -
[Jeremiah Westcott] “But if the quality is better, wouldn’t using the H.264 “Youtube” setting in Compressor would be a better idea then? If the compressed video is then brought into a DVD authoring application and burned onto DVD?”
It doesn’t make sense. You MUST end up with MPEG2 encode for DVD. Encoding something twice always results in lower quality. Alway start with high quality such as Apple ProRes and encode that to MPEG2 for DVD.
There are some very fundamental things you need to understand about compression.
You may need to read through some things on StreamingLearningCenter and/or Jan Ozer’s books.
https://www.streaminglearningcenter.com
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