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1080i to SD DVD, I know…
First post, so thank you in advance for your time and expertise.
I know there’s been a ton of threads on this subject but I’m having trouble finding a definitive answer that works for me. I have some 1080i footage that has been edited in FCP, then exported using “current settings”.
I need to compress this footage to get good results on a standard SD DVD using DVD Studio Pro and compressor. I’ve tried several workflows but most produce bad results or absurd compression times in compressor. My project consists of 6 total timelines, the shortest being about 5 min and the longest being a about 65 minutes, that need to be compressed. My last batch gave me a time remaining of 11 days!
Does anyone have a proven method and compressor settings they can pass on?
I’ve used compressor’s “Best Quality 90 minutes” settings but have read conflicting information on what settings to use or not use in the “frame controls” and “Video Format” tabs.
Thanks!
Carmine
________________________MacPro 2 X 2.266 Quad
8 GB
10.6.2
Final Cut Studio 2 -
17 Replies
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if you copy the best compression 90 minutes, change only to: 1 pass vbr
and resize controls to best and leave everything else it should look fine. -
you’re in luck, i just made a blog post about this last night on my blog. It’s the first entry at
Basically, One Pass CBR at 8.0Mbps will give you the best results. It fits about an hour or so onto a single layer DVD.
Rob Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com
command-r.tumblr.com -
Rob I’m curious, what happens when you don’t change the pre-processing tab option to none?
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I’ve read on the COW that people have had problems with audio being too low after they’ve encoded and this is one of the parameter to change to fix that.
Rob Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com
command-r.tumblr.com -
The best thing that you can do for yourself regarding this issue would be to export a small section of your clip (preferably one that has some motion or txt) and run some test passes with compressor making note of your various settings. The presets are a good place to start, but there is no “cookie cutter” setting for compressing video. Each and every video is different and your compression settings will be as well.
The more you dig into the program the more familiar you will become with what settings will need to be applied for particular situations. Stay away from suggestions like “if you do this, it will turn out great” It might, but what if it doesn’t. A previous poster recommended that you set your compression settings at 8MBs. But he did this without knowing the specs of your video. This data rate, in my opinion, is to high for most situations and does not leave enough headroom in the bitstream . Even in CBR. The problem is not that the disc cannot handle the data rate, rather the player may not be able to decode it. I would stick with something lower and massage your compression settings until you hit a sweet spot.
I know all to well, in a busy post situation that time is of the essence, but the skills you will gain will make you more valuable in the future.
BTW, if you ever see an unreasonable time in the batch window. cancel the encoding, quit and reboot the program. Chances are you would wait for 11 days and not have anything good to show for it.
Kris Merkel
Quad G5
OS X 10.4.11
FCStudio
CalDigit Raid -
“A previous poster recommended that you set your compression settings at 8MBs. But he did this without knowing the specs of your video. This data rate, in my opinion, is to high for most situations and does not leave enough headroom in the bitstream”
That’s interesting. I was told a long time ago that 8Mbps should be fine for most DVD players and exceeding that can be problematic. I’ve never had a problem with DVDs at that data rate.
You are right though. It all depends on the project. There certainly is no one size fits all
Rob Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com
command-r.tumblr.com -
Thanks! I’ll be sure to read it.
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Thanks again everyone for your insights. One question here that I forgot to ask specifically. I have one track that’s about 48 min. long. With the current settings it gave me an estimated completion time of 38 hours.
The last track was in the neighborhood of 5 minutes, with a est. completion time of about 8 hours.
Is this normal? I’ve encoded a ton of DVDs in the past over several years but as you can tell, this is my first attempt at delivering 1080i content on a SD DVD.
I’m trying a small batch with some of your suggestions.
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are you rendering with your cluster turned on?
if you have a 4 or 8 core mac, it will speed up greatly.
encodes should be real time or faster. -
I believe so. I’ve only had this Mac for a few months now and this is the biggest renter job I’ve done with it. I’ve done a little research on it so as far as I can tell it is…
Opened System Preferences
Selected Apple Qmaster
Under share this computer as: QuickCluster with Services (selected)
Under Services “Share” and “Managed” are checked and the description reads “Distributed processing for Compressor.
Currently (during the render) all options are grayed out except for the “stop sharing” button.
In the Batch Monitor:
I currently have two jobs running. One on “My Mac Pro Cluster” and one on “This Computer”. The one on “This computer” is a single file about 45 min. long that I started yesterday, its currently giving me a 105 hour remaining job completion.
The second is a batch of 4 files on the “My Mac Pro Cluster” with a total video length of about 1 hr 47 min and is showing a 66 hour remaining job completion.
So I’m not sure if I have the cluster set up properly. I thought of quitting the longer compression (This computer) but don’t want to lose the work already done.
I know that may sound confusing, I hope I made it explained it well enough.
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