1GB Video is exporting at 40GB

[Ht Davis]

Jeff is right about the preset. Ue the one that came with AME, but adjust your bit rate settings as necessary.

Compressor 3 had a bad implementation until 3.5 and the updated components in the codec, just before compressor 4 came out.

By the way sorry about the rant. At 3 am, I get a little punchy. Especially since I have to be up at 5 or 6 am, alternating, including weekends.

As for the comment about older machines… …I do my work on varying arrays of machines. My workflow is designed to remove all problems that MIGHT occur with ANY FOOTAGE. I get clips from everywhere and anywhere. I remove any Frame rate and sync issues early, and get everything into a single format so I can color grade and apply it at the best quality, with a short render (only a few seconds worth in each clip) that allows me to gauge the color balance. You call it slow, I call it complete. I get pro quality, and exceptional quality on a 2008 MBP with a 2.16ghz core 2 duo and 4gb ram. I do my output to a full format, then carry that over to a lab to compress it, cost is usually about 4 hours of render time in compressor with one machine and down to an hour per hour of video with a set of machines all running compressor with the right settings. On top of that, I archive the entire project to disks (excluding the full format blow ups) so I can revisit it later. It’s easy because I place it al in the same folder structure on disk images. I set the size the project should take, and grow it when I need to. I still get quality that makes video guys wet themselves laughing at the joke when I tell them I got it from an ’08 mbp with 4gb ram. It’s no joke. It works. Adobe CC is great, but I prefer my cs6. That said, I’ve tested alterations to just about every setting I can think of for speed hikes. My findings on this issue are thus:
Cache files can be tricky–on mac they need the mac permissions structure and disks that conform to it; on windows they are less permission dependent in cs6, but in CC, there have been stories of mishaps outside of the NT file system.
Previews can go anywhere, but keep them together (audio and video in same location), and it will index them faster. Keep them with your project file location, and it will default to checking the top level folder when looking for resources (a relative path) that is less likely to break when moving between operating systems.
Other files can be placed anywhere, but I like to keep my proxies and original video in the same volume as my project because it will find them faster when searching for them to relink when moving between machines.
I can put the output from premiere anywhere, so long as the other machines I use to compress it can read that location. I place the compressed file I get from compressor into an output folder on the disk image, and link that to encore as a transcode of the premiere sequence, and I also place the audio next to it. When linking, Premiere and Encore will seek the top level folder, then seek the other files from there by matching the relative path.
At the end, I close the image, I RAR the image to split it into pieces of set size, then burn to discs and wipe my drives with a quick wipe and start fresh. I can output for youtube, dvd, blu-ray… Not just for slow machines. For a complete workflow…
I get rid of any possible problems first, I don’t waste time checking for them. On top of that, I provide archival. I can rar, and burn at any time to make a backup. I already have an incremental imaging program handling that by backing up to 2 externals, slowly, but it happens every other night. Knowing that, I get my files ready the first day, start work, and do an initial backup, then update only the changed files every other night after. No whoops moments.
My working drives are all firewire and esata. My backup drives are usb and firewire. I use almost every port on my MBP for drives. Of course, I image all the cards\cameras first, and then transcode, but that’s all usb. Takes about 3 hours for 4 cameras with 2-3 hours of footage each (17-25gb per card). Then it takes a lot less time to get the transcodes from faster drives, and I get to keep a copy of the original card, freeing up my cameras for more usage and footage. A complete workflow for craziness and constant work. My minimum deadline is a week to 10 days, to allow for basic editing and output. With added 3d effects and such, 2 weeks. Most are in line with that.