2Hour Render Times-Using Compressor or QT for exporting a 7-10minute video

[Ryan Holmes]

A bunch of things contribute to exporting time: what’s the codec of your source material? how much VFX are on the shot (title, vfx, matte, etc.)? Are you exporting out a h.264 mp4? Where are you exporting the files to – what drive? Internal HD? External HD?

Generally, for FCP7 I’ve noticed that it takes anywhere from 2-4X the length of your sequence to transcode to h.264 mp4. So if you have a 1 minute sequence it can take anywhere from 2-4 minutes to transcode. I’ve seen it take longer if you “Send To…” Compressor from within FCP. I usually export out a self-contained (some use a reference file) Quicktime mov and then import that into Compressor.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Cory Evans]

I know that it takes 2x the length of the clip, as far as VFX: none, only a 3way color correct on the clip. Rest is just .psd graphic layovers at 300dpi. Sending to internal HD.

[Ryan Holmes]

How big are your PSD’s (i.e. actual dimensions, dpi is irrelevant in video except that you get a certain physical resolution)? If they are over 4096×4096 FCP will have problems with that.

Assuming you’re running all these files off the boot drive of your iMac keep in mind that that 1 drive is responsible for running any/all OS functions, feeding Compressor the file, and writing a new file to disk. If you hang around here for any length of time you’ll hear it said often that using your boot drive as your media drive is a bad idea.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Cory Evans]

1908X1080

I Am running on same drive, been thinking about partitioning the drives. Any Tutorials on best way to do that. As Far as processing that should clear up time/space/rendering times? Correct?

[Ryan Holmes]

Partitioning won’t help. It’s still 1 physical drive (1 spinning disk with 1 needle). Partitioning just fools the OS into thinking there is 2 different drives. An actual physical second disk is what is typically recommended – something either Thunderbolt or Firewire based.

I don’t think your export times are way out of line. 1.5 hour for a 10 minute clip may be justifiable given the codec your source material is in (which is?), the codec you’re going to (h.264), the amount of vfx/titles processing required, and the internal HD. If you’re on a deadline you can look into some hardware accelerators to speed up that h.264 workflow – https://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mxo2_mini_max/

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Cory Evans]

Original Footage codec was: MPEG-2 Video, MPEG Layer 2: Dim: 1920 × 1080
Reexported: MPEG-4 Video, AAC, MPEG-4 SDSM, MPEG-4 ODSM, Hint Dim:854 × 480
Even went as far as to upload to youtube. Then use Keepvid.com and down load it:
H.264, AAC Dim: 640 × 360
Still same results as far as hour render times.

So just buy an external thunderbolt or firewire and start storing media on their. Instead of internal also output to external and it should save processing time?

Thanks again, this has been plaguing me for sometime now.

[Ryan Holmes]

How are you even editing a MPEG-2 codec inside of FCP? Or are you exporting your sequence out as MPEG-2, taking that to Compressor and then going to h.264 mp4?

Assuming the latter option, I’m actually amazed it’s only taking 1-2 hours for a video. That i7 chip must really fly! WIth MPEG-2 as your source video you’re in for a long wait. Plus you’re going from HD resolution to SD resolutions. You’re asking Compressor to downrez a lot – not a bad thing, but it’s gonna take time for it to do all the math. And if you’re uploading to YouTube, why not upload a HD file? You can upload a file as big as 20GB. So why would you upload a SD file? FWIW – A different hard drive is not going to save you a drastic amount of time in your case. It’s more of a best practices thing. Your problem is the codec and the down-conversion you’re doing.

Per your codecs though – you may want to do some more reading. MPEG-2 is a horrible codec to edit in. It’s a delivery codec meant for DVD’s (and unfortunately, a format called HDV – yuck). Frankly, I’m amazed that you’re doing it all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-2

Editing codecs for FCP:
ProRes (preferred by FCPers the world over)
DNxHD (must download and install from Avid)
DVCPRO HD
XDCAM (though FCP7 doesn’t always like this format)

Delivery codecs (YouTube, Vimeo, DVD, Blu-ray):
MPEG-2
MPEG-3 (commonly called mp3)
MPEG-4

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Cory Evans]

I understand about mpeg2 being a horrible codec. These are the files im being sent from around the world. I current have 7 producers around the world sending me different codecs. This one codec i get sent all the time and is only the one giving me a real headache. Being sent from Portugal and Lisboa. Before I even start sending the footage to FCP I re-compress it to a different codec in compression. H264 for example. Never bring the mpeg2 footage near FCP 7.

Currently Using
File Extension: mov
Estimated size: unknown
Audio Encoder
IMA 4:1, Stereo (L R), 44.100 kHz
Video Encoder
Format: QT
Width and Height: Up to 854 x 480
Pixel aspect ratio: Square
Crop: None
Padding: None
Frame rate: (100% of source)
Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
Codec Type: H.264
Multi-pass: On, frame reorder: On
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 98
Min. Spatial quality: 25
Key frame interval: 24
Temporal quality: 50
Min. temporal quality: 25

2nd:

Name: 854×480
Description: 1280 MP4- BTV
File Extension: mp4
Estimated size: 900.66 MB/hour of source
Segmentation on cluster disabled
Audio Encoder
Format: MPEG4
Sample Rate: 44.100kHz
Channels: 2
Bits Per Sample: 16
AAC encoder quality: high
Data rate: 192 Kbps
Video Encoder
Format: MPEG4
Width and Height: Up to 854 x 480
Selected: 854 x 480
Pixel aspect ratio: Square
Crop: None
Padding: None
Frame rate: 24
Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
ISMA Profile: 0
Variable bit rate, high quality
Hinted for streaming server with
packet size: 1450 bytes
and packet duration: 100 milliseconds
Enhanced Podcast: Off

Those are the codecs I made based on: https://www.larryjordan.biz/compressing-video-for-youtube/
Information.
Im only out putting to Youtube Example Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-2Tqe4GXW8

Should I change my exporting codec totally? From start to finish.

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[Ryan Holmes]

I would transcode everything to ProRes BEFORE you go into FCP. h.264 is a delivery codec. It is a terrible editing codec. It’s slow, processor intensive, and FCP7 does not handle it well. FCPX is better, but it to will transcode it in the background to ProRes. So the FCP7 workflow would look like this:

Get footage from producers (tape, DVD, file based…whatever)
Transcode to 1 common format – Apple ProRes (or ProRes LT)
Edit, title, color correct
Export self-contained mov using sequence settings – ProRes (HD file 1920×1080)
Take file into Compressor for h.264 transcode

OR you could do the down convert here at the FCP level. So it’d look like this:
Get footage from producers
Transcode to 1 common format – Apple ProRes (or ProRes LT)
Edit, title, color correct
Export self-contained mov as widescreen SD using ProRes codec (produces an 854×480 mov)
Take file into Compressor for h.264 transcode

Larry Jordan is a good place to start. His info is solid. I usually refer people to Vimeo’s compression page. It seems to lay things out pretty simply as well: https://vimeo.com/help/compression
Whatever software is used they have a tutorial for it.

Keep in mind that you’re taking a time hit somewhere. Either on the front end to transcode to ProRes or in your current workflow, on the back end when you try to export out of FCP to Compressor. For my $$$ I like ProRes. FCP plays well with it, and it works well on any Mac system.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Cory Evans]

Fantastic, re-exporting the clips as ProRess422 before working in FCP worked out swimmingly. Cut exporting in half.
Thank you very much.