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Apple Compressor 2 is making me angry
I have a new macbook pro 15in laptop with 4gb of memory. I’m trying convert a video I edited with Final Cut Pro 5 that is about 6mins and 30secs. The video is in 1920×1080 HDTV 1080i (16×9) Aspect Ratio, 29.97 Timebase, using Apple Intermediate Codec Compressor. When I export into default Quicktime current settings I get a file 3.6GB file finished in about 15-20mins (maybe even less). Then I bring that into Compressor 2 and export with these settings:
Name: Vimeo HD
Description: 5Mbs 44.1kHz
File Extension: mov
Estimated file size: 242.33 MB
Audio Encoder
AAC, Stereo (L R), 44.100 kHz
Video Encoder
Format: QT
Width: 1280
Height: 720
Pixel aspect ratio: square
Crop: None
Frame rate: 29.97
Frame Controls:
Retiming: Motion Compensated
Resize Filter: Linear Filter
Deinterlace Filter: Motion Adaptive
Adaptive Details: On
Antialias: 0
Detail Level: 0
Field Output: Progressive
Codec Type: H.264
Multi-pass: On, frame reorder: On
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 75
Min. Spatial quality: 25
Key frame interval: 30
Temporal quality: 50
Min. temporal quality: 25
Average data rate: 5.12 (Mbps)I’m sitting here waiting for it to process the file in Batch Monitor. The file so far created is only 4KB and this is after 3hrs and 47mins. Its only completed 15mins and the Time Remaining says: 15hrs and 15mins. I actually think its going up. What the heck is going on here. I’ve completed other files with the same settings and even sent it directly from FCP to Compressor and still it says it takes this long. The video is only 6mins why so long. This is a horrible production flow if this is normal. Let me know what you guys think. Is this normal processing time? What are my options. Will a 3rd party application improve things? It seems like Compressor is hung up on something else but it hasn’t crashed.
Thanks
JV -
5 Replies
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[Jerry Villa] “sing Apple Intermediate Codec Compressor.”
Jerry,
This codec makes not much sense today. You have better options, like Proress.In the moment you set FRAME CONTROL ON in Compressor, things get really slow.
Why don’t you try to do the down-scaling and de-interlacing in FC?
Then you send to Compressor a movie with the same size, pixels aspects and field order of your web movie. You can let Compressor FRAME CONTRL OFF. Compressor will only need to transcode.
Rafael -
That doesn’t sound normal. H.264 can take a very long time, but it shouldn’t take nearly that long.
I would suggest taking your QT file and applying equivalent settings through a QT Conversion through QT Pro. If it moves much quicker then you can eliminate the file as the problem and assume that it is Compressor. If it is still taking a long time then you can go through and try a different quicktime in Compressor and see if that works.
Also, try exporting (using your same method) a short version maybe 10 seconds and see how long that takes.
You can also try using a reference QT instead of a Self-Contained QT.
Let us know how it turns out.
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[Rafael Amador] “This codec makes not much sense today. You have better options, like Proress.”
If you read his post, he is running FCP 5. He does not have access to ProRes.
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!
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Raphael’s right about Frame Controls slowing Compressor down a lot, although it sounds like it’s way too slow in your case. As a side-note, if you’re de-interlacing in Compressor, I would set all the frame controls to Best, or you may not get the quality you want. I disagree with the suggestion to scale or de-interlace in FCP though, it’s not a good scaler or de-interlacer. If you have After Effects, I would try that before FCP. Export from FCP using current settings, scale and de-interlace in AE and compress in Compressor (but now you don’t have to use Compressor’s very slow frame controls). It once took me 3 days to de-interlace a 1 hour doc using Frame Controls in a G5 (looked great though).
Ed -
[walter biscardi] “If you read his post, he is running FCP 5”
Yes, which also brings up the point that FCP 5 is not intel compatible and he says he is running it on a MBP. It wasn’t until the 5.1 cross-grade that it became compatible with Intel machines. And if I am not mistaken didn’t FCP 5 come with Compressor 3, I believe Compressor 2 was with FCP 4/HD.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!
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