Compressor Output Questions.

[Daniel Low]

What is it with people who think they have the creative licence to change my name?

It’s Daniel, not Dan.

Thanks.

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[Tom Laughlin]

Craig thanks, you’ve always answered my posts with specificity, and I appreciate that. Daniel, sorry for the name issue. Craig, in your perspective, what would be the ideal for H.264 encoding, whether it is from tests or from articles, or from your personal preferences, how do you prefer to encode H.264 and with what software? I understand that each project, client need, website specs, etc, it is all different and each source file is different, but can you suggest what your majority of H.264 encoding, or past encoding H.264, has been done with, and what the settings you felt were ideal, in this case, with the majority, if applicable? For example, I do a lot of compression using compressor, but most of the time, I usually do a preset, then tweak it alittle, and output a:

Name: H.264 800Kbps
Description: H.264 for high-bandwidth connections
File Extension: mov
Estimated size: 295.31 MB/hour of source
Audio Encoder
AAC, Stereo (L R), 48.000 kHz
Video Encoder
Format: QT
Width and Height: Up to 854 x 480
Pixel aspect ratio: Default
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: 50
Min. Spatial quality: 50
Key frame interval: 150
Temporal quality: 50
Min. temporal quality: 50
Average data rate: 0.688 (Mbps)
Fast Start: on

Also, there is a publication on the web called “Simple Encoding Recipes for the Web”, which takes one through various set-ups, suggestions, and areas where you can go in and tweak, and they tell you why, and how, and etc. It’s by Philip Hodgetts and Intelligent Assistant, and after the read, it was able to inform me somewhat on basics on encoding softwares and how to encode them, but this book seemed a little to vague and also detailed where it didn’t need to be, and not detailed where it needed to be.

Anyways, this book and reading many articles on Streaming Media magazine on-line were some things that spawned my curiosity and posted questions about Compressor and how far one can really go with it, in terms of quality. But since it doesn’t even play in the same fields as these other bigger name encoders, what would be your top 3 encoders and why?

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel

[Tom Laughlin]

Craig, also, when you get a chance, can you link some articles that you haev found informative n this subject, that you’d suggest?

Last question:

[Craig]:”It’s CAVLC only. There’s no ability to use CABAC entropy. You can’t set it to High Profile. It’ll decide to be Main or Baseline. There’s no ability to set the number of B frames or Reference frames.”

Can you quickly elaborate on this? If not, it’s fine, just wondering.

Thanks guys,

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel

[Daniel Low]

[Tom Laughlin] “Daniel, sorry for the name issue”

No problem Thomas.

[Tom Laughlin] “Width and Height: Up to 854 x 480 “

What sort of frame size is that? Did you even bother to read Craigs link that’s always at the top of this forums page?

Here it is for your connivence:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/20/862224

[Tom Laughlin] “Pixel aspect ratio: Default “
Do you know what your source PAR is? If you do, are you sure you want that as your output PAR?

[Tom Laughlin] “Frame rate: (100% of source) “
[Tom Laughlin] “Key frame interval: 150 “

These two settings are quite closely linked in most cases. Keyframe rate for SD sources tends to be 10x the frame rate.

I know you’ve gone right off me but can you see what I’m getting at?

There is no ‘ideal for H.264 encoding’, there is no magic bullet.

If you want the best H.264 encoder on the planet then you should be using x264, the open source encoder/codec, there is nothing better. The reality is that you wouldn’t have a clue as to how to use it.
If you want the next best ‘quality’ H.264 encoder then you’ll buy Ateme (it just got a terrible UI) but most people can’t afford it.
Next down from there is a battle between the like of Episode, Rhozet and Squeeze.

All I know is that the lead developer of x264, a genius by the name of Dark Shikari, reckons that Main Concept H.264 (found in Squeeze and Rhozet Carbon Coder) comes second to x264.

Take your pick.

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[Tom Laughlin]

[Tom Laughlin] “Width and Height: Up to 854 x 480 ”

[Daniel] “What sort of frame size is that? Did you even bother to read Craigs link that’s always at the top of this forums page?

Daniel, when you export out of compressor, it although it says it is “720×480”, with it being a file that is 16×9, it auto-sizes the image as a 16×9 image, even though the QT file data says it is a 720×480 file, when you click on the file in QT, it auto-opens up and here is the info, see the picture here:

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel

[Tom Laughlin]

[Daniel] Did you even bother to read Craigs link that’s always at the top of this forums page?

Daniel, I’ve seen this calculator before, I noticed at the top, it read “Flash Bit Rate Calculator”, I’m not encoding H.264 for Flash or outputting FLVs. When I changed the codec in the calculator to AVC/ H.264 output, the recommended settings in the calculator were pretty close to the recommendations already output with Compressor, using some presets, and also tweaking presets.

I understand that there is no “magic bullet” for H.264 encoding, everyone knows this, but isn’t this why we have forums? To discuss better ways of doing what we are all doing? To share info on processes and best practices and learn about what people have tried and failed with, etc? Maybe there’s no room here for me to learn more, but I appreciate your patience and answering my questions as far as alternatives and better means of encoding, which I’m willing to look into, learn more about, and actually try. So, I don’t need the lecture on “You probably wouldn’t know how to use it anyway” speech. I’m just here for help, ideas, positive, and informative information and communication. Thanks Daniel and Craig. I’ll look over your suggestions and see about getting this process moving forward, and onto better encoding practices.

Thanks!

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel

[Craig Seeman]

From Jan Ozer. Worth reading. All the basics on H.264 and how several of the encoders perform complete with pictures.

https://www.streaminglearningcenter.com/attachments/download/32/Encoding%20H264%20-%20SMEurope2009.pdf

Big kudos to Jan. An excellent encoders resource.
https://www.streaminglearningcenter.com/

[Tom Laughlin]

THANKS CRAIG!!

Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel

[Daniel Low]

Apologies. It was a bad day yesterday…

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[Steve Martin]

You might check this out