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Compressor yields lame results!
I just finished a job that involved caputuring digibeta 10 bit uncompressed via SDI and exporting the final to mpeg 2. The first export, I used the export thru compressor and used the high quality DVD 60 minutes setting. The compression looked pretty bad on some simple dissolves. I did a second pass thru compressor, but customized my mpeg 2 settings to a higher bit rate that my client says he uses with good results when exporting straight out of final cut. The results were better, but still had some artifacting on some of the dissolves. Third pass, I exported as an mpeg 2 straight out of Final Cut with the IDENTICAL settings as the second pass, except that I didn’t use compressor. The results were much better. What is going on here? Very irritating.
Any similar experiences or words of wisdom?
Bryan
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8 Replies
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General rule of thumb is export out of FCP as a quicktime movie (or similar) using the settings/codecs of your choice. THEN send to compressor. This takes a little while longer, as well as more disk space, but the results are much, much better. Try to stay away from export to compressor from FCP directly. Hope this hels
Tim
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I think what happens is that when you export from Final Cut it knows where your transitions are and flags them for the program to spend more time on. When you put a file into compressor it doesn’t know the difference between a page-peel and a blank wall. It’s all one long video file as far as it’s concerned.
Ive usually found that exporting from FCP directly can look better but it can take a lot longer. Sometimes it’s worth that time, sometimes it’s not.
(This is all guesswork on my part, BTW. I don’t actually KNOW that this is how it works.)
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Jeff is correct, when you export through FCP it automatically adds compression markers on every cut. This article tells the details. Worth reading.
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/compressor_warmouth.html
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Are you using 2-pass VBR? Try single pass instead. 2-Pass is all screwed-up. I wonder when Apple is going to address this issue.
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Go to the compressor discussions on Apple website. You re not alone in the crappy exports you are getting. First thing, make sure you did not install compressor 2 ontop of Compressor 1 install. The old presets do not work in Compressor 2. Thre is a apple article on how to remove them. Sorry I don’t have the link, as I am not typing this on my mac. You can find the info on the Apple compresor forum.
Also check the actual preset fields selection in compressor. I found coming out of FCP with a self contained QT was lower field and the Compressor fielding preset was set to upper. As stated in this thread, do not use 2 pass VBR it is broken.
Andy
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Will exporting from FCP w/o compressor with the correct mpeg-2 settings still keep me from needing to compress in DVDSP? I know this is a dumb question but I’m still learning DVDSP.
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Bryan,
You didn’t say wether you used VBR or Single Pass CBR from Compressor.
VBR gets confused with transitions, and can produce spiking.
Use CBR and I think you’ll get a better result, even at a high bit-rate.
Cheers
Alexander -
Thanks for the tip!
Winston A. Cely
Editor
Envision Response
Seattle, WA
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