Is there a quicker better mpeg2 converter?

[Ed Dooley]

Sure, if you did a search of the posts you’d find Episode, Procoder (on PC), Bitvice, the new CinemaCraft, and more. Take a look in the Compression Techniques forum. BitVice is better than Compressor, and CC is really good on PC, so it probably is great on Mac too.
Ed

[Jack Fox]

How does it work as an independent utility when the sequence contains filters like synthetic aperture?

jmf

[Jeremy Garchow]

Jack, have you exported a Quicktime Movie and then used compressor?

Jeremy

[Jack Fox]

I am rendering the timeline sequence from FCP to Mpeg2 using compressor.

jmf

[David Roth weiss]

[jack fox] “I am rendering the timeline sequence from FCP to Mpeg2 using compressor.”

Yes you are Jack, and having troubles doing so, despite my recomendation quite a while back, and now Jeremy’s, to output either a self contained or reference file that you then import into Compressor. There’s a reason we offer these helpful tidbits you know…

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Jack Fox]

Okay, there are many options available when exporting to quicktime, what options should I choose to assure that I get the same quality? Normally I choose 90 min high quality encode which gives me about a 7gig source file to import into DVD studio pro.

jmf

[David Roth weiss]

[jack fox] “Okay, there are many options available when exporting to quicktime, what options should I choose to assure that I get the same quality?”

Exporting from FCP is like playing craps; there are lots of possible bets all over the table, but most are bad bets. Always export using Quicktime Export — current settings, which simply creates a file that exactly matches what is on timeline in the same resolution and format. Import that file into Compressor.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Jack Fox]

Self contained movie or not?

jmf

[David Roth weiss]

Self contained take longer, but they never become useless the way a reference file does. If your timeline is fully rendered the export will be quicker.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Jack Fox]

“Always export using Quicktime Export.” !!!!!!!!! I could tell by the tone that I was being told something that I should have known. And you were absolutely right David. Rather than the workflow suggested by FCP, adding another step saves many many hours. The workaround, not only solved my problem, but saved me more that 24 hours. It took compressor 12 times longer to convert a sequence within FCP then it took to export to quicktime and convert it using Compressor as a stand alone utility. Thank you,

jmf