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Slow export using Compressor – What gives?
I’m exporting a 5.5min sequence using Compressor, and it’s taking a really long time. 40 seconds into the encode, and it says it’s still going to take another 2.5 hours!
The sequence is a collection of black-and-white photographs. In most cases, only one photograph is up at a time. Many are cropped, with slow moves. I added the Anti-Alias filter, with a value of 5, to every picture in the sequence – Deinterlace did nothing to reduce flicker.
I’m using a Dual 1.8 G5, with 1.25G RAM.
Is the Anti-Alias filter the reason? That’s the only thing I can think of that might be slowing it down. But I didn’t think it would take this long.
Thanks
Braden Curtis
Full Measure Media, Inc. -
6 Replies
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Export your timeline as a Quicktime reference movie (Export/Quicktime Movie–uncheck “Make Self Contained”). Drag the resulting file into Compressor. It will compress MUCH faster that way.
Using the “Export to Compressor” command within FCP ignores your existing render files and renders your timeline directly to MPEG2. This is theoretically cleaner, but takes vastly longer. In most of the stuff I have done I cannot see a difference in quality (I work only in Uncompressed), so I would say it isnt worth the extra time in many cases. If its a DV timeline, it may improve your effects a bit.
Also, I have seen the time estimated for completion be completely wrong…it often incorrectly factors in the audio processing as taking the same amount of time as the video, when in reality it only takes a few seconds.
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Does the timeline need to be rendered first?
Thanks
Braden Curtis
Full Measure Media, Inc. -
i dont think so…as I understand it, your render files are not used…thus everything is re-rendered frame by frame into MPEG2…thats why it takes so long.
This is written up in the Compressor manual…I could be interpreting it incorrectly, but I think I am right. -
I’m beginning to wonder what issues I’m having. I just started an export to a Quicktime Reference movie, and the time to completion just kept rising – a QT ref. file should be nearly instant.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Braden Curtis
Full Measure Media, Inc. -
Oh yes…i misunderstood you before. A reference movie export would require rendering…that is why the time kept rising.
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A 5.5 video shouldn’t take anywhere near that long. You need to reinstall Compressor. It’s hosed.
Once you get your system working properly, running Compressor while FCP is not open will help a little. But it might not be worth it if it takes a while to export the reference clip. How long that takes depends on how many effects you have, etc.
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