Sorenson Squeeze vs Compressor

[Todd Beabout]

I would suggest that you download the free demo of Squeeze and give it a try. You might want to look at Bitvice as well. You can download a free demo at their website as well.

https://www.innobits.se/

-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios

[Ed Dooley]

And if you’re thinking of even more possibilities, there’s also Main Concept, which receives high marks.
Compression Master is also a Swiss Army knife option.
Ed

[Chris Babbitt]

What version of FCP are you using? An Apple rep at NAB told me that the issues with Compressor are resolved in version 5.1. I don’t know why I should have to go to NAB to find this out. Why can’t Apple communicate these things to it’s customers instead of keeping us in the dark?

[Drizzt_g]

Chris, are u saying that the problem was an FCP one and not Compressor?

[Lee Burrows]

Good Luck Tim. I have been trying to solve this equation for quite some time and what I have come to find is that for any type of quality compression that the best way to go is to spend a nice amount of money and buy a real time encoder like the guys in hollywood use.

Bit Vice is a little better than compressor on quick movement when you have various codecs compressing under one umbrella while compressor seems to be a bit better when working in one uniformed codec and not mixing different codecs(graphics, video, etc…). BUT I have yet to find a software program that gives a quality compression if you are coming out of one of final cut pros codecs. I primarily work in the Blackmagic NTSC-Jpeg or Photo-Jpeg 720X486 codec and ocassionally in the NTSC DV Codec. I have put this question out before and am still waiting on a good answer to a workflow that provides you with a quality mpeg2 out of one of these programs working in the 720X486 Photo-Jpeg or 720X480 DV codec. If it does exist then it will give me belief in the software programs again but until that day I say the best method for a quality DVD is using a real time encoder. We ship out some of our bigger jobs to get it encoded this way to maintan the quality of the product because of the porr quality software encodes.

Now I haven’t checked sorenson squeeze so if you like it then I’d be interested in hearing about it.

Good Luck

Lee

G5 Mac OS X
Dual 2.0 GHz
FCP 4.5 HD
XServe Raid 1 Terabyte

G5 Mac OS X
Dual 2.3 GHz
FCP 5.02 Studio
G-Tech G Raid 500 GBs
2 – Lacie Drives 200 GBs

[Joe Murray]

MainConcept is great quality but it sometimes alters the contrast and gamma levels, and there are no adjustments inside the software to correct this. They’re support people tell me they plan to have these adjustments in the next version. It’s about the best quality software encoder I’ve used, although I send out mpeg-2 files created in Cleaner for digital spot distribution…extremely high bit rate since they’re going to air, not DVD. Hardware is definitely the best quality.

Joe Murray

[Jeremy Garchow]

What are your settings in compressor and how long are your programs? I have altered my settings in compressor and keep away from the presets, especially the ‘best’ settings. As long as you aren’t encoding long programs and you need VBR to save space, use a constant bit rate, crank it up a bit! not a lot, use the ac3 audio encoding so your overall bitrate does not go over the DVD spec, and put in more I frames less B frames. Don’t know what FCP Studio 5.1 fixes (compressor must have been updated in the 5.1 update) but I have yet to have a client say, gee, that DVD looks like bad compression from FCP Studio 5.0.4. As a matter of fact, once they look at it on a tv, they are generally impressed with what we can do right out of our own shop. Again, i urge you, stay away from the presets that say best. As with any software, you have to play with it a little to get it how you want. Once, you find it save it, rinse, repeat.

Jeremy

[Lee Burrows]

Jeremy Thanks for your advice. I have done everything you have said in the past(Constant Bit Rate, IP instead of IBBP, etc…) and will try it again. However it does not get rid of artifacting. And on movement and slow transitions it is very noticeable.

I am curious when you say TV…are you viewing your results on an old school tv monitor or on a newer LCD or plasma monitor that gives you cleaner crisper picture? In my experience, older monitors hide comppression shortcomings(artifacting, dirty dissolves, etc…) while the newer ones point out any mistakes quickly. Also software encodes seem to play back better on computers than out of DVD players.

We have never had a client complain either and probably won’t as they don’t really look at it the same way as us. They are so focused on the content that the quality is one of the last things on their mind unless it is glaringly awful.

When you have a moment why don’t you send me a sucessful compression workflow using compressor, bit vice or cleaner for a project of lets say a minute. Our compressions vary in length but primarily are under 10 minutes on most of our projects.

An example from an FCP Blackmagic NTSC-Jpeg sequence that I am looking for utilizing compressor 2 would be:

Final Cut>Export>Using Compressor 2
Select 90 min 4:3 best quality (This is what I normally choose to begin with but am willing to try any other settngs under the compressor umbrella)
Then let me know your tweaks/customazations. In the past I have adjusted the GOP from IBBP to IP at a GOP of 15. I could move this to 6 if it would help but I have tried that to without any luck.
I have also tried the a CBR setting of like 7.0 instead of the VBR settings. But I am always looking for anything better so let me know your setting here to if you don’t mind. Those are the main 2 areas that I have played with so please let me know if there are other areas that you are adjusting to help such as the field dominance.

Believe me I would love to see something look good from the software side of things as I enjoy compressing the footage in house instead of sending it out for hardware compression. But it is so frustrating to continue to get less than desirable results. It also gives me less confidence when after countless posts and searches on this forum and others that the so-called compression experts never seem to chime in at all or with anything out of the ordinary that I could be doing wrong. That leaves me having to assume that the guys/gals that know and understand the science of compressing/encoding the best know that these are the best results that you are going to achieve using software encoding.

Thanks for your time in advance.

Lee

G5 Mac OS X
Dual 2.0 GHz
FCP 4.5 HD
XServe Raid 1 Terabyte

G5 Mac OS X
Dual 2.3 GHz
FCP 5.02 Studio
G-Tech G Raid 500 GBs
2 – Lacie Drives 200 GBs

[Chris Babbitt]

No. The 5.1 Suite evidently has a new version of Compressor included.

[Jeremy Garchow]

I don’t have the time right at this moment to dig up the settings, but instead of exporting straight to compressor 2, I always export a quicktime movie with current settings and leave the make self contained box UNchecked. This makes a small reference movie. I then drag that movie to the compressor window and apply my homemade preset. If I get a minute today, i can post the settings that I have found to look pretty good considering. There’s definitely no artifacting going on. Another thing to check is that make sure your field order is correct (compressor can sometimes guess the wrong format of your incoming video) and make sure that if you are working in a 720×486 timeline, that compressor correctly crops the image down to 720×480. It should crop the top 4 and bottom 2 pixels to get it down to 720×480. More to come later on tonight.

Jeremy