to use compressor or not

[Russell Lasson]

I’ve created presets for all sorts of compressor outputs and use them with great success. What type of file (compressor/codec) are you trying to export to? For small files sizes with good quality, I’d try H264 about medium quality.

Unfortunately, compressing files is more of an art than a setting.

-Russ

[Judas Beast]

cheers Russ for your help, don’t want to ramble on, but I’ll run past my experience so far step by step, it may shed some light on what i need to work on – but I’m having a really hard time getting crisp movs using compressor.

1 – I’m working with PAL compositions created in After effects (720×576)- rendered out as lossless uncompressed animation quicktimes… look great in quicktime player although typically squashed due to pixel ratio

2 – I import the lossless animation into FCP, it looks fine and sharp on the timeline, making sure sequence settings use animation codec (forgot to change this from DV before and sequence looked rough in the viewer)

3 – from FCP file menu: export using “quicktime conversion”, I then choose the pre-set: “broadband high”, click the options and the default compressor quality is “high” and set to “H264”. Data rate I set limited to around “150 kbits/sec” (i used to leave it set to “672 kbits/sec” as default but found by lowering this value i got much smaller file sizes without much loss of quality) – frame size is set by default to: 480×360, I leave this alone.

4 – normally I got good web-sized movies this way until I recently a worked with an animation with a bright red background, RGB levels were too high, I fixed it but when i tried exporting it as before it would still look really pixely, although levels appeared ok in the vectorscope. I was then advised to avoid exporting using “quicktime conversion” because compressor had much more control, and may fix this pixely red issue (which wont go away!!)..

5 – now trying to use compressor – mimicking the pre-sets that previously worked well with quicktime conversion. I click on source setting and select pre-set: “web download, quicktime 7 compatible 800kbps” I have experimented with limiting data rate from 672 to 150 kbit/secs, also i check frame size – set by default to 480×360, i leave this

6 – the trouble is results in compressor are just plain worse than before using FCP’s QT conversion – I have no idea if there is some sort of small box I need to tick or un-tick, the original uncompressed file looks crystal clear… I’m slowly going mad here

this may warrant a re-post!

Thanks again – JUDD

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi JUDD,

I think you’re getting close.
Compressor is the way to go.
I would recommend that you choose a web setting you like, but DO NOT adjust the data rate settings! I can’t explain why, but often I will get unfavorable result when I try to tweak these settings.

So it will take serveral passes to get what you want…
First choose the codec you need-render
Next fix the red problem-render
Finally adjust the data rate-render

By working this way you will be able to follow at what point you are having problems and be able to try and find a way that works for you.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production