What is the best compression software for FCP?

[Shane Ross]

Sorenson Squeeze.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[David Roth weiss]

For Flash, On2 Flix Pro or On2 Flix Exporter. Pro is standalone and has Flash Players with controls, while Exporter works from within all QT apps including FCP, Compressor, Motion, QT Pro, etc. Sorenson is not bad, but its expensive and somewhat needless, as it duplicates most funtionality in Compressor. In fact, it doesn’t do Flash without an additional Flash module made by quess who??? The folks at On2 who produce the very product I’m touting. I bought Flix Pro myslef yesterday after much investigation. Its outstanding…

DRW

[David Peralta]

Try episode Pro from telestream. Havent had any problems with it yet.

hmm… I wonder what this button does…

[Joe Murray]

One note about Episode though…I like the interface, it encodes all the formats you’ve requested but so far I have not been able to get an Episode-encoded mpeg-2 file past DG System’s Drop Box quality control process. DG says there may be a bug in the current rev of the Episode software. The fault could just as easily lie with DG’s ingesting software as it seems exremely finicky. But if you plan to buy Episode to encode mpeg-2 for digital spot delivery you should know it may or may not work for you. I’m still testing so I may yet land on a settings combination that works, but for now the folks at Episode recommended stepping back a version until they get the issue resolved.

Joe Murray

[Philip Johns]

I’m kinda swinging towards Sorenson Squeeze so far. I’ve used the compressor that comes with Final Cut Studio but, to be honest, I think it’s crap!! For some reason they’ve restricted the mpg dimensions to 352×288 and you can’t customize it. In ProCoder or Squeeze you can. Plus the quality is really quite rough and it takes forever to render.

Yes it does cost extra for Squeeze if you want to encode flash, but you have far more output options (wmv, mpg with no restrictions) than compressor. Haven’t tried Episode – may have a look at it, but reliability is also essential.

Anyone know whether Cleaner is better than Squeeze? Does it to FLV using the on2 codec?

[Bret Williams]

That is incorrect. Squeeze either comes with everything, including the flash exporter. Or with ONLY the flash exporter (squeeze for flash) which actually includes wmv via flip for mac. It’s a good product in that you can set up watch folders for websites and automatically ftp files to a site.

[Bret Williams]

Purchase squeeze for flash. Compressor does everything else.

[David Roth weiss]

[Bret Williams] “That is incorrect. Squeeze either comes with everything, including the flash exporter.”

Bret,

Yes and no… you’re close. The full version of squeeze only exports Flash MX, the previous (and inferior) version of Flash. It does not have the newer and better On2 Flash engine. Thats an extra module for the full version, or a standalone version for Flash only.

DRW

[Bret Williams]

Ah, you’re right. I couldn’t see any reason to buy the full version, when the flash version did all I need. WMV & Flash. Compressor does everything else. So, for $249 you can get squeeze for flash with ON2 support or you can get the ON2 exporter for $199. Squeeze has a lot more features and details and settings. Lots of custom filters, presets, watch folders, ftp support and can even import video right off your deck or camera.

I’ve been playing with settings for a current flash project, and I’ve actually been having better results with the sorensen spark codec. I run at around 500-600kps, but at lower bit rates the ON2 VP6 may shine, I’m not sure.

The biggest problem with the spark is that it’s kind of contrasty. An adjustment of the gamma corrects that.

And a little OT, what the hell is with Windows? For nearly every client I have to crank the gamma adjustment so that a perfect video looks decent on a windows machine. And secondly, why don’t the compression engines do this by default? Drives me nuts. Trying to find the right balance of looking acceptable on a mac, and not too dark on a PC.

[Matthewjames]

i just went to the apple store for information about compressing to flv from final cut and the ‘final cut guy’ there suggested spending $30 and purchasing ‘visual hub’… he said it compresses to flv and wmv and 7 other types, is cheap, and good quality, but I imagine there would have to be some drawbacks compared to on2 or sorenson considering it is so much cheaper than both…. does anyone know anything about this? thanks.
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