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What is the best mpeg2 compressor for the mac?
I’ve been using compressor for our mpegs for DVD. The results are OK but certainly not stellar. What do you guys suggest for better results. For me, compressor is noisy in dissovles and it raises black levels and desaturates the video. I’ve made a preset that adjusts the gamma and contrast slight to try and compensate for this, but it slows the compression down dramatiacally and it seems to add noise in the dissolves and fades. I’m running on a dual 2.5 with 4 gig of ram so speed isn’t really an issue. For most stuff we really care about it can compress overnight anyway. I just want the cleanest possible output, prefferably with some control over color, brightness and gamma etc.
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6 Replies
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I’m quite happy with Compressor 2. What are you using for source format?
My Book: https://www.benwaggoner.com/books.htm
Squeeze and ProCoder tutorials: https://www.classondemand.net/benwaggoner/
Compression Class at Stanford: https://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/compression.html -
hey ben,
i have been having issues with compressor 2.0.1 also. the final quality is blocky in the blacks and in some cases there is a lot of pixelation. my source format is minidv which has been imported onto harddrives through FCP 5.0.2 through firewire. i know this is not a great acquisition format but in some cases i’ve seen better results with idvd. i’ve messed around with the settings in compressor to try different things but to no avail. should i be adjusting gop lengths or putting compressor markers in my FCP timeline before export using compressor? also could a cheap dvd player make a difference.
thanks for the help.
wes -
If you’re starting with presets, make sure you’re not using any of the 1.2 presets (now in your Custom folder) in 2.0.
Compressor 2 has many controls so you do need to get a grasp on all them. Data rate has big impact as well as CBR, VBR, 2 Pass VBR etc.. Adding compression markers during dissolves and other “challenging” scenes can help.
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thanks for the info. i have gone back and inserted markers into the FCP timeline for export but have not had a chance to see what they’ll do. but i have never used compressor 1, so that’s not an issue. also i have messed around with the presets and raised the bit rate to 6.5 avg and 8 max w/ a 2 pass VBR best and best motion estimation. any other suggestions? should i decrease the gop legth from 15 to 7?
thanks for the rply
wes -
We use Avids for editing. I work in 2:1 or 1:1, I export quicktimes using the Avid codec and then go right into compressor.
We have Compressor 2, and my settings are: 2 pass VBR, 8.5peak, 7.2 base, best motion estimation, lower fied first.
The problems I’m having are: sparkles (mpeg noise) in some dissolves. And a general lifting of the black levels and thereby a slight desaturation. I read that this is intentional from Apple due to some issues with DV (they presume that is the source). In my case we’re digitizing digi-beta film transfers or HD camera originals. Compressor is easy to use for sure, but the adjustments seem to add more noise than they’re worth. I compressed the program I was having issues with in Procoder and although it solves the sparkels in the dissolves, the overall look was harsh compared to what we’re used to seeing out of compressor. I think I’m going to give Compression Master a try next as I’d like to keep the workflow all Mac if possible.
Any comments regarding Compression Master setting is more than welcome. -
I evaluated ProCoder for one of our customers and noticed that they (in the version I tested) were applying some sort of sharpening effect to the video. While for consumer applications I think this is not a bad idea, for people with pro sources it is bad news. My guess is the ‘harsh’ you are describing is that effect.
Gen Kiyooka
Digigami
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