[Ben Waggoner]

HD encoding is slow.

If you need it to be fast, I’d recommend ProCoder, which would let you reduce the Encoder Complexity to 1. That’ll encode a lot faster, albeit at somewhat of a quality hit.

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

[Ben Waggoner]

They used to use Cleaner for SV3. Not sure what they’re using for H.264. Looks like Cleaner for preprocessing, and then an export to QuickTime H.264.

However, tools are only part of it. They have pristine quality uncompressed 24p source to start from. Unless you have similar quality to begin with, you won’t be able to hit their results.

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

[Ben Waggoner]

Rhozet Carbon is my go-to tool for weird HD MPEG-2 projects. The only thing it can’t do is AC-3 audio if you need an ATSC transport stream or something.

I know a painful amount about making HD MPEG-2 files – what spec are you shooting for?

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

[Ben Waggoner]

Full 1920×1080 has really high processor requirements. You’re looking at a modern video card with current drivers and a 3 GHz or faster computer, running Windows XP and WMP10.

And the bitrates need to be at least 8 Mbps for real-time streaming, which isn’t very practical.

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

[Ben Waggoner]

Yes, both VC-1 and most H.264 implementations today are delivery codecs.

The High 422 Profile of H.264 is appropriate as a competitor to High Profile MPEG-2 applications, but I don’t know of anything shipping that yet.

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

[Ben Waggoner]

Soon?

Well, I have a contract for it, but my third child is two months old, so the deadlines have been whizzing by. I really, really hope to have an update in stores sometime in 2006, but it won’t be until well in the year.

The first half of the book is quite evergreen – fundamentals about how you process video and audio for optimum compression. The second half is a little out of date in places, since it doesn’t cover the latest and greatest codecs. But I imagine it still would be a useful read.

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

[Ben Waggoner]

Compressor 2 works on 10.3.9, but requires QT7.

But 10.4 and QT7 both rock! You’ll be happy when you upgrade.

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

[Ben Waggoner]

Compressor 2 is definitely better than both. MegaPEG is especially weak – it doesn’t even have a proper 2-pass mode. BitVice isn’t bad, but can’t hold up to high motion like Compressor 2, and is a lot slower to boot.

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

[Ben Waggoner]

Ah, CG normally does quite well with PNG.

Are you in “Best” mode?

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

[Ben Waggoner]

I prefer Motion JPEG B for stock video, especially if it is interlaced. PNG is RGB 4:4:4 lossless, so it ‘s great for progressive graphics, but lousy compression for interlaced with video source.

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