[Ben Waggoner]

The source frame size really doesn’t matter – it’s the output frame size.

In QuickTime, H.264 is by far the most efficient codec.

Make sure your settings are set to:

Optimize for Download
Multiple passes

And especially, SET A BITRATE. By default, you don’t get one with H.264.

The size of your file in MB will be:

(bitrate in Kbps * duration in seconds)/128

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’s Carbon also includes built-in DV50 decode, for both .avi and .mov.

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]

The digigami codec itself was pretty weak (among other things, no bitrate limited 2-pass VBR mode!), but their analysis tool is very cool.

Best MPEG-2 for DVD on Mac today is Compressor 2.

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]

You could use VLC to transcode to another format – they implement those old codecs, and can write to something more modern. Not a lot of processing, but…

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]

Basically, don’t use Compressor.

I like Compression Master for good MPEG-1 on Mac.

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]

A second real processsor is a big win, whether it’s a dual proc or dual core. Going from 2 to 4 is another boost. A dual-dual Opteron would be the fastest thing out there.

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]

Have you tried Squeeze or Compression Master? Both do H.264 on Mac, and both are in active engineering. Compression Master has better H.264 quality.

Discreet has been alluding to a new version of Cleaner for more than two years now. I know they had contracted to some folks in India to work on it quite a while ago, but I don’t know if they got much traction. It’s a complex product, and would be really hard to pick up without someone on the team familiar with its source code.

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]

Also, ProCoder on Windows can read QuickTime source files – that route works fine as well.

I find myself using ProCoder much more than Flip4Mac, as it encodes a lot more quickly, even when sharing the source file over Gigabit.

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]

Blading should work just fine.

Not sure what other tips I can offer – they’re pretty straightforward.

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]

Sports is challenging content. But the codecs are somewhat better. If you can use the latest codecs for Flash (VP6) and QuickTime (H.264), 500 Kbps would be a good starting point.

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