[Cody Baker]

I upload to an FTP that FastChannel set up for me, then their production dept. does the “real” upload.
The specs they gave me for this are as follows:

Video: 18Mbs, MPEG 2 Program Stream, 4:2:2 , 9 frame GOP, 29.97 FPS, 4 by 3 Aspect Ratio, 720 x 512 (recommended)
Audio: MPEG-1 Layer 2, 2 Channels, 48 KHz, 20 bit, 384 Kbps (recommended)

I produce everything on a mac, but Compressor doesn’t allow 18Mbs for MPEG 2. So, i take my finished 30 sec spot out of AE as a QT animation file, and take it to my old PC where i have a license for Sorenson Squeeze and then convert the QT file to an MPEG 2 Program Stream, but only at 15Mbs—-because that’s the highest Sorenson Squeeze will go.

I see that on my mac, AE 6.5 has “Sorenson” and “Sorenson 3” as compression type choices under Quicktime render (in the render queue). But it doesn’t let me choose things like 15-18Mbs…. So my question to you is:
Does Sorenson or Sorenson 3 straight from AE 6.5 do the trick for FastChannel? Are the settings I should be aware of?

Thanks for your input!

cody

[Cody Baker]

I finish all my projects in After Effects–export QT animation, then encode that file to mpg2 using Sorenson Squeeze. As far as i can tell, Sorenson Squeeze can only do 15mbps. So i called the good folks at Fast Channel and asked if 15 is ok, and their production tech said it’s ok, but don’t go below 12mbps. They check and approve all my spots. Sooo….? But, as i said earlier, i’m nervous because my mpg’s look highly compressed on my end. Do you think 15mbps is making the difference? is there something else in my settings that perhaps I’m overlooking??? (i’m new at mpg encoding–still learning)

I’m thinking about posting two stills. one still image of my original QT animation file and then one from the mpg file that i’m seeing the chunky compression–so you all can see what i’m refering to. Would that help?

Also, do you know of a better workflow from AE to mpg2 (at 18mbps)???
Thanks for the response.

cody

[Cody Baker]

Good point… Nope, i’m not viewing the output of my PowerDVD on an NTSC vid mon. Just my computer CRT.
Thanks.

[Cody Baker]

Thanks for your feedback.

I encoded at 8mb VBR 2 pass.