[Jason Brown]

This has been discussed before. From what I remember, it had something to do with updating qmaster…here’s the thread:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/20/868238#868249

[Jason Brown]

Ironically, a post popped up in FCP forum with the same sort of question:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1152317

I’ll post my reply here as well, I think it’s relavent:

I use a legacy version of the WDTV, the one before all of the network connectivity stuff they introduced.

Almost 2 years ago, I wanted to discover the limitation of the box, so I did multiple tests and I was able to run h264 in .mov container at 45Mbps without any issues on playback (from USB drive). I didn’t go any higher…because that is more than enough and reaches the limitation of Blu-ray in terms of bit-rate.

The only tweaky things I did discover was in using my Matrox MAX accellerated compression…if I compressed with the generic mp4 compression setting in Compressor, it worked fine. If I used the Matrox codec to encode to, I had audio cutting out with bit-rates above 3-4Mbps (using AAC audio) other audio codecs worked fine. I tracked this down to the fact that “hinted streaming” needed to be enabled. I think this was only a limitation when using the Matrox hardware to speed up compression from what I remember. The Matrox folks were awesome in helping me track that problem down.

My company uses these for tradeshow video playback…so I have developed a clean workflow for encoding for them.

-Jason

[Jason Brown]

I use a legacy version of the WDTV, the one before all of the network connectivity stuff they introduced.

Almost 2 years ago, I wanted to discover the limitation of the box, so I did multiple tests and I was able to run h264 in .mov container at 45Mbps without any issues on playback (from USB drive). I didn’t go any higher…because that is more than enough and reaches the limitation of Blu-ray in terms of bit-rate.

The only tweaky things I did discover was in using my Matrox MAX accellerated compression…if I compressed with the generic mp4 compression setting in Compressor, it worked fine. If I used the Matrox codec to encode to, I had audio cutting out with bit-rates above 3-4Mbps (using AAC audio) other audio codecs worked fine. I tracked this down to the fact that “hinted streaming” needed to be enabled. I think this was only a limitation when using the Matrox hardware to speed up compression from what I remember. The Matrox folks were awesome in helping me track that problem down.

My company uses these for tradeshow video playback…so I have developed a clean workflow for encoding for them.

-Jason

[Jason Brown]

If you guys do much h264 compression and can live in .mov containers…you should look at an h264 accelerator. I know elgato makes one, I use the Matrox version. I use “send to compressor” and it’s amazingly fast. Depending on footage codec…it can be up to 2-3 times faster than real-time in my experience.

[Jason Brown]

I’d think QT7 could do this with a bit of work. Scaling would be the most difficult part, but I’d scale it up in display settings in movie properties then save that, then copy and add to ProRes movie. I’m not sure how it would handle codecs though…probably just require both to play. You could even save it as a QT ref if it couldn’t flatten it correctly with varying codecs.

I’d bet you could do this without going through Compressor. I’m interested to hear what ends up working.

-Jason

[Jason Brown]

I believe it depends on your h264 profile. The profiles have a maximum dimension and I’d guess the same is limited in regards to bit-rate.

Although I’ve not seen this setting accessible anywhere else than with Matrox Max settings that I use in Compressor. Maybe Episode Pro could get you there as well.

[Jason Brown]

Have you tried the Matrox Max? or Compress HD?

I routinely use it…I’ve always wondered how it compares to the Elgato, which I’ve not had any exposure to. I absolutely rave about the max compression…it’s crazy fast and very high quality.

If you aren’t on a tower, you have to buy at minimum MXO2 Mini which isn’t as inexpensive as the PCI card for a tower.

-Jason

[Jason Brown]

aja makes a great app for iphone called “AJA DataCalc”

It gives you great calculations for multiple codecs at various frame rates and dimensions as you set the length. I routinely use it to determine what size XDCAM disc to use when shooting something…or when planning a shoot or transcode. It’s a very useful tool.

[Jason Brown]

Have you tried movie properties in Quicktime 7? (cmd+J)

It allows you to set multiple annotations for the different tracks (TC, Video, audio) or the media file itself. It’s very powerful, although not incredibly efficient to do multiple files or batch…

[Jason Brown]

I’ve had experience with this…couple factors,

1) version of MacBook pro, has to be thunderbolt, not just minidisplay plug

2) adapter has to be able to carry sound, some minidisplay to hdmi adapters don’t carry sound

3) you have to enable sound output through os. Alt click speaker icon in toolbar and select brand of tv as output.