[Jeff Greenberg]

It’s really odd; DVCProHD is really meant for 1280×1080 and only that.

My guess is that compressor is sensing DVCProHD and ignoring any setting. I just tried it in QuickTime directly and it did what you said. I’d ask them what software they’re using to make 960×540 DVCProHD files.

I haven’t got the time today to check this in Episode or Squeeze (but you may have a copy of squeeze that came with your avid.)

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
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(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
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[Jeff Greenberg]

[Vincent Strader] “I was just exporting a QT movie, but the file was too large.

So I exported the files into 2 parts using the QT Conversion. NTSC 48 KHZ Anamorphic. And the files (2 parts now) were still huge. So I took each one of those files into Compressor.

That’s where I saw all the presets. Some of the video presets have audio properties inside them like the above cited ones. If they have the audio properties inside them, do I still need to drag in an audio preset?
“

Just trying to help here.
Program streams have the audio embedded. Elementary streams do not.

DVDs = M2V + separate audio (usually ac3) (elementary streams)

It sounds like you want to make both? Fine.

Don’t use the DV NTSC – you’ve just crushed the video (which will compromised color space and make it look very soft.)

Either use the send to compressor function in FCP or export QuickTime Movie (not conversion.) Yes, it will be a larger file. Keep it. put it on the shelf and label it a ‘digital master’

Use the Compressor DVD settings for your DVD.
Duplicate the MPEG2 entry and change it to a program stream and you’ll have your 2nd file that is identical to your other video, except it’ll have embedded audio.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

The Apple 120 Best setting is nearly perfect (both the AC3 and the MPEG2)

The MPEG2 setting is built specifically to fit on a DVD-5. If you’re at 121 min (or want a menu) you need it just a little smaller – I’d adjust the 5.0 rate to 4.8 and that should free up the extra space needed.

Hope that makes sense (if not, ask!)

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
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[Jeff Greenberg]

The problem is, even with DNxHD, it’s going to take 1.25 real time or more.

How much is this costing you per year? It might be worth purchasing MC 5.5 (cross grade is like $995), importing your final work directly into media composer, and then give him a project + the MXF file. That should take 5 seconds to ‘be available’ on his machine.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

You could use a DVD-9 (which should hold your four hours) You’ll want to tweak the 120 min setting to just a bit lower bitrate to fit your video + a menu.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

There’s a BCC plugin called Pixel Fixer that does exactly this.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

There’s an outside chance you have a font corruption problem in OSX. Run Font book and have it validate your fonts.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

The equivalent to TIFF or WAV would be uncompressed – and a gigantic file (think 6 gigs per minute.) That’s your lossless AVI

Adobe doesn’t have a native editorial codec; often people are picking cineform (which is what Ann suggests). It provides a compression level you can choose, works with Premiere Pro, supports an alpha channel, etc. It’s a good all around choice.

MPEG2, like h.264 was really meant for distribution and not shooting nor editorial (although over the years there have been some editorial systems that use specialized setups of mpeg2.)

I think the general consensus is either upgrade your computer (more ram, faster cpu/cores, faster drives) or pick a third party codec like Cineform. I know some people who use Avid’s DNxHD codec (because it’s free.)

If you pick a 3rd party codec, you’ll have to build custom compression settings and transcode all of your footage – but this will speed up the playback/rendering/handling of the footage.

Sooner or later you have to pay the piper – either the beginning or end.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

I mentioned on an earlier post (2 weeks ago?) that you could create a compound clip from the favorite – giving you the ability to have ‘subclip’ like ability with interviews etc.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

I’m curious who told you use to it?

h.264 (as well as some other codecs such as mpeg2) were never meant for editorial – rather they were meant for distribution.

A codec that has all the information on every frame (even if it’s compressed) requires very little work by the computer.
Codecs that are usually used for distribution, have a frame, and then the next 14 or so frames only have the changes (making the file significantly smaller, 1/10 the size or more.) These codecs have a Long distance between the next full frame (15 frames), so they’re called a Long ‘Group’ of pictures, or long gop.

FCP7 (and before) really doesn’t handle Long GOP well – for a cut, FCP might have to cache upwards of 30 frames!

The general consensus is that h.264 is GREAT for distribution and not great for editing; your slippage is related to the Long gop. The best (but likely most painful) method would be to transcode everything to prores, relinnk the clips to the prores files and then output agian.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website