Speeding up DVD encoding time in Compressor 4?

Hello there, I wonder if anyone can help - I am transferring some camcorder tapes to DVD on my 2010 Mac Pro. My hardware captures in many formats but not mpeg 2. As this is the encoding used for DVDs I presumed Compressor would be quicker to convert mpeg2 files to DVD than say mp4's (?). So I bought an mpeg 2 capture device specially. I then crop, trim the mpeg 2 files in Compressor and convert to DVD but it still takes ages? Is it because I have added edits and crops that it has to be re-encode to a completely new mpeg 2 file or is that just what compressor does to mpeg 2 files anyway? I seem to remember Toast converting an mpeg 2 file to DVD really quickly in the past when there was no editing or changes.
So in summary does anyone know if there is no advantage using mpeg 2 files when editing and converting to DVD in compressor, if not what format would be best? I presume uncompressed DV files might be better.
Any help much appreciated!
cheers

talldave68 wrote:
Okay thanks for the reply, that is actually a pretty good way to explain i! Am I right that if there was no edits, a dvd would encode quicker using an mpeg 2 file as source?
Don't know, never have used this workflow. Maybe someone else can answer.
I presume I used an mpeg 2 file and just cropped the last 2 minutes off the end it would again need to be re-encoded?
Yes, AFAIK. Make any change and my understanding is that the mpeg GOP (Group Of Pictures) will need to be rebuilt for the file.
My other capture device captures in mp4, so guess I will just import it direct into compressor and do any edits there, as no advantage using mpeg 2 capture.
Using compressor to trim the clips is, I guess, OK. mp4 is a much newer codec the mpeg2 so may be a better solution for your workflow. If I had the option of capturing in mpeg 2 or mp4, I'd choose mp4.
But keep checking back as someone who has more experience with may be able to give better advice.
When I wanted to move years of home DV tapes to DVD, I bought a set top DVD Recorder from Panasonic and just hooked up the camera and went directly to the DVD, pausing the recording to edit out the stuff I didn't want.
Something like this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/620022-REG/Panasonic_DMR_ES18_DMR_ES18_Mul ti_System_Multi_Zone_DVD.html
MtD

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Getting the best possible DVD encodes out of Compressor

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+The program I used is a Windows software encoder that costs a lot less money than you'd think. I manually operated it (that is, told it which frame was to be an I frame, a P frame, or on rarer occasions, a B frame) by hand rather than letting it assign automatically.+
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I've encoded 20min of ProRes 422 HD sequence on Compressor 3.0.5 to H.264 at 20000 kps.
It took my Dual 2.3 G5 PowerMac 9 hours. No filters or frame controls were used.
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Do you have any filters applied to your clips?
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Varying (lenghty) encoding times :(

Hello
I have a question which has been annoying me for some time.
When I encode a given project in DVD Studio Pro (first choosing "build" then "format") I've experienced varying encoding times, from a couple of hours to 7 or even 9 hours for the exact same project and also using the same computer.
It is definately not fun for me, as a film student to sit at my school for an entire night, not knowing if my project will be finished in another hour or 4. And now I have experienced this on 3 projects altogether.
The DVD SP project consists of rougly 80 minuts material, in 10 tracks (subtitled in FCP and not plus chapters), and having 2 simple menu pages. the project fill ca. 4,4 GB in total.
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Kind Regards!
Natasha

If you are using DVD SP to build and encode the times can vary depedning on how you set the rates for the project to encode (if you changed them) whether some of the assets are already encoded (in other words there is background encoding going on or just on the build) and whether you have built the DVD before so some of the encoding for some of the sections may be done. Also where you have exported the movie to (internal drive, a seperate drive etc.) can also change the speed.
As an aside you are best off encoding outside of DVD SP and make the audio AC3. You can set up Compressor and get alot better idea of how long it takes to encode, and make sure the assets being encoded are not on the system drive and the target for encoding is also on another drive. Again depending on the settings in Compressor it can take a long time, especially with frame controls, but using some of the presets and/or not using the frame controls and it can be fast.

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Sorry to repeat the question below, which I have also posted under DVD SP...I thought that perhaps someone watching Compressor would also have input.
I have been trying to obtain a DVD output with DVD Studio Pro where moderate speed pans don't jerk. Oddly, I get better results using iDVD. The image in iDVD isn't as sharp, but the quality of movement (pans, tilts) is smoother. My program length is only 20 minutes and I have used compressor to encode outside of DVD SP. The compressor setting was for DVD, 60 mins, best quality. Why is it that a consumer software such as iDVD yields better results in this aspect? What am I doing wrong in DVD SP that results in less than professional results. All input appreciated. Thanks in advance

Pamela
hy is it that a consumer software such as iDVD yields better results in this aspect? What am I doing wrong in DVD SP that results in less than professional results.
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ExactImage wrote:
Thanks.
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If your workflow mainly consist of downscaling HD to DVD, why dont you just buy a descent nVidia GPU card and get rid of the current ATI version? These things cost almost nothing nowadays. You have nothing to lose since PrP are not using ur current GPU.
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Harm,
Sorry for not responing for a few days, but I runned the benchmark you'll send me. The main results (dee details attached file):
53,6, secs Total Benchmark Time
6,4, secs AVI Encoding Time
14,2, secs MPEG Elapsed Time
33, secs Rendering Time
Since the potential problem is my hard disk, inaddition, I runned HDtune (hopefully it will help pinpionting the problem):
disk1: avarage transfer rate: 94MB/s, acces time 13.8ms, burst rate 185MB/s
disk2: avarage transfer rate: 85MB/s, acces time 14ms, burst rate 157MB/s
disk3: avarage transfer rate: 73MB/s, acces time 13.9ms, burst rate 183MB/s
Analyzing these results, could the current hard disk configuration cause the problem I have, or is my system to slow anyway to edit AVCHD material?
If the hard disk configuration is the problem, could it be solved by applying your suggestion by removing all partitions? Since, I'm not looking forward of removing all partions(re-installing windows (dual boot win7 and vista), shifting a huge amount of data, etc), but if it would help I will do it.
Thanks inadvance,
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Is there a decent guide somewhere about how best to set Compressor DVD encode projects up? I
take it using the standard two-pass encode settings probably isn't ideal and some tweaks would
possible yield better results.
If you're serious about this, you should also invest in a book dedicated to video encoding. Just look on amazon.com for the latest editions byt the tow or three main authors, search for "encoding" and "video encoding."
The process of getting the best possible image out of MPEG2 is tedious, more like accounting than moviemaking. The best software allows you to carefully preview the results, compare them, and is likely to be supported by a realtime encoding card. And that means it's a very expensive PC application.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMOIOz1Mx3I

I tried to change "Field order" to Progressive (it was "Same as source"), but nothing changed:
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***** First Analyzed File Results *****
*** General Parameters ***
- Name: Anima mia 2° Tempo.mov
- Container: MOV - QuickTime
- Creation Date: 2014-03-08 10:25:52
- Size: 29115.0 MiB
- Duration: 0:43:16
- Bitrate: 94.1 Mbps
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- Encoding Application: Undefined
*** Video Track Parameters ***
- Format: Apple ProRes 422
- Size: 27.7 GiB (97%)
- FourCC: apcn
- Track number(s): 0
- Bitrate: Max.: Undefined
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   Min.: Undefined
- Frame rate (fps): Max.: ---
   Average: 50.000
   Min.: ---
- Bitrate mode: Variable
- Encoding profile: Undefined
- Resolution: Undefined
- Width (Pixel number): 1280
- Height (Pixel number): 720
- Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1:1
- Display aspect ratio: 16:9
- Chroma subsampling format: Undefined
- TV standard: Undefined
- Interlacing: Undefined
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- Additional Parameters: Bits/(Pixel*Frame) ratio: 1.991
*** Audio Track(s) Parameters ***
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- FourCC: 0x1
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- Details: 24-bit, little endian, signed linear PCM
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- Rate: 48.0 KHz
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- Additional Parameters: Not available
*** Miscellaneous ***
- Subtitle(s): No Subtitle
- Metadata: Album: Undefined
   Part number: Undefined
   Track name: Undefined
   Track name number: Undefined
   Performer: Undefined
   Screenplayer/Writer: Undefined
   Genre: Undefined
   Encoded date: UTC 2014-03-08 09:25:52
   Comment: Undefined
   Album artist: Undefined
   Grouping: Undefined
   Copyright: Undefined
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hey kids,
I recently had to take 5.5 hours of DV NTSC footage and transfer it to DVD for a client. I thought that I could break it up into 2 DVD's at 2.75 hours each but the final mpeg2 files were too large for 1 DVD (6.7 Gigs). I had to divide up the clips again to fit 1.25 hours on each DVD (roughly). Which was fine for the client but the encoding ended up taking 5.5 hours each 1.25 hour clip. I'm on an old dual 1.8 G5 with 2.5 gigs of ram. I also encoded the media all on the same drive. These encoding times seem really long and I didn't expect them and neither did my client. Is this really normal?
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Thanks

Encoding on Macs is slow. Depending on settings used for encoding it can be really slow. Putting media on drives other than the system drive helps speed things along (and target for the encoded files on another drive can also help.)
5.5 Hours for 1.25 does not sound that far off the mark. Have not done recent speed tests (usually I set things up to encode overnight, just part of the workflow for me now when using the Mac to encode) but when I use bitVice the first pass is about 4-6 times realtime the first time through and from .2-.3 Realtime the second time through depending on the footage (Dual Processor G5 2 ghz). My MacBook Pro seems a bit quicker, but have not really timed in.
As an aside (and for future reference) I also run Paralells on the MacBook Pro and use CinemaCraft (Light Version, $50 or so) and get between 1.5-2x real time speed on each pass.
As to why Macs are so slow, got me. If PCs can get encoding going that quick on software, figured the Macs could also. Perhaps someone else knows some more of the details and/or perhaps the new Intel Chips will open up speed more.

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Macatoo,
The speed of your iMac's processor is the real determining factor for encoding speed and not the fact that the project resides on an external drive.
The encoding times you are experiencing may quite possibly be normal.
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