Compressor presets question

I'm using Compressor 3 to compress a 1.5 minute video in Apple ProRes 422 to something pretty portable- something that I can demo on my late 2005 PowerBook G4. Exporting my video right from Final Cut Pro 6 gives me a file roughly 2.3 GB. What's the best compression setting to use? I'm using a Power Mac G5 Dual Core 2.3GHz model (Late 2005) with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 and 6.5 GB of RAM.

Would that be the preset in the 'Quicktime' folder, or one of the presets in the 'Apple Devices' folder? I'm not actually looking to play it on a specific device- just thru Quicktime on my PowerBook.

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Which compressor preset should I use for dvdsp "2hour movie".

Which compressor preset & settings should I use to fit a 2 hour QT movie from fcp onto 4.7gb single layer dvd in dvdsp.
Thanks in advance,
Zia

The 120 Minute preset is for two hours, but you may want to bring the average down and the high rate also.
Take a look here for some info (make use to use AC3 and not aif audio)
http://dvdstepbystep.com/faqs_7.php
http://dvdstepbystep.com/faqs_3.php
http://dvdstepbystep.com/qc.php
http://dvdstepbystep.com/fasttrackover.php

FCP - Compressor - DVDSP Question

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to figure out what settings to use to get better results when creating a DVD coming from FCP.
Here's the information :
In FCP, I edited a small test video made with a 3D software. Saved uncompressed in 720 x 480 NTSC, 30 fps, anamorphic for 16:9. Looks great in FCP.
Using Compressor, I use DVD Best Quality 90 min, 16:9.
I import the resulting file in DVDSP and the quality is horrible. I know that the movie is compressed in MPEG2 and it looses quality but I'm sure I can get better results (well, I hope).
Any idea, tips, tricks to enhance the final result would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Phanault

Hey Phanault,
did you use compressor presets or did you create settings from scratch?
also, you said your video codec was "uncompressed". did you mean FCP uncompressed 4:2:2 8-bit or like an uncompressed Blackmagic, Kona file (yes, they are different).
i don't think it has to do with your PAR, but more with settings.
what you can try is to use the 4:3 preset in compressor and manually set the 16x9 flag in DVDSP, like that, you dont have to recreate your video in 4x3 (just a suggestion and technically, both methods work!).
Mikey M.

Compressor presets cropping video output - why?

Hi guys,
I've been using Final Cut Pro X for about a year now and was a heavy user of Final Cut Studio before that. I'd consider myself a fairly advanced user and i have a good understanding of workflows, encoding, etc. However, I am continually running into an extremely irritating issue when exporting video from Final Cut Pro X. I assume it isn't a bug, as it would be a pretty big one I'm sure would have been fixed by now. Wondering if I am just not understanding/missing something here:
When exporting via any of the Compressor presets (or modified variants of any of these) directly from FCPX, the resulting file is always cropped slightly on each side, almost as if a 2-3% zoom has been applied to the video before the final file is rendered out. Please note I also get the same result when exporting via 'send to Compressor' and using the same presets/modified presets.
This problem does not occur when I export a straight 'Master File' from Final Cut, but this obviously gives me an extremely large file that I then need to further compress before it is suitable for quickly sharing online (as I need to do with 99% of the videos I edit).
I've attached two screenshots of the same source exported:
1. Via exporting 'Master file' from FCPX's 'share' button.
1. Via exporting 'HD 720P' from FCPX's 'share' button (I get the same cropping result if I export via any of Apple's 'HD' presets, custom variants of these, or using any of the SAME presets directly from Compressor).
As you can see, with such screencast-type work I'm doing, the top pixels of the image really matter (icons and UI elements are cut off the top when this 'crop' occurs).
As far as I can see, this 'cropping bug' affects the HD 720/1080P output profiles. It does not happen when I export using the 'Apple Devices' h.264 presets.
Obviously there are ways to get around this, but all I really want for my workflow here is a quick way to export an h.264-encoded HD version of my source for quick uploading and sharing. Any help would be hugely appreciated, as this is about the only irritant in my workflow at this point!

Hah! I think you just got onto something there. Check out this shot of the same file open in QTX and QT7:
So it appears to me like QTX (and QuickLook) actually crop the edges off the file. Note that VLC also plays the video at the correct size.
I just took a look at this with a colleague of mine who works on the video encoding platform behind our product and we identified/confirmed the following:
- Some parameter or part of the data in the files being written by the HD 720/1080 compressor output is being read differently by QuickTime 7 and QuickTime X/QuickLook (which I think uses the QuickTime X rendering engine built-in to Mac OSX?). For some reason, the newer QT architecture reads these files as a cropped resolution.
- When I upload these files to our encoding platform and they are re-encoded using FFMPEG into
h.264 mp4 files (optimised for web streaming), FFMPEG also reads the resolution correctly, resulting in a new, encoded file that has the correct frame resolution.
So it seems we may have found the cause, but I suspect a solution is going to be a bit trickier, especiallty considering this isn't a problem that 'needs' solving.

Compressor Presets Do a Terrible Job of Resizing

I just wanted to share my findings with everyone else, in hopes that Apple corrects a serious issue with the current Compressor 3 H264 presets. It appears that Compressor is using the fastest, poorest scaling possible. What I have linked below is a still I pulled from a DVCPRO HD 1080p video that I converted to Apple TV format. The first was done with Apple's default settings:
http://homepage.mac.com/cbauer/files/scalingtest_defaults.png
Note the jaggy edges around "compressor scaling", and the edges of the circles below. For this second image, I turned on "frame controls" and changed the resize filter to "best":
http://homepage.mac.com/cbauer/files/scalingtest_modified.png
Note how much cleaner the edges of the text are. For best comparison, download both images and open them up together in Preview so you can jump between the two.
As far as I can tell, this issue is apparent with any Compressor preset using the H264 codec; even presets you create yourself. I have adjusted all of my own presets so that the best resize filter is enabled in Frame Controls. It seems that if you export from QuickTime Player or Final Cut via QuickTime Export, you get clean resizing, so the issue is just within Compressor itself.
Thanks for reading.

Jeff A. Harrell wrote:
This one is gonna get filed as "works as intended," I'm sure.
That's correct - so Jeff, are you ever wrong? - the only time Frame Controls default to On is when you're doing an HD-to-SD DVD downconversion. Even then, Resize is set to Better (though that's typically good enough for most scenarios) and everything else (Deinterlace, Retime) are set to the Fastest settings.
From a workflow standpoint, I'd argue that it's not advisable to turn on Frame Controls with most h.264 encodes, especially the multi-pass ones, because you're adding (supremely time-intensive) Frame Controls processing to every pass. For stuff like iPod conversions, there's no benefit to running Frame Controls for the 6+ passes that are performed. (Though yes, I know the AppleTV preset only allows a single-pass.)
Instead, I'd suggest transcoding down to your desired size via a ProRes encode (or whatever codec you think is a good intermediate step) with Frame Controls on, then Job Chain that to your h.264 encode.

Can you Up-Convert SD footage to HD in Compressor? Question in 2 parts

Hi guys, this may sound silly but I have to ask if this is possible.
My question is in 2 parts!
1. I have SD Footage, shot with XL2 at 60i and I am trying to achieve best picture quality to burn in DVDSP.
Can I up-convert it to HD in Compressor 3? If so, which preset would I use?
2. If it is possible to up-convert SD footage to HD,
Can you still burn the up-converted HD video on a regular SD DVD in DVDSP if it fits on a single or dual layer disc?
Thank you,
Z

For starters, you can't make SD turn into HD. It's just not possible. Something was shot at a resolution of 720x480 which means it will never become 1280x720 or 1920x1280. That being said, there are hardware solutions called line doublers which can upscale for you, but those are expensive and not really what you even asked about so nevermind. Upscaling DVD players add pixels by interpolating info in between real pixels and adding what it think might go there. After this, filters are added to blend and soften and then some sharpening is added. I have seen DVD players that do a really nice job of this and others that don't.
Anyway, you can blow up your footage in compressor but not upscale as far as I know. The best quality footage however is going to be 720x480 since that is your source. This is especially true if you are playing back on an SD TV which only has a resolution of 720x480.
Did that help? I think I rambled a little.

Compressor 3 questions - specifically streaming for web

I am new to the world of video compression and every thing else that comes along with it. Recently i have been getting some experiance w/ FCP and now need to get some experience with compression. I have access to a computer w/ Compressor 3 but i dont know enough to use it and get the results iam looking for.
The main problem iam facing now is how to get a fair quality (not necessarily crystal clear) video compressed for the web that can stream and hopefully average out at about 1.5 mb per minute at 400 x 300 dimesnions. I was shown some settings before that did this but it seems that i have either accidently changed them or they just dont work like they used too. I know it ssems wierd to suggest that they would suddenly stop working like they used to but it actually seems like this must be the case and oddly my friend started experianceing the same thing w/ the same settings.
These are the settings i used to use when exporting through Final cut using Quick Time conversion:
Format: Quick Time Movie
Compression type: H.264
Frame Rate: 24
Key frames: 100
Data rate: 180
size: 400 x 300
This used to make ok quality video with the size at approx. 1.5 mb per min. but it doesnt seem to do that anymore(????). Anyway if any one has any experiance or advice that can help please let me know.
These are some other questions I have:
• In Compressor there are preset Apple settings and within those there is a folder for web and then for streaming. Do only these settings stream or are they just optimized for streaming? What constitutes a streamable file and can any of the other Apple presets also stream (if so which ones) ?
• Are there adavantages to using Adobe Media Encoder over Compressor, or are there other good programs that can be recommended ?
• Where can i read in a simplified or summarized way what all the comppressions terms mean, what the settings do, and which formats are ideal for what purposes etc.?
Thanking everyone in advance
ncd

Here's a great little book:
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Pro-Training-Compressor-Quick-Reference/dp/032147408 2
While you're waiting for it to arrive, check this out:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/compressor_h-264_moviesfcp.html

Compressor Batch Question

Hey, quick question about using the batch function in compressor. im using it to compress a 4 minute video piece using H.264 which im going to put up on the web. whats the diference between the different batches such as H.264 100mps. 300mps & 800mps??

Those numbers - 100, 300, 800, reflect the kilobytes per second of your compressed video & audio stream.
The more bytes per second, the better your file's quality can be - and I say can because it's not an exact science - but your file size will also be that much larger.
Once you've selected a preset, the Inspector window of Compressor 2 will show you an estimated file size in the Summary tab, if that helps.

PhotoShop CS2 and PDF Presets question.

Hello,
I have installed the recent free release of Adobe Photoshop CS2 on my Win 8.1 PC.
I am creating the artwork for a CD Cover, by using a CYMK template from CD-Baby.
They require that the finished artwork be submitted to them in PDF format, using the [PDF/X-4:2008] preset.
I found that Photoshop CS2 didn't come with this preset, but after searching the web, I came across this forum whereby a user posted a link to a "JobOptions" archive file at...
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16243351/joboptions.rar
... I downloaded this RAR file and found that there was a file inside called "x4;2008.joboptions"
I installed this preset by the 'EDIT/Adobe PDF Presets/' route, and it seemed to successfully install the preset.
(No errors at least).
Now when I go to save my finished project as PDF, I am given the choice of...
* [PDF/X-1a:2001]
* [PDF/X-3:2002]
* x4;2008
(this is the exact description of each preset).
My only question is, do you think the desired [PDF/X-4:2008] was correctly installed?,
I'm not sure since the naming format is not exactly the same as the first 2 presets descriptions.
Thank you.

thanks for your reply Mylenium.
is it possible that this user preset might not exactly conform to the desired preset I'm after?
is there any way I can get a genuine copy of the factory preset [PDF/X-4:2008]?
thanks.

DVDSP preset question with batch processing.

I hope someone can help.
When I drag my files that I want to batch process, where I can
choose the output, for example DVD HD, etc.
These presets have different times with them for video, like 120, 190, or even 30.
My question is, what is the difference between them? Does any of them produce better quality of the video?
My video files are .avi files and run about 30 minutes.
Also, does it matter which I choose as far as HD DVD, DVD best quality, etc., if these are already .avi files or just choose DVD HD and have the best quality possible?
Thank you for any help that is given.

About the numbers, the 30, 120, 190, etc. What do
those numbers mean?
Are they minutes? And if they are minutes, does that
mean it goes by how a regular dvd has minutes on it
or does it go by how long each file is, or total size
of project?
What those numbers mean are the amount of material that will fit on a DVD-5 based on the encoding settings, so in other words if you choose 120 it means that about 2 Hrs of running time of video will fit on the DVD encoded at that rate. Normal and high quality are whether it is a one pass or two pass
I am still a little confused.
I have 10 .avi files. Each one is about 30 minutes
long and is about 300mb.
I am unsure on what video setting or settings to use
that will allow me to have at least the same quality
as the files already are.
Encoding will reduce the quality, sometimes you may notice, other times not, but you have about 6 hours worth of material there. Depedning on what it is you can make a DVD-9, but unless it is very low motion probably not a DVD-5 (Also 300 Megs for 30 minutes of material (and I have not looked at new avi codecs recently) sounds like the material is already compressed heavily
To give you a rough idea, DV which is what comes from many consumer cameras with firewire, is compressed at a rate of about 5:1 already, and 9 minutes 20 seconds is just shy of 2 Gigs, so 30 minutes would be in the area of 6 Gigs of DV (or about 18 times the size of your files)
i have already done the audio portion of each file so
the video portions are all I need to do now.
Best thing to do is play with the settings, test small sections where there is less motion and more motion. In general 2-Pass is going to provide you with better results than one pass

Ultrabeat Patches/Presets Question

I'm sure this will have been asked & probably answered before but i have done a search & found nothing on it.
So I'll apologize now.
Ok Ultrabeat patches or Ultrabeat presets.
I know that Logic 8 already has an extensive library of presets for Ultrabeat but i have pretty much been through them & used them to death.
My question is this , Is there any way i could get hold of more Ultrabeat presets or even more patches for the step sequencer.
Thank You

Hi Sampeconstruct
Ive started down the programming them myself route to be honest i was being lazy
Not much response so i assumed the answer to my question was no
It was more the patterns to use in the sequencer i was after really
Ive been getting some interesting grooves using the transform window in the piano roll aswell after creating a sequence in UB

DVCPRO HD compressor preset p24? p25? p30?

Hi... everyone.
It seems that if I make all the project settings the same in FCP and MOTION that the imports from Motion, don't need rendering unless I have effects applied. (I have had so many problems with slow rendering, as I always used animation codec. The project has ground to a full stop...)
So I decided to try and make things simple and use a preset for the DVC PRO HD, I want to use, and rebuild my project. I am using 23.98 frames a second.
However in FCP this comes up with compressor p30 in the audio/video preset settings.
In QT conversion there is only p24 and p30... In motion export p25 and p30.
Does this make much difference?
Please would like to know and then I can start again....
Thanks for your time in helping.

bump.

Compressor Compression Question

I have a huge QuickTime file that I output out of FCP 7, that is a 40 minute long presentation that mixes live video with Power Point slides. The video was shot using a Sony HXR-NX5U and the timeline used the ProRes422 codec. The final size of the movie out of FCP is 66.91 gigs, which I want to compress down to 2 gigs or less to post on YouTube.
What settings might I use in Compressor to achieve this? I'm looking to compress it as a QuickTime H.264 file.
Thank you!

I'm running Final Cut Studio 3, with FCP 7. I know of the YouTube preset in Compressor, but will it automatically compress down to the size I need, or do I need to limit the data rate, or adjust any other settings?

Compressor presets making m2v file too big

I am on fresh install of tiger fcp suite, all up to date. I use DVD best quality 120 min preset and it spits out a 5 gig m2v. I try to set my own custom setting with exact bitrate to maximize quality and use up disc space, never exceeding safe levels. and it creates file smuch bigger than compressor 1.2.1 did with same settings.

I've just completed my third attempt to encode a 1h57min video using the following settings, based on the DVD Best Quality 4:3 factory presets.
- Avg Bit Rate: 4.6 | Max Bitrate 7.5
Result: M2V file too large (> 5gb!)
- Avg Bit Rate 4.6 | Max Bitrate 7.0
Result: M2V slightly smaller, but still too large (> 4.8gb!)
- Avg Bit Rate 4.0 | Max Bitrate 7.0
Result: M2V file still too large, at 4.72gb!
*Again, these file sizes are the M2V files BY THEMSELVES!*
BTW, I used a trusted bitrate calculator to get the 4.6 avg bitrate reading for a 120min video. I've also used that bitrate without issue in Compressor 1.
The source is an 8-bit Uncompressed video timeline from FCP 5.0.2. There are no cuts in the timeline, as it was digitized directly from the source and placed on the timeline to be encoded with chapter markers in place. The only image transformation within Compressor set to occur is the cropping of the bottom 2 video fields to comform the 486 lines to 480.
This has wasted THREE days of my time. And in all cases, the estimated file sizes reported by Compressor 2 has been grossly inaccurate.
How am I supposed to work around this without churning out video that looks like utter crud???
I've already had to drop my Avg and Max Bitrates from 5.0mbps to 4.0mpbs, even though Apple's preset for 120 minutes Best Quality lists 5.0mpbs with a max bitrate 7.5mbps. If the Apple presets aren't even working at this, clearly there is something wrong here.

Best Compressor Preset for FCP Import?

what is the best preset in compressor to bring in a .mp4 file into FCP? quicktime?

the DV NTSC preset is working just fine. if anyone knows any better ones, let me know. thanks

Compressor presets question

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