QuickTime vs. Compressor

Can someone please tell me what the difference is between QT and Compressor - if I am using the same conversion settings.
Is there a benefit to using Compressor, instead of just exporting out of FCP with the QT conversion.
Does it make it a better quality? Does it make it the same quality but smaller? I am having a hard time telling the difference.
Thanks.

Is there a benefit to using Compressor, instead of just exporting out of FCP with the QT conversion.
With Compressor running as a separate application, you can set up a batch to run in the background while you are still editing. As DS says, it's the same engine. Compressor is weirdly non-intuitive because the app uses a batch interface instead of timelines.
bogiesan

Similar Messages

Autoplay QuickTimes from Compressor

Is it possible to create an autoplay QuickTime using Compressor. I normally would have used Cleaner Pro, but it does not seem to like H264 at all.
Essentially I am attempting to recreate the set-up used on the Apple Trailer site, where you click on an image and instead of embedding the video in the HTML, i want it to launch QuickTime Player (externally) and autoplay from there.
i have worked throug all of the <PARAM NAME="autoplay" VALUE="true" > tags, but for some reason, it does not parse these parameters through to QT player.
Anything I am missing here?
Cheers
Al

Apple is now using JavaScript, because of how Internet Exploder is handling QuickTime.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed.html
Check out the JavaScript and HTML source of one of the HD trailer pages.
Download the source and exsample files from the following website, and I think you will get exactly what you need:
http://blog.deconcept.com/category/quicktime/

Export as quicktime vs compressor?

need to export a couple sequences. they are apple prores hq 720p. want to export w/ same settings as sequence. other than batching, is there any advantage to using compressor as opposed to export as quicktime movie from fcp? seems to take a lot longer using compressor. thanks.

"Seems to take longer" may not be correct if you let it run all the way to completion.
The advantages are numerous if you understand how to use Compressor's advanced functions including frame settings and distributed encoding. If you don't need them, don't use Compressor.
We see a similar post every few weeks so you can search the forum for additional information that I'm not providing.
bogiesan

Quicktime Codecs/Compressors and After Effects?

Hi,
I have AE CS4, updated.Win XP SP 3 and 560ti Nvidia.
I have a few questions regarding quicktime and after effects.
I mostly render using quicktime and photo-jpeg as the compressor.But in the timelapse I shot, it is not giving me precise colors and the final movie is low on contrast.
I tried animation codec, awesome but file size too large.I am rendering for stock footage where 1GB is maximum file size limit.
My questions:
1 - Will updating Quicktime update the compressor menu list under quicktime format in after effects render settings?Will updating also add new compressors, if any?
2 - Where does quicktime store encoders/compressors if installed on C drive?
3 - I saw many recommending DNxHD codec.I downloaded it.What next?Is it a quicktime compressor, i.e. to be used with quicktime as we use h.264, animation and photo-jpeg?
4 - How do I add DNxHD codec to After Effects for use in renders?
5 - Could you recommend the best lossless quicktime compressor which gives not so big file size as animation does?
Currently I see 11 compressors in format options under quicktime.Are there more?I have the latest k-lite codec pack installed if that matters.
Thank you.
Would be greatful if you can explain, it will help me get clear on this.
Thank you.And sorry if it is a very basic question.

Hi, thanks for the replies.
It is a timelapse footage and not animation file.I meant animation codec under quicktime format gives me the best results.I tried h.264 and photo-jpeg, but the final video looks flat and low on contrast.I have done some color grading and only animation and png renders it correctly.
But the problem is that the file size is pretty huge.I also see banding in photo-jpeg and h.264 renders.
I want to upload the timelapse to pond5 for sale.But photo-jpeg just gives me flat colors and flat contrast.
Can you suggest a compression that maintains colors plus gives a size under 1GB?
Photo-Jpeg render frame:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42878955/1%20Photo%20-%20Jpeg.JPG
Animation render frame:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42878955/2%20Animation.JPG
You can see how flat photo-jpeg looks.Also hasn't rendered the colors and contrast properly.
Along with this, can you help me install DNxHD codec?I downloaded it and it has 2 folders, Source and TestFrames.What next?

Whch produces higher quality m2v- Quicktime or Compressor

I use Final Cut Express HD and export mpeg 2 videos for use in DVD Studio Pro. I have exported both - NTSC high quality, 2 pass vbr, 7 mps bitrate with both Compressor and Quicktime. Both files look good when previewed, yet my finished DVD video is not a clear. Is there a better way or different codec to use to get cleaner DVD end product?
Thanks

We get the qt movies out of Compressor, the look great in DVDSP, but DVDSP won't even recognize them when they make the DVD.
Please clarify that statement. If you're using Compressor to encode MPEG2 files from your animations, you should end up with files that DVDSP will import. What presets are you using, if any?
We are using standard compressor settings for "MPEG2 60mintes" coming out Compressor.
I realize that DVDSP should support them, its that it won't that is causing the problems... :-\
And, if we allow the DVDSP to do the conversion to DVD itself, the results look VERY bad.
What are your encoding settings from within DVDSP?
Settings? We are going to DVD... thought that needed no settings to be set? (I could be wrong, I'm only the wingman on this one...)
and it seems to have something to do with the resolution of the files, going from 720x486 to 720x480... maybe...
Compressor handles that properly (crops 6 pixels rather than scaling). Not sure about encoding from within DVDSP.
Ah... that makes a little sense... if there is a difference between Compressor and DVDSP handle compression. Does it take 4 from the top, 2 from the bottom to allow the fields to be handled correctly?
We are making an animated 3d video, so there are no frames or codecs (DV) on the video... The workflow is then into After Effects, FCP and then DVDSP
Are you exporting Targa frames from Lightwave and then importing the sequence into AE? Once you export from AE you're certainly attaching a codec. Are you using Animation? Then, when working in FCP, what codec are you using? And are you working in 720x486?
Actually, we are exporting RPF (Rich Pixel Format) files from Lightwave3D, going into AFX, taking an animation codec QT into FCP, outputting both to MPEG2 and QT Animation format to DVDSP... then to cr*p DVD or nothing...
LW_Will

Quicktime: "Required Compressor Could Not Be Found"

OK, I have a Powerbook G4, running Mac OS X 10.2.8 (1.33 GHz PowerPC)
I'm running Quicktime version 6.5.2.
I've just downloaded some quicktime videos I just need to watch on my computer, Quicktime is opening the files with the notice:
You may experience problems playing a video track in "video file" because the required compressor could not be found. Would you like to close the movie or continue?
Whilst playing the files, I have audio, but no picture.
Can someone possibly help me by telling me how I find out what compressor I would need to play these videos and where I can possibly download/install the missing compressors?
I do hope it's an easy fix as that, failing that, does anyone know how I can convert the video files to something usable by my computer without losing audio or picture quality?

So is there no solution for this? I just can't watch the videos because I can't upgrade to a newer version of Quicktime?
I saw in another thread someone having a similar problem to mine and someone suggested flip4mac WMV/Perian software to solve the problem, although both of these are also not compatible with my older operating system. Is there a solution for 10.2?

Unable to compress to mp4 or quicktime with compressor 2

After I upgraded from compressor 1.2 to compressor 2.0.1 I found out that the mpeg2 quality was not as good as that of compressor 1.2, however the quality of mpeg4 using a compressor 1.2 preset was as good as that of compressor 1.2. Trying to improve mpeg2 quality I deleted all the compressor 1.2 presets as recommended by Apple. Now the mpeg2 quality is very good. However when I try mpeg4 or quicktime, compression always fails with the following message: "Failed: 3x crash service down".
The resulting files cannot be opened with quicktime (as expected) with the error (-2048)
Does anyone know what the problem could be? I have tried everything I could find in this forum but nothing has worked. Reinstalling compressor 1.2 will not work either.
Thanks

I'd suggest that you look in your console and system logs to see if there are any error messages or warnings that might hint at what could be going wrong. You can view these logs by going to the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac" and then "More Info..." This will bring up the System Profiler and then under the left-hand column ("Contents") go down to "Software" and select "Logs."
You will likely find a lot of messages in both of these logs, even some warnings that have nothing to do with your particular problem. Just scan through the information looking for anything that seems related to Compressor, FCP, Qmaster, QuickTime, or any warning about a missing or incompatible component that could be related to the above.
<small><hr width="75%"><small>If this suggestion helps in any way, a confirmation or acknowledgment would be appreciated, since that would also help others who may be having the same difficulty. Do for others as you would have them help you.<center>Thanks for reading this message, Waymen.</center></small>

Really slow QuickTime and Compressor conversions

I have a FCP project that was shot in HDV and is about 35 minutes long. I need to output to Apple TV and to SD MPEG2 (to be used in DVDSP). Outputting in the formats I need is taking a really long time,much longer than I would think it should take.
As I'm one major rev down on Final Cut Studio, my version of Compressor doesn't have an Apple TV setting. I tried exporting to a QuickTime conversion for Apple TV, but for some reason it 'squashes' the picture into 4:3 format rather than maintaining 16:9. So I've had to resort to a two-step conversion process: 1) A QuickTime export at current (HDV) settings, and 2) Open the resulting movie in QT and do an Apple TV conversion from there. This preserves the 16:9 aspect ratio but takes a very long time (at least 4 minutes for each minute of HDV video). Also, the audio gets noticeably out-of-sync by the end of the video when doing the QT conversion.
My project is completely rendered inside of FCP, so I wouldn't think that the QT conversion would be so slow, but it is. After completing that I moved on to the SD conversion. In FCP I changed the 'easy setup' to standard NTSC settings, created a new sequence, and then dropped a copy of my HDV master sequence into the timeline of this new SD sequence. Rendering the video downscale from HDV to SD took about an hour.
Then I went to encode my now 35 minute SD sequence to MPEG 2 using Compressor. At the high quality 90 minute setting, it looked like the encoding was going to take 3 hours. I know from previous experience with straight SD video that this machine is capable of encoding a project of this length in realtime if not better (it's a Mac Pro with 4 cores and 5GB of RAM -- 35 minute of SD video normally would take no longer than 35 minutes to encode).
So, what's going on here? Is Compressor being fed unconverted HDV video from the source material rather than rendered SD video from the SD sequence? I also tried an export to QuickTime and it looked like that was going to take 2+ hours as well (just for a basic export of the already rendered SD video at current settings, not encoding to MPEG2).
Thanks in advance for any light you folks can shed on this subject, and any hints on ways to improve my export/encoding times.

The info about my system was out of date; I'd corrected it for my original post but forgot to on my followup. I've fixed it in my profile now so it shows my current system, which sounds very similar to yours.
And maybe I'm not explaining myself well enough. I'm not just talking about h.264 encodes from HDV, I'm also talking about extreme sluggishness creating a QT movie at regular NTSC settings that's already been converted from HDV to SD DV. How sluggish? Consider the following:
1) In FCP, I've got an NTSC SD sequence where I've copied in a 35 minute HDV sequence and already rendered the entire sequence at SD resolution. When I tell FCP to export a QT movie at DV NTSC 48Khz, the estimate begins at about 30 minutes and then quickly climbs to over an hour. I aborted after several minutes, with the time estimate still on the climb.
2) I created a new FCP project with the settings for NTSC SD. I located the the 'scratch' folder where FCP rendered the SD video I mentioned in attempt #1. I imported all the clips, verified that the movie is 35 minutes long and all expected footage is present, and then selected the exact same QT export option as in Step #1. The estimate started at 5 seconds and, sure enough, 5 seconds later it was done. I have a complete 35 minute long SD DV QuickTime movie sitting on my desktop.
So there's definitely something funny going on here. In both situations FCP should be using the same material -- the footage already converted to NTSC DV. FCP can create the QT movie in 5 seconds in one case (where the rendered DV footage has been imported) but will take ~ 2 hours in the other (doing the export from the sequence where the rendering to DV had been done).
I appear to have found a workaround -- import the rendered clips into a different project -- but am left wondering why this is necessary.

Need help!!! multi-tracks audio to quicktime via compressor

I have a timeline in FinalCut Pro with 10 audio tracks. I want to do an uncompressed QuickTime and keep the 10 audio tracks seperated. How do I do that?

In FCP, click anywhere on the timeline and type Command + 0 {zero} to open the Sequence Settings. Once they are open, click on the Audio Outputs Tab.
Choose the number of outputs you want, and choose if they are Stereo Pairs or not. Click OK. You will get a warning that your audio device does not support ten tracks, click OK to dismiss it.
Next, assign the tracks on the timeline to the correct output track. Control-click on the space above the lock symbol, and the track assignment drop down will appear. This instance shows the tracks being Stereo Pairs.
Then export your Quicktime. If you want to change the video to uncompressed, you can export it with using File > Export > Using Quicktime Conversion. . . and set the video to uncompressed.
Once you have exported the file, a quick way to check all the audio tracks are correct is to import that file you just created back into FCP, and open it in the viewer, you will see all the tabs for the attached audio tracks.
Be sure to go back and normal the audio settings in your sequence when you are done exporting.
MtD

Exporting via Quicktime good Compressor=Bad

I'm perplexed! I send a 16:9 video SD out through Compressor and when i import that file into DVDstudio pro, it's 4:3 aspect.
Exporting through a self contained QT file and importing into DVD studio it retains its 16:9.
Why does this happen???

What preset or settings did you use in Compressor?
-DH

Compressor: Failed: QuickTimer Error: 0

When compressing with Compressor I get error message: Failed: QuickTime Error: 0
This happens when I am exporting from Final Cut Pro HD (photo Jpeg video), and also when I am compressing from Final Cut movie file (with current settings and not self contained).
Does anyone know what this error message means?
Cinema Craft encoded same files without problem!
Powemac G5, dual 2Ghz, 1.5 GB ram, 150 gb free disk space, OS X 10.4, all software with latest updates (freshly installed on formated drive)! I have even tried to turn off one processor with CHUD tool.
On G4 dual 1Ghz, 768 MB ram, OS X 10.3 works OK.
Thank you!

Use the System Profiler to review what is in the system and console logs. You may find a message or error there that will tell you more about what is happening. Note, there will almost certainly be other warnings or errors in these logs, that's fairly normal, you want to look for something that is related to QuickTime or Compressor (et.al.) or one of the files you are trying to process.

Export to Compressor or Export to Quicktime then into Compressor

Hi,
Already for a long I am wondering whether it would make a significant difference when you export video directly to compressor from FCP or indirectly via Quicktime to Compressor. If you have any experience regarding this, please let me no know.
Thank you

The main difference is that using the Export Using Compressor method, Compressor will look at the original format & framerate of each clip in your sequence and will render out based upon that. So if you have some higher quality clips in your sequence, Compressor will take that into consideration when producing the final encode. It could actually give you a slightly better quality picture.
If you were to export a movie first, then run that through Compressor, Compressor only sees the one file and one format.
MacBreak weekly produced a small episode that explains how Compressor works in this manner. It should answer your question.
http://www.pixelcorps.tv/macbreak89

Encode Motion JPEG Quicktimes with Snow Leopard 10.6.2

I know this is a common question, but I couldn't find a definitive answer that makes sense with what I'm seeing on my computer. I'm trying to make Motion JPEG A Quicktimes (in Compressor or QuickTime Pro) but that codec is not an option in my menus. I've read that the solution is to activate "legacy encoders" in the Quicktime System Pref, but on OS 10.6.2, there is no Quicktime System Pref pane. I have Quicktime X and Quicktime Pro 7.6.3. How do I make this work?

I don't know if you sorted this out yet, but thankfully it's quite simple. Open a Terminal window and enter the following, followed by the return key:
+qtdefaults write LegacyCodecsEnabled yes+
You should see the response:
+Legacy encoders have been enabled.+
They rid of the QT preference pane in 10.6, so this is the back door method to achieve the same end.

Largest file size able to be used in compressor??

I brought 2 quicktime .mov files into final cut pro with the following specs:
29.97 Vidrate
720 x 486 frame
NTSC
Uncompressed 8bit 4:2:2:2
interlaced
I applied the following plugin filter:
Magic Bullet Frames 1.0 (formally Magic Bullet 24p)
settings of the filter:
mode: deinterlaced only
input field order: lower
field interpolation: motion
field smooth: 14
cropping: supper 16 (1:66:1)
shift: 0
mix: 95
This filter gives interlaced video the 24p look of film.
Also a color correction filter was applied.
When I export this file from FCP as a quicktime the file size is roughly 135GB with the time line being 1hr 54mins.
I then take the quicktime into Compressor to create MPEG2, after inporting it into compressor, compressor then quits unexpectedly no matter if I restart the program or entire computer.
Does anyone know the maximum file size that compressor can handle of a quicktime file? Or any suggestions on what should be done differently??
Please help! Thanks!

try exporting a few shorter test sections of the file from FCP ... see if Compressor still chokes when trying to convert them

Mp4 files (.m4v) from Handbrake won't open in Quicktime.

Suddenly, about a week ago, whenever I try to open these files in QuickTime, I receive a message saying the required codec is missing. Yet, these same files will open in iTunes.
In Quicktime, when I click on "Find out more," I'm taken to an article titled, "Media formats supported by QuickTime Player," Article: HT3775, which lists MPEG-4 as a supported format in QuickTime.
I do not understand.

You want to convert your DVD video to Quicktime first, and then encode your video with compressor. Compressor gives you the most options for converting the video. Apple's compressor gives you lots of options for setting the size and quality of the H.264 file you want to create. Since it's Apple, the H.264 you create will work in Quicktime. Compressor is also really cheap at $50 on the Apple store.
There's several good options out there for converting DVD video to Quicktime. I recommend taking a look at DVDxDV.

QuickTime Streaming Server and Referenced Movies

Does QTSS adjust it's stream depending on the client device and bandwith like HTTP referenced movies do? Are referenced movies strickly for HTTP delivery or can QTSS make good use of "hinted" reference media?
I can create and stream hinted HD movies with no problem on QTSS. I can also create referenced movies via QuickTime or Compressor and even know how to add the "hinting" perameter to the Compressor workflow for referenced movies. I have the option to use QTSS or the Web Server to stream my HD content but would like to know what is the best option for backward compatibility, browser support, etc.
Thanks, Yo Bro!

Yo .. I am appauled at the lack of support for such posts .. and the limited answers for those looking for streaming support.
I am trying to learn too .. currently running EvoLV to provide my solutions .. but it is not enough.
Trying to assemble those of us interested with links.'
Have you found any usefull answers?
C

QuickTime vs. Compressor

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