Combining Audio & Video into destination file?

Compressor 2 allows multiplexed (combined video and mp2 audio) in MPEG2. However, it has the same format and size restrictions for MPEG1. In any case, you can use the freeware utility MPEG Streamclip to multiplex (mux) the video and audio streams output by Compressor into a single file. Just output both video and AIFF audio from Compressor and make certain that the .m2v and .aiff files that are output contain the same root name (e.g. thisMovie.m2v and thisMovie.aiff). Then add the .m2v file to MPEG Streamclip and select the "Convert to MPEG" or "Convert to MPEG with MP2 Audio" menu option.

If your client can't manage MP4 files there isn't a snowball's chance in **** of handling MPEG2 files! Any Mac or Windows computer with at least Quicktime 6.1 installed can play MPEG-4 (mp4) video files. If the client lacks either the hardware or the software to play back an mp4 file it's highly unlikely they have a system with the necessary Quicktime MPEG-2 playback component or DVD Studio pro in order to view such a file.

You want to "quickly" compress 16:9 video files and email them to the client?! I'm not sure what benefit there is in compressing the files quickly - MPEG-2 files would be large enough to take several days to send, and several days on the receiving end to download - IF you're somehow lucky enough to have email gateways at either end that would accept multi-gigabyte file attachments. Your best course of action would be to burn a DVD and Fed-Ex it to the client.

Compressor is spectacular at creating transcoded output to nearly any Quicktime compatible video (and audio) codec ever devised. If your client can't view MP4 files you definitely need to investigate the state of computers and software available and choose an appropriate format based on that information (virtually any of the AVI or MOV formats could be problematic unless you know precisely what codecs are available on the receiving machine). Compressor will allow you to create a custom preset that could output a Quicktime (.mov) format file using, say, the Sorenson 3 codec while preserving your original (PAL) frame rate and widescreen format (using a custom frame size or the automatic preset "100% of original"). But if email is the ultimate destination you're definitely going to want to scale down the original file - significantly. By duplicating and modifying Compressor presets you can create any number of presets to transcode a source file into many different versions with different file size and quality settings (create all your presets, add to a group, drop the group folder on the source entry in Compressor's Batch window, submit the batch and Compressor will set to work cranking out a new file for each of the presets in the group). It's a lot faster than doing them one by one.

Producing video files small enough to email is likely to be very disappointing though. It would be much more efficient to burn a DVD and Fed-Ex it.

I wanted to follow up on this thread. I too am looking for a way to output an MPEG 2 file as a single file. I have a client who is requesting this. All I have ever done is output them as separate audio and video files for use in DVDSP. In looking through the Compressor documentation I found this:

Multiplexed MPEG-1/Layer 2 Audio: Selecting this checkbox makes the output file a transport stream rather than an elementary stream. A transport stream combines multiple elementary streams, in this case, video and audio, into a single file for realtime distribution such as television. The audio in this stream will be MPEG-1 Layer 2, with a sample rate of 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (depending on the source) and a bit rate of 384 kbps.

OK, I thought, great, just what I need. However, the first time I tried this I got a .mts file? QuickTime would not open it and yes I have the MPEG-2 Playback Component installed. So, I tried again, and changed the extension to .mpeg in the Extras Tab dialog box. No go, still wouldn't play in Quicktime. I was able to combine at .m2v and .aif file using the program suggested here (MPEG Streamclip), but I'd also like to be able to do this directly in Compressor. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? Thanks for any insight or help.

Steve, you're doing everything right. The multiplexed MPEG2 files output by Compressor 2 are MPEG Transport Streams (.mts). The QuickTime Player does not support that format but .mts files can be played in the freeware utility VLC (available on VersionTracker.com).

Transport streams are output by some MPEG2 hardware converters and are also used to transmit MPEG2 video so that may be one of the reasons why Apple decided to use that format.

Here is what Apple says about transport versus program streams:

"The MPEG-2 specification defines two forms of data streams, program streams and transport streams. Each is optimized for a different set of applications and environments. The QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component will play program streams, which combine audio and video streams that share a common timeline and are suited for applications with software processing. Playback of transport streams, which combine audio and video with independent time bases, is not supported."

There is more information in the following link (Apple's MPEG2 Playback FAQ):

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/faq.html

For the time being it looks like MPEG Streamclip is the best solution (free) to multiplex the MPEG2 video/audio output by Compressor. However, a shareware utility called MPEG2 Works can also create multiplexed MPEG2 programs streams directly from any QuickTime format. MPEG2 Works is based upon various Unix/open source projects, it works pretty well and is probably the least expensive option on the Mac to do easy MPEG2 compression. It costs $10 (U.S.) and the author is pretty good about keeping you notified about updates and bug fixes (not spam, just occasional emails about free updates). Here is the MPEG2 Works link:

http://www.mpeg2works.com/

It performs a multitude of functions, MPEG2 encoding, muxing/demuxing, VCD and SVCD encoding (but not burning). The quality of the output may not always be as good as you can get from Compressor, but for only $10 you can hardly go wrong. Also, you will need Apple's MPEG2 Playback component if you want to use all of the features that are available in this utility (it does, however, provide its own MPEG2 compressor). And, of course, the multiplexed MPEG2 program streams that it produces play fine in the QuickTime Player.

Waymen: Thanks for the info! I appreciate it.

I am on Final Cut Studio and I have made a movie using imported dv for a class project. I had intended on putting it on CD Roms to hand out to my classmates but my output is HUGH. My original work file is only 1 mg when when I export it to the compressor it turns out to be 5 gigs much to large for even a DV which I am now trying to put it on. I want to retain high definition so I tried:
DVDBest quality 150 min. -- good definition, no music, too large of a file
DVCProHD 720p.60 - too slow, too large of a file
The best resolution I have obtain is through DVNTSC50 animorphic but it is huge 5 gigs and I still need to put more voice over it.

Can someone please give me some advise as to what COMPRESOR setting I can use, my entire movie is relatively small, I don't understand why my work file is 1 mg but then when I put it through the compressor it goes to up 5gigs!

I am on Final Cut Pro Academic and I also have Quicktime Pro but I don't want to put my movie into Quicktime Compression settings because when I tried I lost a LOT of resolution.

I have read the (books!) and am still lost, even more lost.

I am going to put the final version in a DVD but it does not necessarily have to be a DVD format. All I want is for it to play. Half of my classmates are on Apples and the other half on windows so it has to be able to play on either.

I would appreciate any help and suggestions.

Sue Black

Sue, you need to provide information on how long (in minutes) your video is. The size in MB or GB doesn't tell us much because that all depends upon the format of the movie file and the type of compression used.

I suspect that your 1MB movie is just a reference movie and that format doesn't include the real video data that you need to create a DVD or CD (it's only a reference to that data).

If the DV50 file is about 5GB I'd guess that your actual movie is only about twelve minutes in length, but then you also said that the DVD best quality 150 minute preset produced too large of a file. Thus, I can't determine how long your target movie really is (in minutes or hours).

You need to tell us the format of the source video (miniDV?), the total length of the movie (hours and minutes), and whether you want to create a standard DVD or a movie that will fit on and play from a CD.

Waymen: Thank you for your response. Video is 11.06 minutes. Source video is Sony DV premium mini DV. Video was imported in DV format to my I-Mac G-5. I imported the DV format to Final Cut Pro. In Final Cut Pro the stats for the film are as follows:
Audio: 1 stereo; Frame Size: 7620x480; Video rate: 29.97 fps; Compressor: dv/dvc pro; data ratre: 6.9 mb/second; Audio rate: 48.0 Khz; Audio format: 32 bit floating; Composite: normal; Pixel aspect: NTSC-CCIR.
I want to create a standard DVD with no chapters and to open the movie immediately; since I believe a 11.06 minutes movie should come out fairly small in size, I would also like to put in in a CD Rom so it can play in multiple computers and DV players.
Sue Black

You shouldn't have any problem with 11 minutes of MPEG2 video on a standard DVD. However, a CD can only hold about 1/7th of the data that a DVD can so you probably want to use at least a 90 minute preset for your MPEG2 compression -- since 90/7 = 13 minutes (approx.) of video on the CD.

If a 90 minute preset doesn't work (and it may not for the CD) then you'll either have to use a 120 minute preset _or_ tweak the existing 90 minute value to a slightly lower bitrate. Or, you might consider using one preset for the DVD (higher quality) and another for the CD.

* For Compressor v1.X *
Just try Apple's 90 minute preset and include PCM/AIFF audio.

* For Compressor 2 *
Try the so-called 120 minute preset and include PCM/AIFF audio. The reason you need to use the 120 minute preset is because the preset names in Compressor 2 are based upon jobs that use compressed Dolby/AC3 audio -- not PCM/AIFF audio. Thus the so-called 90 minute preset will not compress the video enough to fit on a CD (because it will only fit 60 minutes of combined video and uncompressed PCM/AIFF audio on a single DVD and that's not small enough for your CD). The preset description will also list the capacity for PCM/AIFF audio (which will be less), so just read the description to make certain that you have selected the proper preset. But again, this is only for Compressor 2.

* After You've Used Compressor *
For the CD (only), after you get done with the compression you'll want to use the MPEG Streamclip utility to mux (combine) the audio and video into a single file. You'll start with the .m2v and .aiff output by Compressor and combine them into a single file (.mpg or .mpeg) which you can then copy to a CD. MPEG Streamclip is freeware and available on VersionTracker.com.

Wayman,
Thank you I could not have figured it out on my own. I have been compressing and compressing to try to find the best possible output. In case this helps anyone, because compression time takes so long, The mpeg2 6.4mbps gave me some wonderful resolution, i.e. the reds are really red and my video is all clear. The file size is small about 560 mgs. Of course the problem is putting the sound together with the video. I changed to Dolby/AC3 audio as you told me. I am on compressor 2. I downloaded the tracker but I'm scared to put it in my system in case of potential bugs I can't afford to have my computer crash at this point. So I put the video and Dolby/AC3 into DVD Studio Pro 4. It burned the DVD but the only problem is that I lost a LOT of the resolution quality from the original high resolution 6.4mbps that the compressor gave me.

I build and burned to SD 4/3 my computer will burn to HD but all of the "books" say that the end user or the persons who will be able to actually play it will be limited with HD.

Is there some way to upgrade the color resolution when you burn it to the DVD?

I also tried to compress it using H264 which I understand that most people with quicktime player will be able to play/see it. It came out to 1.6G which is fine, it will fit in a DVD and it also put the sound in but again the resolution isn't that great. I know that you can play with the red/blue/ settings on the compressor when you use H264.
I have read most of the compressor instructions manual and the DVD Studio Pro 4 User Manual.

As you can tell I am not really good at computers. My second question is, can I put/burn my movie into different format such as H264 into a DVD without it actually being a "real DVD" without burning it as a DVD Player. I am trying to find the best format for mass audiances. I know that a DVD will play on computers that have DVD players.

From your experience what would be the BEST compression setting to use to get high resolution color.

Sue Black

Sue, the MPEG Streamclip utility is just an application and it shouldn't cause any problems or conflicts with the rest of your system. In my opinion it is definitely safe to use and install. The install process is very simple, just open the disc image (double click) and then drag the application to wherever you want it installed. MPEG Streamclip also comes with a short set of instructions (read me or help file) which I highly recommend that you read before use.

You should note, however, that many users will not be able to play MPEG2 material from a CD since it is not a common delivery format. If you want to use a CD I'd suggest making a reduced size (320x240) MPEG1 movie (Apple's Compressor can output MPEG1 and that format would be playable on practically all Mac and MS Windows systems).

Furthermore, note that H264 (H.264) compressed video can only be viewed on systems that are running QuickTime 7 and that could definitely limit the number of people who could view your video. Although H264 is a great codec I wouldn't use it unless you know for certain that everyone in your audience is using QuickTime 7 (which is somewhat unlikely).

In any case, your best bet for compatibility is to stay with a standard DVD.

There is no good reason why your original MPEG2 compressed at 6.4Mbps would give you "wonderful resolution" and then lose "a LOT of resolution" after you burned it to a DVD. If your build process was done correctly there should be no difference between the before and after MPEG2 quality. Your comments about the MPEG being 560MB while the H264 was 1.6GB also seem strange (at equivalent quality and resolution and given the same source the H264 should be smaller not larger).

One thing to note, I do not think that you should be trying to create HD resolution video. You should stay at a 640x480 output resolution -- this is the format you will want to use with standard definition NTSC video (or DVD) and it's also the most appropriate size given your miniDV source.

I'd suggest that you carefully review your work flow and do some more reading before you continue.

Although MPEG Streamclip does a great job with a variety of projects I am having problems muxing HD, I can only go up to 720p, if I try to go 1080i it will change the final size of the project to something like 1020x820 (Something like that I can't remember right now) not ideal for 1080i.

I don't know if anyone here works on HD that can shed some light on this.