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Compressor watchfolder with multiple tasks

I would like to start using compressor as my ingest routine for adobe premiere.

I am transferring my footage from the SD Card and create a watchfolder in compressor which converts all footage to Prores HQ, which works fine.

Now I ask myself if I auto-transcode the same footage frome the watchfolder to prores proxy at the same time?

Can I add two transcode-jobs to the same watchfolder?

Do I have to create two watchfolders pointing to the same directory?


And another one:

Is it possible to just copy all the files that arrive in this folder to another location with compressor without any transcoding? (I know theres audio and video passthrough but I am looking for a simple copy-command)

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.4

Posted on Apr 24, 2024 4:29 AM

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5 replies

Apr 24, 2024 6:19 AM in response to PeteHikers

If you don't mind my asking, why transcode the files to ProResHQ? Any transcoding will never add to the quality of your files. ProRes files are more amenable to edit, so if you are to apply lots of effects, color correction, etc, the may stand better than original media, but you get nothing extra by using ProResHQ over ProRes.


In FCP, in just about every case, I just edit with the original files directly. I don't have Premiere, so maybe it won't deal adequately with your media.


Regarding copying files instead of transcoding: this is easy, and Compressor does not need to be involved; macOS has the tools for that. Just add a Folder Action to this folder.


In Automator, press Command-N to create a new workflow, select "Folder Action".

Something like this will be enough - just select the source folder at the top, and the destination folder in the popup (it says "Desktop" in the picture, select the folder you want).




Apr 24, 2024 8:44 AM in response to PeteHikers

You can certainly create multiple versions of your files in one go in Compressor, and it is actually trivial to do so.

You already have a watch folder, simply add another preset to it.

Here is an example that I just made to illustrate (Note: I have never used Watch Folders in Compressor, but you already dominate that concept, so all that is missing to add one - or more - presets to it)





Apr 24, 2024 6:36 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks for your help! The automator action is great, I hope it will not interfere with a watchfolder.

When I bought the m2 max with 32 GB ram, I thought transcoding would be over. But its not - at least with Sony XAVC-S or XAVC-HS UHD 50p 422 10bit. In FCPx or Premiere or Resolve, playback of my unedited files ist fine. But scrubbing is laggy in this format and when applying effects like simple colour correction in the end on a 30 min timeline, everything breaks down. The cause is 10bit 422 - which is not hardware accellerated the same way as 8 bit 420 footage as it seems - this works buttersmooth. So to keep this quality I need to transcode.. As this needs massive space (I am using a 12TB RAID), I would like to create proxies (Prores Proxy HD) at the same time the local drive of my Macbook, does this work using the same watchfolder? Or can I just create a SECOND watchfolder on the same location?

Apr 24, 2024 8:30 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks. Yes, in FCPx I used to create optimized media AND Proxies in the application. Optimized media is "only" the regular Prores 422 and not Prores HQ but in most cases is doesnt make a difference. I needed to switch to premiere for work unfortunately and in premiere there are ingest presets, but they cause problems with multichannel audio, if you dont stick to the 16 bit preset.. so I need to create proxies and optimized media externally to ensure easy relinking. So you dont know how to create both at the same time with compressor?

Compressor watchfolder with multiple tasks

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