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User profile for user: P Tremblay
P Tremblay Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Compressor4 - over 40 hours for a 125min movie - (double layer)

Salute


I am about new to FCPX and Compressor 4, but this is because I was quite confortable with iMovie and my new projects were asking me to jump to the new apps.I am spending hours and hours reading the user's manual and listening to great tutorials but there still is a part of experience I won't get without being on the floor... Here I am.


Got a 125 min movie which I sent from FCPX to Compressor 4 cause I need to deliver it on a DVD - and I've choosen to work on DoubleLayers because all the things you know....


Now, here are my few questions. It keeps on taking 30, 40, 50 hours before burning on a DL disc. I do use the simple mp2 settings for exporting but would it be because I'm using DL disc? I've tried a few versions (saved on my HD) to ProRes422 and it took much less time.


Is it because it's a 2 hours film? It feels like if it was much longer than two separate 60min movies (with all the same settings) - am I right?


Therfore, should I make 2 stand alone movies (in ProRes for instance), and my next issue would be to build a DVD with 2 stand alone movies and try to make chapters with each of 'em (it may sound ridiculous for most of you but I've never done it with Compressor) 😕


On a double layer?


I beleive you got my whole thing...


Thanx for your time

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 23, 2012 10:16 AM

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13 replies
User profile for user: P Tremblay
P Tremblay Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

May 23, 2012 1:12 PM in response to Russ H

Thank you Russ. You just made me realize I did it 2 days ago, you're right. But I'm so much into troubles (read small troubles) and wonderings I kinda lose the straight way!


SORRY !!! english aint my first language so maybe I sound weird in the way I explain things. And I didnt come back to your answer but it's been very helpful, sincerly.


The point is I religiously followed your advices, and I was kinda right in the codec I use, and my resolution settings. Here is my actual real question: is it a much better way to go to ProRes (proxy or not?) instead of taking it from FCPX's timeline and export it to compressor? I thought I had to take a movie to mp2 when I had to make a DVD out of it. I can do it from a ProRes or I have to transfer it again to mp2?


Thanx

And I'm sorry to continue the same thing on a different post. I'll never do that anymore.... I swear😉

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User profile for user: P Tremblay
P Tremblay Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

May 23, 2012 4:42 PM in response to Russ H

OK. This project is for a client (a dance company) in multiple copies. But copies are not my responsibility, as long as my concern is to deliver a master to a third party. I would tell you I believe these DVDs are going to be copied (and not printed) - if it means anything...


And about codecs, I thank you for your advice, since I actually like what ProRes is giving, both in quality and compression - but I wouldn't wanna be technically out of nowhere so I wasn't sure how to deal with them. If ever you feel like doing so, explain me in a word or two the actual difference between the different types of ProRes: 422, HQ, Proxy and so on...


You're helpful to me, thanx

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User profile for user: Russ H
Russ H
User level: Level 7
22,432 points

May 23, 2012 7:33 PM in response to Russ H

A good summary of differerent Pro Res variants can be found here.


The most reliable way, in my opinion is to expiort a self contained movie (export media) and use that file to encode your DVD.


One suggestion: why not try in iDVD? The workflow would be straighforward, just taking your ProRes 422 file into an iDVD project. It offers menu capability that Compressor cannot approach and should be able to handle DL DVDs at least as well as Compressor.


Russ

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User profile for user: P Tremblay
P Tremblay Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

May 25, 2012 12:40 PM in response to Russ H

OK. So here I am now with this new wondering.

I learned so much in the last few days, I clearly figured out so many things with these new programs for sure I'm getting somewhere. A big part of it stands where I never worked on a 2 hour film.


Everything is set up correctly, talking of codec, size, resolution... Now it still goes up to 74 hours to go from ProRes 422 HD (just like it's been imported from the cameras) to ProRess 422 SD (what I actually want for my DVD).


Video editing, FCPX, from 3 cameras. A few elementary effects (fades and other transitions) and NeatVideo.


Am I right when I say the biggest part of it belongs to the rendering, obviously. Now, is there a box I should (or shouldn't) have checked somewhere or something else I should know regarding rendering.


I know NeatVideo is still in a beta version, but it worked very well on short movies so I decided to use it cause it's about dancers in a concert hall. AND, the point ain't there, anyway. Nevertheless, it takes more time to render a movie with NeatVideo than a noisy one.


Is there somebody somewhere who could tell me: "Pascal, have you uncheked this? Have you made it this way?" or something like that which probably regards rendering.


So it would take 6, 8 or even 12 hours but not 70 !!!



Be happy.

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User profile for user: Russ H
Russ H
User level: Level 7
22,432 points

May 25, 2012 1:00 PM in response to P Tremblay

Hey Pascal,


Two days ago you started an iDVD project? WHat was the outcome???


iDVD should be the most straightforward of all workflows. Just use the same QUickTime ProRes fiile that you exported from FCP. Drag that file directly into an iDVD project…you don't have to resize it or do anything in Compressor.


How long should it take? Depends on your CPU. But not 70 hours.


Russ

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User profile for user: P Tremblay
P Tremblay Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

May 25, 2012 1:54 PM in response to Russ H

Thank you. Yes, I got one from iDVD. I could read it beautifully on my Mac but it the reading was not nice on a tv, it was not smooth and even but stoping continuously (I dont know the right word!). And what I burned via iDVD was only for trying something.


Because: the project is a 2 hour show which is made of 2 different sets: on hour each. The first hour stands on a ProRes422 QT file (50Go), which I beleive I got from FCP using the Export function - it took a few hours, 7 - 8...


And, since the point was to see how iDVD would manage the project, I simply repeated the 1st set to end up with a DVD containing 2 hours of movie. (by the way, everything was set up for getting a DL, but it kept on telling me "your 2 hours of movies can stand on a simple layer - are you sure you wanna use a DL disc?" - and it burns the DL half its capacities, so it was compressed to 4go when it could be to 8 )


Now, the 2nd set still stands on my timeline since I couldn't make a document out of it without taking 40, 50 up to 70 hours !


I will feel dumb if you tell me I can take a document from my HD somewhere and go to iDVD right from there...

Would it be the CurrentVersion.fcpproject? I beleive the only way a could get a QT document from the 1st set was to take a few hours to make a ProRes out of it, am I wrong?





I have an iMac 27" Quadcore, 16Go ram... 3 hard discs with more then half the space available !!!

I gotta be doin something wrong (?)

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User profile for user: Russ H
Russ H
User level: Level 7
22,432 points

May 25, 2012 2:13 PM in response to P Tremblay

Are you in a PAL or NTSC part of the world? In iDVD, go to Project>Project info and make sure the setting is correct for your country. (That's also something you'd want to verify if you use Compressor. In which case, you'd go to the Encoder Pane in the Inspector>Video Format.)


When iDVD squeezed more than 2 hours on a single layer, it used a low bit rate to do so. Although that doesn't explain why the movie stuttered in playback, it will make a difference in image quality if you chose Professional Quality…again, that's from the Project Information window. Then cloose Dual Layer and, hopefully you'll get better results.


Russ

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User profile for user: Russ H
Russ H
User level: Level 7
22,432 points

May 25, 2012 2:20 PM in response to P Tremblay

Unintentionally skipped past your QUick Time export questiom. In FCPX, you go to Share>Export Media. You have a choice of what location to save it to. Perhaps you've done this already. If you haven't, ith your iMac, it shouldn't take long to export. And if your Timeline isn't fully rendered, don't bother rendering. Just export…it will save time.



Russ

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User profile for user: Russ H
Russ H
User level: Level 7
22,432 points

May 25, 2012 3:21 PM in response to P Tremblay

Yes, it renders in the export process. For reasons I don't fullly understand, rendering within FCPX takes alot longer than if you just export unrendered. (I've heard that the export process brings the graphics card into the processing whereas rendering the Timeline just relies on the CPU.) In the legacy versions of FCP, we (or at least most of us) always rendered before exporting. So this is quite a change.


Of course, all of this when to render stuff is irrelevant if your sequence isn't playing smoothly and you can't make your edits. But if it plays well enough, I just ignore the render bars.


Russ

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Compressor4 - over 40 hours for a 125min movie - (double layer)

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