Strategies to speed up rendering in compressor
Hi Gang,
Background:
I'm using an old 2008-era Quad Core (intel) mac pro with 5gb RAM and 2.67ghz processor. I have a lot of drive space spread amongst thee external and one internal drive, but my boot drive is getting rather full. I use FCS 3. I have OS 10.6.8.
I have a large number of projects to work on which are basically 90 minute long lectures with an inset of a screen. The video I am using generally consists of two AVC files in HD, with one of them shrunk down as an "inset" in my FCP sequence. It's a very simple sequence with very few filters applied. At most I use a few cross fades and maybe a color-3-way applied to both clips.
The problem:
Despite this rather simple setup, when I send the project to compressor, it takes a VERY long time to render.
Here's what strategies I've employed so far to help speed things up:
- Told Qmaster (in System Preferences) to use multiple instances of compressor for my mulitple core machine (I use 2 of the four I have).
- Exported the project using "make quicktime movie", (which itself takes a few hours) and then importing that into compressor- i.e. NOT using "send to compressor" from FCP.
- Turning off Frame Controls in Compressor (under "inspector")
- Rendering out to a disk that has plenty of room on it.
- Turning off as many other applications as I can
Despite this, my rendering time in Compressor is very, very slow. For a single 90 minute project, being exported out to H.264 (8mb/s roughly), the process takes about 15 hours or so, which is rather prohibitive. To go to an SD DVD format (mpeg-2 usually) takes about the same amount of time if not longer (It's hard to tell sometimes, since I'm usually not at the computer or asleep when it finally finishes.)
What, if any, additional strategies can I employ to speed things up? Would converting the files I use to a certain codec in MPEG Streamclip help? Would it reduce the total time for my beginning-end workflow? IS FCS X a better option? Would breaking up the long file into smaller "chunks" and then rendering the whole mess as a "batch" help?
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Power Mac, Mac OS X (10.6), 4 core intel