Rendering a sequence and getting nice final quality video

There isn't anything magic about HD, it's just bigger.

First, I hope you're outputting your show in the timeline format (whatever the source video required) to get the best "master" clip. From there, it's off to Compressor.

Since all DVDs are SD irrespective of what the source format was, you will be using the appropriate MPEG-2 preset for the length of your show.

For the web, use H.264 unless you have specific customer needs. H.264 is properly called "MPEG-4, Layer 10" which is another way of sayiing it's MPEG-4 for the 21st century. It's smaller and higher quality than the old stuff.

There are dozens of H.264 presets for a wide variety of purposes, so get to know the various specs.

If you're not a User Guide reader, either become one or find yourself a decent tutorial on Compressor. There's a lot to know and it's time well spent learning this stuff. I'm fond of Ripple Training's "The Art of Compression Using Compressor" with Brian Gary probably because I worked with Brian and Steve on the project (and no, I won't get paid for mentioning it.)

Never forget that Compression is always a compromise between quality and filesize.

HTH

When you say,

I hope you're outputting your show in the timeline format (whatever the source video required) to get the best "master" clip.

What exactly do you mean, "Timeline Format?" Do you just mean that the compressor setting are the same as the video in the timeline?

I mean are you exporting the timeline as a QuickTime Movie using the "Current Settings" option? This exports using the same Format as the Timeline (ergo, timeline format.)

Here's my process.

1. I'm usually working with either .MP4 or .MOV files from my camera.
2. I use compressor to convert those files to Apple ProRes 422.
3. I then edit these on the timeline.
4. To Render a complete Timeline...
   • Right Click on the Sequence file in the library.
   • Send To -> Compressor
   • Then I choose the format from there (as stated in my original question). However, sometimes I choose Export -> "Use Quicktime Conversion" or "Quicktime Movie."

1.) .MOV is a generic suffix for dozens of different QuickTime files. It's like saying "I drive a car" instead of "I drive a Fiat."

2.) You may be able to use Log and Transfer for ingesting your footage (depending on the file type.)

3.) OK

4.) Here we have some real "wiggle room." The "normal" method of rendering a timeline is to use (Apple Menu) Sequence>Render All (⌥R). Make sure all appropriate levels of rendering are specified. Once the sequence is rendered, it can be exported as a self-contained QuickTime Movie using Current Settings.

Rendering using "Send To" Compressor is normally only used in instances where your final output format is supported in Compressor and you deem it necessary to bypass existing render files and re-render every frame in the sequence from the original source. While touted as "highest possible quality" by Apple, the process does not support all filters and effects and is arduously slow. It may well be that the artifacts and issues you're having with Compressor are the result of excessive compression.

The Export Using QuickTime Conversion is normally reserved for non-video files like still images and audio because it sometimes produces inferior video files.

Try the workflow I've outlined above, it should speed up your work substantially. Again I encourage you to take a bit of time to really understand Compressor. It's a fine and important tool.

Hey Rat,

I've never heard that certain filters and effects were incompatible with "send to compressor." Can you point me to some documentation on this? I usually use "send to compressor", when I need to leave the office at the end of an arduous day and come in the next morning with a compressed file for uploading. This way I don't have to stick around for what can sometimes be a multihour export from fcp and then bring that exported file into compressor. The only downside I've found is that you can't use a cluster in compressor. I've never had a problem with it. Just did it last night with a 40 minute HD (prores 422 1080) project with Japanese subtitles. No comples effects, just some scaling and 3way color corrects. And the finished h264 file was waiting for me when I came in this morning.

Hey Michael,

This is embarassing, but no. I can't point you to any references. I can recall hearing Steve Martin of Ripple Training warning of this and even found an old test clip with some (Boris FX) Continuum Complete filters that didn't survive, but no published references.

More importantly, as I was working through this I realized that the problem showed up back in Studio2/FCP6 when it was called Export Using Compressor. To add a little more stuff to the game, I was on a G-5 dualie and Tiger back then. It's completely possible that the problem was fixed in a subsequent release.

What you're suggesting sounds completely sane. I've also heard of guys doing days of "Send to Compressor" exporting in an effort to get better looking output. I may even try it myself some some day, but then I don't use filters like I did back in my event days.