Memo2Self

Q: How can a 90-minute movie take 500 HOURS to compress?

Hi - I am trying to make a Blu-Ray of a feature film I've cut with a 5.1 surround mix.  I still use FCP7 and Compressor 3.5.3.  I've successfully created a 5.1 ac3 track but am now trying to create an MPEG-2 file to match.  I've been following the workflow described by Danny Daneau at this blog -- http://www.theatticdoormovie.com/blog/2009/mac-bluray/ -- and it successfully worked on another project.  But this time the QT movie I've brought into Compressor (ProRes 422 HQ, 1920x1080) is taking an extraordinarily long time to convert.  One pass I tried brought up the remaining time to 1200 hours!  I'm pretty sure the settings I'm using in the screen shot below match the ones in the blog post, and as I say, I successfully used this method two weeks ago.  (I have a 2009 MBP running Snow Leopard, and Activity Monitor shows that the 8GB of RAM are not being unusually taxed.)  Any thoughts at ALL?  Many thanks.

Screen shot 2014-04-09 at 7.49.10 AM.png

Posted on Apr 10, 2014 5:22 AM

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Q: How can a 90-minute movie take 500 HOURS to compress?

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  • by Michael Grenadier,

    Michael Grenadier Michael Grenadier Apr 10, 2014 6:20 AM in response to Memo2Self
    Level 7 (20,362 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 10, 2014 6:20 AM in response to Memo2Self

    The projected time is just an estimate and it could take 1000 hrs.   (just kidding, it's usually less than the estimate)

     

    Unfortunately Compressor can only address one core and I think something like 2 gigs of Ram UNLESS you enable Qmaster to distribute the processing among the cores.  Here's instructions on settings this up.

     

    http://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/using_compressor_with_multiple_cores. html

     

     

    You might also try doing a short test by setting an in and out in the preview window in compressor. 

  • by Memo2Self,

    Memo2Self Memo2Self Apr 10, 2014 7:21 AM in response to Michael Grenadier
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2014 7:21 AM in response to Michael Grenadier

    Thanks, Michael - I will try that.  I can say that the last time I attempted this, I ran it overnight, and ten hours later it still said nearly 500 hours to go (you can see that in the times on the screenshot).  This wouldn't baffle me so much if I hadn't successfully created a surround BD using this same workflow before (and that movie was 15 minutes LONGER).  It did take a long time, of course, but this extraordinary projection of completion is new on this one.  Thanks for responding so quickly.

  • by Memo2Self,

    Memo2Self Memo2Self Apr 10, 2014 6:12 PM in response to Michael Grenadier
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2014 6:12 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

    Here's the latest.  I followed the Qmaster instructions, but unfortunately I have an Intel Core 2 duo MBP, so I can't utilize the "multiple core" solution.  I attempted compressing this 92-minute movie again this morning, and it's now 11 hours later -- here's where it's at.

    Screen shot 2014-04-10 at 9.08.02 PM.png

    I am absolutely lost.

  • by Meg The Dog,

    Meg The Dog Meg The Dog Apr 10, 2014 7:05 PM in response to Memo2Self
    Level 6 (11,158 points)
    Video
    Apr 10, 2014 7:05 PM in response to Memo2Self

    Is your source file for Compressor a Self-Contained QuickTime?

     

    MtD

  • by Memo2Self,

    Memo2Self Memo2Self Apr 10, 2014 7:29 PM in response to Meg The Dog
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2014 7:29 PM in response to Meg The Dog

    Yes, Meg - it's a 181 GB self-contained QuickTime movie, ProRes 422 HQ.  I exported it from FCP7 without audio, as I already had successfully exported a six-track ac3 file of the 5.1 surround mix.  (FCP is completely out of the picture at this time.)  Using the workflow that I followed above, I would be bringing the MPEG-2 compression of the movie along with the ac3 file into MPEG Streamclip, turning it into a Video TS file that Toast 11 will be able to read and turn into a 5.1 Blu-Ray.  As I mentioned, this absolutely worked before on another feature I edited, with the same ProRes file.  The difference this time is that Compressor is taking a ridiculously long time to create that m2v file, and the estimated time is increasing rather than reducing.  Thanks for responding!

  • by hyphen,

    hyphen hyphen Apr 14, 2014 6:53 AM in response to Memo2Self
    Level 6 (15,493 points)
    Apr 14, 2014 6:53 AM in response to Memo2Self

    Hi Memo2Self

     

    Did you say Video TS? Are you sure? This is sd