"Send to Compressor" Vs. "Compressor" Transcoding Time

Question

Level 1

28 points

"Send to Compressor" Vs. "Compressor" Transcoding Time

Hi everybody,

When transcoding a H.264 video (1280x720; 25p; 1hr. approx.) to MPEG-2 using the default settings in Compressor, it takes around 2,5 hrs to complete the job.

However, I have realized that if I first import the H.264 media in FCPX (neither optimized nor proxy), create a project (default settings) with that media and then use the "Send to Compressor" command, it takes only about 20 min. to transcode it (same MPEG-2 default settings in Compressor).

Does anybody knows why this could happen? By the way, this issue is not only constrained to H.264 to MPEG-2. It happens with any transcode combination.

Many thanks for your help,

Miguel

Compressor 4.2.1

FCPX 10.2.2

OSX 10.11.2

MacBook Pro 2,2 GHz i7 Quad (early 2011); 500 GB SSD; 8 GB RAM; AMD Radeon HD 6750M

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Jan 4, 2016 4:17 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jan 4, 2016 5:14 AM in response to mpovedano

I would expect both workflows to be approximately the same times for the MPEG and audio files encoding. (That's notwithstanding the additional time that exporting a stand alone H.264 file from FCP will take.)

I assume that your test times also include the job action, which either creates a disk image or a physical DVD.

The 2.5 hour test is the one that seems way out of line. Check Activity Monitor to ensure that you have sufficient physical free memory. And check to see that you have sufficient free space on your boot drive for Compressor to write the temporary files it needs.

Russ

Reply

Answer 2

mpovedano Author

Level 1

28 points

Jan 4, 2016 6:50 AM in response to Russ H

Russ, thanks for your replay.

I do not create nor disk image nor physical DVD, just the MPEG-2 file.

I am attaching a screen shot for both processes, including the Activity Monitor. Apparently, It does not seem to be a memory problem

About the SSD boot drive, it has about 400 GB of free space.

For some reason I do not understand, Compressor itself takes boy x10 longer than through the workaround.

Many thanks,

Miguel

Reply

Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,825 points

Jan 4, 2016 7:02 AM in response to mpovedano

Please give complete specifications of this H.264 file. You're only giving the codec. When you import into FCP, the file is often rewrapped to a different framework, which might be much more efficient.

Reply

Answer 4

mpovedano Author

Level 1

28 points

Jan 4, 2016 7:35 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thanks, Tom.

H.264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)

2.06 GB; 5,58 Mb/s.

1280x720

25p

When imported to FCPX, it is not optimized and it is left in place. It is imported as a matter of seconds. Furthermore, it is sent to Compressor in seconds as well.

I have tried with files of different specs and have compressed not only to MPEG-2, but different formats as well, with same result: Compressor itself takes much longer (about x10) than through the workaround.

Moreover, I have made a test with AME (same settings than in Compressor): about 20 min. to perform de job.

Miguel

Reply