I have been trying to get the correct encoding settings down in compressor, then gave up and bought Episode because I read how much quicker it is to render, but I am still having major issues with video that looks incredibly blocky. My final output goal is to offer these 18-25 minute clips at resolutions of 480x360, with bitrates between 2000-3000 in both h.264 and wmv. My computer/software specs are fcs 5.1.4(the last version, before the current fcs2), Episode 4.4, os 10.4.10, quicktime 7.1.6, G5 quad with 4 gb ram.

FIRST: Before I get into the encode settings, let me go over how I get my source file from fcp, maybe I am doing something wrong here? This is how i go about it below:

My footage is 1080i60 hdv shot from a z1. I capture and edit in a sequence with the HDV 1080i60 preset in fcp. I leave the sequence prest as is and never change anything, field dominance is set to upper, and quicktime video settings in the preset is set to hdv 1080i60 for the compressor.

After I am done editing, I go to file>export.Quicktime Movie, and at the bottom of the dialog screen I click settings and select hdv 1080i60. Back at the dialog box before i save i leave recompress all frames unchecked, and check save self contained movie.

SECOND, I am obviously not doing any deinterlace in fcp, and just doing in in the compression software where there seems to be a large number of possible combinations. Should I be doing deinterlace in fcp instead?

Now as for episode, anyone have any ideas on settings, I don't really know what do do because i think I have cranked everything up to give the best quality but I am still getting these blocky encodes. This leads me to think I am doing something wrong with exporting my source.

Also, any pros who know their way around Episode?

Joe /
As an alternative test & solution / Download mpeg steamclip freeware
Mac or Windows for a pro - It should solve your problems.

If you are converting 1080/60i to 480x360 H.264 with compressor, it shouldn't have to be that hard. Just use the workflow preset in the compressor, just play around with the ratio and the transferring rate.

Well, my problem was with exporting my quicktime movie out of fcp. I was exporting and instead of just leaving "curent settings" seleceted, i was going and selecting the format that my project was in, thinking this was fine, but in actuality it was recompressing the footage giving me a poor source file to start with.

Thanks to everyone who replied here!

Joe, in wmv 2-3000Kbps for 480x360 pixels video is way overkill! You can get near perfect looking video at 512 Kbps - check out http://www.dialogcuviata.com/arhiva/12.wmv and watch at least a minute (the intro is poor quality to start with). If you have a lot of motion, maybe you need to go a little higher, but 750K or 1Mbps is probably the max you will need.

Well, my problem was with exporting my quicktime movie out of fcp. I was exporting and instead of just leaving "curent settings" seleceted, i was going and selecting the format that my project was in, thinking this was fine, but in actuality it was recompressing the footage giving me a poor source file to start with.

Thanks to everyone who replied here!

I'm going through the same thing right now.

I have an ok looking file that was directly compressed from a betacam sp edit master, but when I then export it to Mpeg it recompresses the footage.

the manufacturers of the analog to digital file convertor claim I can export "native", which I guess means it won't recompress the compressed file, but so far the native function is always grayed out and I can't use it.