The Compressor blues at DVinfo.net

Joshua Heater · July 23rd, 2011, 10:00 PM

I recently just exported a quicktime movie that was 25gb in size (roughly 35min long) and now I am running it through compressor to make dvd. I have done about 40 of these clips and usually takes 9-10 hours of overnight compressing to make m2v file. For some reason compressor is telling me 239 hours. I just let it run overnight and it continued to stay in the 200 hour range. I let it run all day and I paused it to let a droplet run to make an aiff file and then resumed it. It is now saying 14 hours but is steadily growing. Anyone have any answers for this? I do have frame controls on, 2 pass, 16:9 standard dvd. I shot this on a 5d and I didn't even do any color correcting. I am just kind of puzzled.

Les Wilson · July 24th, 2011, 06:33 AM

I think I've seen that once. Did you export from FCP as a self contained or reference file? It might be that some bug is causing little memory to be available to Compressor. Does rebooting change it?

Also, as a matter of workflow for DVD from HD, most prefer to resize the HD to SD in an FCP timeline, export to Quicktime (self contained) and then compress for DVD.

Joshua Heater · July 24th, 2011, 09:04 AM

I will try a reboot and reexport. It was a self contained. Never tried exporting as a standard def (16:9). Do I lose any quality by doing that as opposed of Compressor changing to standard def. I tried the same thing on my macbook pro with an export of ref file and it is doing same thing. I originally cut this on my macbook pro and exported to raid and then transferred over to the imac to compressor.

Les Wilson · July 24th, 2011, 06:53 PM

Do some searching here on terms like FCP workflow DVD and you'll find people sharing their different techniques. Basically, some techniques result in aliasing in the SD 16:9 downscaling from HD. Various techniques have been discovered that don't have the aliasing. Going directly to DVD in Compressor, to my memory, is one of the techniques that results in aliasing (I've experienced it as well). But if your workflow uses FCP to do the rescaling from HD to DVD 16:9, you don't get the aliasing. The devil is in some of the details. It's not hard.

Joshua Heater · July 26th, 2011, 07:29 PM

I found the problem. somehow I managed to get the timeline to be 30fps and all of my footage was 24fps. Changed it out and now compressor ran my 22gb mov file to mv2 in 3 hours. phew.

July 23rd, 2011, 10:00 PM	#1
Joshua Heater Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Saint Louis, MO Posts: 30	The Compressor blues I recently just exported a quicktime movie that was 25gb in size (roughly 35min long) and now I am running it through compressor to make dvd. I have done about 40 of these clips and usually takes 9-10 hours of overnight compressing to make m2v file. For some reason compressor is telling me 239 hours. I just let it run overnight and it continued to stay in the 200 hour range. I let it run all day and I paused it to let a droplet run to make an aiff file and then resumed it. It is now saying 14 hours but is steadily growing. Anyone have any answers for this? I do have frame controls on, 2 pass, 16:9 standard dvd. I shot this on a 5d and I didn't even do any color correcting. I am just kind of puzzled.

July 24th, 2011, 06:33 AM	#2
Les Wilson Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boca Raton, FL Posts: 3,014	Re: The Compressor blues I think I've seen that once. Did you export from FCP as a self contained or reference file? It might be that some bug is causing little memory to be available to Compressor. Does rebooting change it? Also, as a matter of workflow for DVD from HD, most prefer to resize the HD to SD in an FCP timeline, export to Quicktime (self contained) and then compress for DVD.

July 24th, 2011, 09:04 AM	#3
Joshua Heater Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Saint Louis, MO Posts: 30	Re: The Compressor blues I will try a reboot and reexport. It was a self contained. Never tried exporting as a standard def (16:9). Do I lose any quality by doing that as opposed of Compressor changing to standard def. I tried the same thing on my macbook pro with an export of ref file and it is doing same thing. I originally cut this on my macbook pro and exported to raid and then transferred over to the imac to compressor.

July 24th, 2011, 06:53 PM	#4
Les Wilson Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boca Raton, FL Posts: 3,014	Re: The Compressor blues Do some searching here on terms like FCP workflow DVD and you'll find people sharing their different techniques. Basically, some techniques result in aliasing in the SD 16:9 downscaling from HD. Various techniques have been discovered that don't have the aliasing. Going directly to DVD in Compressor, to my memory, is one of the techniques that results in aliasing (I've experienced it as well). But if your workflow uses FCP to do the rescaling from HD to DVD 16:9, you don't get the aliasing. The devil is in some of the details. It's not hard.

July 26th, 2011, 07:29 PM	#5
Joshua Heater Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Saint Louis, MO Posts: 30	Re: The Compressor blues I found the problem. somehow I managed to get the timeline to be 30fps and all of my footage was 24fps. Changed it out and now compressor ran my 22gb mov file to mv2 in 3 hours. phew.