Re: attn: Michael Sacci re: 83 min. encode by Michael Sacci on Sep 28, 2009 at 11:15:35 pm
Any time the bitrate can be at or over 6.5 I always to a CBR encode. Between 5.5-6.5 I do a test to see if it is better.
If all you have is 83 minutes (you have to add up everything including motion menus, you can push it up to 7 Mbps. This is of course with ac3 audio at .192 for stereo.
You need to find a bitrate calc (just google it) and it will give you this information.
All this being said, people think that the BEST is a simple setting, it is not. It starts with the original footage, does to the editing and color correcting, then tweaking settings and filters in Compressor. Bitrate is just the math, not the art. If you have noisy footage that has not been color corrected your encode will probably look like crap. If you have done a good job with what is going into compressor than the main thing is to make sure you do not swap fields, HDV is upper and you want to keep it upper in the m2v. I would also do a test of exporting from the FCP sequence straight to Compressor, it is slow (but the CBR speeds things up greatly) and it ties up FCP and Compressor but most of the time it is worth it. Do a 10 minute test encode with way if you like.
Re: attn: Michael Sacci re: 83 min. encode by Russ Spencer on Sep 28, 2009 at 11:25:18 pm
thank you very much michael. I don't know what you mean by "exporting from the FCP sequence straight to compressor." my method is simply to have the sequence open, pull down the file menu into export, then compressor, and go from there. Is that what you mean?
Re: attn: Michael Sacci re: 83 min. encode by Michael Sacci on Sep 29, 2009 at 12:00:07 am
With FCP timeline pane active -
Export > Using Compressor > will open up Compressor, doing it this way FCP sends one UNCOMPRESSED frame at a time. The reason for the extra time but also the reason for the bump in quality.
Re: attn: Michael Sacci re: 83 min. encode by Michael Sacci on Sep 29, 2009 at 12:37:05 am
the more common way to do it is to export a self contained QT movie and then bring that into Compressor. Faster and doesn't tie up FCP. Whenever possible and with CBR I do the Export Using Compressor method.
Re: attn: Michael Sacci re: 83 min. encode by Russ Spencer on Oct 1, 2009 at 7:22:50 pm
you were right michael, i mistakenly had it on VBR one pass instead. My bad.
but now I have a different problem. I am on deadline to get this dvd to a film fest and have tried twice to encode. the program sez it will take about 10 hours, and then each time, after about 8 hours, final cut pro crashes. this is obviously making me crazy.
