Apple Compressor - 4.1 User Guide

Compressor

User Guide

K Apple Inc.

Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The owner or authorized user of a valid copy of Compressor software may reproduce this publication for the purpose of learning to use such software. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this publication or for providing paid for support services.

The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Use of the “keyboard” Apple logo (Shift-Option-K) for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of Apple may constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition in violation of federal and state laws.

Every eort has been made to ensure that the information in

this manual is accurate. Apple is not responsible for printing or clerical errors.

Note: Because Apple frequently releases new versions and updates to its system software, applications, and Internet sites,

images shown in this manual may be slightly dierent from

what you see on your screen.

Apple

1 Innite Loop

Cupertino, CA 95014 408-996-1010

www.apple.com

Apple, the Apple logo, Apple TV, Final Cut, Final Cut Pro, Finder, iPad, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, Mac, Mac OS, OS X, QuickTime, and Xsan are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

AppleCare is a service mark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

IOS is a trademark or registered trademark of Cisco in the U.S. and other countries and is used under license.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

The YouTube logo is a trademark of Google Inc.

Other company and product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective companies. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the performance or use of these products.

Audi R8 production stills: Closed course with drivers wearing safety equipment. Do not attempt on public roads; always

obey local trac laws. Audi trademarks are used with

permission of Audi of America, Inc.

019-2560

5 Chapter 1: What’s new in Compressor? 5 What’s new in Compressor 4.1?

6 Chapter 2: Compressor basics 6 What is Compressor? 7 Compressor workow 8 Interface overview

11 Chapter 3: Simple transcoding 11 Simple transcoding overview 12 Transcode les 16 Built-in settings 17 Built-in destinations 18 Built-in locations

19 Chapter 4: Advanced adjustments 19 Advanced adjustments overview 20 Work with settings 20 View and modify a setting’s properties 21 Create custom settings 23 Remove a setting 23 About formats and settings 24 Setting properties 50 Work with destinations 50 View and modify a destination’s properties 51 Create custom destinations 52 Remove a destination 52 Work with locations 54 Work with jobs 54 Overview 54 View and modify job properties 55 Job properties 58 Work with job actions 61 Work with batches

62 Chapter 5: Advanced tasks 62 Advanced tasks overview 62 Work with image sequence les 62 Import image sequence les 64 Work with surround sound les 64 Import and modify surround sound les 67 About audio channels

69 Modify an output le’s frame size 69 Modify frame size overview 70 Crop or pad the video frame 71 Modify an output le’s frame rate 71 Frame rate options overview 71 Retime video and audio output 72 Modify timing and frame rate 73 About deinterlacing 74 About reverse telecine 76 Add video and audio eects 76 Add and remove eects 77 Video eects 79 Audio eects 80 Add metadata 81 Set a poster frame 82 Add markers 85 Limit time ranges when transcoding 86 Common transcoding workows 86 Example: Create a le with burned-in timecode 87 Example: Convert NTSC or PAL footage to 24p HD 88 Example: Create daily review copies of footage

91 Chapter 6: Work smarter 91 Work smarter overview 91 Compressor preferences 91 Compressor preferences overview 91 General 92 My Computer 92 Shared Computers 93 Advanced 94 Keyboard shortcuts 94 Built-in keyboard shortcuts 95 Customize keyboard shortcuts 98 Create and use droplets 100 Transcode Final Cut Pro and Motion projects using Compressor 100 Enable one or more instances of Compressor 101 Use distributed processing 101 Transcode batches using other computers 103 Manually congure le sharing 104 Use the command line to submit Compressor jobs

107 Glossary

Contents 4

What’s new in Compressor?

What’s new in Compressor 4.1?

Compressor 4.1 introduces a new design and various new features, detailed below.

New interface

The interface in Compressor 4.1 has been updated with the following new features:

•

A dark, neutral background—identical to the backgrounds in Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5—to enhance color perception and put the focus on your media

•

Three dierent interface views:

•

Current view—the default view—where you prepare transcoding jobs and submit

batches. In Current view, you can access the Settings and Locations pane, which contains precongured transcoding settings, destinations, and save locations that you can assign to your media les. In Current view, you can also access the inspector pane, which displays

information about your transcoding settings and jobs.

•

Active view, which shows information about jobs currently being transcoded.

•

Completed view, which shows information about jobs that have been successfully transcoded.

For more information, see Interface overview on page 8.

Basic transcoding workow

Compressor 4.1 oers a simplied transcoding workow that speeds up common tasks. For more

information, see Transcode les on page 12.

Destinations

Destinations are transcoding instructions combined with a scripted job action, such as burning a DVD disc or uploading to a video-sharing website. You can choose from a number of built-in destinations, or create your own destinations for custom transcoding tasks. In Compressor

4.1, destinations replicate much of the functionality previously available in batch templates in Compressor 4.0. For more information, see View and modify a destination’s properties on page 50.

Distributed transcoding

Compressor 4.1 simplies distributed processing—the act of sharing transcoding work among

multiple computers or computer processors.

•

What was previously referred to as a “cluster” in Compressor 4.0 is now called a “group” of

computers. To congure a group of computers and set up distributed processing, you turn on access to your computer and then create a set of shared computers. If you can’t nd a

computer on your network, you can manually add it to the computer list.

•

Options for turning on access to your computer, as well as setting up a group of shared computers, are located in Compressor preferences. For more information, see Transcode

batches using other computers on page 101.

For more help and information about new features in Compressor 4.1, see the white paper,

Transition to Compressor 4.1.

Compressor basics

What is Compressor?

Compressor is an application that transcodes media les into a variety of formats. You can use Compressor to create les for many uses, including:

•

Viewing on Apple devices such as Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, iPod, or iTunes using high-denition (HD) or standard-denition (SD) formats (including H.264)

•

Publishing to video-sharing websites including Facebook, Vimeo, and YouTube using QuickTime

•

Burning to DVD or Blu-ray disc using H.264, MPEG-2 for DVD, and Dolby Digital formats

•

Podcasting using H.264, AAC, and MP3 formats

Compressor comes with built-in settings that you can use to transcode les into the most common media formats. Compressor also provides precongured destinations that transcode les and then perform actions on the transcoded les. For example, if you transcode a source le using the built-in “Publish to Vimeo” destination, the destination outputs a high-quality QuickTime movie le, and then automatically publishes the movie le to your Vimeo account.

In addition to transcoding source les, you can use Compressor to:

•

Create custom settings and destinations: You can use a variety of formats to build custom

settings and destinations tailored to your unique transcoding workows. For example, you can create a custom setting with specic frame dimensions or with video and audio lters applied. And when you create a destination, you can apply a job action that is performed after the le is transcoded—such as sending an email message or running an Automator workow.

•

Create settings to transcode Final Cut Pro X and Motion projects: You can create a custom setting in Compressor and then use it to transcode Final Cut Pro or Motion projects. For example, you

can create a setting that outputs a le with the bit rate of your choice.

•

Transcode les using a network of shared computers: If you need more processing power and shorter transcoding times, you can create a group of shared computers to distribute and speed the transcoding process.

•

Create Compressor droplets: If you need to provide a very simple workow for yourself or other

users, you can create a Compressor droplet, a standalone application that lets you transcode

media les in the Finder, by dragging and dropping.

Compressor workow

The basic process of transcoding les in Compressor is described below.

Import your media into Compressor

The rst step in the transcoding process is to add one or more media source les to Compressor. You can add media les from your computer or a connected hard disk. Each media source le

in Compressor is called a job. Each transcoding session, containing one or more jobs, is called a batch.

Apply transcoding instructions

After you add a source le, apply one or more transcoding instructions to it. Compressor provides a variety of precongured transcoding instructions called settings, which you can use to convert les to the most common media formats. If you want, you can modify the setting’s properties to

meet your requirements.

Compressor also provides a number of precongured destinations, which combine settings and a post-transcoding action, such as uploading your le to YouTube or burning a Blu-ray disc.

Choose an output location

Designate a location on your computer or on a connected hard disk where you want to save the

transcoded media le. You can choose any of several precongured locations, including your

computer desktop, your Movies folder, or the source folder of the original media. You can also choose a custom location.

Submit your media for transcoding

After you assign settings or a destination and specify an output location, click the Start Batch button to begin the transcoding process. You can monitor the progress of the transcoding in the Active view. After transcoding is complete, you can see information about the settings or destinations you used in the Completed view.

Chapter 2 Compressor basics 7

Interface overview

Preview area

The Compressor window has three views: Current, Active, and Completed. You can switch between these views by clicking a view button at the top of the window.

Current view

Current view is the default view in Compressor. Current view is where you prepare transcoding

jobs and then submit your batch. When you open Compressor for the rst time, Current view

displays two basic areas:

Batch area

•

Batch area: When you add source les to Compressor, they are displayed in jobs in the lower

half of the main window. Each job in the batch area displays information about the source

le, the job’s transcoding instructions (setting, output location, and output lename), and any

post-transcoding actions that have been added (or that are part of the destination assigned to the job).

•

Preview area: Above the batch area, the preview area shows how your media le will look and sound after transcoding. Here you can also add metadata and markers to be included in the transcoded le.

Chapter 2 Compressor basics 8

You can expand the Current view to display additional areas:

Settings/Locations pane

Inspector pane

•

Settings and Locations pane: Click the Settings & Locations button at the top-left corner of the Compressor window to expand this area, and then click Settings or Locations to display

the individual panes. The Settings pane provides quick access to all the built-in destinations

and settings, as well as to any custom destinations or settings that you created. Likewise, the Locations pane provides quick access to all the built-in save locations, and to any custom

save locations that you created. You can add settings, destinations, and locations to a job by dragging an item from these panes to the job in the batch area.

•

Inspector pane: Click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window to expand this area. The inspector pane has several views that change, depending on the item that is selected. When you select a batch (by clicking the background of the batch area), the Batch inspector appears, displaying basic information about the current batch. When you select a job in the batch area, the Job inspector appears, displaying a summary of the job’s transcoding instructions as well as controls for adding metadata and modifying job

actions. When you select a specic transcoding instruction in the batch area (one of the rows

under the job), the General, Video, and Audio inspectors appear. These three panes contain adjustable properties that you can use to customize the setting or destination.

Chapter 2 Compressor basics 9

Active view

In Active view, the Compressor window displays status information about batches (and their constituent jobs) currently being transcoded. In this view, you can monitor progress bars as well as pause or cancel the transcoding process.

Completed view

In Completed view, you can view information about batches and jobs that have been successfully transcoded, as well as information about items that failed to transcode.

A list of batches is shown on the left side of the window. Click a disclosure triangle beside a

batch to see its constituent jobs and output les. Select a batch, job, or output le in the list to

see additional information in the inspector pane (on the right).

Chapter 2 Compressor basics 10

Source file

Location

Settings

Job action

Job

Simple transcoding

Simple transcoding overview

When you add a source le to Compressor and apply output instructions (all done in Current

view), you create a transcoding job. You can add more jobs to the batch, and then submit the batch for transcoding.

Each job in a batch has has several parts:

•

Source le: The media le that you want to transcode.

•

Setting: The transcoding instructions that specify how the le will be processed. Compressor

provides a variety of built-in settings that you can use to output les in common media formats. Additionally, Compressor provides a number of precongured destinations—one or

more settings combined with an automated action that is performed after transcoding. For

example, if you use the Publish to Facebook destination to transcode a source le, Compressor outputs a high-quality QuickTime movie le. Then the destination’s job action publishes the transcoded le to your Facebook account.

•

Location: The place where the transcoded le will be saved. You can use one of the built-in

locations, or specify a new location.

•

Filename: The title of the transcoded le. You can use the default lename (the name of the source le) or type a custom lename.

•

Job action: Optionally, you can add a post-transcoding action to a job, such as burning a DVD, uploading to Vimeo or YouTube, and so on. Each of the built-in destinations already contains a job action.

In the example below, two jobs make up the batch:

The rst job uses the built-in Create DVD destination to output a Dolby Digital audio le and an MPEG-2 video le. The transcoded les will be saved to the source folder (the folder where the source media is stored), and after the les are transcoded, they’ll be burned to a DVD (using the

Create DVD job action).

The second job uses two built-in settings (Small and HD 720p) to create a small QuickTime le and a high-denition (HD) QuickTime le. The transcoded les will be saved to the desktop. Because there’s no job action, the user will have to manually move or otherwise distribute each le.

Transcode les

This job will transcode the source

The easiest way to transcode media les in Compressor is to use or one or more built-in settings

or to use a built-in destination (settings that are combined with a post-transcoding job action, such as uploading to Facebook or burning a Blu-ray disc).

Set up the rst transcoding job in a batch

1 Click the Add File button in the batch area.

Batch area

Add File button

2 In the le window that appears, select a media le and then click Add.

3 In the Settings window that appears, do the following:

a Select one or more transcode settings or a destination from the list.

The settings list contains basic settings, as well as destinations, grouped by category. To

choose a specic setting, click the disclosure triangle beside a destination or a setting group

(Podcasting, for example), and then select one or more settings.

Important: For destinations, always select the destination name. If you select a setting that’s in

the destination, the destination’s job action will not be used when processing the job.

b Choose a save location from the pop-up menu.

4 When you’re satised with your setting and location choices, click OK.

The new job is displayed in the batch area. The job includes a thumbnail of the source le and the transcoding output instructions (setting, location, and lename). If you chose multiple

settings, or a destination with multiple outputs, each output appears in a separate row. If you chose a destination, its job action appears in the upper-right corner of the job area.

To learn more about the built-in destinations and settings, see Built-in settings on page 16 and

Built-in destinations on page 17.

file “Office02.mov” using the built-in HD 720p setting.

Chapter 3 Simple transcoding 12

Add additional jobs to a batch

If you want to, you can add additional source les to a batch.

1 Choose Add File from the Add pop-up menu under the batch area.

You can also add a set of image sequence les or surround sound les. For more information,

see Import image sequence les on page 62 and Import and modify surround sound les on page 64.

Add pop-up menu

2 In the le window that appears, select one or more media les, and then click Add.

Shift-click to select consecutive les. Control-click to select nonconsecutive les.

A new job for each of the source les is displayed in the batch area. The job includes a thumbnail of the source le.

3 Click the Add Outputs button inside the job in the batch area.

4 In the Settings window that appears, select one or more settings or destinations, choose a save

location, and then click OK.

Tip: Shift-click to select consecutive settings; Command-click to select nonconsecutive settings.

The output instructions that you specied appear in the job. If you chose multiple settings

or a destination with multiple outputs, each output appears in a separate row. If you chose a destination, its job action appears in the upper-right corner of the job area.

Chapter 3 Simple transcoding 13

5 To change the name of a le to be output, double-click its name in the Filename column, and

then enter a new name.

The default name assigned to each transcoded le is the source lename appended with the

extension of the format used during transcoding (.mov or .mp4, for example).

Note: If you see an alert icon to the left of the lename, the lename assigned to that output row has already been used.

6 To view the properties of a setting, select an output row, and then open the inspector by clicking

the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.

Depending on the setting you're viewing, general, video, and audio properties are displayed in the inspector. For information about modifying these properties, see View and modify a setting’s

properties on page 20.

Add and remove job outputs

You can add additional transcoding instructions to a job by adding one or more output rows. You can also remove output rows.

Do one of the following:

m To add an output row: Position your cursor over an output row in the job, and then click the Add

button that appears at the end of the row. Then, in the window that appears, select one or more settings, choose a location, and click OK.

m To remove an output row: Position your cursor over the output row that you want to remove, and

then click the Remove button that appears at the end of the row.

Chapter 3 Simple transcoding 14

Preview how a transcoded le will look and sound

After you’ve set up a job, you can preview how your source le will look and sound after it has

been transcoded.

Note: Retiming and interlacing property adjustments (that you make in the Video tab of the inspector) are not displayed in the transcoding preview.

1 In a job, select the output row that includes the setting you want to preview.

2 If the Comparison button in the preview area isn’t already selected (highlighted blue), click it

to turn on comparison previewing.

3 Click the Play button .

The source le video plays on the left side of the preview area, and a preview of the transcoded le plays on the right side. The transcoded audio plays through your computer speakers (or

through connected speakers).

In the preview area, you can also add add markers, set a poster frame, or identify a portion of the

source le to transcode.

Transcode a batch

After you’ve congured the jobs in your batch using the tasks above, you can transcode

the batch.

m Click the Start Batch button in the lower-right corner of the batch area.

The Compressor window switches to Active view, where you can monitor the transcoding process.

View information about completed jobs

In Completed view, you can see how a le was transcoded.

1 Click the Completed button at the top of the Compressor window.

2 Select a batch, job, or transcoded le and, if necessary, click the Inspector button .

In the inspector (on the right), you can view information about the batch or job, or view the

general, video, or audio properties for the setting used to transcode the le.

3 To view the output le, click the Show in Finder button .

Chapter 3 Simple transcoding 15

Create a new job from a completed job

m In Completed view, click a job’s Reuse button .

All of the job’s information is copied to Active view, where you can modify the job’s setting properties and other information as necessary, and then transcode the new job.

Built-in settings

Use the built-in settings, grouped by category in the Settings pane, to convert any le from its

source format to other commonly used formats.

Built-in setting group Contains Use to

•

Apple Devices

Audio Formats

Motion Graphics

MPEG Files

Podcasting

ProRes

Uncompressed

Video Sharing Services

Apple Devices HD (Best Quality)

•

Apple Devices HD (Most

Compatible)

•

SD for Apple Devices

•

AAC File

•

AC3 File

•

AIFF File

•

CAF File

•

EC3 File

•

MP3 File

•

WAVE File

•

Open EXR Image Sequence

•

QuickTime Animation

•

QuickTime ProRes with Alpha

•

TIFF Image Sequence

•

MPEG-2 422 Program stream, 15 Mbps

•

MPEG-2 Program stream, 15 Mbps

•

MPEG-2 Transport stream, 15 Mbps

•

AAC for Audio Podcasting

•

H.264 for Video Podcasting

•

MP3 for Audio Podcasting

•

Apple ProRes 422

•

Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)

•

Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy)

•

Apple ProRes 4444

•

Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2

•

Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2

•

HD 1080p

•

HD 720p

•

Large 540p

•

SD 480p

•

Small

Create iTunes-compliant H.264 les for distribution, including les

that can be used for streaming

high-denition (HD) video and standard-denition (SD) video.

Create audio les in the most

commonly used formats.

Create les for use with motion

graphics applications.

Create broadcast-quality, high-

resolution, high bit rate video les.

Create les for audio and video

podcasting.

Create high-quality, high-

performance les for use with

Final Cut Pro and post-production

workows.

Create uncompressed 10-bit and 8-bit 4:2:2 QuickTime movies.

Create QuickTime les for

publishing to video-sharing websites like YouTube and Vimeo.

Includes large and small HD and

SD settings.

Chapter 3 Simple transcoding 16

You can also customize a built-in setting or create your own custom setting from scratch. For example, you can create a custom setting to convert progressive video to interlaced video, or to convert 29.97-fps video to 23.98 fps video. Before you create a custom setting, view the related built-in settings to see if any of those meet your needs. If one does, or if it comes close, duplicate that setting, and then modify any properties that you need to change. The advantage of duplicating a setting, rather than creating a new setting from scratch, is that many of the

properties are already congured, and thus, you’ll need to make fewer adjustments to the

setting. For more information, see Create custom settings on page 21.

Built-in destinations

Destinations, available in the Settings pane, combine one or more settings and a post-encode

job action, which automates tasks such as emailing, copying, and moving transcoded les.

Built-in destination Contains Use to

Add to iTunes Library Setting:

•

Apple Devices HD (Best Quality)

Job action:

•

Add to iTunes Library

Create Blu-ray Settings:

•

Dolby Digital

•

H.264 for Blu-ray

Job action:

•

Create Blu-ray disc

Create DVD Settings:

•

Dolby Digital

•

MPEG-2 for DVD

Job action:

•

Create DVD

Prepare for HTTP Live Streaming Settings:

•

Audio for HTTP Live Streaming

•

Broadband High

•

Broadband Low

•

Cellular High

•

Cellular Low

•

Wi-Fi High

•

Wi-Fi Low

Job action:

•

Prepare for HTTP Live Streaming

Publish to Facebook Setting:

•

HD 720p

Job action:

•

Publish to Facebook

Create an Apple device-compatible

H.264 le, and then automatically add the le to your iTunes library.

Create an H.264 elementary stream and a Dolby Digital audio le, and then automatically burn the les to

a Blu-ray disc.

Create an MPEG-2 elementary stream and a Dolby Digital audio

le, and then automatically burn the les to a DVD.

Create a set of MPEG-4 les, and then process your transcoded les

and upload them to the server you

specify. The les are compatible

with a variety of devices, such as smartphones and media players.

Create an H.264 le, and then

automatically publish it to your Facebook account.

Chapter 3 Simple transcoding 17

Built-in destination Contains Use to

Publish to Vimeo Setting:

•

HD 720p

Job action:

•

Publish to Vimeo

Publish to YouTube Setting:

•

HD 720p

Job action:

•

Publish to YouTube

Create an H.264 le, and then

automatically publish it to your Vimeo account.

Create an H.264 le, and then

automatically publish it to your YouTube account.

You can also create a custom destination either by duplicating an existing destination or creating a new destination. For example, you can modify the built-in Publish to Vimeo destination to output a larger or smaller frame size. For more information, see Create custom destinations on page 51.

Built-in locations

Use the following built-in locations, available in the Locations pane, to specify the save location of a transcoded le.

Built-in location Use to

Desktop Save the transcoded le on the user’s desktop.

Movies Save the transcoded le in the user’s Movies folder.

Source Save the transcoded le in the same location as the

source media le.

You can also create a custom location, either by duplicating an existing location or by creating

a new location. When you create a custom location, you can also specify a lename format for transcoded les. For more information, see Work with locations on page 52.

Chapter 3 Simple transcoding 18

Advanced adjustments

Advanced adjustments overview

For basic transcoding jobs, you can use the built-in settings and destinations that come with

Compressor. However, if you have complex or custom transcoding specications, you can make

adjustments to the built-in settings and destinations in a number of ways:

•

For a custom transcoding job that you will use only once, apply a built-in setting or destination and then modify its properties in the inspector. See View and modify a setting’s

properties on page 20 and View and modify a destination’s properties on page 50.

•

For a custom transcoding job that you will use more than once, create a custom setting or destination (by duplicating and modifying a built-in setting or destination). See Create custom

settings on page 21 and Create custom destinations on page 51.

You can also customize the various other components of a Compressor batch, including save locations, job properties, job actions, and batch properties. See Work with locations on page 52,

View and modify job properties on page 54, and Work with batches on page 61.

Work with settings

Setting name

View and modify a setting’s properties

When you select a built-in setting in the Settings pane, or an applied setting in the batch area, its properties are shown in the inspector. General properties are displayed in the General inspector, and video and audio properties are displayed in the Video inspector and the Audio inspector.

View a setting’s general, video, and audio properties

1 Select a setting by doing one of the following:

•

For a setting that has not been applied, click a built-in setting in the Settings pane. (If the Settings pane is hidden, click the Settings & Locations button at the top-left corner of the Compressor window, and then click Settings at the top of the pane.)

•

For a setting that has already been applied to a source le, select the output row of a job in

the batch area.

2 If necessary, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window

to reveal the inspector pane.

The inspector pane is divided into three subpanes: General, Video, and Audio. At the top of each subpane is a summary of the transcoding instructions of the selected setting, including the

name of the setting, the transcoding format, and the estimated size of the output le.

The setting is based on this format.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 20

3 To view general, video, or audio properties of the selected setting, click General, Video, or Audio

at the top of the inspector pane.

Every setting has a General inspector that displays basic properties, including setting name, description, output extension, and so on. Video settings have a Video inspector and, if the transcoding format encodes audio, an Audio inspector. Audio settings have an Audio inspector, but no Video inspector.

To learn more about a setting’s properties, see About formats and settings on page 23.

Modify a setting’s properties

After you apply a setting to a source le, you can modify its properties in the inspector.

1 Select the output row of a job in the batch area.

The properties of the selected setting are displayed in the inspector.

2 To view general, video, or audio properties, click General, Video, or Audio in the inspector.

3 To modify a property, adjust its control in the inspector.

To learn more about a setting’s properties, see About formats and settings on page 23.

The type of setting you modify determines whether or not the setting will be saved.

•

If you modify the properties of a custom setting, the changes are saved automatically.

•

If you modify the properties of a built-in setting, the changes are not saved.

In this case, if you want to save your changes, you can create a custom setting. For more information, see Create custom settings on page 21.

Create custom settings

You can create your own custom settings, either based on an existing built-in or custom setting, or from scratch. You can also create groups of settings.

Create a custom setting by duplicating an existing setting

To save a modied setting for future use, you must create a custom setting. The easiest way to do

this is to duplicate a built-in setting and then modify its properties in the inspector.

1 In the Settings pane (press Shift-Command-1 if it’s hidden), select the setting that you want to

duplicate.

To reveal individual settings in a setting category, click the disclosure triangle next to the category name.

2 Choose Duplicate from the Action pop-up menu at the bottom of the pane.

A copy of the setting (appended with the word, “copy”) appears in the Custom area of the Settings pane.

3 To modify the properties of your new custom setting, adjust the controls in the General, Video,

and Audio inspectors.

If the inspector is hidden, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.

For example, you can change a setting’s frame controls or add a video or audio eect to the output le.

To learn more a setting’s properties, see About formats and settings on page 23.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 21

Create a custom setting from scratch

You can also create a custom setting without duplicating a built-in setting. Because it’s easy to accidentally introduce transcoding errors, this method is recommended for advanced users only.

1 In the Settings pane (press Shift-Command-1 if it’s hidden), choose New Setting from the Add

pop-up menu .

2 In the dialog that appears, choose a transcoding format from the pop-up menu, enter a name

and description for the setting, and then click OK.

The new setting appears in the Custom area of the Settings pane.

3 To modify the properties of your new custom setting, adjust the controls in the General, Video,

and Audio inspectors.

If the inspector is hidden, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window. For example, you can change a setting’s frame controls or add a video or

audio eect to the output le.

To learn more a setting’s properties, see About formats and settings on page 23.

Create a group of custom settings

If you want to organize your custom settings, you can create a setting group. For example, if you want to quickly add several settings at the same time, you can apply a setting group to a job.

1 In the Settings pane (press Shift-Command-1 if it’s hidden), choose New Group from the Add

pop-up menu .

The group appears in the Custom area of the settings pane and is selected by default.

2 In the dialog that appears, type a name for the group and click OK.

3 Drag custom settings into your new group in the Custom area of the Settings pane.

Tip: If you want to add a built-in setting to the group, you must duplicate the setting (as described in “Create a custom setting by duplicating an existing setting” above) and then add the duplicated setting to your group.

Rename a custom setting

You cannot rename a built-in setting; however, you can duplicate a built-in setting and name your new custom setting as you choose.

Do one of the following:

m In the Settings pane, double-click a custom setting and type a new name.

m Select a custom setting in the Settings pane. Then, in the General inspector, type a new name in

the Name eld. (If the inspector is hidden, press Command-4.)

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 22

Remove a setting

Setting name

You can delete any custom setting.

Delete a custom setting

m Select a custom setting in the Settings pane, and then press Delete.

About formats and settings

Compressor provides a variety of transcoding formats to create les playable on a variety of

media platforms—from Apple devices to Blu-ray discs to websites, and so on. Each of the built-in

settings in the Settings pane uses a specic transcoding format compatible with the following

industry-standard platforms.

You can see which format a setting is based on by looking at the summary information at the top of the inspector.

The setting is based on this format.

Platform and/or use Use video settings based on

these formats

Devices like Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch; and iTunes

Web delivery, including YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo

Blu-ray discs H.264 for Blu-ray: See H.264 for

High-denition (HD) DVD MPEG-2: See MPEG-2

Standard-denition (SD) DVD MPEG-2: See MPEG-2

Audio CDs AIFF: See Common Audio

HTTP Live Streaming MPEG-4: See MPEG-4

Motion graphics applications QuickTime Movie, Image Sequence:

H.264 for Apple Devices: See H.264

for Apple Devices

QuickTime Movie: See QuickTime

on page 47.

Movie

on page 31.

Blu-ray

See QuickTime Movie and Image Sequence

on page 28.

on page 37. AC-3 (Dolby Digital Professional):

on page 42.

on page 47

on page 33.

Use audio settings based on these formats

AAC: See MPEG-4

WAVE: See Common Audio

Formats

on page 24.

QuickTime Movie: See QuickTime

Movie on page 47.

AC-3 (Dolby Digital Professional):

See Dolby Digital on page 25.

See Dolby Digital

on page 24.

Formats

MP3: See MP3

WAVE: See Common Audio

Formats

on page 24.

on page 42.

on page 25.

on page 36.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 23

Setting properties

Common Audio Formats

The built-in AIFF File, CAF File, and WAVE File settings use the Common Audio Formats transcoding format. This format encodes AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format), CAF (Apple Core

Audio Format), or WAVE (Waveform Audio File Format) les. You can also create custom settings

that use the Common Audio Formats transcoding format.

The properties of built-in and custom settings that use this transcoding format are located in the General inspector and Audio inspector. These properties are described below.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le

size. When you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le.

Tip: To output a le with a dierent extension, change the value in the “File type” pop-up

menu, described below.

•

Allow job segmenting: Job segmenting is not available for settings that output only an audio le.

•

Default location: Choose an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

•

File type: Choose a le type from the pop-up menu—AIFF, CAF, or WAVE.

Retiming

This section contains one property:

•

Set duration to: Sets the processing algorithm used to adjust the frame rate during transcoding. Select either of the following options:

•

[Percentage] of source: Modies the output clip’s speed by a percentage of the source clip’s speed. Enter a value in the percentage eld or choose a preset value from the adjacent

pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

•

[Total duration]: Sets the duration of the clip. Enter a timecode duration in the eld or click

the arrows to increase or decrease the time.

For more information, see Retime video and audio output on page 71.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 24

Audio properties

•

Channel layout: Use the pop-up menu to manually set the type of audio channel layout. For more information about audio channel layouts, including the surround sound channel layout, see About audio channels on page 67.

•

Sample rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the number of times per second that music waveforms (samples) are captured digitally. The higher the sample rate, the higher the audio

quality and the larger the le size.

•

Sample size: Use the pop-up menu to manually set the sample size of the audio signal.

Audio eects

For a list of available audio eects and instructions on how to add an audio eect to a setting,

see Add and remove eects on page 76.

Dolby Digital

The built-in Dolby Digital settings (in the Create Blu-ray and Create DVD destinations, as well as the built-in AC-3 and EC-3 audio settings) use the Dolby Digital transcoding format. This format

encodes Dolby Digital (AC-3) and Dolby Digital Plus (EC-3) audio les that contain multiple audio

channels, including 5.1 surround sound. You can also create custom settings that use the Dolby Digital transcoding format.

The properties of built-in and custom settings that use this transcoding format are located in the General inspector and Audio inspector. These properties are described below.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le

size. When you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le.

•

Allow job segmenting: Job segmenting is not available for settings that output only an

audio le.

•

Default location: Select an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

•

File type: Select a le type from the pop-up menu—Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus, an

enhanced version of the Dolby Digital audio compression technology.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 25

Retiming

This section contains one property:

•

Set duration to: Sets the processing algorithm used to adjust the frame rate during transcoding. Select either of the following options:

•

[Percentage] of source: Modies the output clip’s speed by a percentage of the source clip’s speed. Enter a value in the percentage eld or choose a preset value from the adjacent

pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

•

[Total duration]: Sets the duration of the clip. Enter a timecode duration in the eld or click

the arrows to increase or decrease the time.

For more information, see Retime video and audio output on page 71.

Audio properties

•

Sample rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the number of times per second that music waveforms (samples) are captured digitally. The higher the sample rate, the higher the audio

quality and the larger the le size.

Note: All les intended for video and audio DVD authoring must have a 48 kHz sample rate as required by the DVD specication.

•

Target system: Use this pop-up menu to identify the system on which you are going to play the

output le. Compressor limits options in other related properties to those appropriate for the

target system.

•

DVD Video: Choose this option if you’re encoding for use in a DVD video authoring application.

•

DVD Audio: Choose this option if you’re encoding for use in a DVD audio authoring application.

•

Generic AC-3: Choose this option to remove the target system setting limit (the most generic choice).

•

Data rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the number of kilobits per second (kbps) required to

deliver your audio le. Using a higher rate will produce a higher-quality audio le.

Tip: For stereo encoding, rates of 192 kbps and 224 kbps are typical and will produce good results. For Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding, a rate of 384 kbps is recommended. For 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus encoding, a rate of 192 kbps is recommended.

•

Bit stream mode: Use this pop-up menu to dene the audio service contained within the Dolby

Digital or Dolby Digital Plus bitstream.

•

Surround mode: When using a Mono or Stereo (L R) channel layout, this property tells the playback device whether the two-channel encoded bitstream contains a Dolby Surround (Lt/ Rt) program that requires Dolby Pro Logic decoding. There are three menu options:

•

Not Indicated: Does not send the playback device information about whether the bitstream was encoded in Dolby Surround.

•

Not Encoded: Tells the playback device that the bitstream contains information not encoded in Dolby Surround.

•

Surround Encoded: Tells the playback device that the bitstream contains information encoded in Dolby Surround.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 26

•

Surround EX Mode: When using a 5.1 (L R C LFE Ls Rs), 5.0 (L R C Ls Rs), 4.1 (L R LFE Ls Rs), or 4.0 (L R Ls Rs) layout, this property tells the playback device whether the audio has been encoded

in Dolby Digital Surround EX. There are three menu options:

•

Not Indicated: Does not send the playback device information about whether the bitstream was encoded in Dolby Digital Surround EX.

•

Not Encoded: Tells the playback device that the bitstream was not encoded in Dolby Digital Surround EX.

•

Surround Encoded: Tells the playback device that the bitstream was encoded in Dolby Digital Surround EX.

•

Stereo downmix: Use this pop-up menu to set how to downmix a surround signal to a stereo signal. For more information, see About audio channels on page 67.

Important: The LFE signal may be discarded by the Dolby Digital downmix process.

•

Lo/Ro center, Lo/Ro surround, Lt/Rt center, Lt/Rt surround (for surround sound output): Use these pop-up menus to set the decibel level at which the surround and center channels are downmixed. Properties are enabled or disabled based on the channel layout you choose.

•

DRC line mode: Use this pop-up menu to set the dynamic range compression processing mode. The default setting, Film Standard, is recommended for all use cases.

•

DRC RF mode: Use this pop-up menu to set the dynamic range compression processing mode for RF (TV sets, cable set top boxes, or other devices that have RF connections).

•

LFE low-pass lter: Select this checkbox to apply a 120 Hz low-pass lter to the low-frequency eects (LFE) channel during output.

•

DC lter: Select this checkbox to apply a DC (direct current) high-pass lter to all input channels. Although this lter provides a simple way to remove DC osets, note that most mixed audio material is already free of DC osets.

•

Surround channels: 90 phase-shift: This property, which applies a 90-degree phase shift to the surround channels, is selected by default. The shift in phase decorrelates the front and back

channels and prevents the L and Ls signals from canceling each other out if a surround-

compatible downmix is later applied to the decoded signal.

•

Surround channels: 3dB attenuation: Select this checkbox to apply a 3 dB cut to the surround

channels during output. This option is intended for multichannel output (like a lm

soundtrack) that is being transferred to a consumer home theater format. Cinema surround channels are mixed 3 dB “hot” (higher) relative to the front channels to account for cinema

amplier gains.

•

Dialog normalization: Enter a value in the eld to set the loudness of the program in your sound les relative to full modulation. The playback device uses this information to maintain similar loudness among dierent AC-3 streams. The goal is to give all AC-3–encoded audio les the same listening level, regardless of the source le.

Audio eects

For a list of available audio eects and instructions on how to add an audio eect to a setting,

see Add and remove eects on page 76.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 27

H.264 for Apple Devices

The built-in Apple Devices settings use the H.264 for Apple Devices transcoding format. You can also create custom settings that use the H.264 for Apple Devices transcoding format.

The properties of built-in and custom settings that use this transcoding format are located in the General, Video, and Audio inspectors. These properties are described below.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le

size. When you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le (.m4v).

•

Allow job segmenting: If you’ve set up distributed processing, select this checkbox to have

Compressor process the output le using your shared computer group. For more information,

see Transcode batches using other computers on page 101.

•

Default location: Choose an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

•

Format: Use this pop-up menu to set whether the output includes video and audio, or video only.

Retiming

This section contains one property:

•

Set duration to: Sets the processing algorithm used to adjust the frame rate during transcoding. Select one of the following options:

•

[Percentage] of source: Modies the output clip’s speed by a percentage of the source clip’s speed. Enter a value in the percentage eld or choose a preset value from the adjacent

pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

•

[Total duration]: Sets the duration of the clip. Enter a timecode duration in the eld or click

the arrows to increase or decrease the time.

•

So source frames play at [frame rate] fps: Nondestructively changes the playback speed of the

clip, without discarding frames or creating new frames. This setting has no eect unless the “Frame rate” value in the Video inspector is dierent than the source le’s frame rate. For example, if you add a 10-second source le with a frame rate of 24 fps to Compressor, set the

“Frame rate” property in the Video inspector to 25 fps, and then select “So source frames play at 25 fps” in the General inspector, the duration of the transcoded clip (at 25 fps) is 9 seconds and 15 frames.

For more information, see Retime video and audio output on page 71.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 28

Video properties

•

Frame size: Use the pop-up menu to set an automatically calculated frame size (resolution)

range for the output le. For more information, see Modify frame size overview on page 69.

•

Pixel aspect ratio: For settings that use the H.264 format, the pixel aspect ratio is set to Square.

•

Frame rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the playback rate (the number of images displayed

per second) for the output le. For more information, see Frame rate options overview on

page 71.

•

Field order: For settings that use the H.264 format, the eld order is set to Progressive

(complete frames are scanned).

•

Multi-pass: Select this checkbox to turn on multi-pass encoding that uses additional analysis

of video frames to produce a high-quality output le. For faster (single-pass) transcoding, turn this feature o by deselecting the checkbox.

•

Bit rate: Select the Automatic checkbox to have Compressor calculate the appropriate bit rate

for the output le, based on the frame size of the source le and device compatibility. If the

checkbox is not selected, you can set the bit rate by dragging the slider or entering a value in

the text eld.

•

Frame sync: Select the Automatic checkbox to have Compressor calculate the key frame interval rate.

Note: When Frame sync is turned on, the value in the seconds eld is zero (.0). However, the

actual value is determined during the encoding process.

If the checkbox is not selected, you can drag the slider or enter a value in the text eld to

set the key frame interval (number of frames) at which you want key frames created in your

output le.

•

Encode for: Select a button to have Compressor transcode the output le at either the best quality (so that the le will play back on newer devices) or at a lesser quality (so that as many devices as possible will play the le).

•

Compatible with: This list shows devices that will play the transcoded le (compatible

device types are marked with a green circle that contains a checkmark ). When you change the setting’s properties (frame size, frame rate, and so on), the compatibility list automatically updates.

Cropping and padding

Customize the nal cropping, sizing, and aspect ratio using the Cropping & Padding properties.

Cropping removes video content from an image. Padding scales the image to a smaller size while retaining the output image’s frame size. For more information about these properties, see Modify

frame size overview on page 69.

•

Cropping: Use this pop-up menu to set the dimension of the output image. The custom option

allows you to enter your own image dimensions in the elds; other options use predetermined

sizes. The Letterbox Area of Source menu item detects image edges and automatically enters crop values to match them. This is useful if you want to crop out the letterbox area (the black

bars above and below a widescreen image) of a source media le.

•

Padding: Use this pop-up menu to set the scaling of the output image while retaining the output image’s frame size. The custom option allows you to enter your own scaling

dimensions in the elds; other options use predetermined dimensions.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 29

Quality

The following properties provide instructions for image analysis, including frame resizing, clip retiming, and deinterlacing.

•

Resize lter: This pop-up menu sets the resizing method. There are three options:

•

Fast (Nearest Pixel): Provides the fastest processing time.

•

Better (Linear Filter): Provides a medium trade-o between processing time and

output quality.

•

Best (Statistical Prediction): Provides the highest output quality, but takes longer.

•

Retiming Quality: This pop-up menu sets the retiming method. There are four options:

•

Fast (Nearest Frame): Uses a copy of the nearest available frame to ll the new

in-between frames.

•

Better (Motion Adaptive): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce good-quality output.

•

Best (Motion Compensated): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce high-quality output.

•

Reverse Telecine: Removes the extra elds added during the telecine process to convert the lm’s 24 fps to NTSC’s 29.97 fps. Choosing this item disables all the other Quality controls. For

more information, see About reverse telecine on page 74.

•

Adaptive details: Select this checkbox to use advanced image analysis to distinguish between noise and edge areas during output.

•

Anti-aliasing level: Sets the softness level in the output image. Double-click the value and then manually enter a new value or drag the slider to the right to increase softness. This property improves the quality of conversions when you’re scaling media up. For example,

when transcoding SD video to HD, anti-aliasing smooths jagged edges that might appear in

the image.

•

Details level: Sets the amount of detail in the output image. Double-click the value and then manually enter a new value or drag the slider to set the value. This sharpening control lets you add detail back to an image being enlarged. Unlike other sharpening operations, the “Details level” property distinguishes between noise and feature details, and generally doesn’t increase unwanted grain. Increasing this value may introduce jagged edges, however, which can be eliminated by increasing the “Anti-aliasing level” slider.

Video eects

For a list of available video eects and instructions on how to add a video eect to a setting, see

Add and remove eects on page 76.

Audio properties

•

Channel layout: Use the pop-up menu to set the audio channel layout.

•

Sample rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the number of times per second that music waveforms (samples) are captured digitally. The higher the sample rate, the higher the audio

quality and the larger the le size.

•

Bit rate: Use the pop-up menu to set the bit rate to use for the output audio.

•

Include Dolby 5.1 Audio Track: Select the checkbox to add surround sound as a Dolby Digital audio track for playback on Apple TV.

Audio eects

For a list of available audio eects and instructions on how to add an audio eect to a setting,

see Add and remove eects on page 76.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 30

H.264 for Blu-ray

The built-in H.264 for Blu-ray setting (in the Create Blu-ray destination) uses the H.264 for Bluray transcoding format. This format encodes H.264 elementary stream les for Blu-ray and AVCHD DVD authoring. You can also create custom settings that use the H.264 for Blu-ray

transcoding format.

Note: This setting encodes only a video le. Dolby Digital is the recommended audio setting. For

more information, see Dolby Digital on page 25.

The properties of built-in and custom settings that use this transcoding format are located in the General inspector and Video inspector. These properties are described below.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le size. When

you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le (.264).

•

Allow job segmenting: If you’ve set up distributed processing, select this checkbox to have

Compressor process the output le using your shared computer group. For more information,

see Transcode batches using other computers on page 101.

•

Default location: Select an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

•

Stream Usage: Use the pop-up menu to set whether the output le is transcoded for Blu-ray Disc or AVCHD.

Retiming

This section contains one property:

•

Set duration to: Sets the processing algorithm used to adjust the frame rate during transcoding. Select one of the following options:

•

[Percentage] of source: Modies the output clip’s speed by a percentage of the source clip’s speed. Enter a value in the percentage eld or choose a preset value from the adjacent

pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

•

[Total duration]: Sets the duration of the clip. Enter a timecode duration in the eld or click

the arrows to increase or decrease the time.

•

So source frames play at [frame rate] fps: Nondestructively changes the playback speed of the

For more information, see Retime video and audio output on page 71.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 31

Video properties

•

Frame size: Use the pop-up menu to set the frame size (resolution) for the output le. For more

information, see Modify frame size overview on page 69.

•

Pixel aspect ratio: For settings that use the H.264 format, the pixel aspect ratio is set to Square.

•

Frame rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the playback rate (the number of images displayed

per second) for the output le. For more information, see Frame rate options overview on

page 71.

•

Field order: For settings that use the H.264 format, the eld order is set to Progressive

(complete frames are scanned).

•

Automatically select bit-rate: Select this checkbox to have Compressor automatically compute

the best bit rate for the output le, based on the duration of the source le. If the checkbox

is not selected, you can set the average and maximum bit rates by dragging the “Average bit

rate” and “Maximum bit rate” sliders or entering values in the text elds.

•

Multi-pass: Select this checkbox to turn on multi-pass encoding that uses additional analysis

of video frames to produce a high-quality output le. For faster (single-pass) transcoding, turn this feature o by deselecting the checkbox.

Cropping and padding

Customize the nal cropping, sizing, and aspect ratio using the Cropping & Padding properties.

Cropping removes video content from an image. Padding scales the image to a smaller size while retaining the output image’s frame size. For more information about these properties, see Modify

frame size overview on page 69.

•

Cropping: This pop-up menu sets the dimension of the output image. The custom option

allows you to enter your own image dimensions in the elds; other options use predetermined

sizes. The Letterbox Area of Source option detects image edges and automatically enters crop values to match them. This is useful if you want to crop out the letterbox area (the black bars

above and below a widescreen image) of a source media le.

•

Padding: This pop-up menu sets the scaling of the output image while retaining the output image’s frame size. The custom option allows you to enter your own scaling dimensions in the

elds; other options use predetermined dimensions.

Quality

The following properties set the processing algorithm used during the transcoding process. For more information about using these controls, see Retime video and audio output on page 71, and Modify timing and frame rate on page 72.

•

Resize lter: This pop-up menu sets the resizing method. There are three options:

•

Fast (Nearest Pixel): Provides the fastest processing time.

•

Better (Linear Filter): Provides a medium trade-o between processing time and output quality.

•

Best (Statistical Prediction): Provides the highest output quality, but takes longer.

•

Retiming Quality: This pop-up menu sets the retiming method. There are four options:

•

Fast (Nearest Frame): Uses a copy of the nearest available frame to ll the new

in-between frames.

•

Better (Motion Adaptive): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce good-quality output.

•

Best (Motion Compensated): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce high-quality output.

•

Reverse Telecine: Removes the extra elds added during the telecine process to convert the lm’s 24 fps to NTSC’s 29.97 fps. Choosing this item disables all the other Quality controls. For

more information, see About reverse telecine on page 74.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 32

•

Adaptive details: Select this checkbox to use advanced image analysis to distinguish between noise and edge areas during output.

•

when transcoding SD video to HD, anti-aliasing smooths jagged edges that might appear in

the image.

•

Video eects

For a list of available video eects and instructions on how to add a video eect to a setting, see

Add and remove eects on page 76.

Image Sequence

The built-in OpenEXR Image Sequence and TIFF Image Sequence settings use the Image

Sequence transcoding format. This format encodes a variety of image sequence le types used

in motion graphics, including TIFF, OpenEXR, JPEG, PNG, and more. You can also create custom settings that use the Image Sequence transcoding format.

The properties of built-in and custom settings that use this transcoding format are located in the General inspector and Video inspector. These properties are described below.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le

size. When you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le.

Tip: To output a le with a dierent extension, choose a dierent le type from the “Image

type” pop-up menu.

•

Allow job segmenting: If you’ve set up distributed processing, select this checkbox to have

Compressor process the output le using your shared computer group. For more information,

see Transcode batches using other computers on page 101.

•

Default location: Choose an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 33

•

Image type: Choose an image type from the pop-up menu to set an image type for the

transcoded les:

•

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)

•

TARGA (Truevision Advanced Raster Graphics Adapter), also referred to as TGA

•

DPX

•

JPEG

•

OpenEXR

•

PSD (Adobe Photoshop)

•

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

•

Create unique output directory: Select this checkbox to create a folder to hold the output les. When you choose this option, the les saved to the folder will be named “frame-0,” “frame-1,”

“frame-2,” and so on.

•

Add leading zeros to frame numbers: Select this checkbox to have Compressor add leading zeros to output lenames (“lename-000000,” “lename-000001,” “lename-000002,” and so on).

Retiming

This section contains one property:

•

Set duration to: Sets the processing algorithm used to adjust the frame rate during transcoding. Select one of the following options:

•

[Percentage] of source: Modies the output clip’s speed by a percentage of the source clip’s speed. Enter a value in the percentage eld or choose a preset value from the adjacent

pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

•

[Total duration]: Sets the duration of the clip. Enter a timecode duration in the eld or click

the arrows to increase or decrease the time.

•

So source frames play at [frame rate] fps: Nondestructively changes the playback speed of the

For more information, see Retime video and audio output on page 71.

Video properties

•

Frame size: Use the pop-up menu to set the frame size (resolution) for the output le.

•

Pixel aspect ratio: Use this pop-up menu to set the pixel aspect ratio (the ratio between the

image frame width and height). You can also modify the aspect ratio of the output le using

cropping and padding properties. For more information, see Modify frame size overview on page 69.

•

Frame rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the playback rate (the number of images displayed

per second) for the output le. For more information, see Frame rate options overview on

page 71.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 34

•

Field order: Use the pop-up menu to set the output scanning method (either the eld

dominance or a conversion to progressive scanning). There are four options:

•

Same as Source: Maintains the same scanning method used by the source media le.

•

Progressive: Scans complete frames (not frames divided into interlaced elds).

•

Top First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the top eld, also known as eld two, the upper eld, or the odd eld.

•

Bottom First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the bottom eld, also known as eld one, the lower eld, or the even eld.

•

Scale image to preserve aspect ratio: Select this checkbox to scale the output les to use square

pixels and maintain the original aspect ratio (which results in an increase or decrease in the number of horizontal and vertical pixels).

Cropping and padding

Customize the nal cropping, sizing, and aspect ratio using the Cropping & Padding properties.

Cropping removes video content from an image. Padding scales the image to a smaller size while retaining the output image’s frame size. For more information about these properties, see Modify

frame size overview on page 69.

•

Cropping: This pop-up menu sets the dimension of the output image. The custom option

allows you to enter your own image dimensions in the elds; other options use predetermined

sizes. The Letterbox Area of Source option detects image edges and automatically enters crop values to match them. This is useful if you want to crop out the letterbox area (the black bars

above and below a widescreen image) of a source media le.

•

Padding: This pop-up menu sets the scaling of the output image while retaining the output image’s frame size. The custom option allows you to enter your own scaling dimensions in the

elds; other options use predetermined dimensions.

Quality

The following properties determine how the video will be resized, retimed, and otherwise adjusted when transcoded.

•

Resize lter: This pop-up menu sets the resizing method. There are three options:

•

Fast (Nearest Pixel): Provides the fastest processing time.

•

Better (Linear Filter): Provides a medium trade-o between processing time and

output quality.

•

Best (Statistical Prediction): Provides the highest output quality, but takes longer.

•

Retiming Quality: This pop-up menu sets the retiming method. There are four options:

•

Fast (Nearest Frame): Uses a copy of the nearest available frame to ll the new

in-between frames.

•

Better (Motion Adaptive): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce good-quality output.

•

Best (Motion Compensated): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce high-quality output.

•

Reverse Telecine: Removes the extra elds added during the telecine process to convert the lm’s 24 fps to NTSC’s 29.97 fps. Choosing this item disables all the other Quality controls. For

more information, see About reverse telecine on page 74.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 35

•

Adaptive details: Select this checkbox to use advanced image analysis to distinguish between noise and edge areas during output.

•

when transcoding SD video to HD, anti-aliasing smooths jagged edges that might appear in

the image.

•

Video eects

For a list of available video eects and instructions on how to add a video eect to a setting, see

Add and remove eects on page 76.

MP3

The built-in MP3 File and MP3 for Audio Podcasting settings use the MP3 transcoding format.

This format encodes MP3 les, which are often used for digital audio players. You can also create

custom settings that use the MP3 transcoding format.

The properties of built-in and custom settings that use this transcoding format are located in the General inspector and Audio inspector. These properties are described below.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le

size. When you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le (.mp3).

•

Allow job segmenting: Job segmenting is not available for settings that output only an

audio le.

•

Default location: Select an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 36

Retiming

This section contains one property:

•

Set duration to: Sets the processing algorithm used to adjust the frame rate during transcoding. Select either of the following options:

•

[Percentage] of source: Modies the output clip’s speed by a percentage of the source clip’s speed. Enter a value in the percentage eld or choose a preset value from the adjacent

pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

•

[Total duration]: Sets the duration of the clip. Enter a timecode duration in the eld or click

the arrows to increase or decrease the time.

For more information, see Retime video and audio output on page 71.

Audio properties

•

Channel layout: Use the pop-up menu to set the audio channel layout. For more information, see About audio channels on page 67.

•

Sample rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the number of times per second that music waveforms (samples) are captured digitally. The higher the sample rate, the higher the audio

quality and the larger the le size.

•

Data rate: Use the slider to set the number of kilobits per second (kbps) required to deliver

your audio le. Using a higher rate will produce a higher-quality audio le.

•

Use variable bit rate encoding: Select the checkbox to vary the number of bits used to store the music depending on the complexity of the music. Variable bit rate encoding can reduce the

size of the output le.

•

Joint stereo: Select the checkbox to have one channel carry the information that’s identical on both channels, and another channel carry unique information. At bit rates of 160 kbps and below, this setting can improve the sound quality of your converted audio.

•

Smart encoding adjustments: Select the checkbox to have Compressor analyze the source le and the setting’s encoding properties to maximize the quality of the output le.

•

Filter frequencies below 10 Hz: Select the checkbox to have Compressor remove inaudible

frequencies from the source le and output a smaller and more ecient le without

perceptible loss of quality.

Audio eects

For a list of available audio eects and instructions on how to add an audio eect to a setting,

see Add and remove eects on page 76.

MPEG-2

The built-in MPEG Files settings (including the built-in MPEG-2 for DVD setting) use the MPEG-2

transcoding format. This format encodes MPEG-2 stream les for SD DVD and Blu-ray authoring.

Note: This setting encodes only a video le. Dolby Digital is the recommended audio setting. For

more information, see Dolby Digital on page 25.

You can also create custom settings that use the MPEG-2 transcoding format.

The properties of built-in and custom settings that use this transcoding format are located in the General, Video, and Audio inspectors. These properties are described below.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 37

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le

size. When you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le.

•

Allow job segmenting: If you’ve set up distributed processing, select this checkbox to have

Compressor process the output le using your shared computer group. For more information,

see Transcode batches using other computers on page 101.

•

Default location: Select an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

•

Format: Use the pop-up menu to set the stream type for the output le. There are three

options:

•

Program Stream: This stream type contains only one MPEG-2 content channel and its associated audio. Program streams require an error-free delivery method and are primarily used for storage or processing within a computer.

•

Elementary Stream: This stream type contains only one MPEG-2 content channel and no audio. When you select this option, you should also set the “Stream usage” property.

•

Transport Stream: This stream type can contain several MPEG-2 content channels and associated audio. All the channels are multiplexed together, allowing the receiver to choose which to play back. Compressor supports creating single-channel transport streams that can also include associated audio. Transport streams can also recover from interruptions during playback, making them ideally suited for broadcast and streaming applications where noise or network congestion can lead to interruptions.

•

Stream usage: Use this pop-up menu to specify the MPEG-2 transcoding output. Compressor

modies the available properties based on the option you choose:

•

Generic: This option allows you complete access to all the MPEG-2 properties. This is the only option that supports the MPEG-2 640 x 480 video format in addition to the standard-

denition (SD) and high-denition (HD) video formats. It’s also the only option that supports

creating transport and program streams. It supports the complete bit rate range of 2.0 Mbps to 40.0 Mbps.

•

DVD: This option restricts the encoding properties to those allowed by the SD DVD

specication. These include the NTSC and PAL video formats and a bit rate range of 2.0 Mbps

to 9.0 Mbps.

•

Blu-ray: This option restricts the encoding properties to those allowed by Blu-ray video discs.

These include the SD and HD video formats and a bit rate range of 10.0 Mbps to 40.0 Mbps.

•

Add Apple metadata: Select this checkbox to have Compressor parse specic MPEG-2 authoring information during the transcoding process and provide it in the output le. The resulting le

will be read faster by other applications.

•

Include chapter markers only: Select this checkbox to include chapter markers, but not unnamed compression markers, in MPEG-2 output. When this checkbox is deselected, all

markers are included in the output le. For more information about chapter markers, see Add

markers on page 82.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 38

Retiming

This section contains one property:

•

Set duration to: Sets the processing algorithm used to adjust the frame rate during transcoding. Select one of the following options:

•

[Percentage] of source: Modies the output clip’s speed by a percentage of the source clip’s speed. Enter a value in the percentage eld or choose a preset value from the adjacent

pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

•

[Total duration]: Sets the duration of the clip. Enter a timecode duration in the eld or click

the arrows to increase or decrease the time.

•

So source frames play at [frame rate] fps: Nondestructively changes the playback speed of the

For more information, see Retime video and audio output on page 71.

Video properties

•

Frame size: Use the pop-up menu to set the frame size (resolution) for the output le.

•

Pixel aspect ratio: Use the pop-up menu to set the pixel aspect ratio (the ratio between the

image frame width and height). You can also modify the aspect ratio of the output le using

cropping and padding properties. For more information, see Modify frame size overview on page 69.

•

Frame rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the playback rate (the number of images displayed

per second) for the output le. For more information, see Frame rate options overview on

page 71.

•

Field order: Use the pop-up menu to set the output scanning method (either the eld

dominance or a conversion to progressive scanning). There are four options:

•

Same as Source: Maintains the same scanning method used by the source media le.

•

Progressive: Scans complete frames (not frames divided into interlaced elds).

•

Top First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the top eld, also known as eld two, the upper eld, or the odd eld.

•

Bottom First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the bottom eld, also known as eld one, the lower eld, or the even eld.

•

Anamorphic: Set the aspect ratio using this pop-up menu. Choose Automatic to have Compressor scale the image based on the frame size, or choose 16:9 or 4:3 to set anamorphic scaling to a standard aspect ratio.

•

Encoding mode: Choose an option from the pop-up menu to set how Compressor encodes the

output le: either faster and lower quality, or slower and better quality. Options include:

•

Single Pass CBR: This is the fastest MPEG-2 encoding mode. It provides good quality, especially at bit rates between 5 and 9 Mbps.

•

Single Pass VBR: This mode aims to maintain constant quality (at the expense of constant bit

rate) for the transcoded video le. For most standard-denition (SD) media les at bit rates

of 3.5 Mbps and above, this mode provides good to excellent quality and transcodes quickly.

•

Single Pass VBR (Best): This mode provides the best possible quality output for SD video at bit rates of 3 to 3.5 Mbps and above.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 39

•

Two Pass VBR: This mode uses two passes—one pass to analyze the entire source video

stream, and a second pass to compress the le. This mode takes longer and provides a better-quality le than the one-pass modes, and is recommended for source media les with a substantial dierence between the most and the least complex scenes.

•

Two Pass VBR (Best): This mode provides the best possible quality output, and outstanding

quality at bit rates of 3 to 3.5 Mbps and above for HD and SD video.

•

Motion estimation: This pop-up menu sets the amount of motion processing that will be

performed on the le. There are three options:

•

Good: The fastest processing setting. Use this setting when there is relatively low motion between frames. In general, use Good with the one-pass encoding modes.

•

Better: Provides very good results even in the presence of complex interlaced motion. In general, use Better with Single Pass VBR (Best) and Two Pass VBR (Best).

•

Best: The slowest processing setting. Use for the most complex motion and for interlaced

source les. In general, use the Best mode to maximize quality when using Single Pass VBR

(Best) or Two Pass VBR (Best).

•

GOP structure: This property is available only when the “Frame rate” property is set manually (does not use Automatic).

Note: Automatically determined properties, including the “Frame rate” property mentioned

above, are assigned by Compressor based on your source media le. Therefore, "Automatic”

properties are strongly recommended.

Compressor provides three methods of grouping frames, or “pictures,” in encoded video: as I-frames (intra-frames), P-frames (predictive frames), and B-frames (bi-predictive frames). The “GOP structure” pop-up menu includes several methods of combining frames:

•

IP: Use IP only if your media contains fast motion that isn’t encoded with sucient quality

using an IBBP or IBP structure.

•

IBP: Use IBP only if your media contains fast motion that isn’t encoded with sucient quality

using an IBBP structure.

•

IBBP: Recommended for majority of MPEG-2 encoding situations.

Note: For most MPEG-2 encoding situations intended for use on a DVD, choose IBBP as the

GOP structure setting, and a GOP size of 15 for NTSC, or 12 for PAL.

•

GOP size: This property is available when the “Frame rate” property is set manually (does not use Automatic).

Note: Automatically determined properties, including the “Frame rate” property mentioned

above, are assigned by Compressor based on your source media le. Therefore, "Automatic”

properties are strongly recommended.

This slider species how many frames are contained within a GOP (group of pictures). The

values available in the slider are are determined by the GOP structure property (described above). The maximum GOP size you can choose within Compressor is 15 frames (NTSC) or 12

frames (PAL and 720p). The minimum GOP size for all video formats is 6 frames (closed GOP) or

7 frames (open GOP).

•

Automatically select bit rate: Select this checkbox to have Compressor automatically compute

the best bit rate for the output le, based on the duration of the source le. To manually adjust

the bit rate, deselect the checkbox and drag the “Average bit rate” and “Maximum bit rate”

sliders (or enter values in the adjacent elds).

•

YUV 422 color encoding: This property appears in most built-in settings that output MPEG-2

les. Select this checkbox to use YUV 422 color encoding for superior chroma quality.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 40

Cropping and padding

Customize the nal cropping, sizing, and aspect ratio using the Cropping & Padding properties.

Cropping removes video content from an image. Padding scales the image to a smaller size while retaining the output image’s frame size. For more information about these properties, see Modify

frame size overview on page 69.

•

Cropping: This pop-up menu sets the dimension of the output image. The custom option

allows you to enter your own image dimensions in the elds; other options use predetermined

sizes. The Letterbox Area of Source option detects image edges and automatically enters crop values to match them. This is useful if you want to crop out the letterbox area (the black bars

above and below a widescreen image) of a source media le.

•

Padding: This pop-up menu sets the scaling of the output image while retaining the output image’s frame size. The custom option allows you to enter your own scaling dimensions in the

elds; other options use predetermined dimensions.

Quality

The following properties determine how the video will be resized, retimed, and otherwise adjusted when transcoded.

•

Resize lter: This pop-up menu sets the resizing method. There are three options:

•

Fast (Nearest Pixel): Provides the fastest processing time.

•

Better (Linear Filter): Provides a medium trade-o between processing time and output quality.

•

Best (Statistical Prediction): Provides the highest output quality, but takes longer.

•

Retiming Quality: This pop-up menu sets the retiming method. There are four options:

•

Fast (Nearest Frame): Uses a copy of the nearest available frame to ll the new

in-between frames.

•

Better (Motion Adaptive): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce good-quality output.

•

Best (Motion Compensated): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce high-quality output.

•

Reverse Telecine: Removes the extra elds added during the telecine process to convert the lm’s 24 fps to NTSC’s 29.97 fps. Choosing this item disables all the other Quality controls. For

more information, see About reverse telecine on page 74.

•

Adaptive details: Select this checkbox to use advanced image analysis to distinguish between noise and edge areas during output.

•

when transcoding SD video to HD, anti-aliasing smooths jagged edges that might appear in

the image.

•

Video eects

For a list of available video eects and instructions on how to add a video eect to a setting, see

Add and remove eects on page 76.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 41

MPEG-4

The built-in settings included in the Prepare for HTTP Live Streaming destination and the

built-in AAC setting (for audio output) use the MPEG-4 transcoding format, which encodes

les using an H.264 encoder. This format encodes les for HTTP live streaming and for AAC audio les used in audio podcasting and digital music playback. To learn more about HTTP Live

Streaming, see the HTTP Live Streaming Overview and other related documents available in the

Mac Developer library.

You can also create custom settings that use the MPEG-4 transcoding format.

The properties of built-in and custom settings that use the MPEG-4 transcoding format are listed below. The list includes properties in the General, Video, and Audio inspectors.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le

size. When you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le (.mp4 or .m4a).

•

Allow job segmenting: If you’ve set up distributed processing, select this checkbox to have

Compressor process the output le using your shared computer group. For more information,

see Transcode batches using other computers on page 101.

Note: Job segmenting is not available when outputting an MPEG-4 audio le or when the

Multi-pass checkbox is selected in the Video inspector.

•

Default location: Choose an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

•

Format: Use this pop-up menu to set whether the output includes video and audio, video only, or audio only.

•

Optimize for network use: Select this checkbox to create a le that will start playing after only a small portion of the le has been downloaded from the network.

•

Enhanced podcast: Select this checkbox to have Compressor embed podcasting information

(annotations, markers, and artwork) into the output media le. For more information about

annotations, see Add metadata on page 80. For more information about chapter markers, see

Add markers on page 82.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 42

Retiming

This section contains one property:

•

Set duration to: Sets the processing algorithm used to adjust the frame rate during transcoding. Select one of the following options:

•

[Percentage] of source: Modies the output clip’s speed by a percentage of the source clip’s speed. Enter a value in the percentage eld or choose a preset value from the adjacent

pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

•

[Total duration]: Sets the duration of the clip. Enter a timecode duration in the eld or click

the arrows to increase or decrease the time.

•

So source frames play at [frame rate] fps: Nondestructively changes the playback speed of the

Note: This option is not available when outputting an MPEG-4 audio le.

For more information, see Retime video and audio output on page 71.

Video properties

•

Frame size: Use the pop-up menu to set the frame size (resolution) for the output le.

•

Pixel aspect ratio: Use the pop-up menu to set the pixel aspect ratio (the ratio between the

image frame width and height). You can also modify the aspect ratio of the output le using

cropping and padding properties. For more information, see Modify frame size overview on page 69.

•

Frame rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the playback rate (the number of images displayed

per second) for the output le. For more information, see Frame rate options overview on

page 71.

•

Field order: Use the pop-up menu to set the output scanning method (either the eld

dominance or a conversion to progressive scanning). There are four options:

•

Same as Source: Maintains the same scanning method used by the source media le.

•

Progressive: Scans complete frames (not frames divided into interlaced elds).

•

Top First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the top eld, also known as eld two, the upper eld, or the odd eld.

•

Bottom First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the bottom eld, also known as eld one, the lower eld, or the even eld.

•

H.264 prole: Use the pop-up menu to set the video compression for the output le. There are

three options:

•

High: Provides high quality output.

Note: This setting is not compatible with older MPEG-4 Part 10 devices.

•

Main: Similar to the Baseline prole, with additional support for standard-denition (SD)

video requirements.

•

Baseline: Primarily for video conferencing and mobile applications.

•

Entropy mode: Use the pop-up menu to set the entropy mode to CABAC, which provides

higher-quality output, or CAVLC, which is faster.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 43

•

Key frame interval: Enter a value in the text eld to set the key frame interval (number of frames) at which you want key frames created in your output le. Alternatively, you can select

Automatic to have Compressor choose the key frame interval rate (the displayed value is 0 with Automatic on; the actual value is determined during the encoding process).

•

Data rate: Sets the number of kilobits per second (kbps) required to deliver your video le. Drag the slider or enter a value in the eld. This setting is useful if you have a specic bit rate (such as a DSL connection) or amount of space (on a DVD or CD- ROM).

Important: When you set a data rate, you override other codec quality properties because the

codec compresses the le as much as it needs to based on its data rate limit.

•

Multi-pass: Select this checkbox to turn on multi-pass encoding that uses additional analysis

of video frames to produce a high-quality output le. For faster (single-pass) transcoding, turn this feature o by deselecting the checkbox.

•

Allow frame reordering: Select this checkbox to potentially provide a better-quality output le

by allowing Compressor to reorder video frames during transcoding.

Cropping and padding

Customize the nal cropping, sizing, and aspect ratio using the Cropping & Padding properties.

Cropping removes video content from an image. Padding scales the image to a smaller size while retaining the output image’s frame size. For more information about these properties, see Modify

frame size overview on page 69.

•

Cropping: This pop-up menu sets the dimension of the output image. The custom option

allows you to enter your own image dimensions in the elds; other options use predetermined

sizes. The Letterbox Area of Source option detects image edges and automatically enters crop values to match them. This is useful if you want to crop out the letterbox area (the black bars

above and below a widescreen image) of a source media le.

•

Padding: This pop-up menu sets the scaling of the output image while retaining the output image’s frame size. The custom option allows you to enter your own scaling dimensions in the

elds; other options use predetermined dimensions.

Quality

The following properties determine how the video will be resized, retimed, and otherwise adjusted when transcoded.

•

Resize lter: This pop-up menu sets the resizing method. There are three options:

•

Fast (Nearest Pixel): Provides the fastest processing time.

•

Better (Linear Filter): Provides a medium trade-o between processing time and

output quality.

•

Best (Statistical Prediction): Provides the highest output quality, but takes longer.

•

Retiming Quality: This pop-up menu sets the retiming method. There are four options:

•

Fast (Nearest Frame): Uses a copy of the nearest available frame to ll the new

in-between frames.

•

Better (Motion Adaptive): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce good-quality output.

•

Best (Motion Compensated): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce high-quality output.

•

Reverse Telecine: Removes the extra elds added during the telecine process to convert the lm’s 24 fps to NTSC’s 29.97 fps. Choosing this item disables all the other Quality controls. For

more information, see About reverse telecine on page 74.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 44

•

Adaptive details: Select this checkbox to use advanced image analysis to distinguish between noise and edge areas during output.

•

when transcoding SD video to HD, anti-aliasing smooths jagged edges that might appear in

the image.

•

Video eects

For a list of available video eects and instructions on how to add a video eect to a setting, see

Add and remove eects on page 76.

Audio properties

•

Channel layout: Use the pop-up menu to set the audio channel layout.

•

Sample rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the number of times per second that music waveforms (samples) are captured digitally. The higher the sample rate, the higher the audio

quality and the larger the le size.

•

Data rate: Use the slider to set the number of kilobits per second (kbps) required to deliver

your audio le. Using a higher rate will produce a higher-quality audio le.

Audio eects

For a list of available audio eects and instructions on how to add an audio eect to a setting,

see Add and remove eects on page 76.

QuickTime Export Components

You can use the QuickTime Export Components transcoding format to output les for a variety

of additional formats that can play on third-party devices and operating systems, such as mobile

phones. You can transcode les for 3G, AVI, and Apple iPod, or transcode using third-party plug-

ins that you’ve installed on your system.

The properties of custom settings that use this transcoding format are located in the General inspector and Video inspector. These properties are described below.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le

size. When you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 45

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le, based on the setting chosen in the

“Encoder type” pop-up menu, described below.

•

Allow job segmenting: This option is not available for the default encoder types that are included with Compressor. It may be available for other encoders.

•

Default location: Select an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

•

Encoder type: Use this pop-up menu to choose from the available export component output formats (plug-ins). For some encoder types, you can customize the plug-in via the Settings property, described below.

•

Settings: You can modify the export component output format that you selected in the

Encoder type pop-up menu by clicking the Congure button and adjusting the format’s

properties in the window that appears.

Important: Use the third-party export module user interface to explicitly enter the image size

and frame rate for the output le. Do not leave the Image Size and Frame Rate settings in the

third-party user interface at their default values.

Video properties

The properties in this section are set based on the le format assigned to the setting. You can change the le format in the General pane of the inspector; for more information, see the "Settings” property in the “General properties” section, above.

•

Frame size: For settings that use the QuickTime Export Component format, this property is set to Automatic.

•

Pixel aspect ratio: For settings that use the QuickTime Export Component format, this property

is set to Square. You can also modify the aspect ratio of the output le using cropping and

padding properties; for more information, see Modify frame size overview on page 69.

•

Frame rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the playback rate (the number of images displayed

per second) for the output le. For more information, see Frame rate options overview on

page 71.

•

Field order: For settings that use the QuickTime Export Component format, the eld order is

set automatically.

Cropping and Padding

Customize the nal cropping, sizing, and aspect ratio using the Cropping & Padding properties.

Cropping removes video content from an image. Padding scales the image to a smaller size while retaining the output image’s frame size. For more information about these properties, see Modify

frame size overview on page 69.

•

Cropping: This pop-up menu sets the dimension of the output image. The custom option

allows you to enter your own image dimensions in the elds; other options use predetermined

sizes. The Letterbox Area of Source option detects image edges and automatically enters crop values to match them. This is useful if you want to crop out the letterbox area (the black bars

above and below a widescreen image) of a source media le.

•

Padding: For settings that use the QuickTime Export Component format, the Padding property is not available.

Video eects

For a list of available video eects and instructions on how to add a video eect to a setting, see

Add and remove eects on page 76.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 46

QuickTime Movie

Many of the built-in settings in the Settings pane use the QuickTime Movie format. This format

encodes video les for many uses. You can also create custom settings that use the QuickTime

Movie transcoding format.

The properties of built-in and custom settings that use this format are located in the General, Video, and Audio inspectors. These properties are described below.

Important: When you add a setting (or a destination that includes settings) to a job, Compressor

analyzes the source media and then automatically assigns the most appropriate setting properties (based on the setting’s transcoding format and the characteristics of your source

media le). It’s recommended that you use the automatically assigned setting properties.

Setting summary

Displays the setting name and transcoding format, as well as an estimated output le

size. When you add a setting to a job or change the setting’s properties, this summary automatically updates.

General properties

•

Name: Displays the name of the setting.

•

Description: Displays the description of the setting.

•

Extension: Displays the extension of the output le (.mov).

•

Allow job segmenting: If you’ve set up distributed processing, select this checkbox to have

Compressor process the output le using your shared computer group. For more information,

see Transcode batches using other computers on page 101.

•

Default location: Select an item from the pop-up menu to set the default save location for

transcoded les.

•

Format: Use the pop-up menu to set whether the output includes video and audio, video only, or audio only.

•

Optimize for network use: Select this checkbox to create a le that will start playing after only a small portion of the le has been downloaded from the network.

Retiming

This section contains one property:

•

Set duration to: Sets the processing algorithm used to adjust the frame rate during transcoding. Select one of the following options:

•

[Percentage] of source: Modies the output clip’s speed by a percentage of the source clip’s speed. Enter a value in the percentage eld or choose a preset value from the adjacent

pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

•

[Total duration]: Sets the duration of the clip. Enter a timecode duration in the eld or click

the arrows to increase or decrease the time.

•

So source frames play at [frame rate] fps: Nondestructively changes the playback speed of the

For more information, see Retime video and audio output on page 71.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 47

Video properties

•

Frame size: Use the pop-up menu to set the frame size (resolution) for the output le. For more

information, see Modify frame size overview on page 69.

•

Pixel aspect ratio: Use this pop-up menu to set the pixel aspect ratio (the ratio between the

image frame width and height). You can also modify the aspect ratio of the output le using

cropping and padding properties; for more information, see Modify frame size overview on page 69.

Note: This property can be set when the frame size property uses a specic frame size (for

example, 720 x 480).

•

Frame rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the playback rate (the number of images displayed

per second) for the output le. For more information, see Frame rate options overview on

page 71.

•

Field order: Use the pop-up menu to set the output scanning method (either the eld

dominance or a conversion to progressive scanning). There are four options:

•

Same as Source: Maintains the same scanning method used by the source media le.

•

Progressive: Scans complete frames (not frames divided into interlaced elds).

•

Top First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the top eld.

•

Bottom First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the bottom eld.

•

Add clean aperture information: Select this checkbox to dene clean picture edges in the output le. To do this, information is added to the output le to dene how many pixels to hide, ensuring that no artifacts appear along the edges. When you play the output le in

QuickTime Player, the pixel aspect ratio will be slightly altered; however, note that this process

does not aect the actual number of pixels in the output le—it only controls whether information is added to the le that a player can use to hide the edges of the picture.

•

QuickTime settings: You can change the type of video compression by clicking the Change button and using the controls in the Standard Video Compression Settings window to modify the compression as appropriate. After you click OK and close the window, the setting’s video properties update to show your changes.

Cropping and Padding

Customize the nal cropping, sizing, and aspect ratio using the Cropping & Padding properties.

Cropping removes video content from an image. Padding scales the image to a smaller size while retaining the output image’s frame size. For more information about these properties, see Modify

frame size overview on page 69.

•

Cropping: This pop-up menu sets the dimension of the output image. The custom option

allows you to enter your own image dimensions in the elds; other options use predetermined

sizes. The Letterbox Area of Source option detects image edges and automatically enters crop values to match them. This is useful if you want to crop out the letterbox area (the black bars

above and below a widescreen image) of a source media le.

•

Padding: This pop-up menu sets the scaling of the output image while retaining the output image’s frame size. The custom option allows you to enter your own scaling dimensions in the

elds; other options use predetermined dimensions.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 48

Quality

The following properties determine how the video will be resized, retimed, and otherwise adjusted when transcoded.

•

Resize lter: This pop-up menu sets the resizing method. There are three options:

•

Fast (Nearest Pixel): Provides the fastest processing time and with lower-quality output.

•

Better (Linear Filter): Provides a medium trade-o between processing time and

output quality.

•

Best (Statistical Prediction): Provides the highest output quality, but takes longer.

•

Retiming Quality: This pop-up menu sets the retiming method. There are four options:

•

Fast (Nearest Frame): Uses a copy of the nearest available frame to ll the new

in-between frames.

•

Better (Motion Adaptive): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce good-quality output.

•

Best (Motion Compensated): Uses deinterlacing on areas of the source le that contain

movement to produce high-quality output.

•

Reverse Telecine: Removes the extra elds added during the telecine process to convert the lm’s 24 fps to NTSC’s 29.97 fps. Choosing this item disables all the other Quality controls. For

more information, see About reverse telecine on page 74.

•

Adaptive details: Select this checkbox to use advanced image analysis to distinguish between noise and edge areas during output.

•

when transcoding SD video to HD, anti-aliasing smooths jagged edges that might appear in

the image.

•

Video eects

For a list of available video eects and instructions on how to add a video eect to a setting, see

Add and remove eects on page 76.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 49

Audio properties

•

Channel layout: Use the pop-up menu to set the audio channel layout. For more information, see About audio channels on page 67.

•

Sample rate: Use this pop-up menu to set the number of times per second that music waveforms (samples) are captured digitally. The higher the sample rate, the higher the audio

quality and the larger the le size.

•

Sample size: Use the pop-up menu to manually set the sample size of the audio signal.

•

Copy audio tracks from source: Select the checkbox to copy the audio les from the source le

(instead of re-encoding them during the transcoding process).

•

QuickTime settings: You can add an audio codec that you’ve installed on your system to customize the Compressor setting. To change the codec used in your setting, or to modify the codec’s properties, click the Change button and use the controls in the Sound Settings window to modify the codec as appropriate. After you click OK and close the window, the setting’s audio properties update to show your changes.

Audio eects

For a list of available audio eects and instructions on how to add an audio eect to a setting,

see Add and remove eects on page 76.

Work with destinations

View and modify a destination’s properties

Destinations consist of one or more settings combined with an automated job action that is performed after transcoding. For example, if you apply the built-in Publish to Facebook

destination to a source le, Compressor uses the setting to create a QuickTime movie le optimized for viewing on the web and then runs a job action that publishes the le to your

Facebook account.

When you select a destination in the Settings pane, its properties are shown in the Destination inspector:

•

Name: Displays the name of the destination.

•

Description: Displays a description of the destination.

•

When done: Use this pop-up menu to modify the job action associated with the destination.

For a list of each job action’s properties, see Job action properties on page 59.

View a destination’s properties

1 If the Settings pane or inspector pane is hidden, do the following:

•

To reveal the Settings pane, press Shift-Command-1.

•

To reveal the inspector pane, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.

2 Select a destination in the Settings pane.

The Destination inspector appears (in the inspector pane on the right side of the Compressor window), displaying the destination name and description, setting properties, and job properties.

Modify a destination’s properties

m In the Destination inspector, adjust any of the available controls, including its action property.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 50

Create custom destinations

Similar to settings, you can create a custom destination from scratch, or by duplicating an existing destination.

Create a custom destination

1 Choose New Destination from the Add pop-up menu at the bottom of the Settings pane.

2 In the window that appears, do the following:

a Select one or more transcode settings or a destination from the list.

To quickly locate an item, type a few letters of the item’s name in the search eld.

b Choose a job action for the destination from the Job action pop-up menu.

c Optionally, you can enter a name and a description in the relevant elds.

d Click OK.

The new destination appears in the Custom section of the Settings pane and is selected by default. The Destination inspector is displayed in the inspector pane.

3 Fill in the job action properties in the Action area.

For example, if you choose the Add to iTunes Library job action, you can choose a playlist and

enter a title for the movie.

Because you’re modifying a custom destination, the properties that you provide for the job action will be saved for future use.

You can also modify the properties of the setting that the destination uses. For more information, see View and modify a setting’s properties on page 20.

Create a custom destination by duplicating an existing destination

You can also duplicate an existing destination and then modify its setting properties or job action properties.

1 In the Settings pane, select the destination that you want to duplicate and then choose

Duplicate from the Action pop-up menu at the bottom of the pane.

The new destination appears in the Custom section of the Settings pane and is selected by default. The Destination inspector is displayed in the inspector pane.

2 To modify the properties of the destination, do any of the following in the Destination inspector:

•

Select text in the Name eld or Description eld, and then type a new name or description.

•

Fill in the job action properties in the Action area. Because you are modifying a custom destination, the properties that you provide for the job action will be saved for future use.

For information about job action properties, see Job action properties on page 59.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 51

Remove a destination

You can delete any custom destination.

Delete a custom destination

m Select a custom destination in the Settings pane, and then press Delete.

Work with locations

A location species where the transcoded le is saved after transcoding. You can use one of the built-in locations provided in Compressor, or create a custom location. Locations are shown in the Locations pane.

When you select a location, its properties are shown in the Locations inspector:

•

Name: Displays the location’s name.

•

Filename format: Adjust the naming tokens in this eld to modify the output lename.

•

Sample: Displays the output lename in the chosen in the “Filename format” eld.

•

Location: Displays where the transcoded le is saved.

View a location’s properties

1 In the Locations pane, select a location.

If the Locations pane is hidden, press Shift-Command-2.

2 If necessary, click the Inspector button to reveal the Location inspector.

The selected location’s properties are displayed in the Location inspector.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 52

Create a custom location

Drag tokens to reorder.

1 Click the Add button at the bottom of the Locations pane.

If the Locations pane is hidden, press Shift-Command-2.

2 In the window that appears, select a location on your computer or on a connected device, and

then click Choose.

The new location appears in the Custom area of Locations pane and is selected by default. The Location inspector is displayed in the inspector pane.

3 To modify the properties of the location, do any of the following in the Location inspector:

•

Type a new name in the Name eld.

•

Drag or add naming tokens in the “Filename format” eld. For instructions on how modify the lename format, see the next task, “Set a custom location’s lename format.”

•

If you decide to change the save location, click the Choose Location button, specify a new

location, and then click Choose.

Set a custom location’s lename format

When you add a setting to a job, Compressor automatically assigns an output lename based on the lename format provided in the Locations inspector. You can change the lename that Compressor assigns at any time. You can also modify the lename format that is used for locations you’ve created. Then, each time you use the custom location, your custom lename format will be used for the output le’s name.

Note: You cannot modify any part of a built-in location; however, you can duplicate a built-in

location and set its lename format as you choose. See the task above for instructions on

creating a custom location.

1 In the Locations pane, select a location.

If the Locations pane is hidden, press Shift-Command-2.

2 If necessary, click the Inspector button to reveal the Location inspector.

The “Filename format” eld in the Location inspector displays naming tokens that determine the output lename.

Manually entered text

“Add element” pop-up menu

Sample filename

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 53

3 To modify the lename format, do any the following:

•

Move existing tokens: Drag tokens to reorder them. Or click a token to select it, press

Command-X to cut the token, click to select a new location in the eld, and then press

Command-V to paste the token in the new location.

•

Add a token: Click a location in the eld to specify where you want to place a new token, and

then then choose a token from the pop-up menu.

•

Add text: Click a location in the eld to specify where you want to place a new token, and then

type the text.

As you change the output lename instructions, the sample lename (shown below the “Filename format” eld) updates.

Delete a custom location

Note: You cannot delete a built-in location.

m In the Locations pane, select a location and then press Delete.

If the Location’s pane is hidden, press Shift-Command-2.

Work with jobs

Overview

When you add a source le to Compressor and apply settings or destinations, you create a

transcoding job. Jobs are displayed in the batch area of the Compressor window. When you select a job in the batch area, its properties are shown in the Job inspector. In the Job inspector, you can:

•

View or modify job properties, including metadata tags

•

Add or modify a job action to be performed after transcoding

The properties that appear in the Job inspector vary depending on the type of source le in the

job. See Standard media job properties on page 55, Image sequence job properties on page 56, and Surround sound job properties on page 57. In addition, each job action has a set of unique properties. See Job action properties on page 59.

View and modify job properties

After you select a job in the batch area, the Job inspector displays that job’s properties.

View a job’s properties

1 Select the job in the batch area.

Tip: To select a job, rather than one of its output rows, click the source lename at the top of

the job.

2 If necessary, click the Inspector button to reveal the inspector pane.

The selected job’s properties are displayed in the Job inspector.

Modify a job’s properties

m In the Job inspector, adjust any of the available controls, including eld order type (progressive

or interlaced) and metadata tags.

Additional job properties vary depending on the type of source le in the job. For more

information, see Standard media job properties on page 55, Image sequence job properties on page 56, and Surround sound job properties on page 57.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 54

Add metadata to a job

m You can add metadata to a standard, image sequence, or surround sound job in the form of job

annotations and closed-caption les. For instructions, see Add metadata on page 80.

Delete a job

m Click a job in the batch area to select it, and then press Delete.

Job properties

Standard media job properties

The properties of a job containing a standard media le are described below. The job’s properties

are displayed in the Job inspector.

Job summary

Displays the name, location, video and audio encoding information, and the duration of the

source le.

Timing

Provides the timecode for the Start point, In point, and the duration of the output le.

File properties

The following properties are available in the File Properties section of the Job inspector:

•

Field order: Use the pop-up menu to set the order in which video elds are transcoded. There

are three options:

•

Progressive: Scans complete frames (not frames divided into interlaced elds).

•

Top First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the top eld, also known as the upper eld. Top rst eld order is often used by 640 x 480 systems.

•

Bottom First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the bottom eld, also known as the lower eld. Bottom rst eld order is often used in professional 720 x 486 and

DV 720 x 480 systems.

Metadata

The following properties are available in the Metadata section of the Job inspector:

•

Closed captions: Click the Choose button to add closed captions to your output le.

•

Add Job Annotation: Use this pop-up menu to add job annotation metadata to your output le.

For more information about metadata, see Add metadata on page 80.

Action

For information about each job action and the properties it contains, see Job action

properties on page 59.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 55

Image sequence job properties

The properties of a job containing an image sequence media le are described below. The job’s

properties are displayed in the Job inspector.

Note: To learn how to import a set of image sequence les, see Import image sequence les on page 62.

Job summary

Displays the name, location, le information, and the duration of the source le.

Timing

Provides the timecode for the Start point, In point, and duration of the image sequence output le.

Image sequence properties

The following properties are available in the Image Sequence Properties section of the Job inspector:

•

Field order: Use the pop-up menu to set the order in which video elds are transcoded.

•

Progressive: Scans complete frames (not frames divided into interlaced elds).

•

Top First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the top eld, also known as the upper eld. Top rst eld order is often used by 640 x 480 systems.

•

Bottom First: Scans interlaced elds, giving dominance (eld order) to the bottom eld, also known as the lower eld.

•

Frame Rate: Select a frame rate for the image sequence le from the pop-up menu, or type a custom value in the text eld.

•

Audio File: Add an audio le to the image sequence job le by clicking the Choose button, selecting a le, and clicking Open.

Image sequence les

The les in the image sequence source le are displayed, in order, in this area of the Job inspector.

Metadata

The following properties are available in the Metadata section of the image Job inspector:

•

Closed captions: Use this pop-up menu to add closed captions to your output le.

•

Add Job Annotation: Use this pop-up menu to add job annotation metadata to your output le.

For more information about metadata, see Add metadata on page 80.

Action

For information about each job action and the properties it contains, see Job action

properties on page 59.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 56

Surround sound job properties

The properties of a job containing an image sequence media le are described below. The job’s

properties are displayed in the Job inspector.

Note: To learn how to import a set of surround sound les, see Import and modify surround

sound les on page 64.

Job summary

Displays the name, location, video and audio encoding information, and the duration of the

source le.

Timing

Provides the timecode for the Start point, In point, and duration of the source le.

Surround sound properties

In this area, you can see the name of the le assigned to each surround sound channel.

•

Remove button: Click the Remove button to remove the le assigned to a channel.

•

Channel icon: Click the channel icon (a speaker icon or subwoofer icon) to assign a le to a channel.

•

Add Video: Click the Add Video button to add a video le to the surround sound source audio le.

•

Clear All: Click the Clear All button to clear all the audio les assigned to the audio channels and to remove the video le assigned to the surround sound source le.

Metadata

The following properties are available in the Metadata section of the Job inspector:

•

Closed captions: Click the Choose button to add closed captions to your output le.

•

Add Job Annotation: Use this pop-up menu to add job annotation metadata to your output le.

For more information about metadata, see Add metadata on page 80.

Action

For information about each job action and the properties it contains, see Job action

properties on page 59.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 57

Work with job actions

This job uses the

Add and modify job actions

A job action is an automated action performed on a media le after it's transcoded—such as

burning a DVD, uploading to Vimeo or YouTube, and so on. If a job contains a job action, a gear icon is shown in the top-right corner of the job.

Create DVD job action.

You can add a job action to a job, as well as modify a job action’s properties, in the Job inspector.

Note: A job action is included in each of the built-in destinations provided with Compressor. For more information, see View and modify a destination’s properties on page 50.

Add a job action to a job

1 Select the job in the batch area.

2 If necessary, click the Inspector button to reveal the inspector pane.

3 In the Action section (at the bottom of the Job inspector), select a job action from the When

done pop-up menu.

Additional properties may appear, depending on the job action you select. Add the appropriate

information to any additional elds.

For information about the properties of each job action, see Job action properties on page 59.

Fix a job action that has an alert icon

If a job action displays an alert icon , there’s an issue with the source le or the action properties. For example, you may need to provide your Vimeo account name and password in the job action’s properties; without that information, Compressor cannot upload the transcoded

le to your Vimeo account.

1 Move the pointer over the alert icon.

A help tag appears, displaying further instructions.

2 Select the job, and then, if necessary, click the Inspector button to reveal the inspector pane.

3 In the Action section of the Job inspector, modify the job action properties.

When the icon disappears, the issue is xed.

If you can’t remove the alert icon by modifying the action’s properties, there may be an issue with the setting you’re using or the requirements of the action. For example, the media might be too large for a website or disc, or the setting might not be compatible with the job action. For more information, research the limitations of the setting and the requirements of the action.

Remove a job action

1 Select the job in the batch area.

2 If necessary, click the Inspector button to reveal the inspector pane.

3 In the Action section of the Job inspector, choose Do Nothing from the “When done” pop-up menu.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 58

Job action properties

Compressor comes with a set of job actions that are used in destinations as well as in jobs. The job action assigned to a destination or job performs an automated action after transcoding—

usually copying the transcoded le to a new location.

For more information about adding or modifying a job action in a job, see View and modify job

properties on page 54. For information about choosing a job action that’s part of a destination,

see View and modify a destination’s properties on page 50.

The properties of job actions available in Compressor are described below.

Add to iTunes Library

•

Playlist: This pop-up menu sets a playlist for the output le to be added to. The choices in the

menu are automatically populated from your iTunes library. If necessary, you can click the Refresh button to update the playlist choices.

•

Title: Displays the title of the le as you want it to appear in your iTunes library. You can type a title in the text eld.

Disc-burning job actions

The “Create Blu-ray disc” and Create DVD job actions include the following properties:

•

Output device: This pop-up menu species the device that the output les will be formatted for. You can choose Hard Drive to create a disk image (.img) le that you can burn to DVD

media at a later time using the Disk Utility application (available in the OS X Utilities folder).

Note: The items in this menu are determined by your system’s available options. For example,

when no Blu-ray or DVD drive is detected, only the Hard Drive option is available.

•

Layers: This pop-up menu sets the type of disc that will be created. There are three options:

•

Automatic: Detects the inserted disc’s type. For Automatic to work, you must insert the disc before clicking Burn. Additionally, Automatic always creates a single-layer disk image when

Hard Drive is selected as the output device.

•

Single-layer: Creates output for a single-layer disc. You can use this option to treat a duallayer disc as a single-layer disc.

•

Dual-layer: Creates output for a dual-layer disc. When you choose Hard Drive as your output

device, the “Dual-layer” option creates a disk image in dual-layer disc format. Choosing “Dual-layer” when using a single-layer disc may result in an error while burning the disc, depending on the project’s length.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 59

•

Disc template: This pop-up menu sets the menu template.

•

Title: Type the disc name in the text eld.

•

When disc loads: This pop-up menu sets what happens when you play the disc: Show Menu or Play Movie.

•

Use chapter marker text as subtitle: Select this checkbox to include chapter marker text as subtitles on the output disc. For more information about chapter markers, see Add markers on page 82.

•

Background: Click the Add button to select a graphic for the disc’s background.

•

Main Menu and Chapter Menu buttons: Click the Main Menu and Chapter Menu buttons to display previews of the menus.

•

Include Loop Movie button: This property is available for a subset of Blu-ray disc templates.

Select this checkbox to add a Loop Movie button to the menu.

•

Logo: This property is available for Blu-ray disc only. Click the Add button to select a graphic for the disc’s logo.

•

Title: This property is available for Blu-ray disc only. Click the Add button to select a title graphic for the disc’s title.

Open with Application

•

Open with: This pop-up menu sets the default application for opening the transcoded le (for

example, iTunes or QuickTime Player).

Prepare for HTTP Live Streaming

This job action processes the transcoded les using the instructions you provide via the properties below and then uploads the processed les to the server you specify.

•

Destination for Live Stream assets: Click the Choose button you want the live streaming assets to be saved.

•

Segment duration: Enter a minimum number of seconds per segment for the segment duration.

Because the segment’s length determines when the web server can switch between the various video formats while streaming to a device with varying network connection speeds, a shorter segment duration allows the server to respond more quickly to changing connection speeds. In most situations, it’s recommended that you leave the segment duration at 10 seconds.

•

Create Read Me le with sample HTML: Select this checkbox to create a sample HTML le for hosting the HTTP live-streaming content.

Run Automator Workow

This job action applies an Automator workow to an output le after transcoding.

•

Workow: Click the Choose button to set the Automator workow that the job action triggers.

Send Email

This job action sends an email with an attachment of the transcoded le from Mail (the email

application that comes with Mac OS X).

•

To: Enter recipient’s email addresses in this eld.

•

Subject and Message: Enter relevant text in these elds.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 60

Web publishing job actions

The Publish to CNN iReport, Publish to Facebook, Publish to Tudou, Publish to Vimeo, Publish to YouTube, and Publish to Youku job actions include the following properties:

Different fields are displayed based on the selected video-sharing service.

•

Category: Choose a category for the published le from the pop-up menu.

•

the le being published.

•

Description: Enter the description of the le that’s being published.

•

Email: Enter the email account name that’s used to log into the website.

•

Password: Enter the password that’s used to log into the website.

•

Privacy and Password: Choose a privacy option from the pop-up menu and then enter a password to control who can view the published video.

•

Subject, Body: Enter descriptions of the published le.

•

Tags: Enter metadata that you want to be associated with the published le.

•

Title: Enter the title of the published le.

•

Viewable by: Choose an option from the pop-up menu to set viewing limitations for the

published le.

•

Username: Enter the username that’s used to log into the website.

Work with batches

A batch contains of one or more jobs to be submitted to Compressor for transcoding.

When you select a batch (by clicking the background of the Batch area), its properties are shown in the Batch inspector:

•

Name: Identies the batch in Active and Completed views.

•

Jobs: Displays the number of jobs in the batch.

•

Outputs: Displays the number of les that will be output when transcoding the batch.

View batch properties

m Click the background of the batch area. If necessary, click the Inspector button to reveal the

inspector pane.

The batch properties are displayed in the Batch inspector.

Change the batch name

m In the Batch inspector, type a new name in the Name eld, then press Return.

Chapter 4 Advanced adjustments 61

Advanced tasks

Advanced tasks overview

You can customize your workow by making specic adjustments to applied settings. This

chapter covers practical information and techniques you can use to do the following:

•

Create a source le that contains a set of image sequence les

•

Create a source le that contains surround sound les

•

Modiy an ouput le’s frame size

•

Modify an output le’s frame rate

•

Learn about audio channels

•

Add eects to video or audio

•

Add metadata to an ouput le

•

Set a poster frame or add markers

•

Transcode a portion of a source le

This chapter also provides examples of three common transcoding workows:

•

How to create a le with burned-in timecode

•

How to convert NTSC or PAL footage to 24p HD

•

How to create daily review copies of footage

Work with image sequence les

Import image sequence les

You can import a sequence of still images into Compressor as an image sequence source le.

Each image in the image sequence represents a single video frame.

Import a set of image sequence les

1 Do one of the following:

•

At the bottom of the batch area, choose Add Image Sequence from the Add pop-up menu

, select a folder of image sequence les, and then click Add.

•

Drag all of the image sequence les (not a folder that contains the les) from the Finder into

the batch area.

A new source media le appears in a job in the batch area.

2 Click the Add Outputs button under the source media le, and then choose a transcode setting

and save location in the window that appears.

The job now contains a source le made of sequential images and output instructions (a setting, a save location, and an output lename).

3 To view additional information about the job in the Job inspector, select the job in the

batch area.

The Job inspector appears on the right side of the Compressor window. (If the inspector pane is hidden, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.)

The Job Inspector displays information about the image sequence source le, including the location of the les, size and frame information, and the duration of the sequence. Further down in the Job inspector, you can view a list of the individual image les that make up the sequence.

4 If necessary, you can specify eld order and frame rate for the source le, or click the Choose

button to add an audio le to the image sequence source le.

You can work with the image sequence source le as you would any other source le, adding

additional settings or a destination to the job before transcoding. For more information, see

Simple transcoding overview on page 11.

You can also use Compressor to output an image sequence. For more information, see Image

Sequence on page 33.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 63

Work with surround sound les

Import and modify surround sound les

There are two methods you can use to add audio les to a batch to create a surround sound job:

•

Manually assign audio les to surround sound channels.

•

Append audio lenames with channel identier codes and have Compressor automatically map the lenames to the correct surround sound channels.

Each method creates a source le in a job to which you can add a setting that supports surround

sound audio outputs, such as a Dolby Digital setting or an AIFF setting.

After creating the surround sound source le, you assign output information to the job (one or more settings or a destination and a location and name for the transcoded le) and transcode

the batch that contains the job.

Create a surround sound source le by manually assigning channels

1 Do one of the following:

•

At the bottom of the batch area, choose Add Surround Sound Group from the Add pop-up menu .

•

Choose File > Add Surround Sound Group.

The channel assignment window opens.

2 To assign a source audio le to each channel, do one of the following:

•

Drag the source audio le from the Finder to the icon for a specic channel.

•

Click the icon for a specic channel, select a source audio le intended for that channel, and

then click Open.

3 To include a video le, click the Add Video button, select a video le, and then click Open.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 64

4 When you’re done setting up the surround sound group, click Add.

A new surround sound source media le appears in a job in the batch area.

5 To view additional information about the surround sound source le in the Job inspector, select

the job in the batch area.

The Job inspector appears on the right side of the Compressor window. (If the inspector pane is hidden, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.)

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 65

Create a surround sound source le using channel identier codes

You can add channel identier codes to the lenames of surround sound les in the Finder and then add the les in Compressor.

1 In the Finder, append the lename of each audio le with the appropriate channel identier code:

•

-L: Left front channel

•

-R: Right front channel

•

-C: Center front channel

•

-Ls: Left surround channel

•

-Rs: Right surround channel

•

-S: Center surround channel

•

-LFE: Low-frequency eects channel (subwoofer, LFE)

For example, if the audio le for your left front channel is named “nal audio_left.ai,” you would name the le “nal audio_left-L.ai.”

Note: Compressor will recognize source les with or without a le extension (.ai or .wav, for example).

2 Drag all of the renamed source audio les (not the folder of les) to the batch area.

A new job appears in the batch area, and the Job inspector displays the audio channels that have been assigned based on their channel codes. (If the Job inspector is not visible, make sure the job is selected in batch area and the Inspector button is highlighted blue. If you need to reassign a channel, you can do so by clicking the channel’s icon in the Job inspector.

You can optionally include a video le in the surround sound source le by clicking the Add Video button in the Job inspector, selecting a video le, and clicking Open.

Modify a surround sound source le

1 In the batch area, select a job that contains a surround sound source le.

2 In the Surround Sound Properties area of the Job inspector, do either of the following:

•

To assign a dierent le to a channel: Click the channel’s icon, select a dierent le, and

click Open.

•

To remove a le from a channel: Click the Remove button .

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 66

About audio channels

5.1 channels5.0 channels

Most of the audio settings in Compressor provide mono and stereo (left and right) channel

conguration; some provide additional channel output options, including surround (5.1) channel conguration. Several of Compressor’s settings oer multiple audio channel congurations:

•

QuickTime Movie settings: QuickTime Movie settings include additional audio channel layouts, including 3.0, 4.0, and 5.1.

•

Dolby Digital audio settings: Dolby Digital (AC-3) settings include even more audio channel layouts, including 3.0, 3.1, 4.0, 4.1, and 5.1.

The illustration below shows the available audio channel layouts.

L R

LFE

Mono Stereo

3.0 channels 3.0 channels3.1 channels 3.1 channels

L R

4.0 channels

LFE

L R

LFE LFE

4.1 channels

L R

4.0 channels 4.1 channels

R L

LFE

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 67

The channel codes describe the location of the channel:

•

L: Left front channel

•

R: Right front channel

•

C: Center front channel

•

Ls: Left surround channel

•

Rs: Right surround channel

•

Cs: Center surround channel

•

LFE: Low-frequency eects channel (subwoofer, LFE)

Note: It’s important to understand that Compressor cannot convert stereo audio les into 5.1 surround sound channels. If you want to output a 5.1 surround sound audio le, you must rst create the six channels of audio required and then import those surround sound les into Compressor. Then you can use Compressor to output the surround sound source media le. For

more information, see Import and modify surround sound les on page 64.

After you import a surround sound source le, you can transcode that le into any of the channel

layouts above.

Compressor analyzes audio les during import to determine the source le’s channels. When you apply a transcode setting to the source le, Compressor automatically adjusts the channel

layout of the setting to provide logical results. For many settings, you can choose Automatic from the “Channel layout” pop-up menu (in the Audio inspector) to have Compressor determine the

logical channel layout based on the source le.

Compressor also maps channels intelligently during output. For example:

•

If you assign a mono channel layout to a stereo source le: The output le will be

automatically downmixed.

•

If you assign a surround channel layout to a stereo source le: The output le will have only left and right channels—mapped to the left front (L) and right front (R) channels of the source le—while the other channels are unassigned.

•

If you assign a left front or left rear surround channel to a stereo source le: Compressor maps the

source le to the left channel (and ignores the right channel).

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 68

Modify an output le’s frame size

Modify frame size overview

Although many of the built-in settings in Compressor contain properties that set the frame size

and aspect ratio of your output video le, you can customize the nal frame dimensions using

the cropping and padding properties in the Video inspector.

Cropping removes video content from an image. If the output le has a dierent aspect ratio than

the output frame size, black borders appear along the top and bottom or left and right sides of

the transcoded le. If the cropped image matches the output frame size, the image will still be

cropped, but no black borders will be seen.

Padding scales the image to a smaller size while retaining the output image’s frame size. Unlike cropping, padding does not remove any of the source image. Instead, padding squeezes or

shrinks the image to force it to t into a dierent-sized frame. This can be useful for transcoding les that are stored with incorrect pixel aspect ratios, such as widescreen DV les that are

incorrectly appearing in a non-widescreen format. You can also use the padding controls to shrink an image and deliberately add black borders around the outside of the image.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 69

Crop or pad the video frame

There are multiple ways you can customize the frame size of a source clip during transcoding.

The cropping and padding controls allow you a great degree of exibility and versatility.

Remove part of the source image

To remove part of the original source image, use the cropping controls in the Video inspector. Depending on the “Frame size” setting (in the Video Properties section of the Video inspector), cropping may or may not reveal black borders around the edges of your clips.

1 Do one of the following:

•

In the batch area, click an output row to select a setting that’s been applied to a job. With this

method, the modications you make will be used for outputting only that job.

•

In the Settings pane, select a custom setting from the Custom group. (If the Settings pane is

hidden, press Shift-Command-1.) With this method, the modications you make will be saved

to the custom setting for future use.

2 In the inspector pane, click Video to open the Video inspector.

If the inspector pane is not visible, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.

3 In the Cropping & Padding section of the Video inspector, do one of the following:

•

In the Cropping property, manually type a number in the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right elds to

crop the source image by that many pixels.

•

Choose a preset aspect ratio from the Cropping pop-up menu.

Note: If the aspect ratio you choose does not match the aspect ratio selected in the “Frame size” pop-up menu (in the Video Properties section), you may see black bars around the edges

of your picture after the le is transcoded.

•

Choose Letterbox Area of Source from the Cropping pop-up menu. This instructs Compressor to detect the black edges around the image in your source le and automatically enter crop

values to match them. This option is useful if you want to remove the letterbox area (the black

bars above and below a widescreen image) of a source media le.

•

In the preview area, click the Comparison button and position the pointer over the edges of the frame until the pointer changes to a Crop pointer, then drag inward from the edge to crop the image.

Note: Cropped edges are visible only on the preview side of the preview area (the right side); the side of the preview area showing the Source media (the left side) does not display the

crop eect.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 70

Force the source image to a dierent aspect ratio

1 Do one of the following:

•

In the batch area, click an output row to select a setting that’s been applied to a job. With this

method, the modications you make will be used for outputting only that job.

•

In the Settings pane, select a custom setting from the Custom group. (If the Settings pane is

hidden, press Shift-Command-1.) With this method, the modications you make will be saved

to the custom setting for future use.

2 In the inspector pane, click Video to open the Video inspector.

If the inspector pane is not visible, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.

3 In the Cropping & Padding section of the Video inspector, do one of the following:

•

In the Padding property, manually type a number in the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right elds to

pad the source image by that many pixels.

•

Choose a preset aspect ratio from the Padding pop-up menu.

Note: If the aspect ratio you choose does not match the aspect ratio selected in the “Frame size” pop-up menu (in the Video Properties section), the image may appear squished or

squeezed after the le is transcoded.

•

Choose Preserve Source Aspect Ratio from the Padding pop-up menu. This ensures that the source clip remains at its native aspect ratio. If the “Frame size” pop-up menu (in the

Video Properties section) is set to a dierent aspect ratio, black borders will be added to the transcoded output le.

Modify an output le’s frame rate

Frame rate options overview

There are two ways to modify the rate at which a transcoded le plays back. You can apply speed eects to slow down or speed up playback, or you can change the frame rate of the transcoded le (which may or may not have an eect on playback speed). If you do change the frame

rate, there are special options for working with interlaced footage, including deinterlacing and reverse telecine.

The controls that make speed modications are located in the General inspector and in the

Video inspector.

Retime video and audio output

To retime video, you make changes to properties in both the General inspector and the Video

inspector. (You can create some eects by modifying properties in only one of the inspectors.)

The Retiming section in the General inspector allows you to dene a new speed setting for the clip. You can specify a percentage, such as 50% to create a slow-motion eect or 200% to create a fast-motion eect; you can identify a precise number of frames and allow the software to

calculate the percentage for you; or you can instruct Compressor to renumber the current frames

into a dierent frame rate in order to convert a le from one frame rate to another without

adding or deleting any frames.

Those settings in the Retiming section are controlled by the settings In the Video Inspector. In

the Video Properties section, you can set a specic frame rate for the transcoded le. By default this property is set to “Automatic,” which applies the frame rate of the source le to the output le. Change this setting to create a le with a dierent frame rate from the source.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 71

If the source media le contains audio, retiming modies the audio speed as well, thereby

keeping audio and video in sync. Compressor also automatically corrects the pitch so the audio

does not sound articially high or low.

Important: If you modify retiming properties in a setting that uses the QuickTime Movie format

and choose “Copy audio tracks from source” in the Audio inspector, the audio speed is not

changed. Consequently, audio in the output le will not maintain sync with the video.

In the Quality section of the Video inspector you can set the retiming quality. The “Retiming

quality” control species the processing method used when you make changes to any of the

other settings that modify the speed or frame rate of the clip.

Modify timing and frame rate

You can modify the duration of a transcoded le by adjusting controls in the General inspector. You can modify the frame rate of a transcoded le by adjusting controls in the Video inspector.

Choose a new duration for a transcoded le

1 Do one of the following:

•

In the batch area, click an output row to select a setting in a job. With this method, the

modications you make will be used for outputting only that job.

•

In the Settings pane, select a custom setting from the Custom group. (If the Settings pane is

hidden, press Shift-Command-1.) With this method, the modications you make will be saved

to the custom setting for future use.

2 In the inspector pane, click General to open the General inspector.

If the inspector pane is not visible, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.

3 In the Retiming section, modify the “Set duration to” property in one of the following ways:

•

Enter a specic percentage of the source footage in the percentage eld, or choose a preset

percentage from the pop-up menu (with a downward arrow).

Note: Selecting a setting from this pop-up menu does not change the frame rate of the

output le. If you want to create a le at a frame rate other than the source’s original rate, you

must change the setting in the Video inspector.

•

Click to select the button next to the timecode eld and enter a specic duration for the outgoing le. (The percentage eld above will automatically update.)

Note: This option is available only when you are modifying a setting that is part of a job.

•

Click to select the “So source frames play at [frame rate] fps” button.

Note: The frame rate used in this option is the value set in the “Frame rate” property in the Video inspector.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 72

Change the frame rate for a transcoded le

1 Select a setting that is part of a job in the batch area, or select a custom setting in the

Settings pane.

2 In the Video inspector, do one of the following:

•

Choose an item from the “Frame rate” pop-up menu.

Automatic, the default setting, matches the frame rate of the transcoded le to that of the source le. You can also choose any of several commonly used frame rates, including

23.976 fps, 24 fps, and so on.

•

Type a custom frame rate into the eld to the right of the pop-up menu.

Note: Frame rate conversion can have a subtle or dramatic eect depending on how big a dierence there is between the original and new frame rates, and also depending on the specic

nature of the footage being converted. Footage with a lot of movement yields a much more visible change than footage with little movement in the frame. Frame rate conversion may also

add visible artifacts in the transcoded le; from stuttering (sometimes called “juddery”) playback, to repeated frames, ghost images, or other unnatural-looking elements. These eects can be

somewhat mitigated by adjusting the “Retiming quality” property in the Quality section of the Video inspector.

3 Select a value from the “Field order” pop-up menu to choose a progressive or interlaced frame rate.

If the current setting does not allow eld order modication, this control remains dimmed. If you want to convert a le with an interlaced format into a progressive format, see About

deinterlacing on page 73.

Note: The properties in the Retiming section of the General inspector are always aected by the

“Frame rate” property, as well as the “Retiming quality” property in the Video inspector.

About deinterlacing

Video to be played on traditional NTSC or PAL televisions is encoded using an interlaced frame rate. Each frame is actually made up of two half-frames called elds. Each eld contains half the frame lines; the odd (or upper) eld contains lines 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and so on, and the even (or lower) eld contains lines 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and so on. When the video is played back, the TV displays the elds in an alternating pattern, which creates an eective illusion of smooth movement. Viewing interlaced video on a computer screen that displays both elds simultaneously may reveal a combing eect.

Interlacing creates a “comb” effect when viewed on a computer screen.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 73

You can deinterlace, or remove the elds from an interlaced video clip, by converting it to a

3:2 Pull-Down Removal

progressive frame rate. The video settings provided in Compressor contain a “Field order” pop-up

menu in the Video inspector that you can use to turn interlacing on or o for the transcoded le. For more information, see the topic that covers the format you’re using for transcoding, for

example, QuickTime Movie on page 47 or MPEG-2 on page 37.

About reverse telecine

Telecine is the process of converting motion picture lm to the NTSC video format used in broadcast television. The most common telecine approach to converting lm’s standard 24 fps

frame rate to NTSC video’s 29.97 fps frame rate is to perform a 3:2 pulldown (also known as a

2:3:2:3 pulldown). If you alternate recording two elds of one lm frame and then three elds of the next, the 24 frames in 1 second of lm end up lling the 30 frames in 1 second of video.

A B C D

A A B B B C C D D D

Field1Field2Field1Field

Field1Field

Before (23.98 fps)

3:2 Pull-Down

A B C D A D A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D

B C

After (29.97 fps)

BA B B CC D DA A B B B C C D D D A A B B B C C D D D A A B B C C D D D A A B BB CC D D D A BA B B CC D DB

One second

As shown above, the 3:2 pattern repeats after four lm frames.

For editing and eects purposes, it’s often desirable to remove the extra elds and restore the video to its original 24 fps rate. This process is known as reverse telecine. An additional benet of restoring the original is that it’s easier to convert this to PAL, the European broadcast standard,

which uses a 25 fps frame rate.

The lower frame rate also has the advantage of requiring fewer frames per second of video, leading

to smaller le sizes. The reverse telecine feature in Compressor makes it easy to do this conversion.

One second

Before (29.97 fps)

BA B B CC D DA A B B B C C D D D A A B B B C C D D D A A B B C C D D D A A B BB CC D D D A BA B B CC D DB A

After (23.98 fps)

A B C D A D A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D

B C

A A B B B C C D D D

Field1Field2Field1Field

Field1Field

A B C D

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 74

When using the reverse telecine feature in Compressor, consider these issues:

•

Because of the unpredictable nature of the processing when reversing the telecine,

segmented encoding does not work as eciently as it does when reverse telecine is not

being used.

•

If you pause the transcoding process, the transcode must start from the beginning when you restart it.

When lm is telecined to NTSC video, it has a constant cadence. This means that the 3:2 pattern

is consistent and uninterrupted. It’s relatively easy to remove the telecine from a constantcadence clip because you need only determine the pattern once.

If you take these telecined clips and edit them as NTSC video, the result is a nal video le that has a broken cadence with an inconsistent 3:2 pattern. It’s much more dicult to remove the

telecine from such a clip because you have to constantly verify the cadence to make sure you

don’t inadvertently choose incorrect elds when creating the 23.98 fps video.

The reverse telecine feature in Compressor automatically detects broken cadences and adjusts processing as needed.

Perform a reverse telecine frame rate conversion

1 Do one of the following:

•

In the batch area, click an output row to select a setting in a job. With this method, the

modications you make will be used for outputting only that job.

•

In the Settings pane, select a custom setting from the Custom area. (If the Settings pane is

hidden, press Shift-Command-1.) With this method, the modications you make will be saved

to the custom setting for future use.

2 In the inspector pane, click Video to open the Video inspector.

If the inspector pane is not visible, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.

3 In the Video Properties section of the Video inspector, choose 29.97 from the “Frame rate”

pop-up menu.

4 In the Quality section of the Video Inspector, choose Reverse Telecine from the “Retiming quality”

pop-up menu.

5 If you’re modifying the setting of a specic job, click Start Batch to begin transcoding.

If you’re modifying a custom setting, there are no additional steps to take.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 75

Add video and audio eects

Add and remove eects

Compressor provides a variety of video and audio eects that you can use to improve the quality of the video and audio in the transcoded le. Video eects modify specic visual aspects of your source media, such as brightness and contrast, color, noise levels, and interlacing. Audio eects modify sound aspects in your source media, such as dynamic range, peaking, and equalizer eects.

To add an eect to an output le, you add the eect to a setting and then use that setting to output your source le. You can view both the source le and a preview of the transcoded le in

the preview area.

Important: As with other properties you add to a setting, eects you add to a built-in setting are

not saved for future use. If you want to save the eects you apply to a setting, you must create a custom setting by duplicating the built-in setting that contains the eects. For more information,

see Create custom settings on page 21.

Add a video or audio eect

1 Do one of the following:

•

In the batch area, click an output row to select a setting that is part of a job.

•

In the Settings pane, select a custom setting from the Custom area. (If the Settings pane is hidden, press Shift-Command-1.)

2 In the Video inspector or Audio inspector, choose an item from the Add Video Eect pop-up

menu or from the Add Audio Eect pop-up menu.

If the inspector pane is not visible, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.

After you choose an eect from the pop-up menu, its adjustable properties appear at the

bottom of the inspector. For detailed information about these properties, see Video eects on page 77 and Audio eects on page 79. You can apply multiple video and audio eects. When you

add an eect, a checkmark appears beside the eect name in the pop-up menu.

3 Preview eects that you’ve added to a setting by clicking the Play button in the preview area.

Because eects may interact in unexpected ways, be sure to preview the transcoded le each time you add an eect.

Note: Depending on your system, the source media le type, and the number of eects in the job, the preview area showing the lter settings may update at a lower frame rate than the

source frame rate.

Change the order in which eects are applied to a source le

Because eects are processed one by one during transcoding—starting with the rst item in the list—it’s important that you order the eects appropriately. For example, it’s sensible to place a text overlay eect last in your list of eects so that its text color isn’t modied by other eects.

If you preview the transcoded le and don’t like the results of an eect, you can try reordering the eects in the eects list to improve the results of the transcoded le.

m Select an eect and drag it to new location in the list of eects at the bottom of the Video or

Audio inspector.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 76

Turn an eect o or on

After adding an eect to a setting, you can turn its properties o or on. This can be useful when previewing an eect.

m Click the blue activation checkbox next to the eect properties. When the checkbox is blue, the

eect is turned on. When the checkbox is black, the eect is turned o.

Remove an eect from a setting

m Choose a checkmarked item from the Add Video Eect pop-up menu (at the bottom of the

Video inspector) or the Add Audio Eect pop-up menu (at the bottom of the Audio Inspector).

The eect’s properties are removed from the list below the pop-up menu.

Video eects

Choose a video eect from the Add Video Eect pop-up menu in the Video inspector:

•

Black/White Restore: Compresses the solid black and white areas (luminance) in the video, such

as backgrounds. This eect can restore nearly black colors to pure black and restore nearly white colors to pure white without aecting colors in the rest of the image. Drag the sliders to

set the black and white values between 0 and 100. (You can also double-click the values and type new values.)

•

Brightness and Contrast: Brightens or darkens the overall color and luminance of the video. For

example, use this eect to counteract the darkening to video that some QuickTime codecs can

cause. It’s recommended that you avoid extreme settings, because they can make colors look washed-out. Drag the sliders to set brightness and contrast values between –100 and 100. (You can also double-click the values and type new values.)

•

Color Correct Highlights, Color Correct Midtowns, Color Correct Shadows: Correct white balance

inaccuracies and create color eects on the bright, midtone, or dark areas of the video. Drag

the sliders to set red, green, and blue values between –100 and 100. (You can also double-click the values and type new values.)

•

Fade In/Out: Adds a dissolve and a matte color at the beginning and end of the clip. This eect

has the following properties:

•

Fade in duration/Fade out duration: Enter a time (use a decimal to specify tenths of seconds)

in the text eld to set the duration of the fade-in and fade-out eects.

•

Fade in opacity/Fade out opacity: Drag the sliders to set the opacity of the clip’s video at the

rst and last frames. (You can also double-click the values and type new values.) A value of

0.0 sets the clip video to be completely covered by the matte color; a value of 0.5 sets the clip to be 50 percent covered by the matte color; and so on.

•

Fade color: Click the color well to set the fade-in and fade-out color.

•

Gamma Correction: Controls the range of brightness in an image. This eect can be used to

remove detail from an underexposed clip or to reduce the saturation of an overexposed clip. Drag the slider to set gamma values between 0.1 and 4.0. (You can also double-click the value and type a new value.)

Note: Computers using dierent operating systems have dierent monitor settings. For cross-

platform viewing, correcting the gamma will improve the image for all platforms.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 77

•

Noise Removal: Reduces random ecks of noise in the video le, including noise introduced by codecs. This eect allows you to blur areas of low contrast while leaving high-contrast edges sharp, creating results that are imperceptible to the human eye but that improve the nal compression of the transcoded le. The eect’s properties include:

•

Apply to: This pop-up menu sets the channels from which noise is ltered. Choose “All channels” to lter noise from all channels including the alpha channel. Choose “Chroma channels” to lter noise from the two chroma channels (U and V) in the YUV color space.

•

Iterations: Choose the number of noise-smoothing passes (between 1 and 4) from this pop-up menu. For instance, if you choose 2 passes, the noise-removal algorithm is applied to

the media le twice. The le resulting from the of rst pass is used for the second pass, and

so on, so that the more times a pass is performed, the fuzzier the image becomes.

•

Algorithm: Choose a noise-smoothing algorithm from this pop-up menu. Choose Average to modify each pixel’s color by taking an average of pixels around it, including its own color value. Choose Replace to modify each pixel’s color by taking an average of pixels around it, while ignoring its own color value. Choose Merge to modify each pixel’s color by taking a weighted average of surrounding pixels and itself (with the pixel’s own color value given greater weight).

•

Sharpen Edge: Sets the contrast around object edges. This eect can counteract the softening

caused by noise removal or blurred source material and increase the perception of sharpness

in the video. However, note that too much of this eect can make video look grainy. Drag the

slider to set sharpening between 0.0 and 100.0. (You can also double-click the value and type a new value.)

•

Text Overlay: Superimposes text onto the image. The Text Overlay eect contains the

following properties:

•

Position: Choose a position for the text overlay from the pop-up menu, such as Center, Lower Left, Lower Left–Title Safe, and so on.

•

Alpha: Drag the slider to set the text opacity between 0 (completely transparent) and 1 (completely opaque). (You can also double-click the value and type a new value.)

•

Overlay text: Type text in this eld.

•

Text color: Click the color well to set the text color.

•

Font: Click the Select button to set the font, style, and size.

•

Timecode Generator: Superimposes the clip’s timecode onto the video. The Timecode Generator

eect contains the following properties:

•

Position: Choose a position for the timecode overlay from the pop-up menu, such as Center,

Lower Left, Lower Left–Title Safe, and so on.

•

Alpha: Drag the slider to set the text opacity between 0 (completely transparent) and 1 (completely opaque). (You can also double-click the value and type a new value.)

•

Label: Optionally, type text that you want to appear to the left of the timecode number.

•

Start timecode at 00:00:00:00: Select this checkbox to have the timecode start at zero. When the checkbox is not selected, the timecode starts at the video’s timecode.

•

Text color: Click the color well to set the text color.

•

Font: Click the Select button to set the font, style, and size.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 78

•

Watermark: Superimposes a still image or a movie le onto the video. This eect contains the

following properties:

•

Position: Choose a position for the watermark from the pop-up menu, such as Center, Lower Left, Lower Left–Title Safe, and so on.

•

Scale by: Drag the slider to set the watermark image’s scaling between 1 (actual size) and 10 (10 times the actual size). (You can also double-click the value and type a new value.)

•

Alpha: Drag the slider between 0 (completely transparent) and 1 (completely opaque) to adjust the watermark’s opacity. (You can also double-click the value and type a new value.)

•

Repeat: If you are using a video clip for the watermark image, select this checkbox to loop

the playback of the watermark clip throughout the duration of the source le.

•

Watermark: Click the Select button specify a still image or video le to use for the watermark.

Audio eects

Choose an audio eect from the Add Audio Eect pop-up menu in the Audio inspector:

Note: Audio eects are not available in some settings when the “Copy audio tracks from source”

checkbox is selected in the Audio inspector.

•

Apple: AUGraphicEQ: Congures a wide variety of frequencies throughout the audible

frequency range. Click the Options button to open the graphic equalizer window, and then choose either a 31-band version or a 10-band version from the pop-up menu at the bottom.

Adjust frequencies by doing any of the following:

•

Drag a slider to adjust the level of a frequency band.

•

Select a frequency slider and then type a number in the dB eld (in the lower-right corner of

the graphic equalizer window).

•

Click the Flatten EQ button to set all bands to a 0.0 dB value.

•

Drag to select multiple bands and then adjust the group.

•

Hold down the Control key while dragging across the bands to “draw” an equalization curve.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 79

•

Dynamic Range: Controls a clip’s audio levels by enhancing the quieter parts and lowering the louder parts. This is also referred to as audio level compression. The Dynamic Range eect contains the following properties:

•

Soften above: Drag the slider to set the level at which audio is reduced (softened) to the level set by the “Master gain” control (described below). (You can also double-click the value and type a new value.)

•

Noise threshold: Drag the slider to set the level at which the eect is applied. (You can also

double-click the value and type a new value.) Audio at and above the noise threshold is dynamically boosted to the level set by the “Master gain” control (described below), and

audio below the noise threshold is not modied.

•

Master gain: Drag the slider to set the average level of the dynamically compressed audio. (You can also double-click the value and type a new value.)

•

Fade In/Out: Adds an audio fade-in eect at the beginning of the clip and a fade-out at the end of the clip. The Fade In/Fade Out lter contains the following properties:

•

Fade in duration: Enter a value in the text eld or move the slider to set the length of the

fade in seconds.

•

Fade out duration: Enter a value in the text eld or move the slider to set the length of the

fade out in seconds.

•

Fade in gain: Drag the slider to set the value between –100.0 (silence) and 0.0 (the audio’s

volume) to dene the audio volume at which to start the fade in. (You can also double-click

the value and type a new value.)

•

Fade out gain: Drag the slider to set the value between –100.0 (silence) and 0.0 (the audio’s

volume) to dene the audio volume at which to start the fade out. (You can also double-

click the value and type a new value.)

•

Peak Limiter: Sets the level of the loudest audio allowed in the clip. Drag the Gain slider to set the level above which louder peaks are reduced. (You can also double-click the value and type a new value.)

Add metadata

You can add metadata to your transcoded le in the form of job annotations and closed-caption les.

Add annotations to a media le

Annotations are output with les transcoded using Apple Devices, MP3, and QuickTime settings. You can annotate a source media le with information that is important for your workow or for the person viewing your output le. You can add any of the annotation elds provided in Compressor, or import metadata that’s used in another media le (like a QuickTime movie).

1 In the batch area, select the job that contains the source le to which you want to add metadata.

Tip: To select the job, rather than an output row under the job, click the source lename at the

top of the job area.

2 In the Metadata area of the Job inspector, do one of the following:

•

Choose an annotation type from the Add Job Annotation pop-up menu.

•

Choose Import from the Add Job Annotation pop-up menu, select a media le that contains annotations that you want to add to your source le, and then click Open.

3 Type a description in the text eld (or in multiple text elds) for the annotation type you chose.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 80

Associate a closed caption le with a source le

Compressor can include a closed caption le (using the Scenarist closed caption format le) when encoding les with the following formats:

•

QuickTime les: Compressor adds the closed caption le as a closed caption track to the QuickTime output le. You can view the closed captions using QuickTime Player (version 7.2

or later).

•

MPEG-2 elementary stream les: Compressor embeds the closed caption data in an elementary MPEG-2 video stream so that it can be used for DVD authoring.

•

MPEG-2 program and transport stream les: Compressor embeds the closed caption data in program and transport MPEG-2 streams using the EIA-608 ATSC protocol.

Note: The timecode values in the closed caption le must directly relate to the timecode of the source media le. If you need to see the timecode values in a Scenarist le, try opening it in the

TextEdit application that comes with OS X.

1 In the batch area, select the job that contains the source le to which you want to add closed

captioning information.

Tip: To select the job, rather than an output row under the job, click the source lename at the

top of the job area.

2 In the Metadata area of the Job inspector, click the Choose button in the “Closed captions”

property, select a Scenarist closed caption le in the window that appears, and then click Open.

Set a poster frame

The poster frame is a still image that represents a video or audio media le or a podcast chapter in applications such as iTunes and in the Finder.

Note: When viewing the output le in iTunes, if no poster frame is set, iTunes automatically uses the frame 10 seconds from the movie’s rst frame as the poster frame.

Set the poster frame for a job

1 In the batch area, select the job that contains the source le to which you want to set a

poster frame.

Tip: To select the job, rather than an output row under the job, click the source lename at the

top of the job area.

2 In the preview area, position the timeline playhead at the frame you want to be the

poster frame.

3 In the preview area, choose Set Poster Frame from the Marker pop-up menu .

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 81

A poster frame marker appears in the timeline.

Go to the poster frame

m In the preview area, choose Go to Poster Frame from the Marker pop-up menu .

Remove the poster frame

m In the preview area, choose Clear Poster Frame from the Marker pop-up menu .

Add markers

Compressor can import and create the following types of markers:

•

Chapter markers: These markers allow easy access to index points throughout a DVD, QuickTime movie, or video podcast. QuickTime Player can interpret any text track containing

time stamps as a chapter track. Chapter markers can also be linked to artwork and a URL,

which are displayed when a podcast is played.

•

Compression markers: Used for MPEG-2 encoding. These markers identify where Compressor should generate an I-frame, one type of frame used in a GOP (group of pictures). For more information, see MPEG-2 on page 37.

•

Edit/cut markers: These markers are used during transcoding to mark frames where MPEG

I-frames should be generated. The I-frames help improve compression quality. Edit/cut markers

are also known as automatic compression markers.

•

Podcast markers: Like chapter markers, these markers can be linked to artwork and a URL. Podcast markers are usually used to provide a slideshow (with URLs) for users to view when playing audio podcasts. However, podcast marker names do not appear in the slideshow, and users cannot navigate to a podcast marker in the transcoded le.

Markers can be output when using settings based on the following formats:

•

H.264 for Apple Devices (For more information, see H.264 for Apple Devices on page 28.)

•

MPEG-2 (For more information, see MPEG-2 on page 37.)

•

MPEG-4, when congured for audio podcasting (For more information, see MPEG-4 on page 42.)

•

QuickTime Movie (For more information, see QuickTime Movie on page 47.)

Important: Although you can set and congure markers for all jobs, only jobs that use the

output le formats listed above will output a le that includes markers.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 82

Add a marker to a media le

1 In the batch area, select the job that contains the source le to which you want to add markers.

Tip: To select the job, rather than an output row under the job, click the source lename at the

top of the job area.

2 In the preview area, identify where to place the marker by doing one of the following:

•

Drag the playhead to where you want to add a marker.

•

Enter a timecode value in the playhead timecode eld.

3 To add a marker, choose Add marker from the Marker pop-up menu (or press M).

An orange chapter marker appears in the source le’s timeline in the preview area.

4 To change the marker type, choose a dierent marker type from the Type pop-up menu in the

Marker inspector.

Note: If the Marker inspector is not visible, make sure the marker is selected in the preview area and the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window is highlighted blue.

Specify properties for chapter and podcast markers

You can specify the properties of a chapter or podcast marker in the Marker inspector.

Note: A podcast can have both chapter and podcast markers. The only dierence is that the

viewer can navigate directly to a chapter marker but cannot navigate to a podcast marker.

1 Select a job in the batch area, and then select a marker in preview area.

2 In Marker inspector, choose either Chapter or Podcast from the Type pop-up menu.

3 Enter a name for the marker in the Name eld.

When viewing the transcoded le, the name of the marker will be displayed on Apple playback

devices and in QuickTime Player.

4 Enter a web address in the URL eld.

When viewing the transcoded le, you can click the URL to open a web browser and view

a website.

5 Select an image to be displayed at the marker point by choosing an option from the Image

pop-up menu:

•

Frame: Uses the frame on which the marker is placed as the display image. To use a dierent frame in the source le, enter a dierent timecode value in the viewer that appears at the

bottom of the Marker inspector.

•

File: Uses an image le that you select via the window that appears. To change the image le after you’ve already added it to the Marker inspector, click Choose, and then select a dierent image le.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 83

Add markers using a chapter marker list

You can create a list of timecode points (using values that match the timecode on the track’s video clip) and then use that list to create chapter markers.

The le containing the list of timecode points must follow these rules:

•

The list of timecode values must be a plain text le. For best results, create the list with TextEdit and save the les using the .chp or .txt extension.

•

Each marker must be on a new line that starts with a timecode value in the format 00:00:00:00.

•

After the timecode value, you can include a name for the marker. You can use a space or tab character to separate the timecode value from the marker name.

•

Any lines that do not begin with a timecode value are ignored. This makes it easy for you to add comments to the list.

•

The timecode values do not have to be listed in chronological order.

After creating the list, you import it into Compressor:

1 In the batch area, select the job that you want to add markers to.

2 In the preview area, choose Import Chapter List from the Marker pop-up menu .

3 In the window that appears, select the chapter marker le and click Open.

The markers are added to the source le as chapter markers. You can view them in the preview area.

You can manually change the markers to podcast or compression markers. You can also add

URLs and artwork to them as needed. For more information, see the previous tasks.

Hide markers

You can set Compressor to show or hide the dierent types of markers.

m In the Marker pop-up menu , choose Hide Chapter/Podcast Markers, Hide Compression

Markers, or Hide Edit/Cut Markers.

To reveal a type of markers, select the same item in the pop-up menu.

Remove markers

1 Select a job in the batch area and then select a marker in the preview area.

You can also select markers by clicking the Next button or Previous button in the preview area.

2 Do one of the following:

•

Remove all markers in the source le: Choose Remove All Markers from the Marker pop-up menu

•

Remove one marker: Select a marker by clicking it or clicking the Next button or Previous button in the preview area. Then choose Remove Marker from the Marker pop-up menu

(or press M).

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 84

Limit time ranges when transcoding

You can limit transcoding to specic time ranges in a media le by setting In and Out points.

Transcode a portion of a source le

1 In the batch area, select the job that contains the source le that you want to transcode.

2 In the preview area, do one of the following to mark In and Out points:

•

Drag the In point to where you want the transcoding to begin, and then drag the Out point

to where you want the transcoding to end.

•

Press the play button (or click the space bar) to preview the media le. When the playhead reaches the location where you want to place an In point, press I. When the playhead reaches the location where you want to place an Out point, press O.

Note: You can view the duration of the portion of the source le in the Job inspector.

Only the portion of the source le that you identied will be transcoded when you submit

the batch.

Transcode multiple portions of a source le

To transcode multiple portions of the same clip, you create a job for each portion of the source

le you want to transcode.

1 In the batch area, select the job that contains the source le that you want to transcode.

2 In the preview area, set a portion of the source le to be transcoded by doing the following:

•

Drag the In point to where you want the transcoding to begin, and the drag the Out point to where you want the transcoding to end.

•

Press the play button (or click the Space bar) to play the source le. When the playhead reaches the location where you want to place an In point, press I. When the playhead reaches the location where you want to place an Out point, press O.

3 Duplicate the job by doing the following:

a Control-click the job you used in step 1, and then choose Edit > Copy from the shortcut menu).

b Select an empty part of the batch area to deselect the job you just copied, then Control-click

the batch area and choose Edit > Paste from the shortcut menu.

The duplicate job is pasted into the batch area.

4 Designate a dierent portion of the source le to be transcoded by following the instructions in

steps 1 and 2.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 85

Common transcoding workows

Example: Create a le with burned-in timecode

This example describes how to create custom settings, as well as how to add video eects to

your settings through the example of creating a “window dub.” The general idea presented here

can be extrapolated to create custom settings for a wide variety of other workows.

When sending copies of an edited movie to colleagues such as composers, sound mixers, visual

eects artists, and other creative collaborators, it's often useful to add a timecode window visible in the frame (traditionally called a window dub), so your colleagues can easily reference specic

frames and ensure accurate timing for the work they are completing.

This eect can be created within Final Cut Pro, but Compressor allows you to add the timecode

window at the transcoding stage as well. In Compressor, burned-in timecode (BITC) is added as a

video eect.

Add a timecode window to transcoded video

Because a window dub is not intended to be consumed as nal output, this task will create a small le suitable for sharing, rather than a high-quality le intended for mastering.

1 In the Settings pane, choose New Setting from the Add pop-up menu .

2 In the dialog that appears, choose QuickTime Movie from the Format pop-up menu, type

“Window Dub” in the Name eld, type “Small H.264 with BITC” in the Description eld, then

click OK.

The new Window Dub setting appears in the Custom area of the Settings pane, and the General inspector displays the basic properties for the setting. (If the inspector pane is not showing, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.)

3 In the inspector pane, click Video to switch to the Video inspector.

4 In the Video Properties area, choose “Up to 854 x 480” from the “Frame size” pop-up menu.

5 Click the Change button in the “QuickTime settings” property, and then make the following

changes in the Standard Video Compression Settings window:

a Choose H.264 from the Compression Type pop-up menu.

b In the Motion section, set the Key Frames setting to Automatic.

c In the Data Rate section, click “Restrict to” and enter 1000 kbits/sec in text eld.

Note: If you’re familiar with customizing compression settings, you can modify the setting’s properties in this window to your liking. Otherwise, leave the rest at their default settings.

6 Click OK.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 86

7 In the Video inspector, choose Timecode Generator from the Add Video Eect pop-up menu.

The Timecode Generator controls are added to the bottom of the Video inspector.

8 In the Timecode Generator controls, do the following:

a Choose Lower Right–Title Safe from Position pop-up menu.

b Type “TCR” in the Label eld.

c Control-click the “Text color” well, and select a bright yellow color.

Tip: TCR is the Industry-standard abbreviation for “Timecode Reader,” and bright yellow is a good choice because it will show against both dark and light backgrounds. Feel free to experiment with other settings to suit your particular needs.

The custom setting is saved with the timecode eect applied.

When you apply the Window Dub setting to a media source le, the transcoded output le will

have a timecode stamp burned in.

After you apply this custom setting to a job, you can select the output row in the job and then further customize the settings for that job by changing the values in the Video inspector. For example, you can change the location of the timecode numbers, color, font, or other properties of the job. Changes made to the setting for an individual job will not modify the saved custom setting.

Tip: This is a great setting to save as a droplet. For more on creating droplets, see Create and use

droplets on page 98.

Example: Convert NTSC or PAL footage to 24p HD

Compressor is capable of extremely high-quality frame rate and frame size conversions that

are superior to the processing that occurs when simply combining dierent footage in a single project in Final Cut Pro X. Use Compressor to convert your source les to ensure the highest

possible quality.

Create a setting that converts footage from multiple rates and frame sizes to a uniform rate and size

1 In the Settings pane, choose New Setting from the Add pop-up menu .

2 In the dialog that appears, choose QuickTime Movie from the Format pop-up menu, type

“Convert to 24p HD” in the Name eld, type “Converts any le to 1080/24p” in the Description eld, then click OK.

The new “Convert to 24p HD” setting appears in the Custom area of the Settings pane, and

the General inspector displays the basic properties for the setting. (If the inspector pane is not showing, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.)

3 In the inspector pane, click Video to switch to the Video inspector.

4 In the Video Properties area, set the following values:

•

Frame size: 1920 x 1080

•

Pixel aspect ratio: Square

•

Frame rate: 23.976

•

Field order: Progressive

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 87

5 In the Cropping & Padding area, choose Preserve Source Aspect Ratio from the Padding

pop-up menu.

6 In the Quality area, set the following values:

•

Resize lter: Best (Statistical Prediction)

•

Retiming quality: Best (Motion Compensated)

•

Adaptive details: Select this checkbox.

Note: By setting these properties to the values described, transcoding may take signicantly

longer than if you use the “Better” settings. You might choose to experiment with some

sample les and judge for yourself if you think the quality improvement is worth the extra

transcoding time.

You can apply this custom setting to any type of source footage (any frame rate or size), and the

output will always be a 1080p HD le.

Note: The ultimate quality of the resulting les will be highly dependent on the format and

quality of your source footage.

Example: Create daily review copies of footage

Many multi-day video productions create copies of each day’s footage for distribution to producers, clients, executives, and others. These clips are called “dailies” or “rushes.” The priority is to rush to get them done quickly and then notify the recipients that they are available to watch.

This example will show how to use Compressor to generate such review copies for a variety of distribution methods. The concepts presented here can be applied to creating destinations for

many other workows.

Note: The steps in the tasks below assume you are working with HD source footage.

Create dailies to be hosted on a private server

To create les to be stored on an internal server, or to be uploaded to a web server, follow the

steps below.

1 In the Settings pane, choose New Destination from the Add pop-up menu .

2 In the dialog that appears, do the following:

a Expand the Video Sharing Services group and select Large 540p.

Note: Alternatively, you can choose one of the other settings in this group based on the bandwidth of the server where you will be hosting the video.

b Choose Send Email from the “Job action” pop-up menu.

c In the Name eld, type “Dailies output.”

d In the Description eld, type “540p output for daily review.”

e Click OK.

The custom destination is added to the Settings pane.

3 Click Locations to open the Locations pane, and then click the Add button .

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 88

4 In the window that appears, select the folder where you want the video les to be saved, and

then click Choose.

Tip: To avoid unnecessary copying or duplicating of les, select the folder directly on the server

where the videos can be accessed by the intended recipients as soon as transcoding is complete.

The new location is added to the Custom section of the Locations pane.

Note: If you’re uploading to a folder on a web server, you may need to perform additional steps

(such as setting up a script or building an HTML page) to make the videos accessible in a web

browser. Consult your webmaster if you have questions.

5 When you’re ready to generate your dailies, Choose File > Add File (or press Command-I).

6 In the window that appears, navigate to the folder containing the day’s footage, select the le or

les you want to transcode, and then click Add.

Each clip is added as a separate job to the batch area.

Tip: You can also drag les from the Finder into the batch area.

7 Select all the jobs in the batch area, and from the Settings pane, drag the Dailies Output

destination onto any of the jobs.

Dragging to any one of the jobs applies the destination to all selected jobs in the batch area.

8 Switch to the Locations pane and drag the custom location you created in step 4 onto any of the

selected jobs in the batch area.

The location is added to all selected jobs.

9 Select the rst job in the batch area and, in the Action area of the Job inspector, ll in the email

To, Subject, and Message elds.

If the inspector pane is not showing, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of

the Compressor window. You can enter multiple email addresses in the To eld, as long as each address is separated by a comma. Also, be sure to include a link to the location of the saved les in the Message eld.

10 Select each of the subsequent jobs and repeat step 9, until each job’s Action section in the Job

inspector is lled out completely.

11 Click Start Batch (or press Command-B).

Tip: If you’re transcoding many les to be saved in one location, consider only sending an email when the last le is completed. That way your recipients won’t receive an email for each completed le. To prevent emails from being sent, set the Job Action pop-up menu to Do

Nothing for all but the last job in the batch area.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 89

Create dailies to be hosted on a third-party website

Some productions may prefer to use a public video-sharing service like YouTube, Vimeo, or others to host their dailies.

The built-in destinations in Compressor are designed to automatically upload to some of

these sites. However, other sites require creating a custom destination. This example uses a

popular Chinese video-sharing service called Youku. The steps are nearly identical for other video-sharing services.

1 In the Settings pane, choose New Destination from the Add pop-up menu

2 In the dialog that appears, do the following:

a Expand the Video Sharing Services group and select HD 720p.

b Choose Publish to Youku from the “Job action” pop-up menu.

c In the Name eld, type “Publish to Youku.”

d In the Description eld, type “720p dailies for Youku.”

e Click OK.

The custom destination is added to the Settings pane.

3 When you’re ready to generate your dailies, Choose File > Add File (or press Command-I).

4 In the window that appears, navigate to the folder containing the day’s footage, select the le or

les you want to transcode, then click Add.

Each clip is added as a separate job to the batch area.

Tip: You can also drag les from the Finder into the batch area.

5 Select all the jobs in the batch area, and from the Settings pane, drag the Publish to Youku

destination onto any of the jobs.

Dragging to any one of the jobs applies the destination to all selected jobs in the batch area.

Because Compressor automatically uploads the transcoded les to the video-sharing website (Youku, in this example), the save location specied in the output row of each job is not important. For this reason, you can leave the Location set to its default (Source) and then manually delete the transcoded les on your computer after the jobs are completed.

6 Select the rst job in the batch area, and, in the Action area of the Job inspector, enter your

account information for the video-sharing service, as well as other details about the video clip

(such as title, description, and whether the uploaded le should be stored as private or public).

7 Select each of the subsequent jobs and repeat step 6, until each job’s Action section in the Job

inspector is lled out.

8 Click Start Batch (or press Command-B) to begin transcoding.

Note: In this workow, Compressor can’t automatically send an email to notify the recipients that the les are available, so you’ll have to do that manually after the jobs are completed.

Chapter 5 Advanced tasks 90

Work smarter

Work smarter overview

This chapter covers information and techniques that will help you work more eciently in

Compressor, including how to:

•

Customize application preferences

•

Use keyboard shortcuts

•

Create and use droplets—standalone applications that let you transcode media les in the

Finder, by dragging and dropping.

•

Use Compressor with Final Cut Pro X and Motion

•

Use distributed processing to transcode les with a network of shared computers

•

Enable one or more instances of Compressor to increase processing power on a single computer

Compressor preferences

Compressor preferences overview

You can modify Compressor preference settings to customize your workow.

Open Compressor preferences

m Choose Compressor > Preferences (or press Command-Comma), and then click a button at the

top of the window to open a pane.

There are four panes in the preferences window: General, My Computer, Shared Computers, and Advanced.

General

Use the controls in the General pane to set basic application preferences.

•

Setting: Use this pop-up menu to specify a default setting for new jobs.

•

Location: Use this pop-up menu to specify a default location for new jobs.

•

After starting a new batch: This section of the General pane has two controls:

•

Clear batch in the Current tab: Select this checkbox to automatically remove batch information from the Current tab after a batch is transcoded.

•

Switch to the Active tab: Select this checkbox to have Compressor switch to Active view when a batch is transcoding.

My Computer

Use the controls in the My Computer pane to allow other computers to use your computer to process batches:

•

Allow other computers to process batches on my computer: Click the switch to On to make your computer available to other computers for distributed processing. Switching this on automatically enables the “When sharing my computer” controls in the Advanced pane. For more information, see Advanced on page 93.

•

Require Password: Select this checkbox and then type a password in the text eld to prevent

other people from using your computer for encoding.

Shared Computers

Use the controls in the Shared Computers pane to create groups of shared computers for distributed processing. For more information about how to set up a shared computer group and add computers to it, see Transcode batches using other computers on page 101.

Chapter 6 Work smarter 92

Advanced

Use the controls in the Advanced pane to adjust additional distributed processing settings. These advanced controls are intended for network administrators and other users with networking experience.

For more information about distributed processing, see Transcode batches using other

computers on page 101.

•

Enable Compressor instances: This property activates additional instances of the Compressor application, which can potentially speed transcoding. After selecting the checkbox, you can choose the number of instances from the pop-up menu. For more information, see Enable one

or more instances of Compressor on page 100 .

•

Use network interfaces: When you’ve allowed others to share your computer, you can restrict distributed processing activity to the network interface that you specify in the pop-up menu.

•

Enable Port Range: When you’ve allowed others to share your computer, you can select this checkbox to set the ports on which distributed processing is run. After selecting the checkbox, enter the number at which you want to start the port range and the number of ports you want the range to contain.

•

Reset Queue: Click to reset the queue of Compressor jobs. After you click this button, you can choose to reset the queue and cancel all pending jobs, or reset the queue and then restart any pending jobs.

Chapter 6 Work smarter 93

Keyboard shortcuts

Built-in keyboard shortcuts

You can use keyboard shortcuts to quickly accomplish many tasks in Compressor. To use a keyboard shortcut, press all the keys in the shortcut at the same time. Shortcuts for common commands are listed in the table below.

Compressor general keyboard shortcuts

Action Shortcut

Add a le Command-I

Add a set of image sequence les Option-Command-I

Add a set of surround sound les Control-Command-I

Navigate up the list of jobs (in the batch area) Up Arrow

Navigate down the list of jobs (in the batch area) Down Arrow

Play/Pause the video Space Bar

Play the video in reverse J

Stop playback K

Play the video L

Set the In point I

Set the Out point O

Add a marker M

Go to the previous marker or In/Out point Control-Semicolon (;)

Go to the next marker or In/Out point Control-Apostrophe (‘)

Start transcoding the batch Command-B

Compressor window keyboard shortcuts

Action Shortcut

Show the Current view Command-1

Show the Active view Command-2

Show the Completed view Command-3

Show or hide the inspector pane Command-4

Show or hide the Settings and Locations pane Command-5

Show Settings Shift-Command-1

Show Locations Shift-Command-2

Show the Network Encoding Monitor Command-E

Show the Compressor preferences window Command-Comma (,)

Minimize the Compressor window Command-M

Close the Compressor window Command-W

Quit Compressor Command-Q

Chapter 6 Work smarter 94

Customize keyboard shortcuts

View keyboard shortcuts in the Command Editor

Compressor provides a wide variety of menu commands and keyboard shortcuts that let you

control almost every aspect of your transcoding workow. You can use the Command Editor to

modify existing shortcuts, create new shortcuts, and save multiple sets of keyboard shortcuts that you can export for others to use. You can also import a set of shortcuts that someone else created. And if you’re more familiar with keyboard shortcuts from other applications, you can use the Command Editor to substitute those shortcuts in place of the default set for Compressor.

The Command Editor provides a set of keyboard shortcuts for Compressor in English, Japanese, French, and German. The language that is shown is determined by your computer’s operating

system. To learn how to change the language used by Compressor, see OS X Help, available from the Help menu when the Finder is active.

View keyboard shortcuts

1 Choose Compressor > Commands > Customize.

The Command Editor appears.

2 Do any of the following:

•

To view keyboard shortcuts by command group: Select one of the command groups in the lower-left corner of the Command Editor.

The commands in the selected group (and their keyboard shortcuts) appear in the center list. When you select a command in the center list, a description appears in the Command Detail list in the lower-right corner of the Command Editor.

•

To view commands associated with a specic key: Click a key on the virtual keyboard.

The commands mapped to that key appear (along with the necessary modier keys, if any—

Control, Option, Shift, and Command) in the Key Detail list in the lower-right corner of the Command Editor.

When you hold down any modier buttons on the keyboard, the key colors update. Key colors correspond with command classications; for example, playback commands, such as Play/

Pause (Space bar), are purple. The Command Groups window on the left side of the Command

List contains a clickable color key for reference.

Chapter 6 Work smarter 95

•

To search for a keyboard shortcut: Enter a command name, key name, or descriptive keywords in

the search eld in the upper-right corner of the Command Editor.

As you type, commands that match the search term appear in Command List at the bottom of

the Command Editor.

Tip: To show the keys that correspond with the items in the Command List, click the Keyboard Highlight button to the left of the search eld.

Modify keyboard shortcuts in the Command Editor

You can quickly and easily customize keyboard shortcuts in the Command Editor. If you want to add a few custom commands to the default set in Compressor, you can duplicate the default set and assign keyboard shortcuts to some of the unassigned commands. You can also create a new set that contains only your commands.

Duplicate a command set

1 Choose Compressor > Commands > Customize.

The Command Editor appears.

2 Choose the command set that you want to duplicate from the pop-up menu in the top-left

corner of the Command Editor.

The command set you selected should have a checkmark to the left of its name in the pop-up menu.

3 In the same pop-up menu, choose Duplicate.

4 In the dialog that appears, type a name for the command set, and then click OK.

The duplicate set is added to the Commands submenu of the Compressor menu and to the pop-up menu in the Command Editor.

Delete a command set

1 Choose Compressor > Commands > Customize.

The Command Editor appears.

2 Choose the command set that you want to delete from the pop-up menu in the top-left corner

of the Command Editor.

The command set you selected should have a checkmark to the left of its name in the pop-up menu.

3 In the same pop-up menu, choose Delete.

4 In the dialog that appears, click Delete.

The command set is removed.

Chapter 6 Work smarter 96

Export and import command sets in the Command Editor

You can export a command set to create a backup or to share the set with another user.

Exported command sets are saved in a le that can be imported back into Compressor at a later

time. You can also import a command set.

Export a command set

1 Choose Compressor > Commands > Customize.

The Command Editor appears.

2 Select the command set that you want to export from the pop-up menu in the top-left corner of

the Command Editor.

The command set you selected should have a checkmark to the left of its name in the pop-up menu.

3 In the same pop-up menu, choose Export.

4 Type a name for the command set in the Save As eld, navigate to the location where you want

to save the exported set, and then click Save.

The le is saved in the location you chose, with the lename extension .commandset.

Import a command set

1 Choose Compressor > Commands > Import.

2 In the window that appears, navigate to the location where you’ve stored a command set le,

select it, and click Open.

If you’re already using a command set with the same name, a window appears and prompts you to rename the command set.

The new command set is added to the Commands submenu of the Compressor menu and to the pop-up menu in the Command Editor.

View shortcuts for a dierent command set

If your system has multiple command sets, you can easily switch between them.

Do one of the following:

m Choose Compressor > Commands, and then choose a command set from the submenu.

The Command Editor window appears, showing the command set you chose.

m If you’ve already opened the Command Editor, choose a command set from the pop-up menu at

the top-left corner of the window.

Chapter 6 Work smarter 97

Create and use droplets

You can save one or more settings or a destination as a standalone application called a droplet.

Using the droplet, you can easily transcode les by dragging them to the droplet icon in

the Finder.

Create a droplet

1 In the Settings tab, select one or more settings, setting groups, or a destination that you want to

save as a droplet.

Note: You can Shift-click or Command-click to add multiple settings or setting groups.

If you selected more than one setting, a destination that contains two or more settings, or a group of settings, every setting in your selection will be included in the droplet. For example, if

you submit two source media les to a Droplet containing three settings, Compressor creates six dierent output media les.

2 Choose Save as Droplet from the Action pop-up menu .

3 In the window that appears, do the following:

•

Enter a name for the droplet in the Save As eld.

•

Specify a location for the droplet using the Where pop-up menu.

•

In the Location pop-up menu, choose where you want the droplet to save transcoded les.

4 Click Save.

Your newly created droplet appears as an icon in the location you chose in the Where menu.

Chapter 6 Work smarter 98

Transcode les using a droplet

1 In the Finder, drag one or more media les onto the droplet.

When you release the mouse button, the Droplet window opens.

2 In the Droplet window, do either or both of the following:

•

Choose a new save location from the Location pop-up menu.

•

Specify a computer or group of computers from the Process On pop-up menu.

3 Click Start Batch.

The transcoded le appears in the location you specied.

If you want to view the processing status of your source media les, open Share Monitor

from the droplet by choosing Droplet > Open Share Monitor. For more information, see

Share Monitor Help.

Chapter 6 Work smarter 99

Transcode Final Cut Pro and Motion projects using Compressor

If you have Final Cut Pro X or Motion 5 installed on the same computer as Compressor 4.1, you can send sequences or clips from Final Cut Pro or Motion directly to Compressor for transcoding.

Transcode a Final Cut Pro or Motion project using Compressor

Do one of the following:

m Send a project from Final Cut Pro to Compressor: Select the project and choose File > Send

to Compressor.

m Send a project from Motion to Compressor: Open the project and choose Share > Send to Compressor.

Note: You can also drag a Motion project le to the batch area in Compressor.

For more information about using Compressor settings in Final Cut Pro, see Final Cut Pro Help. For more information about using Compressor settings in Motion, see Motion Help.

After the Final Cut Pro or Motion le appears in Compressor as a source le in a job, you can add

a setting and other information to the job’s output rows and then transcode the batch.

Enable one or more instances of Compressor

You can increase the processing power of a single computer, and thus reduce the time it takes to process batches, by enabling one or more additional instances of the Compressor application.

Enable instances of Compressor

1 Choose Compressor > Preferences (or press Command-Comma).

2 Click Advanced.

3 Select the “Enable additional Compressor instances” checkbox, then choose a number of

instances from the pop-up menu.

The number of instances available in the pop-up menu changes automatically based on the

amount or RAM and number of CPU cores in your computer. It’s recommended that you rst

enable all the additional instances, transcode several test batches, and then, if performance is slow, decrease the number of instances to use fewer of your computer’s resources. You can use the Activity Monitor application in OS X to determine how of your CPU is being used.

Note: If the computer has a hardware encoder, and if you enable multiple instances of Compressor, the time it takes to process a batch can potentially increase, because the hardware

encoder can only be used with single-pass, nonsegmented jobs. If you nd that processing time has increased signicantly, turn o additional Compressor instances by deselecting the “Enable

additional Compressor instances” checkbox.

Chapter 6 Work smarter 100

Apple Compressor - 4.1 User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

What’s new in Compressor 4.1?

What is Compressor?

Interface overview

Simple transcoding overview

Built-in settings

Built-in destinations

Built-in locations

Advanced adjustments overview

Work with settings

View and modify a setting’s properties

Create custom settings

Remove a setting

About formats and settings

Setting properties

Work with destinations

View and modify a destination’s properties

Create custom destinations

Remove a destination

Work with locations

Work with jobs

Overview

View and modify job properties

Job properties

Work with job actions

Work with batches

Advanced tasks overview

About audio channels

Modify frame size overview

Crop or pad the video frame

Frame rate options overview

Retime video and audio output

Modify timing and frame rate

About deinterlacing

About reverse telecine

Add metadata

Set a poster frame

Add markers

Limit time ranges when transcoding

Example: Convert NTSC or PAL footage to 24p HD

Example: Create daily review copies of footage

Work smarter overview

Compressor preferences

Compressor preferences overview

General

My Computer

Shared Computers

Advanced

Keyboard shortcuts

Built-in keyboard shortcuts

Customize keyboard shortcuts

Create and use droplets

Transcode Final Cut Pro and Motion projects using Compressor

Enable one or more instances of Compressor