Compression compression compression

[Rumour]

More and more often of late my clients are asking for DVD masters, streaming media for their websites, VCD, SVCD, and other assorted compression types. I have been trying hard to keep up with the best methods, but I often see stuff like 12 minutes of muxed mpeg1 on a cd that has quality that rivals stuff I can just manage to fit on DVD.

Does anyone have any pointers on books or websites or even tips on how to get video at maximum quality in minimum space on a Mac? I have FCP 4, Panther, compressor, quicktime pro, lots of codecs - although not mpeg1 for some reason.. ?

All pushes in the right direction gratefully accepted.

[Matthew]

Try the latest Windows Media codecs. looks great and the files are rather tiny .... dunno if you can encode these on a mac but you certainly can view them. Beat the pants off other codecs in some tests we did recently.

Digitizing at the highest resolution you can before encoding does make a difference.

Avoid noisy/wobbly/dark footage if you can. (DV!!!!)

What else? Lots ...

[Bill]

I am in the process of reviving a course we ran here a while back at AFTRS called "Finishing for the Web". This was put together for me by Andrew Barnes and dealt mostly with compression for web delivery. It was very popular for a while but interest has dropped off and we no longer run the course.

The new course (tba) will deal with compression and other issues of delivery for "New Media" - Web, DVD etc. We currently have Mark Pesce who wrote the manual "Programming Microsoft DirectShow for Digital Video and Television" working with us here at AFTRS on this.

Mark's book is worth a read for the Windows world. Another excellent book is "Compression for Great Digital Video" by Ben Waggoner (DV Expert series) it is comprehensive in covering it all. "DVD Studio Pro for Mac OS X" by Martin Sitter (Visual Quickpro Guides) has a couple of good chapters on Compressor and QuickTime Pro as well APack that comes with Studio Pro to create Ac3 files. "DVD Studio Pro2 - authoring professional DVD's" by Adrian Ramseier (Peachpit) has 30 pages of info on using Compressor.

I have found exporting from QuickTime much quicker than using Compressor when (using 2 pass variable bit rate on both) and yes I have the latest update that states there is supposed to be a speed improvement. Not sure why this should be. I have read that Compressor works much faster off a Reference QT than a Self Contained QT.

Look out for our course once it's finished. I suspect we are all going to be doing more and more of this. Just one more delivery item at the end of a job.

[Rumour]

Yeah - it's a bit like how long is a piece of string, and I know it depends on the job and the use it's going to, but, gordon bennet...

I'll take a look into the windoze thing - thanks Matthew.

[Rumour]

Bill - thanks for your reply - I will hunt down some of this info today. As for the course, what are the chances of bringing it to the WA FTI? I would definitly be interested in attending a course on this.

[Bill]

Since writting the comments above I have had time to do a properly structured test and the results are interesting compared to the somewhat casual experience of before.

The test was to make an MPEG 2 vision file and an AIFF sound file to later be used in the production of a DVD.

Applications compared were - Compressor, QuickTime 6.5 (Pro with MPEG 2 component) and Cleaner 6.01.
(Sequence was DV Pal 0.23 sec long)

CONCLUSION:
All applications appear to be using QuickTime to do the compression. Given that the same attribute were used on each test it is not surprising this resulted in file sizes being exactly the same no matter what application you used.

Compressor’s great advantage is that you can export directly from FCP to make your MPEG 2 and AIFF file.

With QuickTime and Cleaner you must first make a QuickTime of the sequence in this instance I made an uncompressed 8 bit file that took .40 sec to make and was 456.6 MB A&V.

Compressor took 4.05 min to encode directly from FCP compared to ...
QT- 3.40 (0.40 + 3.10) and
Cleaner 4.04 (0.40 + 3.24).

Therefore timewise it would appear Compressor and Cleaner took about the same compressing time and QuickTime was a bit faster.

However when you factor in the setting up time of creating the QuickTime file to be compressed, Compressor wins hands down as there is only a one step process rather than a two step - two app process.

VERDICT: if you have FCP 4 there is no advantage in going to another application to create an MPEG 2 file. However if you need to create a Real Media file or Windows Media Player file Cleaner allows you to do this though you will of course have to export your sequence as a QuickTime first then convert in Cleaner.

Note if you have not bought the MPEG 2 pack and installed it in QuickTime (installed automatically if you have FCP 4 and DVD Studio Pro 2) then you will need to do this for MPEG 2 export in QuickTime.

(These tests were done on a Mac PB 1ghz, 768MB ram)

[Rumour]

Wow thanks Bill - very comprehensive!

I have been reading up on compressor as you suggested and starting to get a handle on it - I did manage to get one problem piece (a camos showreel) down to a reasonable size for the web without too much quality loss using it - which is great. Up till now the lossiness was making it not worth doing.

I have found that you need to up the brightness a bit for the PC market though, which is sad for the Mac users who end up having to view it looking washed out even though they are technically correct.

In case anyone else is reading this forum and is interested, I have also been hearing that Toast does a great job with VCDs and SVCDs - I think up to 40 minutes on a CD at MPEG-1 quality. I'll be buying a copy for tests just as soon as my next paycheck gets in.

[Bill]

Absolutely right about having to push brightness for windows. What is it with PC's or is a Mac thing? Photoshop (or is it PS's Image Ready) has a setting you can use that suits PC's but that's on stills.

Oh and cannot live without Toast.

Ultimate compression for the web is via Sorenson. One version comes free with QuickTime the other you pay an arm and a leg for but get even more beautiful results. I'm a little out of date on this one (working towards it with the testing) but a while back at least that was clearly the case.

Word from the ABC is that Windows Media Player is superior to Real and QuickTime.

Looking forward to testing all of this, still at the steep end of the curve. Now if only there were 34 hrs in the day. But hey surfs up!!

[Rumour]

Re the brightness issue - I found a good white paper on this at Ken Stone's site - http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/gamma_mac_pc.html

There are also some good compression/compressor tutorials there now too. I also discovered that the mpeg2 component of quicktime pro got .. mislaid/broken(?) during one of the quicktime upgrades. If you find that yours suddenly doesn't seem to work, you can download the latest version for free using your FCP or DVD studio pro serial number at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/mpeg2playback/download/

BTW - which beach do you surf on. Bill?

[Bill]

Ah now next you'll want to know if I'm a goofy or a natural!

I live at Manly and surf there much less than I would like to these days. (Am excited about my new Aloha Mal)

photos (by me not of me thank goodness) are at...
www.beachnet.com.au

Excellent article from Ken Stone's website (lotsa other goodies there as well). Other good sources are LAFCPUG tutes....
http://www.lafcpug.org/

and

Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine
http://www.editorsguild.com/news.html

Good item on "Changing Role of the Assistant Editor" as well.

[Rumour]

Nice photos Bill - I'm a Northern Beaches girl originally myself, so it's cool to be able to see the place again! I love the aerial above Queenscliff - brings back memories of those 'learn to swim even though its minus three degrees today' school trips.
;)

Thanks for the links - off to check them out now.