Compressor taking forever!

S

super_plus

Active member
As I write this, compressor has been exporting out a 36 min, DV-H.264 sequence for 13 hours! This is a freelance job that normally only takes overnight to finish. I actually got to sleep in today and I was appalled to see that it wasn't even halfway done when I woke up. Any ideas on what would be taking so long? I'm running a 2.16mhz core duo MBP with 2gb RAM. I've never had this problem even after hundreds of jobs...
 
Most common cause is over doing the frame control filters. Setting these to highest is a bad idea when your pressed for time.

Also, slow ass computers. That can do it too.
Or thirdly, not making use of Virtual Clusters. This can help lower render times depending on your system. Maybe a little on a iMac/ MacBook. Hella lot on a Mac Pro.
 
Encoding to h.264 is very slow.

No way around it except something like the CompressHD. But that needs a PCI E slot on a desktop.
 
yeah, I'm not using any frame controls on this one. Basically a straight DV-H.264 export. I know that my MBP is getting old but it still holds it own and I've never had this problem. I actually just cancelled it because it was starting to process at 1fps and had about 25,000 frames left..... Whats this about virtual clusters? Never heard of it.
 
Thanks, for that. Any suggestions on another codec that would compress faster? This is just a an export for the client to go over on vimeo, quality isn't much of an issue.
 
Try the X264Encoder codec found on VersionTracker.com Drop in the Quicktime folder on your system library and restart compressor. It'll show up in the codec list.

It's more efficient then Apple's.

Virtual Clusters may not make much difference on a MBP. They really fly when you have 4 or more CPU cores to work with. But if you do a search you should be able to learn more.
 
thanks for the help, I'm going to try an export using qmaster and that new encoder. I think the problem was that I forgot After Effects was in the background and I have it set to use most of my system resources when it's open.
 
Are you trying to export from FCP using Compressor, or are you using Compressor as a standalone?

I have never had luck with exporting from FCP with Compressor. It always takes an eternity to encode even the simplest videos, if it doesn't end up crashing FCP. I have found it much easier to export a full-rez QuickTime, close FCP, and launch Compressor as a standalone.
 
I was using Compressor to export a sequence from FCP. Right now I'm using it as a standalone exporting a reference I made of the sequence... Seems to be going much faster
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top