CS5 H.264 Looks Export... Looks Terrible?

Guys, if you select 'Quicktime' in the export box, then the encoding is being done by Quicktime and any problems are in Apple's court. To use the MainConcept encoder, you have to select MP4...yes, that means you get a .mp4 file, but that's not a problem most of the time. The rest of the time, rename the file from .mp4 to .mov and that'll probably fix it.
 
Guys, if you select 'Quicktime' in the export box, then the encoding is being done by Quicktime and any problems are in Apple's court. To use the MainConcept encoder, you have to select MP4...yes, that means you get a .mp4 file, but that's not a problem most of the time. The rest of the time, rename the file from .mp4 to .mov and that'll probably fix it.

Where would that be documented from Adobe?

Update:

By looking at the options under the various file containers, selecting the following

FLV/F4V
H.264
H.264 Blu-Ray

The Mainconcepts H.264 comes up for the 'encoding' method. For H.264 and H.264 Blu-ray, the file extension is MP4, and M4V respectively.

MPEG4 -- selects options that are for mobile devices such as small phones or the like, and uses the 3GP extension. (Does that mean it is using H.263 as it's video codec?).

QUICKTIME --- allows for a set of codec options, a long list, with the following two entries.

H.264 -- does not bring up any mention of 'mainconcepts' encoder.
MPEG-4 Video --- does not appear to be the same as the above mentioned MPEG4 with 3GP output.

The question I have now is, if there is a problem with Apple's implementation of H.264, does that indict Compressor which presumably uses the QT underlying machinery?

As it is, I may have been avoiding this sort of problem, as I've been mostly burning DVD/Blu-Rays of late, and putthing out a 'low rez' version for uploads that I haven't been so worried about certain quality items...
 
Last edited:
Where would that be documented from Adobe?

Update:

By looking at the options under the various file containers, selecting the following

FLV/F4V
H.264
H.264 Blu-Ray

The Mainconcepts H.264 comes up for the 'encoding' method. For H.264 and H.264 Blu-ray, the file extension is MP4, and M4V respectively.

MPEG4 -- selects options that are for mobile devices such as small phones or the like, and uses the 3GP extension. (Does that mean it is using H.263 as it's video codec?).

QUICKTIME --- allows for a set of codec options, a long list, with the following two entries.

H.264 -- does not bring up any mention of 'mainconcepts' encoder.
MPEG-4 Video --- does not appear to be the same as the above mentioned MPEG4 with 3GP output.

The question I have now is, if there is a problem with Apple's implementation of H.264, does that indict Compressor which presumably uses the QT underlying machinery?

As it is, I may have been avoiding this sort of problem, as I've been mostly burning DVD/Blu-Rays of late, and putthing out a 'low rez' version for uploads that I haven't been so worried about certain quality items...

I recall that in Final Cut there are two ways of encoding files...there's some kind of export option, and then there's Compressor. I remember that using the export option basically is just letting Quicktime do the compression and the results were pretty underwhelming (just like the .mov export from Adobe Media Encoder), but Compressor seems to use much better encoders.
 
I recall that in Final Cut there are two ways of encoding files...there's some kind of export option, and then there's Compressor. I remember that using the export option basically is just letting Quicktime do the compression and the results were pretty underwhelming (just like the .mov export from Adobe Media Encoder), but Compressor seems to use much better encoders.

I did a quick check just now, and Compressor does have some 'negativity' out there... so, while most seemed to indicate it was better than using the Quicktime implementation, it was not as good as the most recent Mainconcepts used in AME.

From my look at the AME options, it seems to get the full set of controls that AME has for H.264 output(*), one has to select H.264 on the 'format' menu.

*For example, H.264 has 'baseline', 'main', and 'high', as well as levels. This reference, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashmediaserver/articles/h264_encoding.html, discusses owhat options for what eventual 'player' device, and how to select those... It also gives visual examples of some of the effects of different option selections.
 
Back
Top