DVCPRO HD vs XDCAM EX Compression Times

[tengo]

I have both footages (720p25) in my hands, so I tried to see which would compress faster.

Theoretically, DVCPRO HD is intraframe and should thus compress faster, so I had expected to see DVCPRO HD clip get the task done earlier. Note that DVCPRO HD has higher bit rate than XDCAM EX though (50Mbps vs 35Mbps).

Anyway, I did 3 compression tests:
1. Real world settings using both Flip4Mac to WMV
2. Real world settings using Compressor to DVD
3. Switch the two footage and compress to WMV

To have a more accurate comparison, I also switch the footages (both 30s) in both formats. To explain myself more clearly, the original XDCAM EX footage is an outdoor scene at a park. The original DVCPRO HD footage is an indoor scene of my bedroom. So by switching, I mean I copy the outdoor scene into DVCPRO HD sequence and indoor scene to XDCAM EX sequence for my 3rd test.

The test results? Under all 3 tests, compressing XDCAM EX sequence was faster by 15 to 30 seconds.

It seems to me that when it comes to compression, it is faster using XDCAM EX.

 

[tengo]

I just did another quick test.

I overlay a motion clip (4 seconds with transparent background) with a title and particles effects over both DVCPRO HD and XDCAM EX sequences.
Both DVCPRO HD and XDCAM EX sequence has the same outdoor park footage.

The DVCPRO HD rendering took 12 seconds while XDCAM EX sequence took 30 seconds.

Looks like that is where an intraframe codec wins hands-down. I am suspecting that the higher bitrate for DVCPRO HD is probably the reason for the slower compression times in my earlier test.

 

[tengo]

One more test.

I applied NeatVideo noise reduction plugin with same settings on 12 seconds of similar outdoor park footage in DVCPRO HD and XDCAM EX sequences.

DVCPRO HD 720p25 (50 Mbps Intraframe): 6 mins 40 secs
DVCPRO HD 720p50 (100 Mbps Intraframe): 13 mins 18 secs
XDCAM EX 720p25 (35 Mbps Interframe): 7 mins 15 secs
XDCAM EX 720p25 sequence (Same as above) with render to ProRes422 option: 6 mins 36 secs

Again, I am trying to test efficiency of intraframe vs interframe editing.

On a sidenote, FCP's time estimation to complete task is quite accurate when rendering DVCPRO HD. However, when it comes to XDCAM EX, it grossly overestimate the time to render. It still shows "7 mins remaining" when the window suddenly disappeared and rendering has already completed. I am using FCP 6.0.6 on G5 PowerMac. It should be much faster for the latest Mac Pros.