HD footage to SD... over 12 hrs??

HEllo guys,
I edited HD footage then exported to QuickTime, it took over 2 hrs!
Event is just 2:02:05. When I edit SD, it takes just 40 minutes.

Now, Compressor is taking over 14 hrs~~

Am I doing something wrong?



Settings:
I used DVD: Best Quality 150 minutes


Time Elapsed: 2:13
Time Remaining: 12:56
Percent Complete: 14
Status: Processing: MPEG-2 1st pass

Please Advise

Thanks~

Details. What machine/FCS/OS version are you running? What format are you working off? What is your sequence set to?



www.strypesinpost.com

strypes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Details. What machine/FCS/OS version are you
> running? What format are you working off? What is
> your sequence set to?


Machine: Imac 20"
2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM
2.4 Ghz
L2 cache: 6MB
Bus Speed 1.07 Ghz

FCP: Academic Version 6.0.6

Format: Footage captured using a canon xh-a1 HD 1440 x 1080 60i
with Sony Premium Tape

Sequence:
[i45.tinypic.com]

Compresor just finished*******
15 hours, i cant believe it-


please heeeeelp

I guessed as much. You're working in HDV. It's relatively processor intensive. HDV is a miracle at managing to squeeze HD into the same bitrate as DV, but that's as far as it goes. It'll take longer to decode and encode because it's temporally compressed (less complex than AVCHD, but still pretty complex).

>I edited HD footage then exported to QuickTime, it took over 2 hrs!

With any long GOP based formats, exporting time will explode. However, you can toggle your sequence to ProRes and export a self contained QT movie. This will reduce the time FCP takes to "conform/write mpeg2", and it will be less intensive to encode to your delivery format.


>Now, Compressor is taking over 14 hrs~~

DVD is SD. To get that stuff onto DVD, you need to down convert. And all that number of pixels in HD will need to be decoded and encoded as SD.

If you turn off Frame Controls (not on auto, but off), you sacrifice quality, but you gain speed. Also, if you change motion estimation to "good", you gain more speed in the process.

Basically the trade-offs are speed vs quality vs cost. If you work off faster machines, you'll see a noticeable speed improvement, if you sacrifice quality (either use a faster encoding/scaling algorithm, or shoot in SD), you'll see a noticeable speed improvement.



www.strypesinpost.com