As an upgrade in and of itself, it’s somewhat better than average, though not stellar. While seemingly unchanged on the outside, the core of Apple’s newest release of Compressor 4 (available for download only on the Mac App Store) reveals a robust workflow that’s completely integrated within Final Cut Pro X. Apple recommends that you stay with Compressor 3.5 clusters if you are going to continue working with Final Cut Studio, but to use Compressor 4 if you plan to work with FCP X and Motion 5. So you can install Compressor on multiple Macs and set them all up as personal encoding nodes with a single purchase of the app. If you are encoding clusters for Compressor 4 and FCP X, make sure that you have Compressor 4 loaded on each machine in the cluster.īe aware that, via the Mac App Store, Apple allows you to purchase an application once and install it on all your of personal computers. You will need to set up separate encoding pipelines if you plan to use FCP X alongside the previous Final Cut Studio. While the HD DVD format is no longer supported as of this release, any of the other modified settings files are usable. Just navigate to the /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Compressor folder copy the existing custom settings from Compressor 3.5 then drag those files into the Settings pane of Compressor 4 and all of your previous encoding settings are now immediately available for use in your new apps. Compression settings created in Compressor 3.x are directly transferable to Compressor 4 by dragging the older presets into the new version. Under the new FCP X Share menu, common encoding workflows, as well as any custom settings created in Compressor 4, are now directly accessible from the timeline.Ĭompressor 4 lets users create and customize compression settings and droplets, just like previous versions. This customization has the added benefit of allowing users to share settings between computers. Do you really need Compressor 4?Īpple says it markets Compressor as a separate app in order to fully enable its customization power rather than bury it within FCP X’s Share menu. Existing format conversion capabilities, along with the ability to import Compressor 3 settings, will benefit anyone making the transition to this version. It features tight integration with FCP X, with newly created setting options immediately available in FCP X. Compressor 4’s interface, unchanged from previous versions, is a welcome constant for users. Most third-party plug-ins will require an update to work with the new processing engine, however it appears Apple has already begun to take steps to assure that updates from current developers will allow Compressor to operate seamlessly, including the ability to access hardware-based compression acceleration like the Matrox CompressHD, under both current and future OS development. By using all of the cores available-whether on one machine or across a networked render-it is not adversely affected by a 32-bit encoding process.Īpple sees 32-bit encoding as a conduit for many of the professional workflows that are not yet supported in the new version of FCP X, and it allows users the ability to continue migrating between previously existing formats or file types to those which are more useable within FCP X. In not making Compressor 64-bit, Apple preserves the program’s compatibility with a wide range of current third-party 32-bit QuickTime codecs, thus making the transition to FCP X easier for some current users.įor example, ProRes, as a multi-threaded codec, takes full advantage of all of this processing. In fact, multi-threading and network rendering can save more time than just having Compressor at 64-bit. Why did Apple do this? Because simply making Compressor a 64-bit application would not solve the problem of codecs that are optimized for 32-bit, or which are not multi-threaded. Exporting directly from within FCP X uses 64-bit processing to handle rendering of complex video and audio, while the encoding is handled at 32-bit. This version offers users both power and speed, while quietly residing in the background until needed.Ĭomplex rendering benefits from a 64-bit application, as more of the processing can be handled within the memory buffer at one time. Like FCP X and Motion 5, Compressor 4 offers accelerated 64-bit processing of codecs like ProRes and H.264, but maintains legacy support for older 32-bit codecs still in use.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |