FCP slower than Premiere at export M4

[waloshin]

I have been testing FCP and Premiere on my new M4 Mac Mini.

I have transferred a Hi8 analogue tape that only has a mono channel of audio but premiere sees it as stereo so I switched it to dual mono and ran the audio enhancement wand. Also cropped the video.

2 hour video at a 12-15 MBps export
480i from ProRes 422 LT to H264 interlaced

Took 15 minutes on compressor and 11 minutes in Adobe Media Encoder. In Premiere I did a denoise as well as fill right channel with left. Yet Compressor was significantly slower at export. Why was that?

Is it possible that Adobe Premiere Pro is more optimized over FCP on the M4 Mini?

According to this review they were disappointed in Compressors performance taking twice as long as Adobe Media Encoder...

M4 Pro Mac mini	50 minutes 15 seconds
M2 Max Mac Studio	31 minutes 12 seconds
M3 Max MacBook	29 minutes 3 seconds
M1 Ultra Mac Studio	16 minutes 1 second

I use Compressor a lot for quick encodes because it is quick to use, quick to encode and quick to launch. I was curious how Adobe Media Encoder would handle this long export so I installed the latest AME beta and ran it as well.


M4 Pro Mac mini with Adobe Media Encoder 25 beta – 24 minutes and 22 seconds


That was a rather disappointing time for the new Mac mini with Compressor.

Review: M4 Mac mini for video editors by Scott Simmons - ProVideo Coalition

I’ve been fortunate enough to test out many of the different M-series Macs since they launched a few years ago. They really made a difference in productivity for post-production professionals who work in the Mac universe, as overall, they are so much faster in most video editing tasks than old...

www.provideocoalition.com

 

[R S K]

H.264/265 has SO many endless settings and variables, and any number of encoding engines can be used. So there is no comparing the two 1:1 without knowing ALL the details. Entropy mode, data rate, CBR, or VBR, single or multi-pass? Which encoder, how much RAM you have, etc., etc. Or if the final result is even comparable. Because I can transcode something for you in seconds, it'll just look crap.

Try exporting to ProRes or doing a 10-camera 4K multicam at full res in both apps and you'll never be left wondering whether "Premiere Pro is more optimized over Final Cut Pro" again. PPro is a complete turd in every other respect in comparison.

And which is it even? Final Cut Pro or Compressor? Your title says one thing and your description says an entirely different thing. And if you're using Compressor… why? Especially since we already talked about it being nonsensical and not posing any advantage whatsoever. 🙄

 

[waloshin]

H.264/265 has SO many endless settings and variables, and any number of encoding engines can be used. So there is no comparing the two 1:1 without knowing ALL the details. Entropy mode, data rate, CB, or VB, single or multi-pass? Which encoder, how much RAM you have, etc., etc. Or if the final result is even comparable. Because I can transcode something for you in seconds, it'll just look crap.

Try exporting to ProRes or doing a 10-camera 4K multicam at full res in both apps and you'll never be left wondering whether "Premiere Pro is more optimized over Final Cut Pro" again. PPro is a complete turd in every other respect in comparison.

And which is it even? Final Cut Pro or Compressor? Your title says one thing and your description says an entirely different thing. And if you're using Compressor… why? Especially since we already talked about it being nonsensical and not posing any advantage whatsoever. 🙄

Like my post says M4 mini base so 16 gigabytes of ram…

Secondly my post also shows my settings that I am using including g nitrate in compressor.

Thirdly I like to edit multiple videos and let them export all at once something FCP does not allow.

In Adobe encoder I was using g the same resolution, 1 pass VBR 15000 kbps.

Also do not think it’s a ram issue as ram pressure is in the green.

GPU was only 32%…

Though probably thermal throttling. Even the base mini was hitting 100-105 Celsius when encoding.

 

[R S K]

Like my post says M4 mini base so 16 gigabytes of ram…

No, you wrote "new M4 Mac Mini", which says nothing about its specs. Never mind that I was talking in general terms when comparing two apps on any given machine. 🙄

Secondly my post also shows my settings that I am using including g nitrate in compressor.

I have no idea what that means nor do I see "g nitrate" anywhere in your settings, so I have no clue what you mean. But if that's some non-standard something, then that's probably your answer as to why it's slow.

Thirdly I like to edit multiple videos and let them export all at once something FCP does not allow.

🤦🏼‍♂️​

I already told you in the other thread on the topic that of course it does. I even posted a video showing you how.

Again: there are barely some very exotic exceptions to when it makes any sense whatsoever to use Compressor over FC.

In Adobe encoder I was using g

Again… no clue.

GPU was only 32%…

Though probably thermal throttling. Even the base mini was hitting 100-105 Celsius when encoding.

Then clearly the "g nitrate" thing, whatever it is, is garbage. Any Apple Silicon Mac should hardly even notice a super-basic transcode such as that, which, when not futzing with some random other codecs or utilities, is all done on the Media Engines and therfore has exactly zero relevance in terms of CPU/GPU and certainly doesn't go to 100+°.

So the Mini is obviously not the issue or culprit here.

 

[waloshin]

No, you wrote "new M4 Mac Mini", which says nothing about its specs. Never mind that I was talking in general terms when comparing two apps on any given machine. 🙄



I have no idea what that means nor do I see "g nitrate" anywhere in your settings, so I have no clue what you mean. But if that's some non-standard something, then that's probably your answer as to why it's slow.

🤦🏼‍♂️​

I already told you in the other thread on the topic that of course it does. I even posted a video showing you how.

Again: there are barely some very exotic exceptions to when it makes any sense whatsoever to use Compressor over FC.




Again… no clue.



Then clearly the "g nitrate" thing, whatever it is, is garbage. Any Apple Silicon Mac should hardly even notice a super-basic transcode such as that, which, when not futzing with some random other codecs or utilities, is all done on the Media Engines and therfore has exactly zero relevance in terms of CPU/GPU and certainly doesn't go to 100+°.

So the Mini is obviously not the issue or culprit here.

Will have a look for that video. Oddly the M4 Mini was hitting 100-105 Celsius just expecting video from compressor nothing else running.

 

[galad]

You are probably comparing Apples & Oranges. One is using a software encoder, the other one a complete different software encoder.

I don't think the hardware encoder can handle interlaced video, that's something every codec developers hate and avoid if they can.

Pobably Premiere H.264 encoder is a bit more optimized, Apple's software encoders were never fast.