iMovie/Final Cut Pro - Quicktime Compression?

[shuurajou]

I recently decided to get a mac to do video/photo editing, I'm normally a user of Sony Vegas and then I normally export a raw copy into Sorenson Squeeze, as I like to use Sorensons pro codec with mp3 audio.

My question is what codecs natively come supported by these products? Is it the sorenson pro codec (used on apple.com's trailers?).

 

[Hoef]

A whole buch of stuff but not Sorenson Pro .... Just the basic version 3. Further, the usual including MPEG etc..

 

[shuurajou]

A whole buch of stuff but not Sorenson Pro .... Just the basic version 3. Further, the usual including MPEG etc..

I was a huge fan of the quality the sorenson pro codec offered with the apple quicktime trailers, I don't suppose any of you guys know on how they compair to each other (standard vs sorenson).

 

[Hoef]

I was a huge fan of the quality the sorenson pro codec offered with the apple quicktime trailers, I don't suppose any of you guys know on how they compair to each other (standard vs sorenson).

I think Pro is quite an improvement (in settings, file size vs quality). You'll just have to buy it. If you have access to educational discont, it is not that steep.

 

[shuurajou]

I think Pro is quite an improvement (in settings, file size vs quality). You'll just have to buy it. If you have access to educational discont, it is not that steep.

It's a shame as I've already bought the compression software once, maybe they'll let me have the mac version instead or I'll end up having to transfer it across LAN before I can compress my video's (boy that would be ugly!).

 

[csimon2]

To save money, I would stick with a LAN setup and encode with the licensed version of Squeeze on the PC. The standard version of SV3 is horrible in quality compared to the Pro version (the pro version offers 2-pass encoding, a must for good SV3, along with bi-directional prediction and minimal quality settings). BTW, the only advantage of SV3 these days is its compatibility with QT5.

With FCP HD, you get Compressor, which can do pretty good MPEG-4 compression, although Apple's MPEG-4 encoder isn't the best out there. Apple's MPEG-4 encoder vs. SV3 is a toss up in terms of quality advantage. If you are looking to purchase a new encoding suite for the mac, I would highly recommend Compression Master 3 from Popwire. Its MPEG-4, Real, and WMV encoders are the best on the mac market IMHO. It does decent MPEG-2, better than Apple, not as good as Squeeze, although it is much faster than either. Hope that helps.

 

[shuurajou]

To save money, I would stick with a LAN setup and encode with the licensed version of Squeeze on the PC. The standard version of SV3 is horrible in quality compared to the Pro version (the pro version offers 2-pass encoding, a must for good SV3, along with bi-directional prediction and minimal quality settings). BTW, the only advantage of SV3 these days is its compatibility with QT5.

With FCP HD, you get Compressor, which can do pretty good MPEG-4 compression, although Apple's MPEG-4 encoder isn't the best out there. Apple's MPEG-4 encoder vs. SV3 is a toss up in terms of quality advantage. If you are looking to purchase a new encoding suite for the mac, I would highly recommend Compression Master 3 from Popwire. Its MPEG-4, Real, and WMV encoders are the best on the mac market IMHO. It does decent MPEG-2, better than Apple, not as good as Squeeze, although it is much faster than either. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the advice, I don't suppose you know how the 3ivx codec is for mac? I've heard some nice things about it as far as mpeg-4 codecs are concerned.

 

[csimon2]

The 3ivx codec is great IMO, but it requires Cleaner 6 for optimal use. Given the state of Cleaner at this point in time (basically its EOLed), if buying a new app, I would go with an app that will actually give you some hope for updates and support. Popwire has the best tech support bar none of any encoder application. CM3 offers better color and gamma than 3ivx with its MPEG-4 encoder, and I would say that 3ivx's overall quality is only very slightly ahead of Popwire's MPEG-4. Both are better than SV3 BTW. And both are surpassed by Popwire's Real 10 and WMV 9 encoding at the same bitrates.

 

[shuurajou]

The 3ivx codec is great IMO, but it requires Cleaner 6 for optimal use. Given the state of Cleaner at this point in time (basically its EOLed), if buying a new app, I would go with an app that will actually give you some hope for updates and support. Popwire has the best tech support bar none of any encoder application. CM3 offers better color and gamma than 3ivx with its MPEG-4 encoder, and I would say that 3ivx's overall quality is only very slightly ahead of Popwire's MPEG-4. Both are better than SV3 BTW. And both are surpassed by Popwire's Real 10 and WMV 9 encoding at the same bitrates.

How would you say it is in comparison to the SV Pro codec? . Thanks for all the advice you giving me, very appreciated.

 

[csimon2]

As I said in my previous statement, 3ivx is much better than SV3 Pro, and far cheaper. The combination of 3ivx 2-pass and AAC is pretty much unbeatable for QT web use IMO. Popwire's MPEG-4 A/V is very formidable as well, and better than SV3/MP3.

 

[Laslo Panaflex]

3vix is nice on the mac, but the thing about 3vix is that it is a pretty obscure codec from the end user point of view, sometimes people can be a little stand offish of downloading files that they don't know what they do, or even want to bother looking for a codec, they would just assume it's broken and give up.

This is only applicable to web application to a broad audience, if your audience is smaller and more controlled 3vix is very nice. I personally use sorenson squeeze and SV3 Pro, it does works very nicely and is very compatable.

 

[csimon2]

the thing about 3vix is that it is a pretty obscure codec from the end user point of view, sometimes people can be a little stand offish of downloading files that they don't know what they do, or even want to bother looking for a codec, they would just assume it's broken and give up.

Again, another misunderstanding about 3ivx client playback. Because the 3ivx codec is fully MPEG-4 compatible, all a client needs for playback is QT6 installed. No download of 3ivx is neccessary for an end-user to playback 3ivx encoded movies. If the user has QT6, then the user will be able to playback 3ivx. Its that simple. This works the same way for Windows and Mac users. As I said, the only thing required for 3ivx is QT6, so if you want users who still only have QT5 installed, then they will be left out unless they do a download. Considering how buggy QT5 was on Windows, plus the overall advantages QT6 offers, I tend to think of it more as a good thing when I "force" the very few remaining users of QT5 only to have QT6 installed.