HD Video Encoding for Vimeo using Compressor on Vimeo

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3. HD Video Encoding for Vimeo using Compressor

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3 years ago

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1. Ed McNichol - 2001 Demo

by Ed McNichol

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Instructional screencast showing how to use Apple's Compressor to encode HD content for uploading to Vimeo.
Screen grabs of this process and the droplet created in this tutorial can be downloaded from;
mcnichol.com/vimeo.htm

© 2008 Mumbian Enterprises, Inc.

Credits

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Matty Lynn
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Josh Springer
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Avenida Films
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dalas verdugo 3 years ago

Thank you so much for making this, Ed. Lots of Final Cut Pro users ask me for compression advice and now I can direct them here.
Blake Whitman 3 years ago

Awesome!
didier houbrechts 3 years ago

Thank you for sharing ...
We know the compressor is also used in Final Cut Express and Quick Time Pro but I can't find it in the Applications folder ...
Ed McNichol 3 years ago

Hi there -

Compressor is the video encoding tool included with Final Cut Studio. It also installs with DVD Studio Pro. If you do not have Compressor, then I recommend using QuickTime Pro.
MAN of HANK 3 years ago

Precise and to the point. Thank you.
eladbari 3 years ago

hey! nice tutorial! :] do u think its also relevant to, lets say, Premiere Pro encoder?
Ed McNichol 3 years ago

I'm sorry, but I'm not experienced with Premiere Pro.
Wesley Kandel 3 years ago

Great stuff Ed! Would these same settings be good for motion graphics pieces?
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

Yes, these settings would work for a motion graphics project.
airmax95 3 years ago

just curious to know why we should change the key frames to 30 instead of 24? If i shoot at 24fps, shouldn't I keep the frames at 24 as opposed to 30?
Ed McNichol 3 years ago

Hi -

The material will still play at it's original frame rate. That was accomplished when I selected "Current" in the frame rate section of the video settings. Vimeo asks for a keyframe (reference frame) only every 30 frames.
Joshua VP 4 months ago

By leaving this at 24 fps, does it have any noticeable effect on the final render of the project?
americanvirus 3 years ago

Thank you soooooo much for posting this. I do have the same question as above, if I shoot at 24fps, should I keep 24 instead of thirty?

Thanks again for posting.
Ed McNichol 3 years ago

HI -

The keyframe rate does not apply to the video frame rate. 24 frame material will look great with keyframes every 30 frames.
americanvirus 3 years ago

Hey, thanks for answering. And, thanks for the vid.
illdog 2 years ago

what about 25fps Pal? the same? keyframe every 30 frames?
thanks
chris tangey 1 year ago

same question, but no answer!
mxxx palmer 3 years ago

Why audio 44.1, if original content is 48?
Ed McNichol 3 years ago

Hi -

I'm not sure why Vimeo uses 44.1, but my settings will use sample rate conversion to get your audio to 44.1.
Kevin Forrest 3 years ago

Very helpful. Thanks
MAMMOTH 3 years ago

no joke... i'm sure everyone on vimeo would like to see this vid...
William Olpin 2 years ago

True say! its helped me so much!
Janssens Rob 3 years ago

Nice guide ;) This sure will help lots of people :D
Jim Moreno 3 years ago

Thank you so much. You really did save me a world of headache and experimentation for future vimeo uploads.
Zed Chance 3 years ago

Is there some key things i should change for SD?
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

I'm considering making a tutorial for SD material. Thanks for your input.
SoundPost Productions 9 months ago

Thanks for the video, did you ever decide to do an SD?
Andy Coon 3 years ago

This is great.. Now I won't have to keep telling people how to do this. Thanks for the great tutorial Ed.
Guilherme Ferreira 3 years ago

Sorry for my english. Well, isn't 5mb/s too high? I've downloaded some 800 kb/s movies with awsome quality. But not even with 3 mb/s i could get that quality, using a Canon XL H1. Dont know why, I've used compressor, quicktime PRo and Mpeg streamclip, none of then brought the quality i was expecting. Does vimeo reduce the bit rate after the upload? Because i`m in Brazil and here internet is only 20mb/s tops, the usual speed is 4 mb/s, so no real time playing.
Alex Gollner 3 years ago

Although Vimeo re-encodes HD much more strongly so the data rate is a lot lower, you have the option to make the original 5 mb/s version for download on the video page.

Who knows, if Vimeo add a 'reencode to better HD', you won't have to re-upload the video.
chris dunn 3 years ago

Thank you!
Peter Gramstrup Jensen 3 years ago

Thank you
Anders Bøtter 3 years ago

Brilliant! Very well done instructional video.

Does anybody have a video like this for standard DV material (SD) or is that just a simple matter of changing the pixel aspect ratio?
Phil Anderson 3 years ago

I believe the only difference is that instead of having your settings at 1280x720, you would use the 640x480 setting.
Tynan 3 years ago

One thing missing:

When you are setting the quality settings you make no attempt to change (or even show) the temporal quality settings (which I can only presume you leave on 'medium' ?).

Beside that, a great tutorial.
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

Correct, I leave the temporal quality setting at the medium default.
Patrick Cecilian 3 years ago

very well done. I didnt know about the droplet thats cool.
whittney kinnamon 1 year ago

Agreed
sham fox 3 years ago

In my experiments 5000kbits is way to large, I have found 1400 to produce great quality and small file sizes. flashwebsitez.com/stream6.html
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

The bit-rate is for the file to be uploaded. Vimeo then transcodes this file and they control the video bitrate on their site. The higher quality you feed to the encoder, the better the result.
Sebastian Diaz 1 year ago

I'd like to add, only after saying thank you for this helpful video, that what is not stated is that this instructions are for a video 10minutes or less in duration. The problem is when you have a video longer than that. So for a 42 min video I used the 1400kbits suggested by Sham Fox and reduced the size on Compressor to 50% the original size. The results are amazing and its 472MB in size, therefore I am able to upload it even with a regular Vimeo account.
Thank you both.
ViVi 3 years ago

Great help! Ed- What did you use to create this video tutorial - screen captures and circle highlights? I used Camtasia in PC world - and need MAC resource. Thanks!
Alex Gollner 3 years ago

He used iShowU from shinywhitebox.com
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

Correct - IShowU HD Pro;
store.shinywhitebox.com/ishowuhd/main.html
Bringo 3 years ago

Thanks for producing this! This was extremely helpful.
Phil Anderson 3 years ago

Very helpful tutorial.
Matthew Chavez 3 years ago

Do I choose a frame rate of "current" if I shot the original footage in 30p? I thought vimeo doesn't support 30p hd? When I upload in 30p it is noticeably choppy. When I compress my 30p at 24p (Imovie) it is also choppy. Please help!
J.D. Vaillancourt 2 years ago

There's not really any 'good' way to compress 30p to 24p. Vimeo, we need 30fps HD!
jeff venable 3 years ago

wow thanks for this, man.
Jeremy Adams 3 years ago

You rock! I was trying to play with compressor to figure out the settings and failed miserably! Thank You so much!!!
Gene Fama 3 years ago

Thanks, Ed. Am I correct that it isn't a fast rip? I normally export using Compressor set to mpeg-4 but get complaints that my videos stutter on playback, especially on YouTube and Facebook.

Your compression seems to takes the computer longer to execute. Is this a slow process for you too, or am I forgetting a crucial setting?
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

You might consider setting up a cluster to handle the encoding if you have multiple cores. I'm considering creating a tutorial on that topic.
Karen Kirsch Page 2 months ago

Ed, thanks so much. I notice these comments are 3 years old so I'm wondering if you suggest any changes as Vimeo has evolved - also, if you have a dual core machine can you set up a cluster or do you need quad core?
Mohetin studio 3 years ago

Thanks a lot Ed.
Steve Douglas 3 years ago

Why is it necessary to enable frame controls? That is the one thing I don't get on this excellent tutorial. Also, if you're shooting in 29.97, why would you change it to 30 as you did in the tutorial?
Steve
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

The frame controls are used to convert the material from interlaced (for televisions) to progressive (for computer displays).

And I don't change the frame rate of the material - I'm placing a keyframe every 30 frames. the material retains its original frame rate.
Trey Vollmer 3 years ago

Ed,

Thanks for the info.

Is there a similar tutorial for a 60i workflow? I've been playing with several different workflows over the past several days but can't seem to nail it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Ed.

Trey
Nima Tajbakhsh 3 years ago

thx man. will this work good with youtube as well?
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

I just upload H.264 content to YouTube that I export from FCP using the Broadband High preset under QuickTime Conversion.
Yvonne Mullock 1 year ago

would you mind forwarding the link - I can't seem to find it on YouTube!
Thanks for all your help
Muehlemann Films 3 years ago

thx a lot man so helpful!
SWS FILMS 2 years ago

Thanks. I needed that info
svar 2 years ago

wery nice :D
Is it the same settings for us using PAL 25p camera?
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

Great question - I'm not sure. I don't change the frame rate of the original content, and computers are video standard agnostic. I would assume that 25p material would also work with these settings.
Derek Loves Shopping 2 years ago

Why would my droplet still be popping up?
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

The droplet may be popping up because it is stored with an invalid destination. You can just change that (and verify other settings) and then re-save the droplet.
Patrick Lovejoy 2 years ago

Help! I am so confused! I am exporting my Final Cut Pro sequence using compressor and utilizing all of Vimeo's recommended presets, (H.264 etc). However, when I submit it in Compressor the processing time come sup as 40 hours!!!! How can that be? BTW, the movie is only 5 minutes long!!! What am I doing wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated!
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

I would break your workflow into individual components;
1) Render your sequence.
2) Export a QT Ref movie.
3) Encode that movie.
Frank Madone 2 years ago

patrick, i've had this problem too, in finder, if you go to the "GO" tab, scroll down to the "GO TO FOLDER" type in "var/spool/qmaster" and you should get a folder with a crazy name with letters/numbers, in this folder, dont delete the folders, but the content in the folders, that should clear up the issue
hp paessler 2 years ago

Thank you for posting this video
Akio Hirooka 2 years ago

Thank you for this tutorial!
Help me a lot.
Gerbrand Oudenaarden 2 years ago

i'll try this out.
i've tried exporting from Sony XDCAM EX 1080P25 35 mbps (edited in Final Cut) using the appleTV preset which is also 1280x720 at 5 mbps, but my video is out of sync on vimeo and it seems vimeo won't make an HD version of it.
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

Try exporting a QT Ref movie form FCP and then using these settings.
Michael Benjafield 2 years ago

as amazing as this video is it does make me laugh that it isn't in HD
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

Actually, the increased screen size makes the fonts smaller and harder to see. I went for readable...
tangent mind llc 2 years ago

Not in HD, but still an HD. As in, "Helpful Digression" from editing. I guess I'm content.
Dan Rizzuto 2 years ago

thanks!
Evolution Video 2 years ago

OMG!!!! This is SO helpful.... thank you so much... you ROCK!!!!!
ifranz 2 years ago

THX very much.
Brian Philip Davis 2 years ago

really handy - thank you.
Jesse Chapman 2 years ago

I'd also like to know if doing SD footage is as simple as changing the output size...or if there are more options to tweak.
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

I'm considering doing a tutorial for SD content. I didn't realize so many people had Final Cut Studio and were still producing SD content.
Jesse Chapman 2 years ago

Wonderful, Ed. Yeah, I have a project that I'm working on that's SD. Sigh. I tried your settings and just changed the size and it turned out great. I'll use those settings for now.
Frederic Vercammen 2 years ago

Thx for sharing this vid!
Pete K. Wong 2 years ago

hey Ed, thank you for this, this is terrific! Hard to read the manuals to get all this, seeing it live on video as I try it is the best way to grasp this, thanks!
I had some problems after I exported out some video that was at the 16:9 ratio on my computer but then when I put it in a DVD player and used a standard TV I lost the widescreen look! I was wondering if you could give me some help. Many people told me different things but I really was hoping I could be shown. thanks.
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

I'm sure you have a simple setting wrong in DVD Studio Pro. Contact me directly if you want asistance with DVD Studio Pro...

mcnichol.com/professional.htm
BackPackFilms 2 years ago

Help,,, I'm drowning in tutorials! It seems everyone has another way of setting it up, and I'm realy getting frustrated. Your tutorial is for FCP, I have FCE and I do not see the same windows your working in, is that just for the Pro version? or will this work in FCE also?
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

Hi -

The Compressor program is included in Final Cut Studio. It does not come with Final Cut Express.
OneWay Ministries 2 years ago

This is great!
This comment has been deleted.
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

If you have that long of a piece but still want it shown in HD, there really is one way I know to accomplish that. And that would be to break it into 2 ten minute pieces. You could link to part two in the text description for part one. Then you have no problem with the bitrate or file size!
Sean Martin 2 years ago

thanks for this vid man!! i've been searchin/figurin out how the settings to compress this in a while.. i really appreciate you makn this tutorial. THANKS!
Ryan Mackfall [team crashburn] 2 years ago

Ed, you've helped me massively today. I knew how to convert already but you have just refined it via a few points on this video. Thank you mate
J Teddy 2 years ago

Very easy to follow.
Thank you.
SplicedMedia.com 2 years ago

Thank you for taking the time to do this.
The Big RD 2 years ago

Thank you for this, it's a great tutorial. Much better than any of the other ones I have seen.
Mike Nelson 2 years ago

How long do you find a 5min video to encode? I am finding it to take upwards of an hour on my MacBook Pro.
Ed McNichol 2 years ago

Generally, H.264 encodes can take 5-10 times the length of the material. There are cards out there (Matrox) that speed this up dramatically. You can also break your compressor down into one instance for every 2 cores and it runs much faster that way.
Subject Media 2 years ago

having a problem, i have my editing done and rendered, shot and imported all footage under 1080f30... i exported to compressor and used the settings explained.. The output file lost the original dimension (meaning it did not appear to have the 16:9 aspect) and when trying to upload to vimeo, i encountered an error.. i must be doing something wrong..?
Darryl Miller 2 years ago

can't have enough good info,,, thanks
C-Town Film Factory 2 years ago

Thank you Thank you Thank you!! This is the type of tutorial I have been searching for! Very well done and my videos look great!

Thank you!