Compressor 3 and 4 gurus help

[rei101]

Ok.

I have a batch of about 50 to 70 one hour videos each to render in MPEG 2 and MP4 each.

I am editing in Final Cut Pro 7.

I used to export from FCP7 to .mov directly and then convert in Compressor 4.

But... I can exporto from FCP7 to Compressor 3, save the file and then open the file in Compressor 4 and render directly in one step. It saves me about 14 hours.

But today I wanted to do it again and started to get errors in Compressor 4. Each file game me an error something like "3x: what ever" after preparing.

I went back to Compressor 3 and I had the error there too.

I downloaded an utility to clean Compressor 3 but it didn't work.

I ended up trying using a Quicktime movie and left it rendering with the mpeg2 aspects instead of the FCP sequence , it was taking its time and I left the office.

Can someone help me out with what to do to make FCP7 to work with Compressor in one step? Do not mention FCPX, I do not want to know anything about it.

Thank you.

 

[rei101]

Well...

It seems that the problem is the MPEG 2 component. When I render any movie with any encoder both Compressors versions works.

Now I have to find out why. I deleted QuickTime preferences, Compressor's and so on.

 

[ChrisA]

Ok.

I have a batch of about 50 to 70 one hour videos each to render in MPEG 2 and MP4 each.

I am editing in Final Cut Pro 7.

I used to export from FCP7 to .mov directly and then convert in Compressor 4.

But... I can exporto from FCP7 to Compressor 3, save the file and then open the file in Compressor 4 and render directly in one step. It saves me about 14 hours.

But today I wanted to do it again and started to get errors in Compressor 4. Each file game me an error something like "3x: what ever" after preparing.

I went back to Compressor 3 and I had the error there too.

I downloaded an utility to clean Compressor 3 but it didn't work.

I ended up trying using a Quicktime movie and left it rendering with the mpeg2 aspects instead of the FCP sequence , it was taking its time and I left the office.

Can someone help me out with what to do to make FCP7 to work with Compressor in one step? Do not mention FCPX, I do not want to know anything about it.

Thank you.

You will eventually need to move to the new software. What happens is that Apple's apps all shart a large set on components or "building blocks" and as these blocks get upgraded to use newer versions of the OS or newer hardware, some thimes this process breaks older software. In other works to continue "forever" with FCP 7 you would need to (1) never buy a newer Mac, (2) never upgrade even seemingly unrelated software. You may be able to do this for a while but not forever.

The new software really does make this process trivial. You just click the "share" icon and select the correct preset. The task then launches and runs in the background. If you computer is fast enough you can have many of these running in the background.

When I firrt saw "X" I though "This is different and primitive. How can I edit with just one track? Then I found I could add as many tracks as I like. It is free form you can stack up as many as you like and have multiple alternative cuts and audition them all and then render is one step with just one transcode step.

My guess is that Apple is leading on this. Even if you sell the Apple computers and move to Avid, Avid will move to this model sooner or later. They might handle the transition better but they will go this way eventually.

 

[rei101]

Yes you are right.

But as for now, no one in the industry is using FCX, people would rather jump into Premiere or Avid.

I remember when OS9 was around, everybody was using Premiere, it worked great. FCP came out and people were ok with it.

What made FCP popular was the change from OS9 to OSX. Premiere didn't do the jump and FCP became the only software for mac besides the expensive Avid.

I see FCX is as unpopular as FCP was in the early days BUT there won't be a jump any time soon.

Eventually FCP won't stop working, I hope FCX becomes friendlier and way more integrated with FCP when reading the old files.

I have a software to translate FCP to FCX and the result is a disaster.

Any way, let keep working with what we have.

Thank you.