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speed up h264? quality no matter

matteusclement

matteusclement

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 26, 2008
1,144
0
victoria
I am on the go and I review my footage on my laptop.
I would like to get some input on what codec I might use (and settings) to compress my HDV footage the fastest so that I can view it on my laptop with out eatting up tones of space.
thanks

FCP 7
oxs 10.6.4
ati 4870
quad core
raid 0 (WD blacks)
 
matteusclement said:
I am on the go and I review my footage on my laptop.
I would like to get some input on what codec I might use (and settings) to compress my HDV footage the fastest so that I can view it on my laptop with out eatting up tones of space.
thanks

FCP 7
oxs 10.6.4
ati 4870
quad core
raid 0 (WD blacks)
Click to expand...

So in terms of priority, you want them in this order:
1) fast encode
2) reasonably small size
3) quality not not a high concern

If I were you I would try a *single pass* high bitrate ( say 10,000kbit ) H.264 with current framerate. resolution etc... this should encode much faster.

How fast are your encodes right now?

If that's not fast enough, you might consider using older H.263 codec which does come on the mac... I can't remember if its called Sorenson on the mac or not ( I'm not on my mac right now )

Other people might have better advice.
 
HUNTER-
thank for the reply. it looks like the device that DH reccomended is just a compressor (from FCP) put into a USB stick.

I will try the H264 in one pass.
Will report back.

Just an FYI, the H264 encodes on a double pass are alright on my MP quad, but I just need them smaller and more QUICKLY done. sometime I have to code a couple of tapes.
 
Elgato

I am hoping that someone has used the elgato turbo h264 and can give me some feedback on it. there seems to be no cons for such a cheap device, especially after the company has worked on the firmware and software.

anyone ever use a elgato turbo h264 encoder hardware piece?
 
matteusclement said:
I am hoping that someone has used the elgato turbo h264 and can give me some feedback on it. there seems to be no cons for such a cheap device, especially after the company has worked on the firmware and software.

anyone ever use a elgato turbo h264 encoder hardware piece?
Click to expand...

it is blazing fast but you do lose a little quality compared to an MXO2 with MAX or compressor at it's highest settings. If perfect quality is your thing it isn't the best but if you want your transcodes to smoke and don;t mind a slight quality loss than go ahead and get the Turbo.
 
x264encoder is a quicktme componente to encode in h.264, much faster than apple's one. Try it.
 
advres said:
it is blazing fast but you do lose a little quality compared to an MXO2 with MAX or compressor at it's highest settings. If perfect quality is your thing it isn't the best but if you want your transcodes to smoke and don;t mind a slight quality loss than go ahead and get the Turbo.
Click to expand...

how fast is it? Is it real time? both the matrox and the elgato turbo?
 
Ritsuka said:
x264encoder is a quicktme componente to encode in h.264, much faster than apple's one. Try it.
Click to expand...

Hardware encoding will always be much faster. When time is money the small investment for a hardware encoder is a no-brainer IMHO.

puckhead193 said:
how fast is it? Is it real time? both the matrox and the elgato turbo?
Click to expand...

This isn't too straight forward but they can both go much faster than real time. The Matrox with MAX can get to about 70 fps and the turbo can get up to almost 300 fps depending on settings. At highest settings they may dip slightly below realtime. It depends on your source and your destination size/resolution.

It really is shockingly fast for 1/4 of the price of the MAX. Another nice thing about the Turbo is you can easily take it anywhere with you.
 
300fps

Yeah... this is why I was so sceptical. It seemed weird that a $100 worked so well, there HAD to be a trade off. But really, if the loss is slight and I can save HOURS of transcode time, this is EPIC.
Plus, it will make transcoding with my MBP so much less painful. The MP will be usuable while encoding, that I feel is something that Elgato really doesn't ephisize enough. Normally when encoding with my quad core, the computer is pretty much a brick and eat electicity like no one's business. The MBP encoding while doing work on the MP will be heaven.

I wish there was a comparisson that could be made for a side by side of elgato vs compressor
 
Well that is with the best possible scenario. Don't think it will do it that fast at the best quality settings that is for sure. But, no matter which way you slice it you will certainly notice a major speed increase on your MBP. Since it seems you do this a lot and it is only $100 I wouldn't hesitate on it for a minute if I were you.
 
If I'm using quick time conversion in FCP, how will it work? will it in apple terms "magically happen" :p
 
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