Compressor 4 - Configuring Image Sequence Settings

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Configuring Image Sequence Settings

You use the Image Sequence output format if you want to transcode a video clip into a
series of still images.

To create an Image Sequence setting

1

In the Settings tab, do one of the following:

• Make sure that the correct setting is selected.

• Create a new setting by choosing Image Sequence from the “Create a new setting” (+)

pop-up menu.

2

Apply the setting to a job in the Batch window.

3

Make sure the resulting image sequence target is selected.

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4

In the Inspector, click the Encoder tab, then choose Image Sequence from the File Format
pop-up menu.

The Image Sequence Encoder pane appears.

5

Use the Image Type pop-up menu to choose one of the following image sequence types
for the output media. For descriptions of these output types, see

Creating Image Sequence

Output Files

.

• TIFF

• TARGA

• DPX

• IFF

• JPEG

• openEXR

6

Enter a number in the Frame Rate (fps) field, choose a frame rate from the pop-up menu,
or click the Automatic button.

7

Select the “Create unique output directory” checkbox if you want your image sequence
files stored in their own folder in the destination folder.

8

Select the “Add leading zeros to frame numbers” checkbox if you want your output image
sequence files numbered with the format 0000nn.

Important:

Use FTP software to upload the image sequence to remote servers.

Since all still image types require square pixels (a pixel aspect of 1.0), Compressor may
have to alter the pixel dimensions of an image sequence job. To view or adjust these
parameters, select the target in the Batch window and click the Geometry tab in the
Inspector. If you will be using the image sequence in an application that can be set to a
specific size and pixel aspect ratio (such as Motion), make the appropriate changes in the
Geometry pane before encoding.

To adjust the pixel aspect ratio of an image sequence job before transcoding

1

In the Batch window, select the image sequence target.

2

In the Geometry pane in the Inspector window, use the Frame Size pop-up menu to
choose the appropriate output dimensions (such as 720x480, 1920x1080, and so on) for
the image sequence.

The Pixel Aspect pop-up menu becomes active.

3

In the Pixel Aspect pop-up menu in the Geometry pane, choose the appropriate pixel
aspect ratio for your image sequence.

See

About the Image Sequence Encoder Pane

for more information about the Image

Sequence Encoder pane. See

About the Geometry Pane

for more information about the

Geometry pane.

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Note: You can see the current contents of your setting by viewing the Summary pane of
the Inspector window.

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Compressor provides the tools you need to create exceptional MP3 files.

MP3 is a specific type of MPEG encoding known formally as MPEG audio layer 3. MP3 uses
perceptual audio coding and psychoacoustic compression to remove all superfluous
information (specifically the redundant and irrelevant parts of a sound signal that the
human ear doesn’t hear anyway). The result is that MP3 encoding shrinks the original
sound data from a CD (with a data rate of 1411.2 kilobits per one second of stereo music)
by a factor of 12 (down to 112–128 kbps) without sacrificing very much sound quality.
Proponents of MP3 actually claim there is no sacrifice in sound quality, but audio
professionals can usually hear the difference on good equipment.

This chapter covers the following:

Common Uses for MP3

(p. 175)

About the MP3 Encoder Pane

(p. 176)

MP3 Transcoding Workflow

(p. 177)

Common Uses for MP3

MP3 is a widely adopted standard for compressed audio files, so it can be used in many
different ways, including music and podcasts.

Music

Almost every portable digital music player supports the MP3 audio format. By using the
higher bit rates, for example 256 kbps, you can create an excellent quality audio file using
a much smaller file size than with uncompressed audio.

You can also add metadata to the file so that when the output media file opens in many
players (including iTunes) the common information, such as artist, album, and so on,
appears.

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