Example: Creating Custom Groups and Settings for DVD
For this example, you are working on an HD project that will eventually end up on both
an HD and an SD DVD. Before that happens, though, you also need to supply SD DVDs
of the dailies.
An easy way to handle this is to create two groups of settings.
• Settings for the dailies: These settings would include an AIFF audio encoder (since you
want it done fast and disc space will not likely be an issue) and an MPEG-2 encoder
with an SD frame size using the fastest settings (since quality is not the highest concern).
This could also be an HD encoder if you have an easy way to play an HD DVD.
• Settings for the final disc: These settings would include an AC-3 audio encode, an H.264
HD for DVD video encode, and an MPEG-2 encode using the Frame Controls to ensure
a high-quality SD output video.
You would most likely create a third settings group that would be named after this project
and would contain the above two groups.
To create the groups for dailies and final outputs
1
In the Settings tab, click the Group button three times to create three new untitled groups.
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2
Select the first of the new groups and, using the Inspector window, name it after the
project.
3
Select the second of the new groups and name it Dailies.
4
Select the third of the new groups and name it Final Discs.
5
In the Settings tab, drag the Dailies and Final Discs groups up until a black box surrounds
the group named after the project, and then release them.
Note: You can select multiple groups or settings by holding down Shift while selecting
them.
6
Locate settings in the Apple settings that come closest to matching what you need each
setting to do in these new groups.
7
Make a copy of each setting by clicking the Duplicate Selected Setting button.
8
Select each copied setting, rename it, and then drag it to the proper folder.
This custom group
contains the settings
used to create the dailies.
This custom group
contains the settings
used to create the
final disc.
This custom group
contains the other
custom groups, each
with its own settings.
You can then select each setting and make any necessary changes to it.
When you have imported the source media files and created their jobs, you can just assign
the appropriate group (Dailies or Final Disc) and all the proper settings are applied to the
targets.
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A job consists of a source media file with at least one target, composed of a setting and
a destination, assigned to it. You created the jobs by importing the source media files.
For a job to be complete, and thus ready to be submitted for transcoding, you need to
add one or more targets to it. Each target contains a setting, which defines everything
about what the file is to be transcoded into, and a destination, which defines where the
transcoded file is saved and how its name is generated. Each target also allows you to
manually enter the name for the output file.
Compressor gives you a number of different options for assigning settings and destinations
to your targets and submitting and resubmitting batches.
Note: See
About the Settings Tab
and
About the Destinations Tab
for more information
about creating presets in these windows.
This chapter covers the following:
•
Assigning Settings
(p. 111)
•
Assigning Destinations
(p. 116)
•
General Job and Target Information
(p. 118)
•
General Batch Information
(p. 120)
•
Using Final Cut Pro and Motion with Compressor
(p. 127)
•
Using Distributed Processing with Compressor
(p. 129)
Assigning Settings
This section describes how you can assign settings to source media files and replace or
modify assigned settings.
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