Compressor 4 - Typical Compressor Scenarios

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Typical Compressor Scenarios

The following are typical Compressor scenarios.

Converting source media to one or more different output formats: You can use Compressor

to convert one or more media files to one or more different media file output formats.
See

Quick and Easy Compressor Workflow: Manual Method

for more information.

CD-ROM

DVD video

Apple TV

iPhone

iPad

iPod

iTunes

H.264

MP3

AC-3

MP3

MPEG-1
MPEG-4

QuickTime

AC-3

AIFF

H.264

MPEG-1
MPEG-2

AIFF
MP3

QuickTime

Blu-ray Disc

H.264

AC-3

Source media or

Final Cut Pro project

To web

QuickTime

movie

(for broadband

and lowband)

Exporting sequences or clips to one or more formats directly from other applications: You

can use Compressor to convert sequences or clips to one or more file formats from
within other applications, such as Final Cut Pro. This workflow is the same as described
in detail in

Submitting a Project for Transcoding

.

This integration with Final Cut Pro and Motion makes transcoding (the process of
converting files from their original format into output files ready for distribution in
another format) faster and more convenient. Integration also saves hard disk space by
eliminating the need to export intermediate media files before processing them. It also
leverages the video processing technology of the other applications to do much of the
work (therefore maximizing the quality of images that are encoded), and avoids
degradation that can occur from multiple compression and decompression steps.

28

Chapter 2

Ways to Use Compressor

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Creating DVD compliant files: Before you can convert your existing media files into a

DVD project, you must convert the video into MPEG-1 (SD projects only), MPEG-2 (SD
and HD projects), or H.264 (HD projects only) files. Compressor can encode audio in
the Dolby Digital Professional format (also known as AC-3). Dolby Digital Professional
is a very common compressed audio format for DVD-Video discs. Compressor also
supports two specialized situations:

• For those situations in which you are editing high definition (HD) sources in

Final Cut Pro and want to create a standard definition (SD) DVD from them,
Compressor includes a high-quality down conversion capability. HD sources using
1080i or 720p resolutions use a high-quality transcoding process to create SD MPEG-2
video output files.

• For those situations in which you must fit the maximum video onto a DVD and do

not require broadcast quality, Compressor includes the ability to export
DVD-Video-compatible MPEG-1 format files.