fastest video transcoder

A

assagai

Expert Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
2,905
Reaction score
0
Location
Johannesburg
i need a fast video transcoding utility, tried ffmpegx and visualhub and both have disappointing results on my mac pro - not really much faster then my old quad-core pc... any suggestions?
 
assagai said:
i need a fast video transcoding utility, tried ffmpegx and visualhub and both have disappointing results on my mac pro - not really much faster then my old quad-core pc... any suggestions?
Click to expand...

You could try Handbrake but I think that uses ffmpeg to do all the heavy lifting so probably wont be any faster.

Out of interest what Mac Pro are you using?
 
PaulMark said:
You could try Handbrake but I think that uses ffmpeg to do all the heavy lifting so probably wont be any faster.

Out of interest what Mac Pro are you using?
Click to expand...

2x2.8ghz (8 core)
im kinda surprised - was expecting it to be faster....
 
assagai said:
2x2.8ghz (8 core)
im kinda surprised - was expecting it to be faster....
Click to expand...

Maybe the software has not yet been optimised to make full use of all 8 cores? Will be interesting to see if Snow Leopard makes a big difference to the time once its released.
 
PaulMark said:
Maybe the software has not yet been optimised to make full use of all 8 cores? Will be interesting to see if Snow Leopard makes a big difference to the time once its released.
Click to expand...

i'm sure it's related to that - just wondering of there's another better coded app out there for transcoding?
 
What are you encoding from/to? MP4? H264? AVI?
 
i often encode from quicktime motion jpeg > quicktime h264
or divx avi - h264 m4v

but a number of other formats come my way so i need a tool that can handle anything, fast.
 
assagai said:
i often encode from quicktime motion jpeg > quicktime h264
or divx avi - h264 m4v

but a number of other formats come my way so i need a tool that can handle anything, fast.
Click to expand...

QuickTime Pro (commercial)

MPEGStreamClip (free)

and of course the BEST out there by FAR for multicore-multiprocessor jobs,
Compressor
(You can only get Compressor with Final Cut Studio 2)

There are tricks one can employ to squeeze out every last bit of juice with Compressor and its associated QuaterMaster App.
 
Last edited:
thanks will check that out - quicktime pro also has limited output formats so not really what i'm looking for..and i'm assuming the same goes for compressor - limited output options

haven't tried streamclip yet
 
assagai said:
thanks will check that out - quicktime pro also has limited output formats so not really what i'm looking for..and i'm assuming the same goes for compressor - limited output options

haven't tried streamclip yet
Click to expand...

Compressor outputs to a variety of pro formats, eg DVC Pro HD, Apple ProRes,
XD CAM HD, even RAW HD 1080p!!!

However, it also outputs as Apple Quicktime H264 in various sub formats, so you can output for the Web with optimization for streaming, for DVD, for Bluray or HD-DVD or for iPod. You can customise the various settings.

I think it can also output in DivX and xViD formats, you must install the codecs.

Compressor is the most optimised for multiple cores out there.

As for OS, Leopard introduced a lot of multiple core optimisations. They say Snow Leopard can boost overall performance by 10-20% for full 64bit processors
but in terms of multicore processing the biggest jump was in Leopard, although Tiger was quite good too.
 
Last edited:
PeterCH said:
Compressor outputs to a variety of pro formats, eg DVC Pro HD, Apple ProRes,
XD CAM HD, even RAW HD 1080p!!!

However, it also outputs as Apple Quicktime H264 in various sub formats, so you can output for the Web with optimization for streaming, for DVD, for Bluray or HD-DVD or for iPod. You can customise the various settings.

I think it can also output in DivX and xViD formats, you must install the codecs.
Click to expand...

sounds good but i'd have to get final cut - ouch
 
PeterCH said:
Yeah that's the drawback. You may as well run two instances of MPEG Stream Clip instead. MPEG Stream Clip is recommended by Apple itself.
Click to expand...

thanks i'll check that out.

it seems compressor comes with logic pro 8 - which would be very handy since i just ordered that!
 
assagai said:
thanks i'll check that out.

it seems compressor comes with logic pro 8 - which would be very handy since i just ordered that!
Click to expand...

Well there you go! You'll prolly also get QuickTime Pro for free included as they usually include that with their Pro-Apps.

You'll have to Google for the trick use to force compressor to use all available cores on your machine to the fullest.
Virtual Clusters: :)
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=10133

Where did you order Logic Pro from BTW? Toolfarm?
 
thanks, i tried compressor - it's actually much slower then any of the other apps mentioned in this thread - i did the multicore tweak and it gave a slight boost - i'm a little confused as to why i'm not getting any significant performance increase over my old xp box.

just tried video monkey - couldn't really get it to work... did you manage? I think a lot of features aren't enabled yet.
 
Last edited:
Visualhub is also free since the company went under. Still the fastest out there. You can also have a look at Roadmovie although everybody says we have to wait for Quicktime X
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X