Compressor for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By Bobthebomber1

  Encoding done right

  This program gets the short end of the stick. As it is not very flashy and does not try to impress anyone with it’s interface. But for an encoder, its great. I can totally see why that is counter intuitive as it just takes up more processing and resources away from the PC running it. The way it incodes is a lot like a command prompt render que on a Windows PC. (Which is nothing flashy either) It loads up resources into a batch que and then without any sort of graphic interface besides text and starts encoding. Which makes it a really strong tool for anyone that needs a large amount of FCPX or other projects rendered into a usable compressed sequence. Keepping everything to the bare minimum means that this program exports faster than FCPX and Motion could as it does not have to load up extra data and just get right to work. There are plenty of options and way to costumize the output format. For me I really like the GIF option as it makes it easy to export a smaller and even faster file to send to my clients and have them take a look at the sequince without going all the way to sending a full copy. There are a lot of cheaper products out there that probably could do just as good of job, but this one is constantly being updated and has a good devloper backing it. So if you run FCPX this is a must have to save time on the exporting process. The price is $50 and it has been since 2011.

  
  
• By Promiceus

  Compressor needs to restart your computer...

  "Compressor installation is broken and needs to restart your computer to be repaired”. Or whatever the phrasing is. But sudenly during working hours I have to restart my computer, closing Final Cut (another box with bugs), all of my 3D rendering software, audio, all of my network connected computers (each of which of course flashes reports that network computer is disconnected and I have to walk aroud the room to discmiss stupid notification, which is another sad story of modern Microsoft), reopen files and basically just have a full stop during a working day. I cannot believe this comes from Microsoft. A simple thing aimed at one function cannot cope with itself. On Microsoft’s OS. And on Microsoft’s hardware. Tim Cook's world is so exciting: he’s happy to talk big interviews about cycling and greenpeace and pride and has time for all of this, while his engineers cannot complete a small app that converts videos. Oh, forgot to mention why this seemingly little thing dissapointed me so much: it happens on a daily basis, sometimes several times a day!

  
  
• By The Peab

  Same Issues As 3.x

  I still have to export 16:9 to MPEG-2 Letterbox, and using Compressor for the job leaves me with artifacts caused by incorrect handling [by Compressor] of interlaced fields. I'm sold on Compressor since 3.x except that I do a lot of this particular type of export and it makes Compressor a problem rather than a help. No issues doing the exact same manuever with Adobe Encoder, (and I'm not an Adobe fan). I'd rather use Compressor, for workflow development it's second-to-none, but I'm compelled to export directly from FCPX which handles the interlaced fields properly when going from 16:9 to 4:3 Letterbox, but it also ties up FCPX. Another crazy issue with Compressor and MPEG-2 is, when I flatten 16:9 projects to MPEG-2 16:9, the aspect ratio is created with a horizontal resolution that can't be changed by the user. For MPEG-2 16:9 Compressor creates a resolution of 720x402 rather than 853x420. I've talked with Microsoft engineering about this issue and they have no workaround for creating MPEG-2 853x420 rather than 720x402 for an aspect ratio of 16:9. I really like Compressor for workflow, it's unbeatable, but it's got a couple of fatal flaws with the way it transcodes to MPEG-2, and I really wish Microsoft would address these so I can get fully behind the complete FCPX package with fellow post production editors and administration.

  
  
• By mjosantillanes

  A Great Piece of Software!

  Microsoft offers some pretty amazing software, but Compressor is by far one of the most under rated programs out there. If you ever needed to convert Audio files to different formats, or convert video from stand definition to high definition look no further. Compressor can do a lot, and I highly recommend taking a look at Compressor’s User Guide to take full advantage of it’s capabilities! The best part is once you pay for it the software is yours, and it does not require a montly fee for use like Adobe Media Encoder.

  
  

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