New Features in Compressor 3 There are a number of new features, enhancements, and changes in this version of Compressor, the most significant of which are introduced below. See the Compressor 3 User Manual, the Distributed Processing Setup guide, and the Batch Monitor User Manual for details on these features. An All-New Interface Compressor 3 includes a new streamlined user interface that makes it easier to quickly create, submit, and monitor your transcoding jobs and batches. New Interface Layout Capability As you use Compressor you will find that, depending on the particular encoding task you are configuring, how the various Compressor windows are laid out can affect how easy it is to use. To help with this, Compressor now includes the ability to configure and save layouts. Layouts define which windows are visible, their sizes and positions, and define which icons appear in the Batch window's toolbar. Compressor includes two layouts that you can use to get a starting point for creating your own custom layouts. 1 The standard layout shows all the Compressor windows, with the Settings and Destinations tabs sharing a window. This layout is optimized for those times when you are transcoding a single source media file. Batch window Preview window Settings and Destinations tabs History window Inspector window The batch layout places the emphasis on the Batch window. This layout is optimized for those times when you are transcoding a number of similar source media files. Batch window Settings and Destinations tabs Inspector window History window You can change the positions and sizes of the windows and save their configuration as a custom layout, making it easy to return to that interface configuration later. 2 Batch Window Improvements The Batch window has been changed significantly, with several new features that add flexibility and power that you can use while creating your batches. Show/hide toolbar button Customizable toolbar Batch tabs (one for each open batch) Jobs area with thumbnail images that you can scroll through Each target contains a setting, destination, and output filename. Batch status Batch submission button  Customizable toolbar: You can choose from a variety of items to customize the toolbar of your Batch window. For example, you can add New Batch and Close Batch items and remove any of the existing items. The Toolbar configuration is saved as part of a layout.  Multiple batches open at one time: You can now have multiple batches open at the same time. By default each batch that you open appears as an additional tab in the Batch window. You can drag a tab from the Batch window to have it open in its own Batch window. This makes it easy to copy jobs or targets from one window to the other.  Scrollable thumbnail image: Each job in a batch with a source video file has a thumbnail image of the video. You can scroll through the clip by dragging the scroller located below the image.  Chaining jobs: You can now use the Job > New Job From Target Output command to chain the output of a target to another job. This makes it possible to perform multiple transforms to a source media file while controlling the order in which the transforms occur, or to perform a transformation multiple times on the source media file. 3 Improvements to Settings and Destinations Windows There are several significant improvements to the Settings and Destinations windows.  Settings can have subgroups: You can now create groups within groups, making it much easier to organize your custom settings by client, project, distribution stage, or any other item that fits with your workflow. This custom group contains three other custom groups, each with its own settings.  Destinations can include iDisks: You can now set your iDisk as a destination for your transcoded batches.  Each tab can have its own window: The Settings tab and Destinations tab can now be separated into their own windows. Just as you can drag a batch's tab out of the Batch window to have the tab appear in its own window, you can drag the Settings or Destinations tab to its own window. 4 History Window Improvements The History drawer has been upgraded to its own window. Additionally, it now contains the most commonly needed information about previously submitted batches, making that information handy and accessible directly in the Compressor interface. Similar to the Batch Monitor, the History window now includes a progress bar as well as buttons you can use to cancel or pause a transcode that is currently in progress. The name of this submission Click the Cancel button to end the transcode process. Click the disclosure triangle to see the details of each target of this submission. Click the Pause button to temporarily pause the transcode process. Click it again to resume transcoding. Once the transcode finishes, the History window adds a button to make finding the encoded files easy. Clicking this disclosure triangle shows the submission details. A target from the submitted batch Click the Reveal in Finder button to show the output file in a Finder window. 5 Batch Monitor Improvements The Batch Monitor is now much easier to use with individual Information, Pause, and Cancel buttons on each target. Additionally, the column on the left lists the available distributed processing nodes, which you can select to monitor their activity. For more details on the Batch Monitor see the Batch Monitor User Manual, available from the Compressor Help menu. Note: The Pause/Resume feature has also been improved and now allows you to pause a transcode and resume it from where it left off. 6 Automatic Mode Enhancements Many of the values in a setting's Inspector panes can be set to automatically choose a value based on the source media file. These values now have a separate button to activate the automatic mode, allowing you to see the value the automatic mode chooses. The item dims and shows the value set by the automatic mode. The automatic button is dark when active, and its item is dimmed. The automatic button is dimmed when inactive, and its item is selectable. Easier Distributed Processing Using Unmanaged Services Compressor now includes a new AutoCluster feature that makes it easy to take advantage of the distributed processing capabilities offered by Apple Qmaster, without requiring a lot of knowledge about how clusters are configured, setting up file sharing, and so on. Using AutoCluster is a two-step process:  Automatically creating Apple Qmaster service nodes as you install Final Cut Studio or Apple Qmaster.  Selecting the "Include unmanaged services on other computers" checkbox when you submit a Compressor batch for processing. These two steps let you harness the processing power of any number of computers on your network without any additional effort or knowledge on your part. Additionally, you can now have multiple Compressor services on a single computer with multiple CPUs, creating virtual clusters. See the Distributed Processing Setup Guide, available from the Compressor Help menu, for additional information. 7 Enhancements for Creating iPod and Apple TV Media Compressor now includes several enhancements that make it possible to create full-featured podcasts and other media for iPods and Apple TV. New H.264 for Apple Devices Output Format A new H.264 for Apple Devices output format has been added. You can choose to create video optimized for the following common formats:  iPod 320: The video is 320 pixels wide.  iPod 640: The video is 640 pixels wide.  Apple TV SD: The video is 640 pixels wide.  Apple TV HD: The video is 1280 pixels wide. In addition to formatting the video to match the intended playback device, each format configures the bit-rate settings to suitable ranges, ensuring the output media files will play correctly. Metadata and Marker Support The H.264 for Apple Devices output format and the MPEG-4 output format (when configured as audio only) now support adding a variety of metadata and markers to the output media files:  Annotations: You can add annotations, such as artist and comments, to your output media files. Additionally, any annotations previously added to your source media files are preserved and passed on to the output media files.  Chapter and podcasting markers: You can add chapter and podcast markers to the output media files. You can also assign URLs and artwork to these markers. The only difference between chapter and podcast markers is that a viewer can use chapter markers to navigate to specific places while playing a program; podcasting markers cannot be used for navigation, and instead are used to change the artwork or URL at specific places. Dolby Digital (AC-3) Audio Files as Sources You can now import Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio files as sources for jobs. This makes it possible to hear either a mixed-down stereo version of the source audio files on your system's speakers, or to hear full surround sound on an external set of surround sound speakers connected to your computer by USB or FireWire. This capability has two uses:  You can now import Dolby Digital audio files and transcode them to other formats.  You can now listen to Dolby Digital files after you transcode them with Compressor to verify their settings. 8 MP3 and DV Output Formats New output formats were added for the MP3 audio format and DV video format. These new output formats make it much easier to create output files in these popular formats. TARGA Format Image Sequences Now Supported In addition to the TIFF image sequence output format previously supported, Compressor now supports creating TARGA image sequences. The TIFF output format setting choice is renamed to Image Sequence, and includes a pop-up menu for choosing the TIFF or TARGA output format. Image sequences, which are folders with sequentially numbered still image files representing video frames, are used by some compositing and processing applications. Enhanced QuickTime Movie Outputs You can now add a variety of metadata to QuickTime movie output files. Additionally, any closed captions, annotations, and chapter markers previously added to your source media files are preserved and passed on to the output media files.  Closed captions: Compressor adds the closed caption file as a closed caption track to the QuickTime output file. You can view the closed captions using QuickTime Player (version 7.2 or later).  Annotations: You can add annotations, such as artist and comments, to your output media files.  Chapter markers: You can add chapter markers to the output media files. You can also assign URLs and artwork to these markers. 9 Enhanced MPEG-2 Outputs There have been several enhancements to the MPEG-2 output format. Stream Usage Setting To make it easier to create MPEG-2 outputs targeted at specific devices, the MPEG-2 output format now includes a Stream Usage pop-up menu that you can use to choose one of the following MPEG-2 formats:  Generic: The Generic option allows you complete access to all the MPEG-2 settings. This is the only option that supports the MPEG-2 640 x 480 video format in addition to the SD and HD video formats. It is also the only option that supports creating transport and program streams. It supports the complete bit-rate range of 2.0 Mbps to 40.0 Mbps.  SD DVD: The SD DVD option restricts the encoding options to those allowed by the SD DVD specification. These include the NTSC and PAL video formats and a bit-rate range of 2.0 Mbps to 9.0 Mbps.  Blu-ray: The Blu-ray option restricts the encoding options to those allowed by Blu-ray video discs. These include the SD and HD video formats and a bit-rate range of 10.0 Mbps to 40.0 Mbps.  HD DVD: The HD DVD option restricts the encoding options to those allowed by the HD DVD specification. These include the SD and HD video formats and a bit-rate range that changes depending on the selected video format.  For HD video formats the bit-rate range is from 10.0 Mbps to 29.4 Mbps.  For SD video formats the bit-rate range is from 2.0 Mbps to 15.0 Mbps. Support for Program Streams In addition to creating elementary and transport streams, Compressor now supports creating program streams.  Elementary streams: These streams contain only one MPEG-2 content channel and no audio. Elementary streams are required if you intend to use your MPEG-2 encoded video as a DVD Studio Pro asset.  Transport streams: These streams can contain several MPEG-2 content channels and associated audio. All the channels are multiplexed together, allowing the receiver to choose which to play back. Compressor supports creating single-channel transport streams that can optionally include associated audio. Transport streams can also recover from interruptions during playback, making them ideally suited for broadcast and streaming applications where noise or network congestion can lead to interruptions.  Program strea ...