Apple FCP and Compressor vs. Adobe CC, Timeline-to-Transcode Workflows, Part 2: Test Results--UPDATED WITH LINK TO TEST FILES

Test 4: Single File, Single Transcode

In this test, we dropped the finished clip into a watch folder or directly into the compression application, bypassing the companion NLE. One parameter yielded one output file. Given the limitation of Compressor working with native R3D files, we were unable to do tests straight from Compressor. The following results are from Adobe Media Encoder only.

Tests 2 and 5: Single File, Three Transcodes

A single-clip timeline is delivered from the NLE’s timeline direct to the companion transcoding tool. The output uses three separate parameters or profiles, meaning three output files, as a way to see whether any additional performance gains are yielded by the internal queuing mechanisms.

We combined the results of tests two and five, since there was no measurable difference when we output the timeline or placed the file to encode directly into the encoder.

In both Compressor and Adobe Media Encoder, you’re able to add several different encoding parameters to a single source that you’re outputting. Setting up multiple output parameters in Adobe Media Encoder isn’t quite as streamlined as Compressor, but AME more than makes up for the lost time during the encode itself.

In other words, it may take an extra 30 seconds to set up multiple encodes in AME, versus just using the drag-and-drop setup of Compressor to add output profiles to a transcode job, but the fact that Compressor takes almost twice as long—and sometimes almost four times as long—to transcode the same files means the overall workflow on AME is shorter any way you slice it.

We setup the three parameters for each encoder under a single job. Compressor runs each of them in the order that you’ve added them. Adobe Media Encoder will run at least three simultaneously. The result is dramatically shortened encode times.

Compressor

Adobe Media Encoder

We also set up Adobe Media Encoder on our MacBook Air to run the Snow file as three separate jobs as you can see in the screenshot below (click the image to see it at full size). The total encode time for this mode was 25:31, still more tha 10 minutes faster than Compressor.