How: Create ipod Videos for Television Playback with Final Cut Studio 2 and Telestream Episode

COPY A DEFAULT PRESET IN EPISODE

The first thing you need to do in this compression workflow is open Episode and navigate to the By Workflow templates folder and copy the iPod_H264_640x480 preset located in the iPod Video (Classic and Nano) templates folder within Devices. Select the preset and control-click to get a contextual menu; select Duplicate. You now have a preset called iPod_H264_640x480 copy. Double-click the preset to open it.

Step 2

MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THE EPISODE IPOD PRESET

Once the preset is open, navigate to the Video tab and select the General tab. Change the Average Data Rate to 2000 kbits/s. Under Number of Reference Frames select 1. Next, go to the Profile & Quality tab and under Encoding Speed vs. Quality move your slider to 100. If you are using a 720 x 480 Final Cut Pro sequence with a frame rate of 29.97, open the Resize section in the Video tab by clicking the twirl-down menu; make sure your video frame size is 640 x 480 and 4:3 is selected for your aspect ratio. You don’t have to apply a Frame rate filter if you would like to keep the frame rate the same as your source. Now click on the Audio tab. You can keep the default settings of 128 kbit/s for the bit rate and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) Low Complexity. Keep Stereo selected with a Sample Rate of 44.100 kHz.

Step 3

SAVE YOUR CUSTOMIZED EPISODE IPOD PRESET

Click the Save button at the top of the interface to save your preset. Close Episode.

Step 4

EXPORT YOUR VIDEO FROM FINAL CUT PRO

Now it’s time to encode your video. Navigate to Final Cut Pro to Export your video for compression. Select the portion of the sequence you want to encode by selecting an IN and OUT point. Go to the File pull-down menu, select Export, and under the submenu, choose Using Compressor.

Step 5

SAVE A BATCH FILE

When Compressor opens, select your Batch, go to the File pull-down menu, and choose Save. Next, navigate to where you want to save your Compressor Batch file and click Save.

Step 6

CREATE A COMPRESSION SETTING

Once your Batch file is saved under the Settings tab, select the Custom Settings folder. Click the Create a New Group button right below the Settings tab to create a folder for your preset. Once you’ve created your folder you can name it by typing your desired name into the Name Text box in the Inspector.

With the folder you created still selected, click on the Create a New Setting button on the top right of the Settings tab and choose Episode from the pop-up menu. Next, name your compression setting in the Inspector inside the Name Text box. With the setting selected click the Encoder tab in the Inspector. Within the Encoder tab of the Inspector click the Options button under the file format pop-up menu that displays Episode. This lets you select an Episode preset for encoding in Compressor. Now let’s apply the preset you created in the first part of this tutorial.

Navigate to the iPod_H264_640x480 copy preset by opening up the Workflow templates for Episode inside the Inspector. Click the Devices twirl-down menu. Select the iPod_H264_640x480 copy preset inside the iPod Video (Classics and Nano) folder. Once you select the preset, click OK. The Inspector gets populated with the information from your preset.

Step 7

APPLY YOUR COMPRESSION PRESET

Now, you’ll apply the compression setting you created to your video. Click and drag the iPod setting you created onto your Job by dragging it to the Batch Window where Drag Settings and Destinations Here is displayed. Once you apply the setting to your Job, a Target is created.

Step 8

CHOOSE AN OUTPUT DESTINATION

To choose an output destination, select the applied Target you created for your Job in the Batch Window where Source is displayed. Control-click Source and, under the contextual menu, drag down to Destination and under the submenu choose Other. When the Output Dialog Window opens, navigate to where you would like to save your file and choose Open.

Step 9

CLICK SUBMIT AND START ENCODING

Select your Batch in the Batch Window and click the Submit button. A dialog window will display to name your Batch. Create a new name or use the default that displays; click Submit.

Step 10

CHECK THE PROGRESS IN THE BATCH MONITOR

Open the Batch Monitor to check the progress of your encode by clicking the Batch Monitor button at the top of the Batch Window. When the Batch Monitor window opens select the Cluster and click the Completed status button. In most cases your Cluster will be displayed as This Computer. You know your file has finished encoding once you see the word Successful pop up next to the Batch.