I have been using MPEG StreamClip to convert my Lightroom 2 tutorial MOV files to MPEG4 for my iTouch. I am using a Quad Core MacPro with 5GB of RAM. However, the process is going very slowly. It took about 90 minutes to convert the Introduction chapter which is only about 88MB. Is there some quicker way of doing the conversion?

It might be faster with something like iSquint or VisualHub ... not sure if streamclip is multithreaded or not, but I know that iSquint and VisualHub are and will work much faster on my 8 core mac pro.

Also worth noting ... if you do use VisualHub to convert, in the advanced checkbox select "force ffmpeg decoding" ... this will greatly speed up the re-encoding time.

Thank you both for your advice. I purchased Visual Hub and set it to "force ffmpeg decoding". It converts the MOV files to MPEG4 files 15 to 20 times faster than StreamClip with equal quality.

Handbrake rules.

Is it also multithreaded now? The last tim I tried it on m 8 core it only used a single core to encode ... I do a lot of video encoding of large files, so i switched to visualhub and never looked back

It is on my PC, not sure about mac, but I would assume so.

How can you tell how many cores the software is using on the computer?

On windows I'm not sure (maybe by checking the % usage of the app in task manager). In OSX you can see it in Activity Monitor both in the % of processor usage (VH typically gives me from 400-600% usage), and also you can set it to show the "Floating CPU window" from the Window->Floating CPU Window menu option. I tend to leave that floating CPU window open all the time, I like to know when something is ramping up my CPU

OK, color me clueless. I downloaded handbrake and it seems only to be interested in converting a DVD. How does one direct its attention to a .mov file as input?

I actually have Quicktime Pro on my Windows PC, but it is taking absolutely forever, not that this is a surprise. If handbrake will work I could at least just set it to doing the work in background on one of my Linux machines. I don't have a Mac so I can't use VisualHub...

Sorry I wasn't thinking. Handbrake is for DVD only, I used it on the LLVJ. For the tutorials that aren't directly useable to atv, I just converted through quictime pro. Yes, it took forever. I just qued them all up and it ran for about 30 hours.

anything that is ffmpeg based on Linux or windows should give you similar speeds. You can probaby even transcode it with VLC.

OK, so I installed ffmpeg along with various and sundry ancillary modules. With some tinkering and googling, I've got it to the point [1] where it appears to be doing something, albeit with a surfeit of "VBV underflow" errors. My knowledge of video transcoding is clearly quite limited, so I'm wondering if anyone here might know the proper ffmpeg incantation to convert these videos into something usable on the iPod. Or, alternatively, recommend some other tool (along with the correct command line) that I can use in a batch mode, preferably on a Linux machine.

Then, maybe, I'll be able to watch the videos on the commuter train without having to haul out my notebook PC.

Thanks for any help.

[1] The latest command I've tried is:

ffmpeg -vcodec h264 -i LR2-06_LibraryFilter.mov \
-b 1800 -maxrate 2500 -qmax 5 -s 320x180 \
-bufsize 8192 -padtop 30 -padbottom 30 \
-acodec aac -ab 192 libraryfilter.mp4

Whoa! This is getting to sound waaay more complicated than need be. Don't get me wrong - you can fiddle around to your heart's content with those complex settings but honestly all most folk need to know is already in the FAQ:

Open movie in either QuickTime Pro, MpegStream Clip or VisualHub (the fastest) and choose Export to AppleTV, iPhone, iPod or other format. It' really dead nuts simple.

Chris Sanderson

I'm not so much "fiddling around" as trying to find some minimal set that works at all. Since it seemed like there were at least a couple of members here that were more familiar with the technology than I am, I was hoping that maybe someone could point me in the right direction for using this tool.



Uh, perhaps. But it's also dead nuts tedious. I opened the first [relatively short] video in Quick Time Pro and told it to export to iPod, and it was still exporting over an hour later (I didn't keep track of the actual time to completion). [1] The thing is, I actually have other things I need to do with this system over the next few days, while I have a couple of comparably-powered Linux servers around that aren't doing much beyond responding to occasional SMTP & HTTP requests. I can't use VisualHub because I don't have a Mac.

If it turns out to be impossible to do this on a Linux machine (seems unlikely, actually) then I suppose I could resort to tying up my machine with MpegStream Clip or find some way to automate QuickTime [2] so that I at least don't have to tell it to do each of the 40 files one at a time. But I'd rather confirm that there is no other option, first.

Thanks,
--Bob Drzyzgula

[1] This is on a Dual-core Athlon 64 (5600+ IIRC) with 4GB of memory, but like I said it isn't a surprise to me that it takes this long even on modern hardware.
[2] Perhaps this is trivial? I found this on Apple's site from which it appears it might not be. I'm not familiar enough with the tool to know for sure.

You don't have to do them one at a time with Quicktime - Open all 40, export all 40. It will manage them all at once. Just let it go. Yes you are going to tie up your machine for a good amount of time no matter what, you just have to deal with it.

An estimate for how long it would take for VisualHub to convert all for Apple TV? I stated conversion with QuickTime Pro and it was so slow that I quit and went with hardwiring.

Steve

OK, so I tried this with a few of them. In Quicktime Pro, if I use File... Open File, it will only allow me to select a single file. If I instead select several (I tested with four) files in Windows Explorer (AKA "My Computer") and then do a right-click open, it will open all four in individual windows. I then had to File... Export for each movie independently. True, it then adds all ongoing exports to a single "Export Progress" window, with one progress bar for each process. But all the export processes proceed simultaneously, and by the time I had four such processes going (this is a dual-core system), the system was largely unresponsive; the idea that I could load and tell it to export 40 movies is pretty much a non-starter.

Sure was easier when MR posted the iPod versions for download...

Dude, if you had of just done it so many days ago, it would have been done a looooong time ago and you would be enjoying them like me on your ATV. I don't know why you are just whining about it. It's not marketed to be an ATV product in the first place, you have been given a solution, and yet you still complain.

Boo Hoo, QQ, your computer was slower while it crunched. So then que up a dozen each night while you aren't using it. You still could have had it ALL DONE in a few days, a long time ago.

In fact even if you started it at your last post here, it would have been all done by tonight.

I also would like an estimate about time required to convert to iphone format. I converted some LL video journals with no problem using Quicktime. However when it comes to Lightroom 2.0 tutorials in HD, it was impossible....even the smallest of some of the segments would take many hours at the pace it was converting--. Just how much faster is visual hub? Or maybe i should purchase the non HD version of LR2.0 and convert those (I thought I saw a non HD version so correct me if I'm wrong).

I'm on a Mac dual quad core with 8 gb of ram. Thanks, Eleanor

Never mind, I just checked and I don't have the HD version after all...thought I did but I have the regular version and it's still taking much longer than my LL video journal files. I'm trying out Digital Hub and even that is moving very very very slow (and I have a very fast Mac). Any other suggestions about how to speed up this process of iPhone conversion? Seems this shouldn't be this difficult. Thanks, Eleanor

I completed some encoding tests using a 1 minute segment taken from the LR2 Tutorial.
I output to both Apple TV (H264) and iPhone. The difference in encoding times for each of the two formats in all cases was close enough not to warrant reporting.

My machine is a Mac dual core 2.66Ghz used with no other significant processes going on while encoding.

Settings were all either Standard or middle of the road without adjustments

Recommendations:

- Use the SD version and VisualHub for the _fastest_ results

1 minute took 20 seconds to encode. Visual results were dark but 'acceptable'
Ratio 3:1

======

- Use the HD version and MPEG StreamClip for the _best looking_ results

1 minute took 10 minutes to encode. Visual results were excellent.
Ratio 1:10

======

- Do not use QuickTime Pro and the HD version (EDIT: on a Mac - see next post). The encoding takes far too long: approximately 1:18

N.B. Your mileage _will_ vary

Just a note - those results are ONLY for a Mac.

Quicktime Pro on my PC gave 100% perfect results, with a 1:4.6 time ratio. The 6.5 hour series completed in 30 hours.

HD version, Core 2 Duo @ 3.6GHz

Go figure...

Chrissand why not provide a Apple TV version...one conversion vs many people spending hours of computer resources. Makes sense to me at least.

Steve

And how much would you be willing to pay for the service? You aren't expecting it for free are you?

Of course not!!! I don't know how pricing is determined but I would say full price for stand alone Apple TV version and an additional 1/3(?) 1/2(?) of full price if included in a package of High Def + Apple TV.

Steve

There are already two versions which some people find confusing. Confusion will multiply exponentially with further versions. And it is so easy to do and costs nothing - even if it is going to be somewhat lengthy...

Reminder: the tutorial is over seven and a half hours of HD material - it's going to take a long time! My suggestion is to follow Kaelaria's advice above...

Chris Sanderson

Go figure ...

1:10 conversion of the HD on a Mac..I guess I'll stay with the "hard wired" solution.

Steve

I just have the regular version and am getting a time estimate of nearly 4 hours to convert to iPhone using Visual Hub on the LR2 Develop/new tools segment. I'm reasonably computer savvy but this has got me stumped on the huge times I'm getting. I've left my computer running over night with visual hub only to find it locked up in the morning because it said it couldn't find some component to segment 4 of LR2 tutorial. I wish this were as easy as it is for Chris. eleanor

I am not very computer savy but when I tried to convert my HD version and saw how slow it was..I quit. I would be more than happy to pay a additional $15-$20 over the cost of the HD version for an Apple TV version. I usually watch on my Cinema HD 30 but the girlfriend likes to watch Michael and Jeff on the 62" Sony at the end of the bed. (Jeff is her favorite).

Steve

Try going into the Advanced Settings button and then setting the "force to use ffmpeg" option .. it should drastically reduce your rendering time.