User Manual

Chapter 5 Custom settings and output formats 65
Before you can convert your existing media les to a DVD project, you must convert the video
to MPEG-1 (SD projects only), MPEG-2 (SD and HD projects), or H.264 (HD projects only) les.
Compressor can encode audio in the Dolby Digital Professional format (also known as AC-3).
Dolby Digital Professional is a very common compressed audio format for DVD-Video discs.
Compressor also supports two specialized situations:
•
For those situations in which you’re editing HD sources in Final Cut Pro and want to create
an SD DVD from them, Compressor includes a high-quality downconversion capability. HD
sources using 1080i or 720p resolutions use a high-quality transcoding process to create SD
MPEG-2 video output les.
•
For those situations in which you must t the maximum video onto a DVD and don’t require
broadcast quality, Compressor includes the ability to export DVD-Video-compatible MPEG-1
format les.
iTunes and Apple device output
iTunes and Apple device output overview
Using Compressor, you can create iTunes-compliant H.264 les. These can be played in iTunes; on
an iPhone, iPad, or iPod; or with Apple TV.
Compressor includes precongured settings that use the H.264 for Apple Devices Encoder pane
to make it easy for you to create suitable media les.
For information about creating H.264 les for other uses (such as web video), see QuickTime
movie overview on page 121. For information about creating H.264 les for DVDs, see Custom
settings and output formats overview on page 64.
H.264 workows
The eciency and quality of H.264 provide a number of options for iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Apple
TV video producers. When choosing a device option, you can choose to create a le that plays on
a wide variety of devices or a le targeted to a specic device, such as an iPhone 4.
•
Options that are compatible with all devices don’t produce optimal results when played on
higher-resolution devices, such as Apple TV. However, these options produce smaller les,
which can be an advantage.
•
Options that are targeted at higher-resolution devices produce great results on those devices;
however, they result in larger les.
When choosing options, make sure to take into account the devices on which you want to play
the video, the video content, and how you intend to deliver the le.
Additionally, you can assign a clip’s poster frame using the Preview window. For more
information, see Apply frame controls to a setting on page 167. You can change the poster frame
in iTunes if necessary. For more information, see iTunes Help.