4.5

172Compressor User Guide
Create additional instances of Compressor
You can increase the processing power of a single computer, and thus reduce the time it
takes to process batches, by enabling one or more additional instances of the Compressor
application. Enabling additional instances of Compressor doesn’t install multiple copies;
instead, it creates additional services that can be accessed by Compressor.
The number of available Compressor instances is determined by your computer’s cores and
memory. After meeting the minimum system requirement (four cores and 2 GB of memory),
you can add one additional instance for every additional four cores and 2 GB of memory.
Important: If you don’t have enough cores or memory, the “Enable additional Compressor
instances” checkbox in the Advanced preferences pane is dimmed.
Enable instances of Compressor
1. Choose Compressor > Preferences (or press Command-Comma).
2. Click Advanced.
3. Select the “Enable additional Compressor instances” checkbox, then choose a number
of instances from the pop-up menu.
It’s recommended that you first disable all the additional instances, transcode several test
batches, then, if performance is slow, increase the number of instances to use more of
your computer’s resources.
Note: If the computer has a hardware encoder, and if you enable multiple instances of
Compressor, the time it takes to process a batch can potentially increase, because the
hardware encoder can only be used with single-pass, nonsegmented jobs. If you find that
processing time has increased significantly, or if a job fails, turn off additional Compressor
instances by deselecting the “Enable additional Compressor instances” checkbox. Some
Mac configurations using HEVC encoding require a single instance of Compressor.
Transcode Final Cut Pro and Motion projects in
Compressor
If you have Final Cut Pro 10.2 or later, or Motion 5.2 or later, installed on the same
computer as Compressor 4.2 or later, you can send sequences or clips from Final Cut Pro
or Motion directly to Compressor for transcoding. To export using Compressor or Motion,
you must have a compatible version of Compressor or Motion installed. Compressor and
Motion must be purchased separately.
If you send multiple projects or clips from Final Cut Pro 10.2 or later using the Send to
Compressor command, multiple jobs appear in a batch in Compressor.
Important: You cannot mix projects and clips in a batch share. Your selection must be
projects only or clips only.