4.5

44Compressor User Guide
• Cropping: This pop-up menu sets the dimension of the output image. The custom
option allows you to enter your own image dimensions in the fields; other options use
predetermined sizes. The Letterbox Area of Source option detects image edges and
automatically enters crop values to match them. This is useful if you want to crop out
the letterbox area (the black bars above and below a widescreen image) of a source
media file.
• Padding: This pop-up menu sets the scaling of the output image while retaining the
output image’s frame size. The custom option allows you to enter your own scaling
dimensions in the fields; other options use predetermined dimensions.
Quality
The following properties set the processing algorithm used by Compressor during the
transcoding process. For more information about using these controls, see Retime video
and audio using Compressor and Modify timing and frame rate in Compressor.
• Resize filter: This pop-up menu sets the resizing method. There are several options:
• Nearest Pixel (Fastest): Samples the nearest neighboring pixel when resizing an
image. This option provides the fastest processing time, but it is more likely to
show aliasing artifacts and jagged edges.
• Linear: Adjacent pixel values are averaged using a linear distribution of weights.
Produces fewer aliasing artifacts than Nearest Pixel, with a small increase in
processing time.
• Gaussian: Adjacent pixel values are averaged using a gaussian distribution
of weights. This provides a medium trade-off between processing time and
output quality.
• Lanczos 2: Adjacent pixel values are averaged using a truncated sinc function. This
option is slower than Gaussian but provides sharper results.
• Lanczos 3: Similar to Lanczos 2 but averages more pixel values. This option is slower
than Lanczos 2 but may produce better results.
• Bicubic: Adjacent pixel values are averaged using a bicubic function. The processing
time and output are most similar to Lanczos 2 and Lanczos 3.
• Anti-aliased (Best): Provides the highest output quality, but can take substantially
longer to process.
• Retiming Quality: This pop-up menu sets the retiming method. There are four options:
• Fast (Nearest Frame): Linearly interpolates frames using nearest neighbor frames.
• Good (Frame Blending): Blends neighboring frames using a filter to produce
good-quality interpolation.
• Best (Motion Compensated): Uses optical flow to interpolate using areas of
movement between neighboring frames to produce high-quality output.
• Reverse Telecine: Removes the extra fields added during the telecine process to
convert the film’s 24 fps to NTSC’s 29.97 fps. Choosing this item disables all the
other Quality controls. See Use reverse telecine in Compressor.
• Adaptive details: Select this checkbox to use advanced image analysis to distinguish
between noise and edge areas during output.