Hi:

I am trying to convert my video to H.264 for vimeo with the settings listed below. Multipass is on, and it seems to be passing the same for ever: That is, at the time of writing, the third pass with out any output generated yet.

I had the same problem when trying to convert to HD DVD H.264 10.3Mbps. Eventually I canceled after some 10 hours converting 32min fottage.

How many times does H.264 converting need to go?

Thanks, Erik

Name: H.264 HD
Description: QuickTime H.264 video with PCM audio at 48 kHz. Settings based off the source resolution and frame-rate.
File Extension: mov
Estimated file size: 2.15 GB/hour of source
Audio Encoder
AAC, Stereo (L R), 48.000 kHz
Video Encoder
Format: QT
Width: 1920
Height: 1080
Pixel aspect ratio: Square
Crop to: Center crop for 1.778:1
Padding: None
Frame rate: (100% of source)
Frame Controls: Off
Codec Type: H.264
Multi-pass: On, frame reorder: On
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 75
Min. Spatial quality: 25
Key frame interval: 24
Temporal quality: 50
Min. temporal quality: 25
Average data rate: 5.12 (Mbps)

Ok, I finally got some out put at the fourth pass, is this standard?

I have been having problems like that a lot lately with compressor and h.264. I'm not sure what the problem is but recently I had a 6 minute short only take about an hour which is way better than how long it used to take.

h.264 is preset for four pass encoding. This is one of the reasons it can look good with a small amount of data for a video file. You can set it for one-pass but the results may be not very good.

A rule with h.264; the larger the pixel dimensions of a file, the longer it takes to encode.

h.264 is preset for four pass encoding. This is one of the reasons it can look good with a small amount of data for a video file. You can set it for one-pass but the results may be not very good.


Is it possible to set it to two-pass? Alternative is MPEG-4, but with VBR I can't set max/average bit rate as for MPEG-2 to limit file size. I'm not certain about the bit rate limit for H.264, if this is a constant rate or upper limit.

Coming from MPEG-2 (HDV) maybe the best (as in quality/MB) is to stick with MPEG-2?

thanks, Erik