11. Filters, Geometry, and Actions Panes
The Encoder pane of the Inspector window is where all the heavy lifting and major preset adjustments are performed in Compressor. By using the other panes of the Inspector window you can also fine-tune and finesse encoding by adding filters, changing the output frame size, adjusting the aspect ratio of the output movie, and lastly assigning actions to jobs in the Batch table that will either run an AppleScript or send an email when encoding completes.
The Filters Pane
Compressor includes a series of filters that you can combine with Apple and custom presets to modify the look of encoded media further. Compressor applies all filters before compressing the source media, so you can preview their results in real time in the Preview window.
Tip
Compressor initially lists filters alphabetically, but you can change the order by dragging filters in the list. This is useful when you want to change the render order of multiple activated filters; Compressor renders filters in this list from top to bottom.
The Text Overlay filter is one of the most common filters. The following steps use it to add a copyright-notice overlay to source media that has a preset applied in the Batch window:
In the Batch window, double-click the preset to open it in the Preview window.
To view descriptions of each of the available filters in the Filters pane, choose Help > Compressor User Manual or press Command-?.
The Geometry Pane
The settings in the Geometry pane control the frame size and aspect ratio of the output media. A common strategy for reducing overall file size is to scale down the source media to a smaller output frame size. A DV NTSC movie with a 720x480 frame size, for example, will play at a viewable size on computers when reduced to a 320x240 frame. This size reduction has a direct correlation with a decrease in output file size: Smaller frame sizes require less data to display.
In some instances, Compressor will dictate the output frame size and shadow the settings in the Geometry pane. The DVD specification, for example, requires a fixed frame size of 720x480 pixels. Therefore, the Geometry options are shadowed and unavailable for all DVD presets, including HD presets.
You may need to close and reopen the Preview window for the image to refresh when you’re adjusting settings in the Geometry pane.
To apply a crop and not scale the output media, in the Frame Size pop-up menu, choose 100% of Source or manually enter the frame size values based on the resulting reduction of the crop. For example, if a 720x480 frame was cropped 40 lines from the top and 40 from bottom, enter a custom frame size of 720x400.
The Actions Pane
The Actions pane of each preset controls what Compressor does after processing a job. There are two options that both run when a job completes: The email option will send a notice to an email address, and the AppleScript option will run an AppleScript.
To enable email notification, you must configure Compressor’s preferences properly by choosing Compressor > Preferences.
Email notification works only with mail servers that do not require authentication. The computer must be connected to the Internet.
You can set email notification or script execution for each job in a batch by configuring the Actions pane for each individual preset. As Compressor completes each job in the list, it will send out an email or run a script.