Program Streaming a Purple Dinosaur…

One of our more visible entertainment clients, HIT Entertainment, has recently begun packaging their children’s shows for iTunes.

One slight problem though - the specs that Apple requires for iTunes video submissions are a bit unusual:

• Program Stream MPEG-2 @ 15 Mbps
• 640×480 frame size
• Multiplexed MPEG-1/Layer 2 Audio

I say unusual because Compressor 2.x won’t allow you to create Program Stream MPEG-2 files… luckily we just upgraded to Final Cut Studio 2 which includes Compressor 3.0…

Glad to see they decided to change the UI. I had always hated using Compressor in the past - a much needed program with one of the most worthless interfaces ever designed…

The new interface isn’t perfect, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. I noticed that the only settings I had to change on the Program Stream preset was frame size (from NTSC to 640×480) and field dominance (from Automatic to Progressive).

Another great thing about the new Compressor is how easy it is to share presets in the form of Droplets. I created a droplet that I was able to share with a couple of the other editors up at HIT and all they have to do is drag files onto the droplet and let Compressor do the heavy lifting…

Now I’m off to encode about 30 five minute episodes into Program Stream MPEG2…