Set retiming and resizing quality in Compressor

In Compressor, do one of the following:

• In the batch area, click an output row to select a preset in a job. With this method, the selections you make will be used for outputting only that job.

• In the Presets pane, select a custom preset from the Custom group. (If the Presets pane is hidden, press Shift-Command-1.) With this method, the selections you make will be saved to the custom preset for future use.

In the inspector pane, click Video to open the Video inspector.

If the inspector pane is not visible, click the Inspector button in the upper-right corner of the Compressor window.

In the Quality section of the Video inspector, change any of the following properties:

• 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’s 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.

  • Better (Optical Flow): Uses optical flow to interpolate using areas of movement between neighboring frames to produce high-quality output.

  • Best (Machine Learning): Uses a bidirectional optical flow algorithm based on machine learning, resulting in reduced artifacts and better occlusion handling. This option requires a Mac with Apple silicon.

  • Reverse Telecine: Removes the extra fields added during the telecine process to convert the film’s 24 fps to NTSC’s 29.97 fps. 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.

• Anti-aliasing level: Sets the softness level in the output image. Double-click the value and then manually enter a new value or drag the slider to the right to increase softness. This property improves the quality of conversions when you’re scaling media up. For example, when transcoding SD video to HD, anti-aliasing smooths jagged edges that might appear in the image.

• Details level: Sets the amount of detail in the output image. Double-click the value and then manually enter a new value or drag the slider to set the value. This sharpening control lets you add detail back to an image being enlarged. Unlike other sharpening operations, the “Details level” property distinguishes between noise and feature details, and generally doesn’t increase unwanted grain. Increasing this value may introduce jagged edges, however, which can be eliminated by increasing the “Anti-aliasing level” slider.

• Dithering: When selected, adds a certain type of noise to images to prevent large-scale distracting patterns such as color banding. If your image has excessive noise after rendering, deselect this checkbox.