EM>By Ken Stone

Recently Apple rolled out Final Cut Studio 3, which updated Final Cut Pro to 7 and Compressor to 3.5. While this article is about Compressor 3.5, it is important to note that, in FCP 7, there is a new command, 'Send To Compressor', which replaces the previous 'Export Using Compressor' function. In the past, when we used 'Export Using Compressor', FCP handed off the video to Compressor one frame at a time, tying up FCP for the duration. This is no longer the case. As soon as you 'Send To Compressor', you can return to FCP and continue working immediately, even working on the Job that you just sent to Compressor. Very good news.

Some of the Compressor 3.5 new features are; Batch Templates, Blu-ray encoding and burning, Red laser Blu-ray AVCHD encoding and burning to DVD-R discs (5's and 9's), improved Droplets, Cluster-based reference file encoding, Image sequence support, Job actions, Auto-detect settings, Enhanced networking for distributed encoding, and Faster frame controls rendering.

Up until now, Compressor was just a work station along the way to our final goal of distribution. After encoding our video in Compressor, it was always necessary to move the files into DVD STudio Pro, or FTP them to our web server or drag them into iTunes, well, you follow my drift. With the introduction of Batch Templates and Job Actions to Compressor 3.5, we can now let Compressor handle our distribution chores for us, all from right inside Compressor.  read more...