Settings table When you first open the Settings tab in the Presets window, the Settings tab contains a set of pre-existing (Apple) settings supplied with Compressor. The Settings tab displays name and description details of all existing settings and groups stored on your computer.
Setting group with five settings

New Untitled setting

New settings appear in the Custom group folder with the default name Untitled ___ with ___ being the file format you chose from the ( + ) pop-up menu. Its a good idea to change the setting name to something meaningful, such as details of the settings or distribution method associated with the setting. Double-click the setting in the Settings tab to open the Inspector window. Use the Name field in the Inspector window to enter a name. Use the Description field to enter more information about each setting. This information only appears within the Settings tab in the Presets window and can help you keep track of your files when you have many settings. You can also organize your settings by putting them in group folders. Once you have created and named a group folder, you can drag any existing setting into it. When you drag a setting to a group, you remove it from the main Settings table. You can also drag individual settings from a group to a source media file. See Creating Groups of Settings on page 75 for more information.
Batch selection Whenever you select a setting in the Batch table of the Batch window, it also immediately appears in the Inspector window with Batch selection in the Name field. This is a temporary copy of the setting and not the setting itself, so you can make temporary modifications to the setting for just that one batch submission.
When you modify the Batch selection, the Save As button at the bottom of the Inspector window becomes active. Click Save As to save the modified setting with a new name. The saved copy appears in the Settings table as Setting Name-Copy, and immediately becomes the selected setting in the Settings table.

About the Inspector

Click OK to save the changes, or click Revert to cancel the changes and return to the Inspector. See Assigning Settings to Source Media Files on page 78 for information about assigning settings.
To modify a setting already assigned to a source media file in the Batch table: 1 Open the Batch window. 2 Do one of the following: Select the setting in the Batch table that you want to modify and choose Window > Inspector to open the Inspector window. Double-click the setting in the Batch table that you want to modify. The setting appears in the Inspector window with Batch selection in the Name field. Dont worry about damaging the original setting. This is a temporary copy of the setting you selected, and not the setting itself. So you can make temporary modifications to the setting for just this one batch submission. See Batch selection on page 65 for more information.
3 Open the following Inspector panes to modify the following items: Encoder pane: Change the output format and video and audio codecs and their associated attributes here. Frame Controls pane: Change any attribute in the Frame Controls pane. Filters pane: Change any filter attributes here. Click the checkbox next to a filter to add it to the setting, or deselect it to remove it from the setting. Geometry pane: Change any attribute in the Geometry pane. Actions pane: Change any attribute in the Actions pane. 4 After youve finished modifying Batch selection, do one of the following: Return to the Batch window and click Submit. Click the Save As button at the bottom of the Inspector window and enter a name to create a new setting containing the modifications you made in Step 3. The new setting appears in the Custom group folder in the Settings tab of the Presets window.

Previewing a Setting

The Compressor Preview window lets you see the effects of your settingsuch as filters and frame resizingand make adjustments to these attributes while previewing the media file in real time. To view your setting in the Preview window: 1 Select the setting in the Batch table for the particular job that you want to preview. 2 Do one of the following: Double-click the setting in the Batch table. Click the Preview button. The opening frame of the selected source media file appears in the Preview window and the title of the selected setting appears in the Batch Item pop-up menu with the Out point timecode field displaying the length of the clip. The left half of the screen displays the source media file in its original form (Source view) and the right half displays what the output image will look like with selected filters and other setting attributes applied to it (Output view).
Batch Item pop-up menu Batch Item selection buttons Output view Source view

Selected source media files
Open the Settings tab of the Presets window and drag one or more settings or setting groups to the intended source media file in the Batch table. This method is most useful when you want to quickly apply multiple settings to a source media file, producing a variety of output file formats. When dragging a setting group, all settings in the group are automatically applied to the source.
In the Setting column, the setting number changes from 0 entries to the number of settings you have just added. Once you add at least one setting, a disclosure triangle appears to the left of the source media filename. Click this to view or hide setting details for the job.
Click the disclosure triangles to show or hide the setting information.

Submit button

Note: Once all of your source media files in the Batch table have at least one setting associated with them, the Submit button becomes active. You have now created a job that is ready for transcoding. If you want to preview it first to ensure that you are satisfied with the results, see Chapter 16, Using the Preview Window, on page 209.
Assigning Destinations to Source Media Files
Once you have assigned settings to your source media files, you can assign different destinations. You can set a default destination with Compressor preferences. (Choose Compressor > Preferences.) This can be one of those supplied with Compressor or a custom destination you have created. See Creating a Destination on page 226 for details on working with destinations. There are a number of different ways to assign a destination to a source file. To assign a destination, do one of the following: m In the Batch window, open the Destination pop-up menu in the Batch table and choose a destination. You can change destinations as often as you like.

Destination pop-up menu

Note: You can also assign a temporary destination by choosing Other. This opens the File Selection dialog and allows you to create a new destination for just that batch submission. This destination preset is not saved and only applies to the submitted batch. m Select one or more source file settings to set the destination for, then choose the destination from the Destination menu in the menu bar. You can change destinations as often as you like.
m Drag the destination from the Destinations tab of the Presets window to a source files setting in the Batch table (a setting must be assigned to the source media file first). You can always change the destination again, by dragging another destination to the same setting.
Once you have assigned the destinations, they appear in the Batch windows Destination column.

Submitting a Batch

One or more jobs in the Jobs table is considered a batch. When you have assigned at least one setting to all source media files in the Batch table, you are ready to submit the batch for processing. To submit a batch: 1 Open the Batch window. 2 If you havent already done so, enter a suitable name for the batch in the Batch Name field. 3 Add appropriate source media files, settings, and destinations. 4 Click Submit. A progress bar appears, indicating that the batch is being submitted.

Chapter 8 Creating H.264 DVD Output Files
Video Format: Use the Video Format pop-up menu to choose from the following four choices. All of them are HD progressive formats: 576p: 16x9 anamorphic format (720 x 576 PAL-only @ 50p fps) 480p: 16x9 anamorphic format (720 x 480 NTSC-only @ 59.94p fps) 720p: 16x9 format (1280 x 720 NTSC @ 59.94p fps or 1280 x 720 PAL at 50p fps) Automatic: Choose this setting if you are unsure of your source media files video format. This setting analyzes your source media clips frame rate and frame size to determine the correct video format.
Frame Rate: Use the Video Format pop-up menu to choose from the following options: 50 fps (for PAL) 59.94 fps (for NTSC) Automatic: Choose this setting if you are unsure of your source media files video format. This setting analyzes your source media clips frame rate to determine the correct frame rate.
Note: If you choose a format in the Video Format menu, the Frame Rate menu will be filled in automatically. Bit Rate: Choose the bit rate to use for the output video with the slider, or enter a value directly. While the available range is between 0.5 and 29.4 Mbps, typical HDbased DVD video bit rates with H.264 might range from 7 to 15 Mbps, depending on your DVD bit-budget and the nature of your source media files. The H.264 file format is twice as efficient as the standard MPEG-2 format. This means you can count on a lower bit rate to get the same quality, or higher quality at the same bit rate.
Frame Sync: Use the slider to choose the Frame Sync rate for the output video or enter a value directly. Also known as the key frame interval, this value represents how often a keyframe is inserted in the H.264 stream. More frequent keyframes will increase the quality and the bit rate; less frequent keyframes will reduce the quality and bit rate. The default setting is 2 seconds. Multi-pass: Use this checkbox to turn on multi-pass encoding. Similar to two pass MPEG-2 encoding, multi-pass offers the best possible quality. For faster (single-pass) encodes, turn this feature off by deselecting the checkbox. Include PCM Audio: Use this checkbox to include a 16-bit, 48kHz stereo PCM audio track in the output QuickTime movie. Most DVD producers will use a Dolby Digital Professional (AC-3) setting for the audio with its much higher efficiency. In that case, you can deselect this checkbox and make sure that a Dolby 2.0 setting is applied to the job in the Batch window. If you select the checkbox, encode the H.264 movie, and then import the movie into DVD Studio Pro, the video track and the audio track will appear as two separate items in the Assets tab, as if you had imported one video asset and one audio asset.

In principle, the less average motion there is from one frame to the next, the farther apart P-frames can be spaced, and the greater the compression can be. For most video material, the IBBP structure is a good choice. Material with unusually fast motion throughout the entire sequence may benefit from an IBP or IP structure, but in such cases a relatively high bit rate (6 to 8 Mbps for SD video) may be required for good quality. GOP size This setting specifies the number of frames within a GOP. Because exactly one I-frame exists per GOP, longer GOP sizes generally provide greater compression, because B- and P-frames are smaller than I-frames. For most media, spacing I-frames about 1/2 second apart gives good results. This equates to a GOP size of 15 frames for NTSC and 12 frames for PAL. The DVD-Video specification prohibits GOP lengths from being much longer than this. Generally, only material with scene changes occurring less than 1/2 second apart frequently throughout the video will benefit from shorter GOP sizes. Open and closed GOPs Open GOPs are most efficient because they allow B-frames from one GOP to look at the last P-frame from the preceding GOP as well as the first I-frame of their own GOP. Open GOPs dont have to start with I-frames as shown below:
Open GOP (IBBP, 15 frames) P :03 B :04 B :05 I :06 B :07 B :08 P :09 B :10 B :11 P :12 B :13 B :14 P :15 B :16 B :17 P :18 B :19 B :20 I :21
Closed GOP (IBBP, 15 frames) I :04 B :05 B :06 P :07 B :08 B :09 P :10 B :11 B :12 P :13 B :14 B :15 P :16 B :17 P :18
By definition, closed GOPs cannot contain any frame that refers to a frame in the previous GOP. In contrast, open GOPs begin with one or more B-frames that reference the last P-frame of the previous GOP. Closed GOPs created by Compressor always begin with an I-frame. Open GOPs generally provide slightly better compression than do closed GOPs of the same structure and size. The illustration above shows that a closed GOP contains one more P-frame than does an open GOP of the same length. Since P-frames generally require more bits than do B-frames, the open GOP achieves slightly better compression. There are limitations to using open GOPs for DVD-Video discs that are created using a DVD authoring application such as DVD Studio Pro. One limitation is that only closed GOPs are permitted within MPEG-2 streams that will be used for mixed-angle or multi-angle DVDs. The other limitation is that DVD chapter markers can only be set at the beginning of a closed GOP. The best time to define chapter markers is before doing MPEG-2 transcoding. For example, if you specify your chapter markers in Final Cut Pro, you can set Compressor to do MPEG-2 transcoding with open GOPs. Compressor will then force a closed GOP to begin only at the specified chapter markers, and will make all other GOPs open. You can also accomplish this by specifying forced I-frames in the Compressor Preview window, and giving them a chapter name to be used by DVD Studio Pro. However, if you want to specify chapter markers at any GOP boundary after your video has been transcoded in the MPEG-2 format, you should only use closed GOPs. This freedom is limited, as it allows you to set chapter markers only at GOP boundaries, rather than at any video frame.

If you want to customize your MPEG-4 Part 2 file format settings, you need to perform a more detailed transcoding workflow than the one described above, that involves the following steps: Step 1: Customize MPEG-4 video settings 1 In the Inspector window, click the Encoder pane and choose MPEG-4 from the File Format pop-up menu. The MPEG-4 Encoder pane opens, displaying mp4 in the File Extension field, and the default Video pane.
Either enter a number in the Bit Rate field or use the slider to set the bit rate.
2 Adjust the MPEG-4 video settings using the available controls. Note: Make sure the Video Enabled checkbox is selected. See Video Pane on page 155 for details about MPEG-4 Part 2 video settings. If you dont want to edit any other attributes, your MPEG-4 setting can be assigned to any source media file in the usual way. See Preparing Compressor for Transcoding on page 28 for more information. Otherwise, go to the next step to edit MPEG-4 audio settings.
Step 2: Customize MPEG-4 audio settings 1 Click the Audio button to open the Audio pane.
2 Adjust the MPEG-4 audio settings using the available controls. Note: Make sure that the Audio Enabled box is selected. See Audio Pane on page 156 for details about MPEG-4 Part 2 audio settings. If you dont want to edit any other attributes, your MPEG-4 setting can be assigned to any source media file in the usual way. See Preparing Compressor for Transcoding on page 28 for more information. Otherwise, go to the next step to edit streaming settings. Step 3: Edit MPEG-4 streaming settings 1 Click the Streaming button to open the Streaming pane.
2 Select the QuickTime Streaming Server Compatibility (pre v4.1) checkbox if your intended distribution method is via a QuickTime Streaming Server earlier than version 4.1. 3 Enter new numbers into the Size and Duration fields for Packet Maximums, and make sure that the Streaming hints enabled checkbox is selected. 4 See Streaming Pane on page 157 for details about MPEG-4 Part 2 streaming settings.
Adding Additional Settings and Presets
Although the output format setting is the most important component of the Compressor workflow, you can also add other settings and presets, such as filters, cropping, frame sizing, actions and destinations. For further instructions on how to add these settings, see the following: Chapter 14, Adding Filters to a Setting, on page 185 Chapter 15, Adding Frame Controls, Geometry, and Actions to a Setting, on page 195 Chapter 17, Creating and Changing Destinations, on page 223
Creating QuickTime Movie Output Files
Compressor provides the tools you need to create QuickTime media files.
QuickTime is cross-platform multimedia technology, and allows Mac OS applications to capture and play back video, audio, and still-image files. QuickTime supports a wide variety of codecs and can also be extended to accommodate additional codec options and third-party codecs. See Creating QuickTime Export Component Output Files on page 177 for more information about additional QuickTime export options. This chapter contains the following: Creating QuickTime Output Files (p. 164) About the QuickTime Movie Encoder Pane (p. 164) QuickTime Transcoding Workflow (p. 171) Understanding Codecs (p. 174) QuickTime Video Codecs (p. 174) QuickTime Audio Codecs (p. 175)

Compressor comes equipped with the standard video codecs that QuickTime offers and the additional codec options that come with QuickTime Pro. Unless you know your target audience has a particular codec installed on their computers, you should use one of the standard QuickTime codecs to ensure universal conformity. Note: See the relevant QuickTime documentation for more information about choosing video codecs and how to get the best out of the video codec settings. Video codecs can be divided into the following two types: Lossless codecs: Lossless codecs completely preserve the data they compress, and are usually used to transfer footage from one editing suite to another. Lossless codecs can require high data rates and high-end computers with specialized hardware. Examples of lossless codecs are the Animation, 8-bit, and 10-bit uncompressed 4:2:2 codecs. Lossy codecs: In comparison to lossless codecs, lossy codecs only return an approximation of the data and are usually used to deliver finalized video to an end user. The level of approximation is determined by the quality of the codec. Typically there is a tradeoff between the output quality of the codec and its achievable level of compression. With some codecs, a compression ratio of at least 5:1 can be reached without visible degradation. An example of a lossy codec is the Photo-JPEG codec. Low-quality lossy compression introduces unnatural visual artifacts which may become noticeable to the human eye. Using a lossy codec, you should only compress your media file once, because compressing a file multiple times adds more artifacts.

QuickTime Audio Codecs

If you have the disk space and bandwidth, the best thing you can do is leave your audio uncompressed. Uncompressed audio normally uses 8-bit (phone quality) or 16-bit (CD quality) samples. (Compressor 2 supports up to 64 bits per sample floating point and a maximum sample rate of 192 kHz.) If you have disk space and bandwidth limitations, you must compress your audio. However, audio takes up less disk space than video, so it doesnt need to be compressed as much as video. The two most important components of audio codecs are sampling rates and size. Sampling rate sets the sound quality, and sampling size sets the dynamic range of the sound. QuickTime audio codecs allow you to set both the sampling rate and size of your source media file.

Experiment with one of the following deinterlacing methods in the pop-up menu to see which one works best with your footage: Blur: Blends the odd and even fields together. This setting gives more importance to temporal data and preserves motion better, but because individual frames consist of a composite of both frames, they dont look good when you pause playback. Even: Keeps the even fields and ignores the odd fields, avoiding motion blur. Odd: Keeps the odd fields and ignores the even fields, avoiding motion blur. Sharp: Looks at both fields to make all edges sharper. This setting gives more importance to spatial data. Gamma Correction: Controls the overall brightness of an image as displayed on a monitor by changing the gamma amount of the media file. This filter can be used to remove detail from an underexposed clip or reduce an overexposed clips saturation to an acceptable level without washing out the image too much. Computers using different operating systems have different monitor settings. For cross-platform viewing, correcting the gamma will improve the image for all platforms. Choose a gamma setting between 0.1 and 4.0. Letterbox: Scales and positions the image in the frame within horizontal letterbox bars. Type: This pop-up menu allows you to choose the type of letterboxing to use. Scale vertically compresses the video to fit within the letterbox bars. Matte crops off the video where the letterbox bars are placed. Position: This pop-up menu allows you to choose the position of the video. Center places letterbox bars above and below the video, keeping the video centered. Bottom positions the video at the bottom of the screen with a single letterbox bar above it. Top positions the video at the top of the screen with a single letterbox bar below it. Output: This pop-up menu allows you to choose the specific aspect ratio to use for the letterbox. Each setting is followed by a value that shows the ratio of the width to the height for that setting. For example, the Academy setting shows its aspect ratio as 1.85:1, indicating that the images width is 1.85 times the size of its height. The Manual setting enables the Manual slider which you can use to manually set the letterbox aspect ratio. Manual slider: Used when Manual is selected in the Output pop-up menu. Allows you to manually set the letterbox aspect ratio. The Manual slider has no effect when Manual is not selected in the Output pop-up menu. Background color box: Sets the letterbox color. Click this box to choose a background color from the color picker.
Noise Removal: Reduces random flecks of noise from the image. Some codecs introduce noise into the video file, which can be softened with the Noise Removal filter. You can improve image quality and spatially compress your material more efficiently by reducing its fine detail. Apply To: This pop-up menu allows you to choose which channels you want to filter the noise from. The default is All Channels, which filters out noise from all channels including the alpha channel. The other option is Chroma Channels, which filters out noise only from the two chroma channelsU and Vin the AYUV color space (or R408 in Final Cut Pro terminology). Iterations: This pop-up menu smooths out image noise. Choose how many times (between 1 and 4) you want the selected algorithm applied to the source media file. The modified image is used each time as a starting point for the algorithm. The more iterations used, the fuzzier the image becomes. Algorithm: Select one of the following algorithms from the Algorithm pop-up menu: Average (each pixels color is modified by taking an average color of pixels around it, including its own color value); Replace (each pixels color is modified by taking an average of pixels around it, while ignoring its own color value); and Merge (each pixels color is modified by taking a weighted average of surrounding pixels and itself; the pixels own color value is given greater weight). Sharpen Edge: Enhances the image contrast around object edges. Some codecs blur the video image, so this filter can counteract the softening effect of noise removal or blurred source material and increase the perception of sharpness in the image. When used to an extreme, the output media file can look grainy. Choose any number between 0 and 100. TextOverlay: Superimposes text onto the image. This is a useful tool for stamping other relevant text information onto your output media file. Use the following controls to position text, select color and font, and set its opacity: Position pop-up menu: Positions text in the image clip. Choose from one of the following positions: Center, Lower Left, Lower Left - TV Safe, Lower Right, Lower Right - TV Safe, Upper Left, Upper Left - TV Safe, Upper Right, Upper Right - TV Safe. Alpha: This slider sets the text opacity. Choose between 0 and 1. A value of 0 makes the text completely transparent, while a value of 1 makes it completely opaque. Overlay Text: Type your text here. Text Color: Click this box to choose a text color from the color picker. Select Font: Click this button to open a font selection palette for selecting type, style, and size.

Watermark: Superimposes a watermark onto the image. This is a useful tool for stamping a suitable logo onto your output media file. It allows you to make any stored image into a watermark image to add to your output media file. Use the following pop-up menus, fields, and sliders to position and size the watermark and set its opacity: Position: This pop-up menu positions the watermark image in the image clip. Choose from one of the following positions: Center, Lower Left, Lower Left - TV Safe, Lower Right, Lower Right - TV Safe, Upper Left, Upper Left - TV Safe, Upper Right, Upper Right - TV Safe. Scale By: This slider sets the size of the watermark image size. Alpha: This slider sets the watermark image opacity. Choose between 0 and 1. A value of 0 makes the watermark image completely transparent, while a value of 1 makes it completely opaque. Choose: Click this button to open the file selection dialog and select a stored watermark image.
You use the Filters pane in the Inspector window to add filters to your settings. To add filters to a setting: 1 Open the Settings tab of the Presets window. 2 Select the setting in the Settings table that you want to modify. (Or select a setting already applied to a source media file in the Batch window. This way, you can open the Preview window and see the effects of your filter adjustments.) 3 Click the Filters tab in the Inspector.
4 Make adjustments to any filters that you want added to the setting. Note: A checkmark appears automatically as soon as you make adjustments to any filter.
5 Drag the filters up or down within the Filters list to set the order in which you want them applied to the source media file during transcoding.
Drag filters up or down to set the order you want them to be applied to the source media file.
Because these filters are processed one by one during transcodingstarting with the first item in the listit is important that your filters be organized in the order you want them. For example, it is sensible to place your text overlay filter last, so that the text color you selected doesnt get modified by some other filter.
If you move a filter, be sure to select the checkbox so that Compressor knows to apply the filter to that setting. As an additional reminder, once you select the moved filter and then try to select another setting, the Save dialog appears, requiring you to save or revert the changes to that setting. By default, all selected filters are displayed first in the list. Note: You can see setting details in the Summary pane of the Inspector window. See About the Filters Pane on page 188 for more details.
Adding Frame Controls, Geometry, and Actions to a Setting
You can make advanced adjustments to your settings with the Frame Controls, Geometry, and Actions panes of the Inspector window.

Adding Frame Controls to a Setting
You use the Frame Controls pane in the Inspector window to add frame resizing and retiming adjustments to your settings. To add automatic frame control adjustments to a setting: 1 Open the Settings tab of the Presets window. 2 Select the setting in the Settings table that you want to modify. (Or select a setting already applied to a source media file in the Batch window.) 3 Click the Frame Controls tab in the Inspector. 4 Choose Automatic from the Frame Controls pop-up menu. Compressor analyzes the transcoding job (the source media file and the applied setting), and then automatically determines the appropriate Frame Controls attributes.
To add custom frame control adjustments to a setting: 1 Open the Settings tab of the Presets window. 2 Select the setting in the Settings table that you want to modify. (Or select a setting already applied to a source media file in the Batch window.) 3 Click the Frame Controls tab in the Inspector. 4 Choose Custom from the Frame Controls pop-up menu. Custom allows you to manually adjust all of the attributes in the Frame Controls pane. 5 Make changes to any of the following controls in the Frame Controls pane. (See About the Frame Controls Pane on page 196 for details on each of the controls.) Resize filter Deinterlace Adaptive Details Anti-alias Details Level Rate Conversion 6 Click Save to save the changes.
Working With Cropping and Scaling
Scaling involves shrinking your output media image size to save storage space or reduce the bit rate. Cropping deals with removing unnecessary image area (such as the overscan area, which is necessary for television, but not computers) to make whats left seem bigger in the same frame size. Cropping also allows you to reduce the output media image size more than can be achieved by simply scaling the image. You can significantly reduce the file size of your output media file by cropping the actual image to be transcoded and selecting its output frame size dimensions. For example, a media file that is destined to be viewed only on a website doesnt require a full-screen frame and remains perfectly viewable at a 320 x 240 frame size. Note: Its important to understand that these aspect ratio dimensions are based on the cropped frame size, not the original frame size of the source media file.

Note: There are two ways to adjust frame size. You can either enter numbers in the cropping fields or drag the red frame bars in the Preview window. Using the latter method, the resulting numbers dynamically appear in the cropping fields so that you can see a numerical representation of your frame cropping. Hold down the Shift key to constrain the crop to either the source aspect ratio, the source height, or the source width.
If Batch selection is selected, any resizing in the Preview window is reflected in the Geometry pane. You can also directly enter numbers into these cropping fields.
Drag the red frame bars (by the handles) to adjust the output file frame size.
See About the Geometry Pane on page 201 or Previewing a Clip on page 215 for more details.
Working With Post-Transcoding Options
Compressor can send an email to one recipient per preset, giving notice of when a transcode is complete. You can also add one AppleScript per preset. This gives you some post-transcoding options for your output media file, such as creating an AppleScript for adding metadata to QuickTime files or automatically transferring the transcoded file to a streaming web server. Note: You need to have your Internet preferences set up with an outgoing mail server for email notification. This option is not available for mail services that require SMTP authentication.

About the Actions Pane

You use the Actions pane in the Inspector to set options related to transcode completion notification emails and post-transcoding AppleScript options.
Email notification checkbox Choose button
The Actions pane contains the following items: Email Notification to: If you want to be notified when a particular transcoding job has been completed, select this box and enter the appropriate email address in the text field. (You can only enter one email address.) This is useful if you are transcoding an especially large source media file that may take many hours to complete. Rather than continuously checking to see if the transcoding is finished, you just wait until you receive an email. Note: To enable this email feature, you must first enter an email address and outgoing mail server in Compressor Preferences. (Choose Compressor > Preferences.) Execute AppleScript on output: Select this box to activate a chosen AppleScript. Even if you have chosen an AppleScript, it will not run unless you have selected this box. Choose button: Click this button to select an existing AppleScript that you want to assign to the output file. Adding an AppleScript is a useful way of applying posttranscoding actions to your job, such as adding metadata to QuickTime files or adding interactive QuickTime elements.

Original version of the clip
Scaled, cropped, and filtered version of the clip
You can also use the Preview window to enlarge the Preview screen size, manually add I-frames (MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 only), and designate a portion of your media file for transcoding using the In and Out markers.

About the Preview Window

The Preview window allows you to play batch items before submitting them for transcoding, and allows you to compare versions of your clip to ensure that the quality of the output media file is acceptable. The Preview window contains the following items:
Preview scale selection Batch item selection controls Source/Setting selection

Preview screen area

Timeline controls In and out controls Transport controls

Marker pop-up menu

Preview scale selection: Adjusts the Preview screen size. The three settings are 100%, 75%, and 50%, but you can also drag the Preview window handle to any size you like. Source/Output selection: Use these buttons to preview the selected batch item using either the sources aspect and size or the outputs aspect and size. The Source View button also provides a cropping boundary that you can use to define one or more edges to be cropped. The Output View button shows the cropped version of the media scaled to its aspect and size setting. Source/Output information: The clips frame size and frame rate are shown in the lower-left corner of the Preview window. The clips duration is shown in the lowerright corner. With the Source View button selected, the frame size, frame rate, and duration represent the source media clip. With the Output View button selected, the frame size, frame rate, and duration represent the setting for this batch item, and the duration is based on the In and Out points set in the Preview window.
Chapter 16 Using the Preview Window
Batch item selection control area You can use the batch item selection area to choose specific items from the Batch window to show in the Preview window.
Batch Item selection buttons

Batch Item pop-up menu

Batch item selection buttons: Use these buttons to click backward or forward through the list of source media files and clips with settings available for previewing. As you click through the list, the selected batch item appears in the batch item pop-up menu. Batch item pop-up menu: Choose the source media file you want to preview from this pop-up menu, with or without its assigned settings. In and Out controls Once you have selected the batch item, the In and Out controls can be used to see and adjust the In and Out point timecode information.

odd fields 132, 189 one pass VBR best encoding 134 one pass VBR encoding 153 online help 13 opacity of text 191 open GOPs 139, 141, 150 opening batch files 87 Open Volume option 226 output files See also names of specific formats choosing format 27, 29 described 26, 27 destinations. See destinations formats, described 28 names 57 quality of 209 settings. See settings transcoding 12 types of 109, 177 Output pop-up menu 190 Output view 72 Output View button 210 overexposed clips 190 overscan areas 201
P-frames 139, 140 Packet Maximums Duration field 157 Packet Maximums Size field 157 PAL format 111 GOP size 139 H.264 output 111 MPEG-2 output 116, 130 pixel aspect ratio 202 passwords 229 paths to destinations 225, 229 Pattern field 139 Pause button 214 PCM audio 112 Peak Mixing Level setting 97 performance, screen savers and 32, 83 permissions 226 phantom centers 106 phones audio quality 170 sample rates 176 Photo-JPEG codec 167 Pixel aspect pop-up menu 202 pixel aspect ratio 47, 202 pixel color 191 platforms, playback 12 playback looping 213
platforms 12 stereo 107 transport controls 214 Playback Loop button 213 Play button 214, 216 playhead 213 Playhead timecode field 213 plug-ins 178 PNG codec 167 Position pop-up menu 190 pre-buffered downloading (QuickTime) 164 predicted frames 140 Preferences window 3436 Preprocessing tab 9899 presets See also destinations, Droplets, settings types of 61 Presets button 39 Presets table 6465 Presets window creating settings 28 Destinations tab 224225 overview 38, 4048 Settings tab 6265 Preview button 39 previewing items clips 215218 described 11 filters 186 settings 30, 32, 38, 7273 source media files 215 Preview screen area 212 Preview screen size 210 Preview window 209222 adding I-frames to MPEG-2 files 150 controls 210215 described 30, 38 enlarging Preview screen size 210 keyboard shortcuts 54, 222 opening 50 overview 50, 210215 previewing clips 215218 previewing settings 30, 32, 38, 7273 roles of 209 transcoding portions of clips 219 Priority pop-up menu 56 privileges 223 progressive video motion in 138 MPEG-MPEG-projects, Final Cut Pro 87 publishing process 11 Purpose buttons 118
QDesign Music 2 codec 169, 181 QDesign Music codec 182 QDMC codec 182 qmaster prefs command 245 Qualcomm PureVoice codec 169, 181, 182 quality job segmenting and 44 MPEG-2 files 147149 previewing output 209 QuickTime settings 167 Quality pop-up menu 156 Quality slider 167 Quality tab 134138, 145 QuickTime encoder 29 website 14 QuickTime audio codecs adding to presets 173174 choosing 170, 175176, 182 settings 166 QuickTime Encoder pane 164166 QuickTime Export Components 12, 179 QuickTime Export Components Encoder pane 178 QuickTime Export option 144 QuickTime Hint Exported Settings dialog 165 QuickTime movie files encoder for 12 Fast Start movies 164, 165.mov extension 110 QuickTime Streaming movies 164 sound settings 166 QuickTime output files creating 164 sound settings 169170, 181 transcoding workflow 171174 web-based files 164 QuickTime Sound Settings dialog 180 QuickTime Streaming Servers 157, 161 QuickTime video codecs adding to presets 172 choosing 174175 settings 166 quitting Compressor 35

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Page 1

Apple Qmaster 2 and Compressor 2
Distributed Processing Setup
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Apple Computer, Inc.

2005 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.
Under the copyright laws, this manual may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Apple. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Use of the keyboard Apple logo (Option-Shift-K) for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of Apple may constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition in violation of federal and state laws. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is accurate. Apple Computer, Inc., is not responsible for printing or clerical errors. Apple Computer, Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014-2084 408-996-1010 www.apple.com Apple, the Apple logo, AppleScript, Apple Store, DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut, Final Cut Pro, FireWire, Mac, Mac OS, QuickTime, Shake, and Xserve are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Finder is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. AppleCare is a service mark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Dolby is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories. Other company and product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective companies. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the performance or use of these products.
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Contents

Preface
Introduction to Distributed Processing Using Distributed Processing to Increase Speed and Efficiency Basic Components of the Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System Clients Clusters QuickClusters How the Apple Qmaster System Distributes Batches About the Distributed Processing Setup Guide Apple Websites Compressor and Shake Websites AppleCare Service and Support Website Other Apple Websites Getting Started Quickly Quick and Easy Distributed Processing Preparing a Network for Distributed Processing The Minimum You Need to Know Example of a Minimal Distributed Processing Network Using One Computer to Serve Two Distributed Processing Roles Other Possible Components of a Distributed Processing Network Example of an Expanded Distributed Processing Network Sample Setup for Part-Time Processing on Desktop Computers Configuring Access for Part-Time Distributed Processing Additional Steps For Part-Time Distributed Processing With Shake The Interfaces The Interfaces in the Apple Qmaster Distributed Processing System Apple Qmaster Pane in System Preferences Apple Qadministrator Client Interfaces: Compressor and Apple Qmaster Using Compressor Using Apple Qmaster Batch Monitor

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

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Chapter 4

Creating and Administering Clusters An Overview of Configuring a Cluster Configuring Service Nodes and Cluster Controllers Configuring Service Node Processing Options in the Apple Qmaster Pane in System Preferences Managed Vs. Unmanaged Services Turning Cluster Controller Services On or Off Making the Most of Multi-processor Computers Creating Clusters With Apple Qadministrator About QuickClusters Creating QuickClusters Advanced Settings in the Apple Qmaster Preferences Pane Modifying and Deleting Clusters With Apple Qadministrator Monitoring Cluster Activity Setting Cluster Preferences Setting Passwords and Scratch Storage Setting Cluster Administrator and User Passwords Setting a Service Password for Including a Computer in a Cluster Cluster Storage: Setting a Scratch Storage Location Recovery and Failure Notification Features Recovery Features Failure Notification Command-Line Usage Installing Apple Qmaster from the Command Line Shell Commands for Configuring Service Nodes and Cluster Controllers Shell Commands for Submitting Compressor Jobs Shell Commands for Submitting Apple Qmaster Jobs Shell Commands for Monitoring Batches

Appendix

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Introduction to Distributed Processing
Rendering a series of large files on one desktop computer is processing intensive and time consuming. You can increase speed and productivity by distributing processing across multiple computers.
High-volume processing is sometimes addressed by carefully managing multiple computers; technicians set up batches of processing tasks for each computer, and then monitor their progress, collect and route the processed files, and start over again with new batches. While this is an improvement over the single-computer method, the resource and process management can be laborious and slow. The Apple Qmaster distributed processing engine provides a more efficient solution, handling all the work distribution and processing for you, behind the scenes. Apple Qmaster and the Apple Qmaster features of Compressor 2 manage the processing across designated computers. They subdivide the work for speed, route the work to the computers with the most available computing power, and direct the processing.
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Using Distributed Processing to Increase Speed and Efficiency
Distributed processing accelerates processing by distributing the work to multiple computers that have been chosen to provide more processing power. You can submit batches of processing jobs to Apple Qmaster, which allocates those jobs to other computers in the most efficient way (described in more detail in How the Apple Qmaster System Distributes Batches on page 9). Computers that submit batches to the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system are called clients. A job is a processing task such as a Compressor preset-source pair, or a Shake file, or other file or commands, that use UNIX commands to specify settings such as rendering instructions and file locations and destinations.
Batch of processing jobs Client computer Jobs are submitted. Apple Qmaster cluster Processing is performed by cluster.
Processing files Destination folder Files are placed at specified destination.
A batch is one or more jobs submitted for processing at one time. The procedure is analogous to printing multi-page documents from a word processing program; the files are spooled and processed in the background. Although a batch can include just one job, you will typically want to submit several jobs at once for processing. Similarly, several people can use the same Apple Qmaster system at the same time, with several client computers sending batches in the same time frame. Batches are managed and distributed by the computer that is designated as the Apple Qmaster cluster controller, which is described in the next section.

How the Apple Qmaster System Distributes Batches
The Apple Qmaster cluster controller determines the most efficient use of the cluster resources. It makes this determination based on the availability of each service node and the number of separable parts (described next) of the batch. Because Apple Qmaster subdivides individual batches across different service nodes, the work is shared and completed more quickly. And, because this method uses all the service nodes as much as possible, you avoid under-utilizing your resources.
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Batches can be distributed to a cluster by the cluster controller in one or both of the following ways. (Apple Qmaster determines which way is the most efficient for specific batches, depending on the circumstances.) The batch is subdivided into data segments: For example, for a render batch, the cluster controller could divide the frames into groups (segments). Each segment would be processed in parallel on the service nodes in the cluster. The batch is subdivided into tasks: For example, for a render batch, the cluster controller could subdivide the rendering work into different processing tasks. Different tasks would be run on different service nodes. Rather than actually moving segments, Apple Qmaster tells the service nodes which segments to read via the network, where to find them, and what to do with them. Below is an example of how one batch could be processed in an Apple Qmaster system.
Batch submitted by Compressor or Apple Qmaster Job request for frames 130 Cluster controller divides and distributes job to available service nodes
Instructions specifying locations of source files and frames 0110
Instructions specifying locations of source files and frames 1120
Instructions specifying locations of source files and frames 2130

Service node 1

Service node 2

Service node 3

Processed files placed in specified destination
In distributing batches, Apple Qmaster uses the technology built in to Mac OS X to locate services in a cluster on the same IP subnet and to dynamically share and receive information. Because the computers can continually transmit their current processing availability status, Apple Qmaster can distribute (load-balance) the workload evenly across the cluster.

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About the Distributed Processing Setup Guide
The background information that introduces most of the basic concepts and terms related to using the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system is contained in this preface: Introduction to Distributed Processing. Chapter 1, Getting Started Quickly, on page 15, gets you going with a few very simple steps. Chapter 2, Preparing a Network for Distributed Processing,on page 21, will help you make sure that the network part of your Apple Qmaster system is ready. Chapter 3, The Interfaces, on page 29, introduces each of the applications and utilities included with the Apple Qmaster distributed processing software, and describes when you need to use each of them. Chapter 4, Creating and Administering Clusters, on page 39, tells you how to configure and administer the clusters, and how to submit and monitor the batches that you want to have processed by the clusters. The Appendix, Command-Line Usage, on page 63, explains how you can use the distributed processing system entirely from the command line. While all of the chapters should be useful to administrators, client users may only need to refer to the Compressor 2 User Manual or the Apple Qmaster 2 User Manual, and possibly to the introductory information in this preface, to understand how to use the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system for their purposes. To access the Distributed Processing Setup guide: m Choose Help > Distributed Processing Setup. You can also choose either Help > Apple Qmaster User Manual or Help > Compressor User Manual. Each user manual contains a homepage that provides quick access to various features, including Late-Breaking News. Additionally, a comprehensive bookmark list allows you to quickly choose what you want to see and takes you there as soon as you click the link. In addition to these navigational tools, the Help documentation gives you other means to locate information quickly: All cross-references in the text are linked. You can click any cross-reference and jump immediately to that location. Then, you can use the navigation Back button to return to where you were before you clicked the cross-reference. The table of contents and index are also linked. If you click an entry in either of these sections, you jump directly to that section of Help. You can also use the Find dialog to search the index or text for specific words or phrases.

Apple Websites

There are a variety of Apple websites that you can visit to find additional information.

Using Apple Qmaster

For Shake processing batches, you can drag Shake files into the Apple Qmaster window. A default script for submitting the jobs is automatically created. In Apple Qmaster, you can then specify certain details, such as which cluster to use, and make adjustments to certain settings. For Maya batches, there is also a special interface within Apple Qmaster for submitting and customizing Maya jobs. You can use the Generic Render command in Apple Qmaster for the distributed processing of projects from other frame-based rendering applications (such as After Effects and LightWave). For details about using Apple Qmaster, see the Apple Qmaster 2 User Manual.
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To open Apple Qmaster: m Double-click the Apple Qmaster icon in the Applications folder. The Apple Qmaster window appears.
As an administrator, you can use the Batch Monitor to track the progress of all the batch activity for all the clusters on your network. You can see how close to completion each job is, along with other details, and you can stop, resume, or delete batches as well. If you are a client user, you can use the Batch Monitor to view and manage your own batches.
Use the Batch Monitor to see information about batches that have been sent to specified clusters:
Status of batches Cluster
For details about using the Batch Monitor, see the Batch Monitor User Manual.
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To open the Batch Monitor, do one of the following: m Use the Batch Monitor that automatically opens after you submit a batch with Compressor or Apple Qmaster. m Double-click the Batch Monitor icon in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. m Click the Batch Monitor button in the Apple Qmaster window or in the Compressor batch window. m In Apple Qadministrator, choose Cluster > Show Batch Monitor. The Batch Monitor appears. If you dont see any batches in the cluster, and the lock icon in the Lock button is closed, you need to click the Lock button and then enter the cluster user password in the dialog that appears.
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Creating and Administering Clusters
Once your network is set up and you have installed the necessary components, you are ready to create distributed processing clusters.

The default is 10 minutes, but you can turn off the service immediately by entering 0 in the field. If you enter any number greater than 0, a countdown appears next to the Cancel button. The shutdown delay is provided because some computers may be in the middle of processing batches, and these could be damaged by a premature shutdown. No new cluster connections are allowed to occur as the cluster controller is shutting down.
Making the Most of Multi-processor Computers
If any of the service nodes you are administering have multiple processors, you may want to adjust the number of instances of processing services. By default, the Apple Qmaster system will create one instance for each processor. For process-intensive work, having many instances may increase speed and efficiency, depending on the processing application. (Consult the documentation that came with the application to see if using each processor individually is ideal.) Note: This feature is available only for Shake (with Apple Qmaster), Alias Maya, and other UNIX command-line programs. It is not available for Compressor processing.
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To change the number of instances of processing services on a computer: 1 Open the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences. 2 Select the Rendering service in the Services section. 3 Click the Options for selected service. button. 4 In the dialog that appears, do one of the following: Choose Local from the Add ( + ) pop-up menu to add an instance. Select an instance in the list and click the Remove ( ) button to remove an instance.
Choose Local from this Add pop-up menu to add an instance.
5 Click OK. 6 In the Services section, select the Share checkbox for Rendering. Note: The Service Options dialog is also used to add extended nodes to a cluster, as described in the Apple Qmaster 2 User Manual.
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Creating Clusters With Apple Qadministrator
Once you configure managed service nodes and/or cluster controllers, they are visible in Apple Qadministrator, which you use to create and modify Apple Qmaster clusters. There are two basic steps to creating a managed cluster with Apple Qadministrator. First, you create a new cluster and choose the cluster controller. Then, you add service nodes to the cluster. Step 1: Create a new cluster 1 Open Apple Qadministrator, and then do the following: a Click the Add ( + ) button. b Select Untitled Cluster and rename it. (The cluster name you create will also appear in the cluster pop-up menus in the Batch Monitor and Apple Qmaster.)
Click the Add button, then rename the Untitled Cluster.
2 From the Controller pop-up menu, choose a cluster controller from those available on the network.
Use this pop-up menu to choose a cluster controller.
Note: If a password was created for the cluster controller in System Preferences, a password authentication dialog appears. 3 Optionally, create cluster passwords by clicking the Security tab and selecting and entering the passwords you want. Administrator Password: If you create this password, administrators will need to know it in order to modify this cluster and to view this clusters batches in the Batch Monitor. User Password: If you create this password, users will need to know it in order to submit batches to this cluster and to view those batches in the Batch Monitor.

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Advanced Settings in the Apple Qmaster Preferences Pane
You can use the Advanced section in the Apple Qmaster Preferences Pane to further configure your distributed processing system.
Advanced Service Settings Use these features to schedule service restarts and service availability. Restart all services every 24 hours The Restart all services every 24 hours checkbox ensures a robust distributed processing system. Refreshing the services periodically prevents increased virtual memory sizes and memory leaks in third-party software. Set schedule for unmanaged services If you enabled unmanaged services, you can open a calendar interface and schedule the availability of these services to the distributed processing system.
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To schedule service availability: 1 Click Set. The work schedule interface appears.
By default, the services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 2 To constrain the availability of the services, click the pop-up menu next to a particular day of the week, and choose one of the following: Off makes the service unavailable on that day of the week. On between allows you to enter the period of time the service will be available. Off between allows you to enter the period of time the service will not be available.
3 Enter any constraining time periods in the appropriate time fields. 4 Click OK to save the settings.
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Shared Cluster Storage Use these features to configure scratch storage for this computers cluster controller. For more information on cluster storage, see Cluster Storage: Setting a Scratch Storage Location on page 59. Delete Files Older Than __ Days Enter the number of days temporary process files may remain on the clusters scratch location before they are automatically deleted. Cluster Storage Enter a local folder directory to change the scratch location for the clusters temporary process files. See Cluster Storage: Setting a Scratch Storage Location on page 59 for more information. Network Use these features to configure network settings. Allow wide area Bonjour in domain Select this checkbox to have Apple Qmaster use computers beyond the local subnet, and enter the DNS Domain in the text field. This feature requires Mac OS X v10.4 or later. Use Network Interface Restrict distributed processing activity to a particular network interface card by choosing it from this pop-up menu. Extras Use these features to configure additional settings. Log service activity to file If selected, an activity log is created and updated regularly with information about the Apple Qmaster actions on this computer. This log is located in the /Library/Logs/ Apple Qmaster folder. Show Qmaster service status in menu bar If selected, an Apple Qmaster icon appears in the computers menu bar. The menu bar item provides Apple Qmaster status and activity information. Identify this computer to Apple Qadministrator as By default, a computer is identified on the network by its computer name (as it is entered in the Sharing pane in System Preferences). You can change this name to something more meaningful if you like, since it is the name used to identify this computer in the Apple Qadministrator application. If you are setting up a managed cluster controller, this is the name that will appear in the Apple Qadministrator Controller pop-up menu.

Monitoring Cluster Activity
You can use Apple Qadministrator to find out what is happening within a cluster by examining details (such as CPU usage, which batch is being processed, disk space usage, and data activity) about each node in the cluster. To monitor cluster activity in Apple Qadministrator: 1 In the Cluster list, select the cluster you want to examine. 2 Select a node in the cluster service nodes list. 3 Click the Info ( I ) button near the bottom of the Cluster list. 4 In the resulting window, click the CPU, Memory, Volume Info, or I/O Activity tabs to see a variety of details about the selected node.
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Setting Cluster Preferences
You can use Apple Qadministrator Preferences to configure several aspects of Apple Qadministrator. To set cluster preferences: 1 Open Apple Qadministrator. 2 In the Cluster list, select the cluster for which you want to set preferences. 3 Click Preferences.
Click Preferences to display the Preferences pane.
4 Set any of the following preferences: Queue Maximum number of jobs in the queue: Enter the maximum number of batches that can be queued up at one time for this cluster. If the maximum number is reached, the cluster does not accept new batches until there is an opening in the queue. Keep job history for: Set how long batches are listed in the History table of the Batch Monitor. Email notification for service down after: Set how much time should pass, after a service becomes inaccessible, before the cluster controller sends an alert message to the administrator. (See Email Notification, below.) Status Interval: Set how often status information about this cluster should be generated and sent to the Batch Monitor. Email Notification To have the cluster controller send service failure alerts to an administrator, enter the relevant information in the fields provided. See Recovery and Failure Notification Features on page 60 for more information. Admin Email: Enter the administrators email address. Send with mail server: Enter the administrators mail server. Domain: Enter the cluster controllers domain.
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Setting Passwords and Scratch Storage
You can create several different types of passwords for the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system. All these passwords are optional; you can use the system without creating them. Cluster administrator password: A password required for modifying a cluster in Apple Qadministrator, and for modifying the status of the clusters batches in the Batch Monitor. See Setting Cluster Administrator and User Passwords, next. Cluster user password: A password that client users will need in order to submit batches to a cluster and to modify the status of those batches in the Batch Monitor. See Setting Cluster Administrator and User Passwords, next. Service password: A password required for an administrator to add a specific service node or cluster controller to a cluster. See Setting a Service Password for Including a Computer in a Cluster on page 58. You can also change the default scratch storage location for a cluster, or for each computer in a cluster. See Cluster Storage: Setting a Scratch Storage Location on page 59.

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Command-Line Usage

If you are accustomed to doing your work from Terminal shells, and need or prefer to run the distributed processing system from the command line with minimal use of application interfaces, this appendix is for you.
The appendix includes the following topics: Installing Apple Qmaster from the Command Line (next) Shell Commands for Configuring Service Nodes and Cluster Controllers on page 64 Shell Commands for Submitting Compressor Jobs on page 64 Shell Commands for Submitting Apple Qmaster Jobs on page 66 Shell Commands for Monitoring Batches on page 68
Installing Apple Qmaster from the Command Line
Follow these steps to install Apple Qmaster software on each computer you want to use for distributed processing. (All computers must be on the same subnet.) 1 Copy the standalone installer package (AppleQmasterNode.mpkg) to the remote system. You can either use the Finder, or copy the files using Secure Copy:
scp <source file> <user>@<remote host>:<path>
Note: Do not alter the file hierarchy of the packages. 2 Log into the remote system. 3 Enter the following command:
sudo installer -pkg AppleQmasterNode.mpkg -target /
4 Do one of the following to start the Apple Qmaster processes: Enter this command:
sudo systemstarter start Qmaster\ services
Restart the remote computer 5 Repeat these steps for each computer in your distributed processing network.
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Shell Commands for Configuring Service Nodes and Cluster Controllers
As an alternative to using the Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences, you can use the command qmasterprefs, with command-line options for enabling and disabling service node and cluster controlling services. In the command-line descriptions below, angle brackets < > indicate a mandatory argument in a command and brackets [ ] indicate an optional argument. Synopsis Below is a synopsis of the command for enabling and disabling cluster controlling services on a computer. The qmasterprefs command is located in /usr/sbin. qmasterprefs -cluster <on | off> [-timeout <minutes>] [-servername <name>] [-list] [-help] Below is a synopsis of the command for enabling and disabling service node processing on a computer. qmasterprefs -service Unix Processing <on | off> [-instances <n>] [-timeout <minutes>] [-servername <name>] [-list] [-help] Command options This table provides information about each of the enabling and disabling service-node and cluster-controlling services on a computer.

[-batchname <name>] [-clusterid <user name:password@IP address:port number>]
[-priority <value>] [-jobpath <url>] [-settingpath <url>] [-destinationpath <url>] [-info <xml>] [-timeout <seconds>]

[-show] [-help]

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Example of Compressor Command XML The code below is an example of XML code for submitting a Compressor command. Notice that because it needs to be entered as one command line, every character after -options that isnt alphanumeric must be preceded with a backslash (\)./Compressor -clusterid tcp://127.0.0.1:51737 -batchname myBatch -jobpath /Volumes/ Source/ShortClips/NTSC24p.mov -settingpath /Users/stomper10/Library/Application\ Support/Compressor/PhotoJPEG.setting -destinationpath /Users/machinename/ myDestinationFilename.mov. This command has the following elements: Cluster address is tcp://127.0.0.1:51737. Batchname is myBatch. Job path is /Volumes/Source/ShortClips/NTSC24p.mov. Setting path is /Users/stomper10/Library/Application\ Support/Compressor/ PhotoJPEG.setting. Destination path is /Users/machinename/Movies.
Shell Commands for Submitting Apple Qmaster Jobs
You can use the Apple Qmaster command, Apple\ Qmaster, with a number of command-line options for submitting jobs. In the command-line descriptions below, angle brackets < > indicate a mandatory argument in a command and brackets [ ] indicate an optional argument. Synopsis Below is a synopsis of the command for submitting a job to a cluster. The Apple\ Qmaster command is located in /Applications/Apple Qmaster.app/Contents/MacOS. Apple\ Qmaster [-clustername <name>] [-clusterid <user name:password@IP address:port number>][-command <command type> -options <XML command> [-wd <working directory>] [-timeout <seconds>] [-show] [-batchname <name>] [-help] Once the job is submitted successfully, this command displays the batch ID (identifier) and job ID (identifier) in the shell.
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Command options This table provides information about each of the command options for submitting jobs.
Submission command option [-clustername <name>] Description Use to specify the name of the cluster to which you want to send the job. Using the cluster name, Apple Qmaster looks for the cluster on the network in order to use it. Use to specify a name for the batch so that you can easily recognize it in the Batch Monitor. Optionally, you can use -clusterid to enter the cluster ID and port number instead of using -clustername. (When you enter the cluster ID and port, less time is required to find the cluster on the network.) Or, if you used -clustername and the cluster requires a password, use -clusterid to specify the user name and password. (You need to include the IP address: port number as well whenever you use -clusterid.) Tip: Use Apple\ Qmaster -show to see a clusters IP address and port number. Specifies the kind of command you are entering: Shell, Shake, Maya, or other command, depending on the application you want to use for distributed processing. Specifies the command with XML code. Enter the XML code after -options, with the necessary qualifiers for entering it in a shell. See Example of Shake Command XML, next, for an example. If no -option is entered, the values from the applications preferences file, in ~/Library/Preferences, are used (which are the values of the most recent job submitted). Use to specify the working directory path (from which the command should be executed). The default working directory is /Applications/Shake. Use to specify the number of seconds before Apple Qmaster can quit when looking for a cluster. The default value is 0, which puts no limit on the timeout and allows Apple Qmaster to browse the network for as long as it needs to find the cluster. Shows the ID information for the cluster specified with -clustername or -clusterid, or for all clusters if no cluster is specified. Displays information about supported options for Apple \ Qmaster.

email notification 56, 61
failure notification 56, 61 files log 61
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Maya 36 sharing 27 temporary 59
history, batch 56 History table 56
processing services distributed processing 6 failure alerts 56, 60 running dual instances 4647 service failure 60 time allotted for 45, 46 turning off 45 turning on 41
installing Compressor/Apple Qmaster 26
Qadministrator. See Apple Qadministrator Qmaster. See Apple Qmaster qmasterprefs command 64 QuickCluster configuring 17 QuickClusters about 9, 50 Apple Qadministrator 54 creating 50 enabling unmanaged services 44 extended node clusters 50 managed vs. unmanaged services 43

jobs. See batch jobs

lock icon 49 log files 61
mail server 56 managed services 43 manual, about 11 Maya batches 36 media storage volumes 27
recovery features 6061 rendering defined 9 Rendering services 41 turning off 45
networks. See Apple Qmaster networks
passwords 5758 administrator. See administrator password cluster administrator 48, 57 cluster controllers 48 clusters 34, 48 cluster users 48, 57 computers 49 service 57, 58 users 48 Personal File Sharing 27 preferences Apple Qmaster. See Apple Qmaster pane in System Preferences clusters 56 processes directing 7 storage locations for 23, 59 tracking 7 processing defined 9 desktop processing environment 2528 distributed part-time 2528 expanded network for 24 installing software 1516, 26 quick and easy steps 1519 submitting batches for 28
scratch storage 23, 42, 59 security passwords. See passwords servers See also computers distributed processing and 24 mail 56 rack of 24 service exceptions 60 service nodes adding to clusters 18, 54 assigning to clusters 49 clients as 22 as cluster controllers 22 configuring with Apple Qmaster 4047 configuring with shell commands 64 creating 41 described 7 dual processors 4647 enabling/disabling 64 illustrated 7 inaccessible 9 multiple 23 overloaded 9 overview 9 passwords 58
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processing services 4445 processing stops unexpectedly 60 turning off processing services 45 turning on processing services 41, 45 Service Options dialog 47 service passwords 57, 58 Services pane 45 Shake dual processors 46 installing distributed processing 27 media file locations 28 script locations 28 source files 26 startup.h file 27 UNC setting 27 shell commands 6469 shutdown delay 45, 46 storage devices 23 subnet 8, 10 switches, high-speed 23, 24 System Preferences 17, 3132
See also batches Terminal shell commands 6369
unmanaged services 43 enabling on managed clusters 44 enabling on QuickCluster 44 user mode, Batch Monitor 38 users cluster 48, 57 passwords 48, 57

video codecs See also codecs
websites Apple 12 Apple Store 13

tasks 5, 6, 10

XML code 66, 68