Creating interlaced h.264 in Compressor

Hello all,

I'd like to generate an interlaced h.264 file in Compressor, but every option that I can see defaults to progressive (and doesn't let you change it).

I found this article from 2017 which says you should switch to Faster Encode to open up the interlaced option -  support.apple.com/en-am/HT205071 . However, this option is not available in the latest version of Compressor (I'm using 4.5.1).

I know that it should be possible to do - even FCP can do it (Share > Master File > H.264 will export as interlaced or progressive depending on the format of your Project).

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Rob

Click the + in the lower left to make a custom preset. Select QuickTime or MPEG-4. Set it up how you like.

Hi Tom,
Yep, tried that. As soon as I change the codec to h.264 the field order changes to progressive...

Although I notice from your screenshot that you are specifying a frame rate (29.97).  As soon as I specify a frame rate (in my case 25fps) then the field order options are available.

So basically you can't create a template for any frame rate (ie leaving it in Automatic), you have to specify in order to change the field order.

How annoying! Ideally I'd want to use this as a template to keep the original frame rate and field order as the original by using Automatic, but for now I'll specify a rate and see how it goes.

Thanks for the quick answer though - much appreciated!

Rob

Yes, you have to specify the frame rate. You can leave it as a preset and then change, it should you have some other frame rate of rate. You can't have it on automatic because you can't have higher frame rates as interlaced.

Understood - thanks Tom

I've used this setup successfully. Upper field first for broadcast and pretty much everything except 'DV'. ( I'd be surprised if anyone was using DV this days. ) It's pretty annoying that interlaced video is still around, but that's TV for you!

Thanks Steve - I hate fields too - wish we'd gone 50p when we went HD

Hope you got it all sorted - I remember a lot of faffing around with the same issues when I made that preset. I was tempted to do it in Media Encoder but I can usually resolve most issues within the three hours it takes for Media Encoder to open. Lol!

I'm getting there - interlaced/progressive is working for me now, but I'm faffing about with audio. I'd like to get stereo and multiple mono's to work depending on source - Audio passthrough works a treat but at a size cost.

Work in progress!