Running Compressor From The Command Line

[This article was first published in the September, 2010, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.]

Bob Gobeille sent this in:

I’m sure you don’t remember me but you published my instructions for how to refresh disk drives a couple years ago. I still enjoy your newsletter. Thank you.

 

On one of my jobs I just discovered that we incorrectly compressed ~3,500 videos (we sell stock weather video). This was at first a little depressing, but then I looked into and found that Compressor could be run from the command line. I haven’t seen this talked about a lot, but maybe I’ve just missed it. The instructions are simple and in the Compressor manual. Since I’m a computer programmer, I used the command line to automate rerunning the ~3,500 compressions.

 

I just thought I’d mention running Compressor from the command line in case others have some programming skills (or staff) and find themselves in a similar circumstance.

 

I should have mentioned that when you queue up several hundred compressions, that the Batch Monitor can consume as much cpu as the compressor itself and become unresponsive. So try to avoid the Batch Monitor or limit your batches to just a few hundred compressions (400 worked well for me on a an older MacPro).

Larry adds: Thanks, Bob, for the tip!