FilmTrik BroadCast Batch Converter Professional for Mac

User Reviews

• One of the best ways to convert footage.

  DannyMacGillDecember 21, 2012

  Pros

  1.Searching Whole Folders and Partitions 2.Recreation of source directory structure 3.Integrated ultra fast browser of media files 4.option to use ffmpeg as defacto standard for all serious converting 5.Great price ($10 is really unbelievable for a tool thats this useful)

  Cons

  1.GUI could be improved (every time files are multi-selected, they are not coloured in different color) 2.Some of the presets need improvement or rewriting. 3.Preview plays files automatically, should have an option to choose if needed. 4.Tutorial only available on youtube.(fine for me , but others may prefer print)

  Summary

  We've tried many tools for converting, batch processing videos to intraframe codecs for editing or delivery formats. They all seem to have more or less the same options. The workflow is always similar involving selection of the source files and specifying destination. This is where FilmTrik changes the way we do it. Hopefully, it will change the workflow of the existing compressors so we can start using this fantastic workflow more often. As in the other apps, you can select files for input, but this way FilmTrik works just as any other convertor and there is no clear benefit in doing it. The real difference comes when you select whole folders or even disks and partitions as sources. Filmtrik Batch pro analyses all subfolders and searches for most common media formats. The search results are then used to further select which files will be converted(and their target codecs). This concept is great when you got complex source structure(who doesn't have with DSLR's) and you got folders for CARD 1,2,3,4,5 or CAM 1,2,3 or like DAY 1,2,3,4.. Filmtrik will do something that really changes the workflow, especially if you intend to relink and conform to original files after editing.Whole source directory structure is retained and it's really interesting how this simple concept was never used by other big names in convertor's market. The back end is up to you to provide which is a bit of a problem , but once you install(or give link) to ffmpeg, which is not bundled with FilmTrik (I think it has to do with strict licensing of the ffmpeg engine and some of the codecs bundled with it are enforced by the notorious MPEG LA) . Anyway, Filmtrik is probably able to provide this price cause the client provides the engine(usually ffmpeg, but it doesn't restrict you to ffmpeg, as you can use any other command line tool,for audio sox is ok as well). The preview is so quick that many will use FilmTrik as clip browser as well. One thing that developers can change is the default setting to automatically play selected clip.It looks responsive and nice, but not always needed as a feature. The quality of the conversion is just as good as using ffmpeg directly through the command line without all the hassle. You can even create your own presets which is encouraged by FilmTrik developers. Sharing of your presets is possible as well. The downside may be the lack of precision in it's progress bar when showing the conversion steps, and the fact that when you select files and apply codecs, the selected files are not marked with different colour which makes it a bit hard to identify if you got hundreds of files. I hope this will be changed in the later versions. All things considered, this is an amazing piece of software and their $10 offer is something that no serious editor can afford to miss.

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