About iShowU HD's CPU Usage

[LeodimeII]

Not to side with Emeek, but On-The-Fly encoding is terrible. I'd rather wait a while for it to encode after I finish recording.

[MacintechStudios]

Don't just listen to emeek man. He never fully listens to what people say and thus twists what you say. HD and HD Pro encode on the fly with auto mode, but if another application demands the CPU they decrease the amount of CPU they use for the application(s) and continue to compress after the video is done recording. A blend of both worlds that's seamless.

[gaahhhhhh]

Oh and one more thing before I go. How can you say iShowU HD is best when (assuming this video was created with it) has such terrible quality? And yes, I watched it in high quality and it still sucks.

[MacintechStudios]

This video was mostly made in Final Cut (I compressed with Final Cut as well, which is a thing I'll never do again since FC sucks at compression). in my opinion though, Youtube has always sucked at quality. If I uploaded this same video to Vimeo you'd think the quality was amazing (which it is in the full 720p version).

[gaahhhhhh]

Why compress in FC if it sucks? Or was it done that because iShowU compression sucks even more? Ok, I'm leaving for real now lol. Enough of this back and forth stuff

[MacintechStudios]

This was my first and last attempted at compressing to h.264 in Final Cut. I just felt like seeing the quality and comparing it to Stomp's h.264 compression (which is far better). iShowU HD's compression is using the same engine as Stomp does (which is a tweaked version of QuickTime Pro's export), so it's actually quite superb.

[gaahhhhhh]

Well no arguement from me there, I suppose. From what I've heard Stomp is one of the best out there for what it does.

[MacintechStudios]

Yeah, of all the software I've tried (short of Compressor from Apple), it does the best encoding of h.264. I'm a bit sad that elgato 264 doesn't support Stomp though, would make things faster.

[gaahhhhhh]

You also say that on the fly compression is good because you can directly upload to youtube as soon as your done, but the fact of the matter is most people don't do direct uploads. They export it first and do some editing... And if you can set it to compress after you're done recording, how does it make it different that any other screen cast app? On the fly compression is stupid, and compression after the fact is ordinary. why should I buy iShowU HD for $60 when I can get screenium to do the..

[MacintechStudios]

I also said "or go straight to video editing." The Youtube thing is done only by a few people where as editing is done by the majority. Stop twisting what I say. Low CPU mode is for HD Pro since Pro customers want it, but Auto mode is good for most, and even good for the professional side in my opinion. Complete on-the-fly compression is horrible though and I think should never be used.

[gaahhhhhh]

I don't understand why you try to make on-the-fly compression seem like a good thing... it's simply not practical if iShowU uses as much CPU as it does. In a lot of cases people are using processor intesive applications and doing reviews/tutorials on them. If you're using iShowU it makes it a little difficult to do that since it's eating all your CPU. Part of your agrument is that you don't have to wait afterward, but who the hell cares? What does it take... a couple minutes at the most...?

[MacintechStudios]

I can't believe after saying it so many times why you all fail to understand. Yes on-the-fly compression uses a lot of CPU, but what HD and HD Pro do differently than iShowU is that if another application (or applications) need that CPU, HD/HD Pro will scale down the amount of CPU it uses for those other applications and anything it can't compress on the fly as a result thereof it will compress after you are done recording. It's a mix of on-the-fly compression and low CPU mode, which is better.

[gaahhhhhh]

it may be better, but it sure as hell isn't worth $30 more. If i was going to spend that much on a screen cast app, I'd save up 40 more bucks and buy a TRULY professional application, ScreenFlow.

[MacintechStudios]

Um.... Auto mode is in iShowU HD, which is a $10 upgrade from iShowU. Also, Screenflow isn't a professional app. It's a Pro-Sumer app.

[gaahhhhhh]

If you're talking about iShowU classic, then I believe that is optimized for Tiger, why would anyone want to pay money to upgrade an updated application when they could buy Screenium for $10 cheaper and it's optimized for Leopard. And if Screenflow is a so called "Pro-Sumer app" then shiny white box has no right to call iShowU HD PRO a pro application, Because you get higher quality and more options in Screenflow, that you don't get in iShowU HD PRO. In my opinion SF is a hell of a lot more pro.

[MacintechStudios]

iShowU HD is also Leopard optimized and can do more than Screenium. If Screenium is all you need then buy it, but if you want quite a bit more for only $10 more, then get iShowU HD.

And yes iShowU HD Pro has every right to call itself a pro app since it's designed from the core to be integrated into Final Cut Studio (full on support for high-end audio setups, direct support for all FCP presets, etc). Screenflow isn't because it's not marketed for Pro users.

[gaahhhhhh]

integration with Final Cut Studio alone doesn't make it Pro. Since when was Final Cut Studio integration the definition of PRO. And according to Apple, Screenflow makes extensive use of the best OS X technologies as well, so I'm not seeing your point.

[MacintechStudios]

It doesn't, but 95% of all Mac screencast's done professionally are edited with Final Cut Pro (Macbreak, Screencast's Online, etc). So by catering to FCS it makes professionals jobs easier. My point in the Leopard bit was in reply to your point about Screenium (which was sort of random and pointless).

[gaahhhhhh]

My point about Screenium isn't random and pointless mostly because I was trying to show that it's better than iShowU HD (Not necessarily pro, I wouldn't go so far as to say that) for less money. Which in both cases is true.

[MacintechStudios]

Feature-wise, Screenium is better than iShowU Classic, but not iShowU HD.

[wilycat10]

Very restrained.

[sunnz]

Wow that's so professional, emeek's owned!!!

[DannyMinick]

awesome presentation.

[cphellp]

yah that is so true ...