Create additional instances of Compressor
Under certain circumstances, it’s possible to increase the processing power of a single computer and thus reduce the time it takes to process batches, by enabling one or more additional instances of the Compressor app. Enabling additional instances of Compressor doesn’t install multiple copies; instead, it creates additional services that can be accessed by Compressor.
The number of available Compressor instances is determined by your computer’s cores and memory. After meeting the minimum system requirement (four cores and 2 GB of memory), you can add one additional instance for every additional four cores and 2 GB of memory.
Important: If you don’t have enough cores or memory, the “Enable additional Compressor instances” checkbox in the Advanced settings pane is dimmed.
Enable instances of Compressor
Choose Compressor > Settings (or press Command-Comma).
Click Advanced.
Select the “Enable additional Compressor instances” checkbox, then choose a number of instances from the pop-up menu.
Important: Creating additional instances of Compressor may increase processing power, or it may, in fact, reduce processing power, depending on the specific batches Compressor is processing, and the specifications of your computer. It’s recommended that you first disable all the additional instances and transcode several test batches. Then, if performance is slow, increase the number of instances to use more of your computer’s resources.
Note: If the computer has a hardware encoder, and if you enable multiple instances of Compressor, the time it takes to process a batch can potentially increase, because the hardware encoder can only be used with single-pass, nonsegmented jobs. If you find that processing time has increased significantly, or if a job fails, turn off additional Compressor instances by deselecting the “Enable additional Compressor instances” checkbox. Some Mac configurations using HEVC encoding require a single instance of Compressor.
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