Video Format Choice

[joeskopec]

I'm struggling to find the best settings when incoding video.
By that I mean that provide the best combination of quality
and smooth playability on most machines.

I make my avi's and convert with Tmpegenc.
Any templates best suited to autoplay out there?

[eric_darling]

Do a search for mpeg-1 in the forums to find my consistently strong opinion of MPEG-1 over AVI for the purposes of distribution with AMS.

MPEG-1 needs to have 16x16 block sizes - so in other words, both the horizontal and vertical resolutions need to be evenly divisible by 16. 320x240 is a good resolution with which to start.

Keep the TOTAL (audio+video) data rate under 1500 Kilobits/second.

Those are the golden rules.

[joeskopec]

Thanks. Having read that, I think I must have a different problem.
Here are the settings I used...
352x240
4:3 525 lines
29fps
(cbr)
1150

Should be no problem, but I'm getting jerky, stuttering
video after build and burn on Nero at 4x.
!
Any ideas?

[Corey]

Try checking out this "why am I getting flickering" paragraph here http://www.nwlink.com/~zachd/pss/pss.html#vdriver might help, might not...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[eric_darling]

The only thing that I see as odd in the specs you quoted is 525 lines of horizontal resolution. Remember, you're encoding at 352 X 240, so in reality, you only have 240 lines of horizontal resolution.

What are the specs on your computer - video card, RAM, processor, OS, etc?

[Corey]

Here's a little tidbit'o'fun for the apawsmeister. In lo these many years of producing and selling a wide variety of mutlimedia things to a wide variety of clients, I've never actually used MPEG for any video yet. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif

Guess I better get on board...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[eric_darling]

What are you/have you been using instead, Corey? If I had to bet, I'd say that until relatively recently you were stuck with AVI, and now you deliver Flash?

Well, you know what I (and for that matter, Microsoft, the inventor of AVI) think of AVI - Microsoft doesn't even support it anymore. There are better choices now.

As far as Flash goes, I say it's probably the second best choice, but still probably a distant second in terms of compatibility to MPEG-1. Quality-wise, I'd say it beats MPEG-1 any day if encoded through Squeeze.

Real is so out of the question. Someone else said it: Real isn't a program, it's a virus.

QuickTime rocks - by far the most robust and deepest computer video format with the best codec (Sorenson 3.1 Pro). But alas, far too many people don't have QT installed, and some corporate IT departments won't allow third-party software installs like QT requires.

[Corey]

I've always used uncompressed AVI for working format and then deployed as QT, Real, and sometimes WMV (ASF in the past) but my videos are usually shorter than 10 minutes, so...

I never use flash, but I should... It's cross platform and ubiquitous.

I'm working on making my new highly advanced Chi Chi Rodriguez inspired rhumba technology cross platform right now but it seems like you Mac users just don't get the rythym...

BTW Eric, for the record, I use real every single day of my life here and I like it just fine. My player is setup the way I like it, etc. I use it to watch CBC The National every night and very often stuff from CSPAN because they only archive Washington Journal in Real format. So flrrrrp!

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[eric_darling]

I never use flash, but I should... It's cross platform and ubiquitous.

/ubbthreads/images/icons/shocked.gif What! And I thought you were like Flash Gordon or somesuch. For shame. /ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif

[Corey]

Qt files are just so much smaller though. You know, I used to deploy QT from shockwave and I remember you could make standalone real and QT stuff that would play regardless of the host system, using XTRAs. I did it once...

Anyhow, yes I will start checking out Flash more often. Lately we stoppped doing video stuff, the Setup Factory promo video took too long. It was valiant of Colin to let me do that, I needed it artistically, but alas it just isn't cost effective against Flash. That video took weeks, the intro bit alone took many days. From now on our product demos will be all Flash anyhow, but I might look at inserting short vignettes as we say here in Canada.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[eric_darling]

Qt files are just so much smaller though.

You are the one controlling data rate with whatever program you're using to encode (if your program doesn't allow you to set data rate, it's not a true encoder). So, your statement is not accurate. QT files can be larger or smaller, depending on your settings. Same goes for Flash video encodes with Squeeze. Might be big, might be small. It all depends on you.

I do see the argument that Sorenson 3.1 Pro VBR QT will look better at the same data rates than Spark VBR encoded Flash video compressed through Squeeze. But, that's not what you said. /ubbthreads/images/icons/laugh.gif

[Corey]

Oooooh, parsing words tonight, eh? OK let's put the big rubber stamp on it, "that's what I meant sir." Also, when I said Chi Chi Rodriguez, I actually meant Xavier Cugat...

Nope I didn't HA, got you there, I DID mean Chi Chi Rodriguez sir!

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[Bruce]

LOL!!!

[eric_darling]

BTW Eric, for the record, I use real every single day of my life here and I like it just fine. My player is setup the way I like it, etc. I use it to watch CBC The National every night and very often stuff from CSPAN because they only archive Washington Journal in Real format. So flrrrrp!

I hope you have a firewall that is set to prevent outgoing calls by Real Event. That little bugger pepper's my firewall's log - surreptitious outbound calls by software I didn't even know I installed (I guess I could have read all 18 pages of fine print in the license agreement) is more than a little bit unacceptable. Use Real at your own risk. My clients have been getting talked out of Real for a couple of years now.

[Corey]

Works great with my firewall sir. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif Once I got it setup the way I like, it was great, and now all is thackeray.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[eric_darling]

Well, as long as you are deferring to my paternalistic/militaristic persona: OK, son. /ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif

I know you are a particularly adept computer consumer. Not everyone around here is, and it just makes me nervous when blanket blessings of such a nasty company/software go out from such a respectable source of info. like yourself. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif

People should poke around the internet for other reviews before jumping into installing anything released by Real Networks. I do not like those guys, or the ways they have always treated their customers. (can you find the hidden link for the free version of their player this week?)

[Corey]

Agreed, "Real" as a company is... Well like they say if you have nothing good to say then don't say anything, so my comments on Real as a company are, "".

Same goes for their player distribution "program".

That being said "Real" the format is something I have had great success with. That being said I certainly defer to whatever you say vis-a-vis best practices though. I don't reccomend anything you don't that's for sure.

Let me summazrize our official position on this. We will be providing some video training CDs here on this site before christmas, and those videos will be in Quicktime format only. Need I say more.

But I still like watching my Washington Journal and the video archives at CSPAN, isn't Pedro dreamy? The dreamiest... But seriously I love it when people call in and say completely unrelated stuff and the hosts have to struggle with every fiber to try and get one or two of them to stay on topic. Quite often people phone in on the "Support Republicans Tax Plan" line or whatever and start espousing grandiose theories rife with references to secret documents and UFOs.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. You want me to miss all that joy over some age old media bias?

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[eric_darling]

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. You want me to miss all that joy over some age old media bias?

Indeed not. /ubbthreads/images/icons/laugh.gif

Enjoy with my blessings! (I must admit to partaking in a little bit of C-SPAN brain candy myself on occasion - it can be a barrel of monkeys)

[Corey]

I thought not. BTW want to see a real media presentation worth seeing, 3 hrs. with Camille Paglia. Love her or hate her she's definitely interesting...

http://www.booktv.org/ram/feature/0803/arc_btv080303_4.ram

Note where she says Keith Richards was an "enormous idol" of hers... /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif That's like Gore Vidal emulating Paulie Shore. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif I could just picture that, enter Gore Vidal wearing multicolored head scarf; "Ummm, ummm, ummm Mr. President? What's with the snoochy boochies budddddday?" [Waves fingers]

BTW Eric as for my consumption of particularly adept computers, I'm down to one-a-week, trying to watch my weight...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[joeskopec]

It's happening on every computer I try it in.
I think there is a glitch in this clip because
it hangs at the same spot every time, and
then just never recovers. I'll reproduce it
and try again.
I don't see how to lower those lines.
They are preset with 4:3 as far as I can tell.
Hp 1.2 celeron, 512 ram, video card built in intel,
xp home, lg GCE-8481B and roxio
Thanks

[eric_darling]

Yeah, Joe, it sounds like you have a corrupt file there. Try it again is probably the best advice.

4:3 is an aspect ratio, so as long as your resolution is divisible by 4 horizontally and 3 vertically, it qualifies.

Your settings are probably right, just re-compress and try again.

[joeskopec]

I meant I don't see how I can change it in tmpgenc...
http://www.joeskopec.com/scre.jpg

[eric_darling]

Well, you have chosen the right setting. However, TMPgenc shouldn't have ever put the 525 bit in there. It's a misnomer. No sweat - you're doing it right.

[jeffy82]

Joe,
In the future, if you should ever need to override settings in TMPGencoder, Click the "Load" button, browse to the Extra Folder and choose the "Unlock" file. This will not change any of your settings, it will just unprotect most of them so that you can override them if necessary.

[mitos_y]

Hello everyone.

Hello Eric. i actually got here as i was searchig online for some information on digital video cameras and read your postings. I thought i will like to talk to you or someone else who could give me a little guide before i purchase my first digital video camera. i posted a message on another thread but then i found you here. I know this is about video formats but i was wondering if i could ask you a one or two question about buying a camera.

I'm a performer wanting to learn about capturing and manipulating images.