I am new at this so please excuse my lack of knowledge (we all have to start somewhere). The best size/quality ration I have found has been using Adobe media encoder cs4 Flash and QT pro output to web. By far the best combination has been QT which produces a folder and a HTML document for web use. Does the user have to have QT installed (there is also a .m4v file.) in their browser? The problem of course is penetration of flash over QT.

Does the user have to have QT installed (there is also a .m4v file.) in their browser?
If you're file is a .mov then you have to have QT or a surrogate player installed on the viewer's system. The browser should pick up that installation.

The problem of course is penetration of flash over QT.
I'm not quite sure what you mean here. From what I've seen lately, Flash is more ubiquitous than QT on PCs. On the Mac, of course, QT is virtually everywhere.

If you're file is a .mov then you have to have QT or a surrogate player installed on the viewer's system. The browser should pick up that installation.


I'm not quite sure what you mean here. From what I've seen lately, Flash is more ubiquitous than QT on PCs. On the Mac, of course, QT is virtually everywhere.

HI GUYS... FLASH IS EVERYWHERE AS WELL. THE FILE SIZE IS SMALLER AND THE QUALITY EXCELLENT. Oooop's all caps.... sorry : / I just placed an hour long QT file (mp4). It was about 700megs. The flash file is now 73megs. Both looked great, but the Flash video is actually better.

I would encode with Sorenson Squeeze and place the files online in this manner. Well, actually I do... Take a look at what you could provide online by comparing your idea to what we've done. If you have any questions please ask and I'll help guide you through the process. Once you've done it a couple of times it's mindless. Believe me, I had no idea what to do at first. I received good help and am happy to pay back this way.

Best Wishes
Jerry Wills
Xpeditions TV
Xpeditions TV (http://www.XpeditionsTV.com)

Actually in my opinion the .mp4 file format with the h.264 codec provides the best quality with the smallest file size, and as a bonus, this format can be played through a flash video player. The second best option is to encode an flv video using the VP6 codec, which also looks really great.

Have you tried the f4v format with the H.264 codec now available in Flash 9? The quality is very good. It's available in the Adobe CS4 Encoder.