So, I have three hour narration, straight talk. And when I rendered it WMV 3mbps, It came out to be 4.2gig. Just shy of the 4 gig usb. I went with WMV hoping the size and universality would be my ticket for broad pc playback for this project, i.e 'who knows what people will play it on' old machines, new machines etc.

Anyone had success with lower qualities to save on size?

use mp4 via handbrake... never had a problem with it in years....

+1 for Handbrake. Now that you can easily frameserve to it from Vegas, it's a great tool that's even better :)
Vegas-2-HandBrake (http://www.vegasvideo.de/vegas-2-handbrake-en)

+ + For both Gents!

G

Thanks for the direction with Handbrake. Hey Mike, is that frameserver config as complicated as it looks?

More + + + + 's for Handbrake

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Thanks for the direction with Handbrake. Hey Mike, is that frameserver config as complicated as it looks?

Steven, I originally thought it would be but the instructions are very clear and I had it up and running in no time at all. Configuring Handbrake to get the results I wanted is a bit more complicated but there are numerous tutorials out there to help you.

Thanks for the input guys. My current project is a bulk drive delivery. I'm shooting for the best compatibility, so I was thinking WMV since I know it can be played on almost all pcs.

Why would you use a 4gb usb drive given it's only 3.7gb, smaller than a dvd. I would encode it as mpeg 2 since that's the codec that dvds use. Or use mpeg 4 suggested by others which can compress a video more. By the way Windows Media Player is no longer included in Windows 8 and 10 and has been discontinued.

I have 5 hours of final footage, so I'm probably between 8 and 16 gig depending.

I'm shooting for the best compatibility, so I was thinking WMV since I know it can be played on almost all pcs.

If you want the best compatibility, forget WMV altogether. It is an early series of mutually incompatible formats developed by Microsoft for the late 20th Century versions of Windows. It relies heavily on having a specific codec installed on every PC. Even Microsoft has pretty much abandoned the WMV formats by now, so chances are people having the latest versions on Windows will not be able to play it. And of course people with other operating systems (Mac, BSD, Linux, etc) will not be able to play it. And people will not be able to download it to their cell phones and other portable devices.

For actual portability, you should use MPEG-4 for compression and MP4 for the file container (and, as others have suggested, use Handbrake to create it), as just about any computer device on the planet can play it. And it is an official international standard, not a proprietary concoction like WMV. It also compresses video very well.

I dare say that WMV is getting to the point of how I used to view the RealMedia/RealVideo format files. The best thing you can do is to convert it to another format.

Agree on going with mp4.

Andrew

Woa, I haven't thought about Real Media in eons.

It makes the most sense, to me, to compress to Sony AVC/AAC and burn to a larger USB. I do this for delivery often, for 2-3hr shows shot at 1080p. The Sony AVC codec is recognized by both Mac and Windows, and also plays fine when plugged into most TVs USB ports.

Just make sure you format the flash drive to EXFAT, so that files over 4GB in size will drop onto it. It's a 10 second process on my Mac in the Disk Utility app.

It makes the most sense, to me, to compress to Sony AVC/AAC and burn to a larger USB. I do this for delivery often, for 2-3hr shows shot at 1080p. The Sony AVC codec is recognized by both Mac and Windows, and also plays fine when plugged into most TVs USB ports.

Just make sure you format the flash drive to EXFAT, so that files over 4GB in size will drop onto it. It's a 10 second process on my Mac in the Disk Utility app.

Hey Mark, what size drive/ bit rate are you getting 2-3 hours on? I currently have printed 8gig drives.

Thanks for the input guys. My current project is a bulk drive delivery. I'm shooting for the best compatibility, so I was thinking WMV since I know it can be played on almost all pcs.
I would use H.264 in an mp4 container, practically everything supports H.264 with mp4.