What file format for Windows Media Player?
 

Hi
I have a client that want´s a "full" resolution copy of the film I made him.
(Originally shot 720P 50, edited in Final Cut)
He wants to put the fil on DVD´s to pass on to sponsors and he wants the file to be able to play in Windows Media Player.

What is the best file format to give him?

I also have the possibility to use Adobe Media Encoder as well as Compressor and ffmpeg .

Thanks

WMV would be the best bet in terms of compatibility and quality. You can use Flip4Mac components to export directly out of FCP, or for better control and more professional results, you could invest in Episode Pro from Telestream. Actually, Telestream sells both products, so you're going to need to deal with them one way or the other.

The excellent & free Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac and Windows is the Swiss army knife of video converters that I always reach for when presented with this sort of job. It can take advantage of whatever CODECs you have installed . To convert to WMV you will need to have the free version of Flip4Mac installed.

Telestream/Flip4Mac WMV Studio is what you need if you want to distribute WMV's.

I've found that with corporate videos, clients have better luck using WMV's for distribution compared to DVD's for a couple of reasons:

1. WMV's will always play on Window's computers. Frequently, DVD's won't play (or the interface provided by Microsoft is unusable)

2. You can save your HD project at a higher resolution than the SD resolution of a DVD. This also allows the client to project the video on a large screen as the higher resolution makes it look much better.

Lately, I've been giving clients either 960 x 540 or 1280 x 720 WMV's and they have been very happy.

Obviously, if you need a detailed interface for your project, you'll want to choose DVD and create the appropriate menus.

Good luck! :)

DV Kitchen makes great WMV files.

I've used both DV Kitchen and Telestream to encode WMVs and found Telestream's quality to be way superior.

-Noah

I used flip4mac and QuickTime in the end. Worked great, but I'm not sure I would invest in it though. I can't imagine using it very often