Quicktime/mov files and the PC

[Karel Bata]

• Most folk are gonna say they can't see the video when really they can't see anything happening for ages. It's the reason most pro sites incorporate some kind of indicator that a download is actually taking place. You might consider embedding an animated gif into your web page that tells people to wait. And some text to read while they do so. And, like has been said before, select fast start.
  
  Better still, upload your video to Vimeo or YouTube - their HD capabilities are really very good these days, and if your site if for the folk who will be posting videos there then it's the place to show them. By that, I mean that an online QT film will mislead most folk as what their final video will look like on YouTube. So show them.
  
  Nice guide to budget HD. Very useful. You plan on keeping that up to date...? Best of luck...
  
  p.s. I like your video (took 2 minutes to download here using Download Accelerator!) reminds me of a Dutch chap I knew years ago who used to send up a stills camera on a kite! Of course, in Holland there's not a lot to see! But I think the video you should use for demo purposes should have more of a pallet of colors, and demonstrate stuff like performance in low light, and how good the lenses are - d.o.f., flare, bokeh, etc.
  
  My 2p.

[Ervin Farkas]

Jim,
there are better ways to show your stuff on the internet. Going too high with your bitrate in order to preserv quality, will scare away a lot of viewers. Plain old .mov is way lower quality than most other delivery formats at the same bitrate (and file size), in my own testing even Windows Media beats QT. But the mpeg4/H.264 variety of QT is the real deal, and a lot of Flash video you see on the internet nowadays is actually not flash but mp4/H.264 (the flash player has been open for H.264 for over a year now). Why not take a look at my post on this very forum and see for yourself if this is something you could use - Youtube opened up wide for HD just a few weeks ago.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/dvd-web-v...y-youtube.html

Report back and see if we can further help you - what you do is really worth the best possible picture!

[Jim Cancil]

Thanks Karel ... "You plan on keeping that up to date...? But I think the video you should use for demo purposes should have more of a pallet of colors, and demonstrate stuff like performance in low light, and how good the lenses are - d.o.f., flare, bokeh, etc."

I fall off the wagon measuring those last parameters - I don't even know what bokeh is? I will however get some higher speed movement on a brighter day. Low light is not on my schedule; I'll leave that for an indoors person. ...the animated gif idea is a good one. People want to know something is about to happen.

....and Ervin - that's what that DV Kitchen does ... what 3ivx is supposed to do .. H.264 that is. iMovie can generate a mp4 file ...but on my Mac frickining iTunes wants to open them rather than QT?! I'll run up an take a look at your posting about YouTube.

Thanks again .. I'll leave this alone now, so old news doesn't hog the front page.

Jim

[Karel Bata]

Hardly old. It's stuff we're all thinking about, and good to learn from someone who's doing it. Also a really good cheap HD camera is something we'd all like.

"I fall off the wagon measuring those last parameters"
Don't bother measuring. The kind of folk who'll buy those cameras won't know what such figures mean. They (and I) would prefer to see practical examples.

I think that low light is a priority! Most folk will expect to shoot indoors, or will want to know how well it performs at night in the street. I would never consider spending money on a camera these days that only worked well in daylight. Drive around with the thing strapped to the bonnet!

Bokeh: it's actually an interesting subject with very little theory! There's a nice article here:
Bokeh
All you have to do is shoot something close up and allow some bright points of light in the background to go out of focus. It's a very subliminal thing that makes one lens look nice and another look like your shooting cheap video. Doubtful of course that anything will look really nice at the price range your at, but we could be in for a surprise!

Some examples: Bokeh in Pictures

And here endeth the lesson. Best of luck! Do keep us informed.