Video Internet Compression

[Paul Carlberg]

Stephen, it's highplainsdv.com, I'm in the midst of swapping web hosts, but my clips (all short) spawn from a streamer.

[Stephen L. Noe]

Originally Posted by Paul Carlberg

Stephen, it's highplainsdv.com, I'm in the midst of swapping web hosts, but my clips (all short) spawn from a streamer.

It opened right up for me. I'm on comcast cable.

[Dan Euritt]

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

That wasn't the point, the point is that open standards are what made the Internet possible.

again, that is not the slightest bit relevant to this thread.

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

Dan, there is no iPod format. It's either MPEG4 or H264, I said that before. Those are general formats, can be played with all kind of players.

as i have already pointed out, the ipod video format specifically requires itunes to access the files, and it uses a crippled subset of h.264, it is not even full-on h.264, all of which makes it specific to the ipod... claiming that ipod video "can be played back with all kinds of players" is false information.

you proved that yourself, because you haven't posted any itunes software alternatives, or even any software players that are capable of playing back the ipod video format.

as content creators, we should never let platform fanaticism interfere with content distribution.

if i thought that the ipod video format had any kind of market penetration, i'd be glad to use it myself... but the stats indicate otherwise, take a look at how messed up something as simple as audio podcasting is:

"For all its buzz, podcasting is a cowboy industry -- and much of its future lies in the hands of a handful of companies vying to play sheriff and bring order. PodTrac, Podbridge and PodShow are all trying to help advertisers get a better grasp on how many people are listening and what the audience looks like.

Consider the contradictions surrounding the subject..."

http://www.adageglobal.com/article.p...icle_id=108741

[Dionyssios Chalkias]

Originally Posted by Paul Carlberg

However, my wife at her work, (T1) indicated that she could never see any of these clips, perhaps a corporate firewall issue. Nonetheless, I switched to Flash and viola! she can see all of it.

You have a point there. Many corporate firewalls (ISA servers) are very picky with streaming or won't even allow it at all.

As for QT, I installed it without Itunes, but it is NOT the best player out there for H.264 under Windows, certainly not for High Def videos. VLC and Nero player are much better (VLC is Mac compatible I think).

Every format is a compromise. I agree with those recommending the less compromising formats. Having two or three formats available could be a solution.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Dionyssios Chalkias

As for QT, I installed it without Itunes, but it is NOT the best player out there for H.264 under Windows, certainly not for High Def videos. VLC and Nero player are much better (VLC is Mac compatible I think)..

VLC is the best app I have found so far for HD playback on my Windows laptop

-gb-.

[Chris Starkey]

Need some advice on a purchase/upgrade. I have PremierPro 1.5 and offer RealPlayer/ Wmv playback on my website. Would like to offer flash and use the On2 Vp6 codec. Looked at Flix and Sorenson, but feel Flix may better suit my needs given 1.5. -- Adobe's site isn't clear on their PremierPro 2.0 codec:
"Macromedia Flash Video export Streamline the process of encoding video and audio for your Macromedia® Flash® projects with built-in support for Flash Video export."

If it is the On2 VP6 codec, is my thinking correct in upgrading to 2.0 rather than purchasing Flix?

Also, I recall on the forum one contributor had been looking for a more professional looking powerplayer feature (hadn't been pleased with Sorenson's). If the above holds true, and any of you have Pro 2.0, are you happy with the the PowerPlayer (if it has one)? Thanks for th input.

[Daniel Patton]

Chris,

You would do fine with the PPro2 upgrade and native Flash export via both FLV and SWF formats directly. And yes, you can use On2 compression or the Quicktime version, it's a drop down option when exporting to Flash from PPro2.

I'm not going to say the program is flawless, I prefer not to be stoned to death... ;) but for us the upgrade was well worth the money, more so when you consider the new interface and the additional toolset.

[Chris Starkey]

Thanks Daniel. Sounds like the best way to go.

[Jonathan Bufkin]

for anyone like me that are learning a ton about video compression but in the meantime needs some quick easy settings, this program kicks butt. Jiri posted about it on the first page of this thread and it's good stuff. thanks man.

-jon

[Christopher Lefchik]

I noticed that a number of posters mentioned the problem of huge file sizes when exporting QuickTime video from Premiere Pro 2.0. Yet no one seemed to be able to find a solution. I might be able to help. I discovered when exporting to the QuickTime format from Premiere Pro 1.5 that the bit rate slider is wildly inaccurate. I didn't realize this at first because the QuickTime player was reporting the bit rate in kilobytes (KB) per second, not kilobits (Kb) per second. Big difference.

I think I had to set the slider to something like 23 Kbps to get a 300 kbps file. Once that was done I found out just how horrible the quality of the QT codecs were compared to Windows Media and RealMedia. Even the Sorenson 3 codec included with Premiere Pro was horrible. I wasn't going to shell out $100 for the Sorenson Pro codec, so I pretty much gave up on QuickTime at the time. I'm now using Nero Recode 2 to generate a QuickTime compatible H.263 files, and using MakeRefMovie to hint and save the resulting .mp4 files in the .mov container. I will probably move to MPEG Streamclip, at least for QuickTime H.264 encoding (MakeRefMovie won't open large H.264 .mp4 files, for whatever reason).

I'm surprised and disappointed that apparently the QuickTime bit rate slider problem hasn't been fixed in Premiere Pro 2.0.

[Christopher Lefchik]

Originally Posted by Dionyssios Chalkias

Vegas 6.0d comes with the MainConcept H.264 encoder, a great performer. If not, Nero has an encoder that is not bad. And there are free ones if you search around.

MPEG Streamclip is a free application that can encode very good quality H.264 video. It did a better job on moving text than did Nero Recode 2 on the file I tested it with (otherwise the two encoders had similar quality).

[Christopher Lefchik]

Originally Posted by Dan Euritt

beyond that, apple did not fully implement h.264 with their player, so you can't get the best h.264 quality when you encode or play back with quicktime... if you want to see real h.264, get the nero encoder, and use the nero player with it.

nero also includes a quicktime-compatible setting, so it will create really nice two-pass mpeg4 files... i would do that before i'd pay for qt pro, because for one thing, nero is a whole lot faster to encode.

The QuickTime compatible setting in Nero Recode 2 is only for H.263 MPEG-4 encoding; it is not available when encoding H.264 MPEG-4 video. Yet the QuickTime player has no problem playing Nero encoded H.264 video. So it is inaccurate to claim that Apple "did not fully implement h.264 with their player."

[Christopher Lefchik]

Originally Posted by Dan Euritt

i personally refuse to install itunes, in part because the qt player has become unmanageable bloatware... in particular, it always re-installs itself as a startup no matter how you tweak the settings, and lately i've been unable to get it to open up clips in the same window, it always defaults to a new window every time that you click on a video clip... so you end up with multiple windows all over your desktop.

I, too, refuse to install iTunes. However, it is entirely possible to install the QuickTime player apart from iTunes. All you have to do is download the standalone QuickTime only installer.

And it's also possible to disable the QuickTime startup task. Just open msconfig (Start>Run..., type in msconfig and click OK) and go to the Startup tab. Uncheck the "qttask" item. The qttask item does appear to be stubborn; you may have to do this procedure a few times over several reboots before the change sticks.

If that doesn't work you can always disable it using the free Windows Defender anti-spyware program.

Or, if you want to get rid of it permanently, you could just delete the qttask.exe file from the QuickTime program folder (usually at C:\Program Files\QuickTime).

[Dan Euritt]

Originally Posted by Christopher Lefchik

Yet the QuickTime player has no problem playing Nero encoded H.264 video. So it is inaccurate to claim that Apple "did not fully implement h.264 with their player."

i can see where you are headed, but your assumptions are wrong... at this point in time, the qt player does NOT support the Advanced Profile in the H.264 spec (including B-Frames)... that is a fact, the qt player is crippled.

you can confirm it for yourself by downloading the test clips at my website... unless something has changed recently, you will not be able to play back that nero h.264 clip with your qt player.

so the only way that your statement could be true is if nero was capable of encoding some of the h.264 lower profiles, like maybe baseline or extended... my version of nero did not have that capability, so i don't know what you are referring to.

[Dan Euritt]

Originally Posted by Christopher Lefchik

And it's also possible to disable the QuickTime startup task. Just open msconfig (Start>Run..., type in msconfig and click OK) and go to the Startup tab. Uncheck the "qttask" item. The qttask item does appear to be stubborn; you may have to do this procedure a few times over several reboots before the change sticks.

been there, done that, the change never "sticks" for me, it will sooner or later always re-install itself as a startup task... the only sure way around it is to never use the qt player... i'm not sure that deleting the file itself will prevent the startup task from being installed into your registry.

i'm still looking for a solution to the multiple windows opening in the qt player, if you have a fix please post it, thanks.