How low do you go for MP4

[Chris Harding]

Hi Guys

I'm rendering bits of weddings out to MP4 not only for online use but also to my video book modules which allow a bride to have a portable, non technical playing device for her wedding highlights simply by opening the book cover (it uses a hall effect sensor to turn on a play the video when it doesn't find the magnetic field present from a magnet embedded in the book cover) . These have 7" LCD screens and just 800 x 480 resolution so I have been rendering out to 1280x720 at 8,000 kbps which is default in Sony Vegas. For this a 10 minute clip eats up about 500mb so I tried a few others including 4,000 kbps and even the SD default of 2000kbps .... OK, I wouldn't ever send out 2000kbps even to YouTube and certainly not to a USB to play on a TV but loaded direct to the 7" screen I cannot tell any difference between 2000 and 8000 on the small screen. I also checked the video on my monitor and resized the player window so it was roughly the size of a 7" LCD and either look just as sharp.

Anyone done MP4 to a small screen before? and what's the absolute lowest you can go before it looks terrible??

Chris

[Peter Rush]

Chris I've never encountered a video book before - care to share a few more details?

Pete

[Roger Gunkel]

Here's a link to a UK company offering different types of video books/brochures. VideoPak - an Amstore Innovation | Amstore You can also google LCD books or brochures to find quite a few companies offering them. They can be bought quite cheaply in bulk from China in plain sleeves if you can overprint them in some way.

They are available with various memory sizes, screens and transportation buttons and I found a company that can supply with pouches for a stills booklet. It would certainly be feasible to have a generically printed one if you could finance perhaps 25 to keep the price acceptable.

Roger

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Anyone done MP4 to a small screen before? and what's the absolute lowest you can go before it looks terrible??

I have never had need to output for a low res device but years ago when Internet bandwidth was at a premium we used to use all sorts of tricks to encode the highest possible quality into the lowest possible bitrate. You can go surprisingly low & still have good quality. Vimeo is only 5Mbps for both 1080p & 720p. BBC HD shows streamed online through iPlayer are barely more than 3Mbps. 800x840 isn't even Super VGA so you could probably encode at 500K without noticeable loss of quality.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Pete

My mate Martin uses them in the UK .. scroll down the page on the link below and watch the video.

Prices & Packages - posterityposterity

They are way too pricey though ... Martin pays GBP99.00 each for batches of 10 units and even buying 100 it only drops to GBP69.00

I am going to get blank units from China .. though they want me to buy 50 but the price plummets to an exception GBP17.00 each and you simply drop it into a generic cover (I have used scrap book albums) but any hard cover will work.

I liked the concept not only for weddings but also for commercial shoots so the client can use them as brochures. The huge advantage over using say, a tablet, is that they provide instant gratification for a bride. Open the cover and your video plays ... easy to take anywhere and totally portable ... you upload video via the USB port which also charges the Li-Ion battery. The cover works with a hall effect sensor so when you close the cover the video stops and the unit shuts down. Perfect as it's completely non technical..just like a book!!

Chris