Web compression

I am working on a g4 power book fcphd and I am doing short video clips for a web site, I compressed the clips with quicktime conversion into mpeg4 ( for web streaming) but the web master said the qaulity was a bit poor.
Can anyone please tell me how or what version to convert too.
I would also like to know wherei could get info pertaing to compression

Hi Michael,

When compressing for the web, it's important to consider the bandwidth vs. video quality. The more bandwidth (kbps) the higher the quality, but the more likely the customer's internet connection won't be able to deliver real-time video. Also, the higher the bandwidth, the more expensive the streaming costs. Another factor is the screen size of the video.

Since you haven't included info on how many bits-per-second you encoded your .mp4, and you haven't let us know what the webmaster meant when he said the quality was "poor", it's very difficult to know where to start when giving you advice. -- Did you encode for too low a bit-rate?... Is the video screen size (HxW pixels) too big?... Does the webmaster have unrealistic expectations? etc.

Other factors to consider is which codec/system to use - each has it's own advantages and disadvantages.

Comparisons of the various encoding systems (mp4, .wmv, Macromedia Flash) can be viewd at: [www.hd-vo.com]



Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[www.VOTalent.com]

This topic has been covered innumerable times in the forum. Do a subject and message-body search for "compression" and/or "web" and you'll get a lot of threads. You didn't mention how long your media was, what settings you were using or what file sizes you were aiming for, either, so it's very hard for people to tell you how to make your clips look "better".

This is a very interesting subject. I tried to figure out a way to put short clips or trailers on the Internet and didn't come up with a good solution. The files that look acceptable are too big -- in my opinion. To me anything bigger than 200 k is too big. But the "good" videos for TV are supposed to be 1-3 MB. This to me is too big. I want people with even dial up service to see something. Of course what is recommended is multiple size formats, but then even the formats are a problem; there are so many and one doesn't know which ones to put up -- it's a difficult task, because if the idea is to get people to come to your website and if you want to create excitement or sell something, the delay in downloads, poor quality and non-compatability (lack of right plugin, etc) will drive away the visitors. Having said all that, I've been able to put up a quick time movie on one of my websites; it's only 800 k and can be played with a 7.04 QT plugin only. It's a .264 compression file. ... Then there is sorenson squeeze, cleaner 6, etc. -- these are all programs you have to spend a fortune on and the end result is still too big files, so I don't have anything practical to recommed, except keep trying to find an acceptable compression and select the type of shot you're using for the web -- the less detail the better -- and you might end up with a small enough file size. I tried the MPEG 1, but the file was huge, several MBs. Let me know what you find out... maybe there IS a solution. I really hope so :-)

> 1-3 MB. This to me is too big. I want people with even dial up service to see
> something. Of course what is recommended is multiple size formats, but
> then even the formats are a problem; there are so many and one doesn't
> know which ones to put up

An easy way around this is to design your website so that people can choose a fast or slow connection in the beginning. Then for dial-up users, you can point them to a version of the website with fewer trimmings, and links to the much smaller media files.

A lot of the time, people with such slow connections aren't the ones you're trying to reach...

Several MB is pretty standard for downloadable content with acceptable quality.

Hi
Thanks for the advice I found one article that helped a bunch on ken stone, but here now is the quandery the best image i have gotten so far is using qt conversion sorenson3 frame rate 12ps/ key rate 300 size 320/240 and at high compression qaulity this produces my video at 10mb still a little to big but the quality was kinda blurry on quick movement or lettering on a banner in the arena.
It is a sports video so there is movement final cut and out put is fine
thanks

Sports video is one of the worst things to have to compress.

If you had something like a guy giving a lecture standing in front of a plain non-moving background exactly the same length and size as your sports video, it would compress into a much smaller package.

You might have to concede quality in order to get to the size you want. Or use h.264 and make the rest of the world buy quicktime 7.

Check out this lovely h.264 clip.

[www.cube-creative.fr]

That one is about 9.8 MB - but check the size of the screen and the quality of the picture. Beautiful.

hi

thank you jude for the advice although I did not get your link for your clip