Best Settings for Mov to WMW

Hi. I need to transfer Mov's to WMW for a client tomorrow (as per their requirements). Here's what I got and here's what I'm trying to do.

Editing in HDV 720p. Export QT movie and then have tried opening said movie in both Mpeg Streamclip as well as QT Pro. Then do export via Flip4Mac as WMV. I've tried it both one pass and two pass and the results are grainy and bad.

The end user will be posting videos on their website as well as using them in a Powerpoint presentation and projecting from Powerpoint. I'm told 640x360 is a good size for powerpoint, but I'm not sure what the other settings in my conversion should be. WMV standard or advanced? One pass or Two Pass? CBR or VBR? Quality high or low? Bit Rate? I just want it to look beautiful.

Thanks!!!!!
Tom

The thing about WMV is that you need to have a PC similar to what your client is using to test it on. Sometimes it may look great on your machine, but it stutters on your client's machine.

Two pass is definitely better. Two pass, VBR, with a good bitrate- export a short section with a lot of movement and run it through until you see acceptable results. Then run it on a low power test machine to see if it plays smoothly.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks for the response. I have been checking the results on the producer's PC laptop and haven't been able to get anything that's doesn't have huge amounts of digital noise. The movement is fine, but it's just crazy pixelated.

I realized after I last posted that I'm working with the demo version of Flip4Mac. It seems to allow for all the same functionality (Two pass, VBR or CBR, Advanced, etc) as the Studio version, with the only difference being that it will export only 22 seconds of a clip. The producer is willing to pony up for the full version, but only if he sees better results on the demo. Is there any reason to assume it will look better?

Where do you tend to put the 'quality' slider? Also, what do you mean by "low power test machine?"

Thanks!
Tom

Try to go somewhere like 3-5 mb/s. Noise shouldn't be that bad, but movement can be kinda sucky on WMVs. Because PCs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and some just aren't fast enough to play at a specific bitrate and compression scheme. Try to go with what your client is using. You need to test, test, test.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks for your help. We tested and tested. Turns out we got the best results from 0 Quality setting, about 3000kb, and CBR two pass. It's mainly just talking heads, so movement isn't crucial. Also took down keyframing to every 2 frames.

Just an fyi for anyone else out there looking.

Best,
Tom

Yea, I've had issues with VBR on WMV once. Played fine on my machine, and on my producer's pc, but didn't work so well with the client's machine. One more thing, I'd try to go with H.264/MOV if Powerpoint will take it. I found movement to render much better on h.264 than wmv.



www.strypesinpost.com