Encoding For Web Download. Almost perfect quailty wanted
 

Hey guys I have an absolute beautiful film I think anyone interested in the capabilities of the Z1U would like to see.

I am using the easy setup in Final Cut, HDV 1080i60. I also have the new QuickTime pro 7 for encoding if needed. I would like the sizes to be reasonable I can go up to 40 megabytes per minute. Slightly more if it’s worth it. I want amazing quality.

please give good directions. I have tried encoding useing final cut and compressor but I can't get good encoding. either the video is huge and looks like crap or not the correct aspect ratio and loses widescreen. I reallly can't win. Please give exact settings and example of video if possible!

I want a lot of people to view it. so I can go to whatever size people can normally handle.

whats a codex that PC would like to encode with WME from Final cut for use as a WMV for windows users. ok please help I can't spend any more days encoding. for the love of god pleas save me from encoding more Z1U footage than I need!

I too would like to know some good encoding strategies. I tried to encode some of my footage for the web and I end up with a 400mb+ video every time even though I shortened it, resized it, and everything else I could think of! I'v seen some really impressive videos that are decent size and quality that are less than 100mb, how do people do it? (=(

My preferred format for posting HD samples on the internet is Windows Media at 720p resolution using a bit rate of around 2 Mbps, which won't show the full quality of HDV but is about as good as you can realistically do for online purposes. At this bit rate you'll use about 15 MB of storage per minute of video, which shouldn't be a problem for anyone with a decent broadband connection.

By the way, I tried to install Apple's new H.264 codec on a PC recently and couldn't get it to work at all after three tries with the latest Quicktime installer, so I gave up. I'll stick with the more widely supported Windows Media format until H.264 is more prevalent and I'm convinced that the installer will work for both myself and potential online viewers.

Nero is a trialware h.264 option
 

The Nero ShowTime player does a good job with h.264 content. But you have to buy it after 30 days.

Ultimately I think for PCs that WMV is about the only good game in town. 720p can look pretty danged good in that format. 1080p is also an option, but you should only consider it if your source is true HD, and not just the current HDV cams out there.

With proper deinterlacing you can get 720p at 60fps. Now that looks really, REALLY good and smooth. My pick of the computer-based formats. Search on Gunnar Thalin's deinterlace smooth filter for more info.

-Lorin

You could ask http://www.dvlabs.com. The flash video sample on the home page looks pretty good. Shows what might be done.

For what it's worth, I did one WMV sample at 1080p from Sony 1080i footage, and someone else was able to download and play that and said it looked good. I wouldn't recommend this format for web distribution though, because relatively few computers can handle the playback requirements for 1080p compared to 720p.

It might be worth trying ffmpegX or DivX to make an HD avi. DivX is pretty widespread, and if it's not on a given machine, it's fairly easy to install.
The hi-def profile will bring you in well under your 40MB a minute aspiration, and is excellent quality.

Kyle:

There has been a similar discussion occurring in the HDV Acquisition Forum. I've posted a long description of how I get great-quality QT video for web-based delivery.

Visit this thread and go to post #8:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=47730