720p settings for Vimeo?

[Rafael Lopes]

Hi, I want to start uploading my Hd videos in 720p on vimeo.com but they always end up way too big or with too little quality. Can anyone post the export settings for best combination of quality and size for vimeo.com?

[Perrone Ford]

Do they have to be 720p?

I tried messing around with those file sizes on Vimeo, but to be honest, you need to be in the 6Mb-7Mb range to get decent encodes. At 720p you're going to get about 1 500MB upload per week if you're doing 10 minutes worth of video.

I have decided to go to 540p instead and am encoding at 4mb CBR or so. I could probably get away with less, or could use VBR to squeeze my file sizes down a bit. The only reason I encode at 540p is so people can download the videos and enjoy them, or cut them to a disk if they choose.

720p is a KILLER when it comes to data size. I've noticed that even the Hollywood studio traliers are taking about 50MB per minute at 720p and my videos are never as noise free as theirs to start.

[Tripp Woelfel]

Vimeo just changed their policy so 580 would not be considered HD and would be downconverted to SD.

I've had some decent luck with the following settings (which I'm recalling from memory right now):
-h.264
-5Mbps CBR
-24 fps progressive
-deinterlace
-Audio @128k
-Keyframes every 30

These are the settings I've used for most of my HD pieces I've posted here:
http://www.vimeo.com/whitemountains

One thing to consider is that Vimeo supposedly now supports 30p. I have read reports that 30p can cause playback problems on old and not-so-old computers but I don't know that for sure. You might want to search the Vimeo blogs for more information on that.

[Will Mahoney]

Here are the settings I'm currently happy with for 720p on Vimeo. I'm pretty happy with the results.

These are the settings I used to upload this video:
http://www.vimeo.com/809058

[Tripp Woelfel]

Will... Nice shooting in your clip. I noticed some weird color artifacts and some nastiness in the highlights. If you look at the yellow roadster shots the reds in the firewall checkerboard are getting cooked and the highlights in radiator surround the tank on the front bumper just look weird.

I haven't transcoded to WM in a very long time and have never done it in HD, but I recollect a softness in the Windows Media output that I found really undesirable. This may have been fixed in newer versions of the codec.

Vimeo recommends using H.264 and I've followed that lead. I tend to give their word extra credence because they've seen the results from different transcode settings in the thousands of videos that have been uploaded to their site. That said, there could be a setting combination that gives better results than their settings. I'm still looking for it though.

[Perrone Ford]

I should have updated this. I forgot that Vimeo was doing mpeg4 now. I was thinking of Mpeg2 uploads.

Glad you go the info you needed.

[Will Mahoney]

Trip,
I know that Vimeo recommends H.264. The problem is, and maybe someone can help me with this, whenever I use it I get audio that sounds like I'm listening through a pipe. The video usually looks ok, but the audio is horrible. Though maybe I'm using the wrong settings.

Can you post your h.264 settings? I'll certainly give them a try.

And thanks for the words on the colors being too blown out. I'm still experimenting with color correction and some of the garishly bright paintjobs on these cars are hard to handle. It's a learning process, but thanks for mentioning specific shots.

Will

[Steve Siegel]

I have had some success with Vimeo like this:
1. Produce clip. (I use Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0.)
2. Export uncompressed (eg. Microsoft AVI, compression=none) and
adjust the size so that the file size is below 8GB (eg 960 x 720 pixels).
3. Import (2) into the DivX converter (a free download). This will
convert your 8GB file into one of very manageable size (I have had
as low as 25 MB), and excellent quality.
4. Upload the DivX file to Vimeo.

Here is an example: http://www.vimeo.com/812506

[Rafael Lopes]

Thansk, guys. I'll give these options a try to see how it goes.

[Will Mahoney]

Steve,
I'd appreciate it if you could post a link or something for the "DivX converter (a free download)" that you mention.

Thanks!
Will

[Tripp Woelfel]

Will... Here are some screen grabs of the audio and video settings. Pay particular attention to the ones underlined in red. These are all based upon Vimeo's recommendations, and as I've said, they work pretty well for me. Please note that the settings in these images state a frame rate of 29.97 and I've previously said that I used 24fps. This is because until recently Vimeo didn't support 29.97 and would unceremoniously dump the last six frames every second. If you shot in 60i or 30p, use 29.97. If you shot 24p then use that frame rate.

Your sound issue seems odd. I've not experienced that issue but you may have your settings too low.

Hope that helps.

[Steve Siegel]

Link for Divx Converter. Free trial. Buy is $20.

http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/converter/