Christopher, very cool tip! I didn't know you could do this, and this is something I use frequently. I think you just saved me some serious time.
Glad it will help you! I searched high and low for a while, trying various other free utilities, before I hit upon the MakeRefMovie utility. I sure was happy to find it!

The apple MPEG4 encoder is terrible though, I'm sure Nero stacks up well against it.
I agree, the Apple H.263 codec is just awful. The Nero H.263 codec just blows it away. It's probably as good as the Sorenson 3 Pro codec.

Apple's H.264 codec, though, is a whole different beast. I haven't done a serious comparison to Nero's H.264 codec, but they are at least comparable.

I agree, the Apple H.263 codec is just awful. The Nero H.263 codec just blows it away. It's probably as good as the Sorenson 3 Pro codec.

Apple's H.264 codec, though, is a whole different beast. I haven't done a serious comparison to Nero's H.264 codec, but they are at least comparable.

The QT codec is a different beast, but it's not comparable (currently) to what Nero offers. IMO, Nero currently leads the field in h.264. How long they'll keep that post? I don't know. Too many h.264 irons in the fire for too many people.

Hi Chris ,


So if this is the same principle as an ASF file I should have both the ref and the original file on my ftp server then...


The thing is I successfully encode in QT through Vegas but the file is always WAY too big. When I try to encode it with h.264 Vegas crashes no matter which settings I choose. So I am left with mpeg4,sorensen etc... and these are just too big.

4 meg for a 10 second test at 256kbps/320x240 I mean come on !!!

Any tips for making it smaller

Thanks

Phil


********************EDIT***********************

Ok I think I got it, I made the ref file using the tool and posted it on my site if you guys want to test it out I would be very happy.

The only thing though Chris is that you mentionned that Nero doesn't allow for streaming you have to download the file completely before playback starts. Which settings in the Makeref program did you select to make it happen because now it needs to download completely before it starts

http://www.production24fps.com/video.php

It is the first one

Thanks

The QT codec is a different beast, but it's not comparable (currently) to what Nero offers. IMO, Nero currently leads the field in h.264.
Like I said, I hadn't done a serious comparison between the two. All I did were a few test encodes, and that's been a few months. That's interesting that Nero would lead the pack. Looks like they see the future for video is in H.264 and so are making a real effort in that area.

So if this is the same principle as an ASF file I should have both the ref and the original file on my ftp server then...
If you use the "Movie>Add Movie File" option, AND the movie file you choose is in the same folder as the MakeRefMovie utility, the movie file will be embedded into the .mov file the MakeRefMovie program prompted you to create when you launched it. Therefore, you don't need the original movie file, as the new file is a self-contained move, not a reference movie. If you wanted to make a reference movie you would use the "Movie>Add URL" option.


The only thing though Chris is that you mentionned that Nero doesn't allow for streaming you have to download the file completely before playback starts. Which settings in the Makeref program did you select to make it happen because now it needs to download completely before it starts

I'm not sure what you did with the file you have posted up there, but it still has the mp4 extension. If you processed an MPEG-4 file through the MakeRefMovie program you should have had a new file (in addition to the original) with a .mov extension.