encoding for the web

[John Benton]

Hello all,
I was never too concerned with compressing footage for the web before, because my audience wanted to see the qulity and were willing to wait longer.

But recenly I have some footage (2-5 minutes) that I need to play immediately and not choke too much, so I started using Flash Video encoder...

I don't love whay it does to the footage,
http://r-e-e-l.com/
(look at the examples under "Featured" to see what I mean)
...but it p[lays immediated...
what is the best way to encode for the web crossplatform with immediate playback and retaining the feel of HD?
Thanks,

j o h n b e n t o n
__________________
http://thereelshit.com

[Ken Diewert]

John,

I bought FlixPro8 www.on2.com/consumer encoder and have been pretty happy with it. Check out the video on my site www.cutlassfilm.com.

I'm only now just getting settings optimized. It's $249. I'm pretty sure you can D/L a trial version.

[John Benton]

excellent,
Thanks, Ken.

Nice video's.
I like that Flash can go full screen & start playing immediately. But the compression reflect this sometimes... and I usually use a 35mm adapter so that really messes with Flash.

here is a test page where I open the Flash mov large:
http://r-e-e-l.com/featured_2test.html

Any thoughts?

From what I have seen .h264 is the best (free) results and windows media for PC's

[Steven Gotz]

I don't see a quality problem, other than the videos are pretty dark.

As for full screen, there is no way that you can get a great quality full screen image from something 1/4 the size of the screen.

[John Benton]

Thanks Steven,
Yes the Flash makes them slightly darker... and yes Full screen is out.. but I like seeing them larger,
Thanks,
J

[Ken Diewert]

John,

That R-e-e-l stuff looks great.

I know the flash is a little dark. Funny, but I think we might have to get into 'exposure for the web'. Also when I first started doing this (flash encoding), I thought that I would just use 720x480 because the rez was going to take such a hit anyway, but now I've realized that you really can improve web rez by encoding 1080. I can also encode to 1000kb as opposed to 512k. I'll try it.

[Terence Reis]

Aloha John,

I've been using DivX codec and posting my huge files on their free Stage6 server. Something you might want to look at.


http://stage6.divx.com/Surf-Shooter-Hawaii/videos/

-Terry

[John Benton]

Thanks Ken,
1000kb as opposed to 512k might be the thing.

and Terence
Wow that DivX stuff looks great

[Liam Hall]

Originally Posted by John Benton

Thanks Steven,
Yes the Flash makes them slightly darker... and yes Full screen is out.. but I like seeing them larger,
Thanks,
J

You just need to change your gamma settings when you export for web.

Liam.

[John Benton]

Originally Posted by Liam Hall

You just need to change your gamma settings when you export for web.

Liam.

Via Flash?
or do you mean export Via quicktime Pro?
Thanks,
J

[Liam Hall]

Originally Posted by John Benton

Via Flash?
or do you mean export Via quicktime Pro?
Thanks,
J

You can definitely do it in QT Pro and I'm pretty sure there's an option for it in Flash. You can also do it via your NLE. There are no hard and fast rules for this as different machines, operating systems and individual application manage colors in different ways. But generally Apple screens have brighter color management than PCs so if you've edited on a mac then you need to color manage your output to match PC screens. That entails raising your gamma setting (by .2, I think).

There's quite a lot of info on color management and color space on the Apple Pro site.

Hope that helps,

Liam.

[Ken Diewert]

Originally Posted by Terence Reis

Aloha John,

I've been using DivX codec and posting my huge files on their free Stage6 server. Something you might want to look at.


http://stage6.divx.com/Surf-Shooter-Hawaii/videos/

-Terry

John,

I use DivX Stage6 as well... for $20, for the converter you can't go wrong. The ONLY problem is that in order to view it, people have to download the DivX player. Not a big deal, but some people don't want the hassle.