quality on net
by Gord Wright
on
Jan 22, 2008 at 3:19:42 pm
Hello.....let me start off by saying that I am the furthest thing from a serious video producer, so I don't get involved to much with all the technical mumbo jumbo. I simply produce video home tours for real estate agents with music and narration.
I have been successfully doing these for about a year now and recently a couple of agents asked me if I could provide the tours in a larger viewing screen. I have attempted a few tours at 640 x 480 pixels with no luck. After the video is uploaded to my host it plays back all choppy with painfully slow transitions. Is this because of the conversion to Flash by the host? I have tried several different formats and bit rates but with no luck.
Is the interent simply not ready for 640 x 480 videos yet,or is there a magical setting I can use to get decent results?I use Sony Vegas 8.
Re: quality on net by Terry Esslinger on Jan 22, 2008 at 5:10:47 pm
First I would think that if the host is rerendering your files to flash that you should send them to them in flash and maybe they would not rerender them. Then you would control the quality.
Second depending on how long each tour is, a 640x480 would be a large file and would take longer to download and depending on how it was being played some computers would have a hard time keeping up.
Do you have a sample that you can post for us to look at?
Re: quality on net by Terry Esslinger on Jan 22, 2008 at 7:04:03 pm
Gord,
I use the On2FlixProVP6 encoder. I don't usualloy make them as big as you want. Here is an example: The player was made with the program also. www.ovpvideo.com/montage_player.htm
Re: quality on net by Leonette on Jan 22, 2008 at 5:43:09 pm
I've been experimenting with various settings for web streaming and found the sweet spot to be with using flash VP6 encoder and uploading the file to a specialized streaming server, in my case they are a company called Video Streaming Provider.
Check out the test I did ( they give you 50 viewing points to play about with and cap your testing period to 3 days) after which you have to purchase viewing points etc.
Re: quality on net by Gord Wright on Jan 22, 2008 at 6:03:43 pm
Hi Leonette..that looks great. How did you get that size screen?
I to use Streaming Video Provider. That screen would be perfect for us, but have no idea how to get it.
Also can you supply me with more info and how to get that flash encoder.
Re: quality on net by Dennis Lowe on Jan 22, 2008 at 6:32:28 pm
Hi Gord
I contacted their support and asked what their preferred settings were (they are very helpful by the way) and here are the ones they sent:
We recommend using Flix Pro8.5 with VP6 Codec
Recommended settings:
- Key Frame Settings: Max 60 Key frames
- Encoding Mode: 2 pass
- Rate control VBR
- Max bitrate ~400-500
and the size they recommend is:
640x360 or 720 x 405 if 16:9
The bitrate of course depends on how much action is in the sequence (talking heads means lower bitrates) I think mine were around the 550 mark.
With these settings you will bypass their automatic encoding procedure after uploading and gives you more control over quality.
Re: quality on net by Rick Wise on Jan 22, 2008 at 8:09:09 pm
The On2Flix settings take some figuring out. For instance, you can make a SWF file, or a FLV file with a SWF player. The latter seems to work the best, at least for me.
There is a distinct conflict between quality, size, and speed of playing. To get the fastest play for the potential client, you need to compromise size and quality.
I've found that what works pretty well for my Video Tour clients is:
VP6 menu:
--enable advanced features
--quality: good
--all the rest: defaults
Then click on monitor icon to pick the SWF player. I prefer"Minimal 2A"
I encode to my FrontPage2000 "tour" folder. Opening FrontPage, I drag and drop the SWF file to where I want it, and enlarge the size (properties) to around 515 pixels width -- makes the image larger without enlarging the file size
Note that this solution does not give you the large screen you are looking for. I have not found any way to do that and get a quick play for the potential clients. Speed is of the essence. If potential buyers can't see the video quickly, they will go on. If you surround your window with something -- frame it -- it appears to the mind larger than it is.
Rick
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com
Re: quality on net by Rick Wise on Jan 22, 2008 at 8:55:00 pm
Update / errors:
The settings I gave above were for version 8.5 of FlixPro. I just updated to version 8.53, and there are new options on the first, File page menu. Flash 8FLV is gone as an option. I presume -- but don't have time right now to find out -- that the new default of VP6-E FLV, 512K, is the way to go. Other settings on other pages seem to stay the same.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com
Re: quality on net by Gord Wright on Jan 22, 2008 at 8:59:11 pm
Thank you all for your much appreciated input. I will give this information a go and see how I make out. If by some small miracle of God I figure it all out. I will post a sample.
Re: quality on net by Xpeditions TV on Jan 23, 2008 at 3:17:45 pm
I just read your post and a few of the answers. We had the same issue for our netcast of an adventure series we're taping in Peru. We have examples online you might want to take a look at. Sunrise or Markawasi would be good examples. If this looks like what you're wanting to provide please email me and I'll provide info of how we did it.
Best Wishes
Jerry Wills
producer
Xpeditions TV http://www.XpeditionsTV.com
Knowledge Is Power -- Xpeditions TV Is FREE... Pass it on!
