http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ Videomaker Forums » Tag: codec - Recent Posts en Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:34:35 +0000 http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/best-codec-for-distributing-hd-stock-footage-clips#post-52272 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:55:57 +0000 XTR-91 52272@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>From what I've read, everyone seems to say that H.264 provides the best effeciency in compression while retaining a quality that is nearly identical to the MPEG-2 (standard DVD) codec. If you're selling online, I'd go with what everyone said about using the H.264 advanced video codec. DV-AVI retains the most quality, but the final output for any video production (e.g. TV, Web, DVD, Blue-ray, Theatre) use a compression codec that retains merely a fraction of DV-AVI's bitrate. All mentioned above, with <em>maybe</em> the exception of theatre, utilize some sort of codec with the standard MPEG-2 bitrate or something else below.</p> <p> </p> <p>If the stock footage market is raving over H.264 and other AVC formats, than I'd export H.264 for effeciency and compatibility purposes.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/best-codec-for-distributing-hd-stock-footage-clips#post-52269 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:18:49 +0000 david5566 52269@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>well, it depends on what you rational behind "best". Best quality, best compatibility, or both?<br />For me, I will encode video with H.264 codec. Well of those H.264 is easily the most compatible with other computers.  Yet you can also get a better looking picture with H.264. But keep in mind that picture quality increase with file size, so encoded with H.264 may give you a big size.</p> <p> </p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/best-codec-for-distributing-hd-stock-footage-clips#post-52254 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:17:00 +0000 XTR-91 52254@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>What I meant was selling copies of the MPEG-2 (Transport Stream) footage in its original format. As a second option for buyers, you should also sell copies of your footage in the DV-AVI format, which is very universal for video editing.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/best-codec-for-distributing-hd-stock-footage-clips#post-52245 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:36:53 +0000 EarlC 52245@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>JPEG is lossy, moreso I suspect, that H.264 might prove to be in spite of the different approach to compression. If I were to need a solution to which you're referring, I suspect I'd make do with the overall benefits of H.264 and its (as you agree and stated) universality.</p> <p>Though Ning was used as a reference regarding Flash preview, there are certainly other available programs offering similar Flash conversion that might make this a go to solution for you - popular and fairly universal as well, playback wise.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/best-codec-for-distributing-hd-stock-footage-clips#post-52244 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:43:51 +0000 joelholland 52244@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>Thanks for weighing in guys!</p> <p>XTR- I agree that leaving the footage in its native format would be the most ideal solution, but mpeg2 doesn't have a cross-platform codec. If captured on Apple it works with apple, if captured on PC it works with PC.<br /> So unfortunately I do need to re-compress into a universal format. </p> <p>The question then becomes: image sequence like Photo-JPEG (which is known to hold pretty good quality and works with almost all platforms), or MPEG4 using H.264 which also holds good quality and has widespread compatibility because of QuickTime player 7+ coming packaged with the codec. Thanks for ipod/iphone almost everyone has QT and therefore H264 regardless of computer type. </p> <p>So the new question: Photo-JPEG versus H.264. Which do you think is better? Also, for quality, 90%? or 95%? I've heard that at some point (I've heard 90) going much higher adds only file size to HDV material, not any additional quality.</p> <p>Earl - Interesting concept with regard to the flash previews. Unfortunately Ning caps bandwidth usage pretty low and charges a good amount when it is passed. :( Luckily we have a great server setup and plenty of bandwidth of our own to go around!</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/best-codec-for-distributing-hd-stock-footage-clips#post-52174 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:01:40 +0000 EarlC 52174@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>If you can figure out what XTR is recommending, then fine, but I'd strongly consider utilization of the H.264 (mpeg4) as far as hitting on something that is widely universal. That, or convert your clips to flash. Get an account with Ning at <a href="http://www.ning.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.ning.com</a> and let them convert your footage, then use their link or embed code with their very good quality flash conversion and deliver that, or use Ning as a landing site and steer your viewers there - much cheaper distribution.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/best-codec-for-distributing-hd-stock-footage-clips#post-52148 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:58:38 +0000 XTR-91 52148@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>For retaining the maximum quality, I'd keep the footage in the format originally recorded. If the format is HDV (MPEG-2 TS), then I'd also convert and provide a DV-AVI alternative for buyers.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/best-codec-for-distributing-hd-stock-footage-clips#post-52132 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:36:57 +0000 joelholland 52132@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>There are many different codecs/compression formats and options for HD, so I'm hoping you can give me your input on the best/most universally compatible format for distribution of HD clips on data DVD.</p> <p> I am going to be shipping 20 HD clips (about 15 seconds or so each) to hundreds of people, all on a variety of editing systems. So I need to pick a good intermediary codec that is very compatible with most systems, maintains high quality, and balances a file size that isn't too out of control. </p> <p>Source of footage: Canon XH-A1 HDV. I will be exporting to 1920x1080 60i resolution, and here are my ideas/options as I see them: </p> <p>1) Photo-JPEG Quicktime files. Seems to be compatible with almost all systems and maintains high quality, but the file sizes can get large. Also, deciding what quality level to use (I currently go with 95%/best) is tough. What is optimal for HDV? </p> <p>2) H.264 Quicktime files. Thoughts? Seems to be a great codec for maintaining quality and smaller file size than Photo-JPEG, but how universally compatible is it? </p> <p>3) Something different than the two above that I haven't thought of. Please let me know your thoughts!</p> <p> Thanks, Joel</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/hmc40-038-youtube#post-51566 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:07:07 +0000 ravencr 51566@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>I agree Earl...I'm as worried as you, but for the cost, if I can get good footage, I think it will be well worth it. I'm just trying to figure it all out and any help people can provide would be greatly appreciated. It's vastly different than shooting stills, that's for sure. :)</p> <p>Chris</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/hmc40-038-youtube#post-51565 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:05:28 +0000 EarlC 51565@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>Hope the CMOS sensors hold up to your expectations. The rest of your suppositions seem solid regarding speed, settings, shooting, converting...</p> <p>...I'm not an expert and have done little more than test some of the CMOS based units available. Still leaning toward Panasonic's HMC-150 with CCDs for my all-around production acquisition needs. If not, the the comparable JVC model. Since you already have invested in the 40 however, it would be interesting to read future posts ragarding your experiences and outcomes.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/hmc40-038-youtube#post-51561 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:05:26 +0000 ravencr 51561@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>Hello everyone,<br /> I'm heading out on a 3 week shooting time, and the HMC40 and higher than consumer-tech video is new to me, including my HMC40. I shoot nearly all high speed action footage, and these next few weeks will be mostly shot with great sunlight a the dunes, desert, rock crawling, etc. I typically like to incorporate slow motion into my edited video, so my initial thought is to shoot in 720/60p. Is this the correct thinking? Or, should I be shooting in 1080/60i? I've been told that if shooting for slow motion, use a shutter speed of 1/120 in 720/60p, and 1/60 pretty much no matter what in 1080/60i. To me, based on my experience with my D300 still camera, those shutter speeds are only helpful if I'm wanting to blur the image slightly, or the wheels/tires spinning when panning, but is this different for a camcorder?<br /> Then, my next question is what format to export using Adobe Premier CS4 for use primarily for youtube? I want the best format possible for the cleanest, best looking video on Youtube. Is there a format that YouTube won't compress, such as if I export using f4v or flv, for example? And, if so or not, what codec, bitrate, size, etc would you recommend for optimal playback on youtube?<br /> Secondly, given the above, I'll also want to put this footage on DVD for my customers to use a sale/marketing pieces. Will this play a role as to what format to be shooting in, or do I just pick the best format for the web, then just output it the way it needs to be for the DVD after outputting the footage for the web?<br /> Thanks in advance for the help...<br /> Chris</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/i-need-advice-on-rendering-compression#post-51553 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:01:12 +0000 robgrauert 51553@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>"The square/round pixel info was very useful to me"</p> <p>Just to clarify, there are no round pixels. There are pixels that are perfect squares, and then are pixels slightly rectangular. </p> <p>"Does creating Flash from the H.264 codec work well then?"</p> <p>For the web? Yes. But last I heard, Flash video encoded with the H.264 codec is quite new and is only supported by the latest Flash player. So that's something to keep in mind if you are trying to reach a large audience. The good thing is: updating Flash player is very simple. So the end user shouldn't mind updating as long as you provide a link to where they can update. Does that make sense? </p> <p>"What do you use to transcode your MPEG to "an i-frame DV/NTSC"?  something like ProCoder?"</p> <p>I use MPEG Streamclip. It's free and can rip DVDs that are given to me by clients, too.</p> <p>"And can you add some explanation about what i-frame is?"</p> <p>An I-frame, also known as Intraframe, is a frame of video that is encoded with all the data it needs. The alternative to Intraframe compression is Long GOP compression. Long GOP stands for "Long Groups of Pictures." Here, frames often pull data from other frames, which results results in a smaller file size, but it not ideal for editing. </p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/i-need-advice-on-rendering-compression#post-51549 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:04:07 +0000 gregd2790 51549@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p> I've been editing for a few years and as HD became more prevelant, and more web usage, the number of choices for rendering is hard to get a handle on, so info like this is always great stuff.  The square/round pixel info was very useful to me.  Does creating Flash from the H.264 codec work well then?  What do you use to transcode your MPEG to "an i-frame DV/NTSC"?  something like ProCoder?  And can you add some explanation about what i-frame is?</p> <p>thanks!</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/i-need-advice-on-rendering-compression#post-51447 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:11:31 +0000 robgrauert 51447@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>yea, you're just going to have to play around and try different settings until you get the results you desire. That's just the name of the game when you're exporting for web use.</p> <p>If the export seems to be lightened, I'd try to darken the image just a bit in your editing program..ya know, to counteract what's happening when the video compresses. And try viewing the exported file on a few computers</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/i-need-advice-on-rendering-compression#post-51441 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:55:15 +0000 mindy 51441@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>Thanks so much for the advice! And for broadening my understanding of why what I was doing wasn't working!</p> <p>**edit** Okay, my problem was it wasnt showing up in winamp at work. nice.</p> <p>Though I AM finding the export looks lighter. Like the original footage has warm colour and lots of depth, whereas this export, though sharp thank you! looks washed out and lighter, like someone is holding a transparent white screen over it at 20% or something. </p> <p> </p> <p>I take it this is where I play around until it works? : ) </p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/i-need-advice-on-rendering-compression#post-51433 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:39:46 +0000 robgrauert 51433@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>I forgot to mention something, and this is only because you want to crop something for compositional purposes:</p> <p>If you did in fact shoot HD, keep working in your SD project with the HD video being way larger than the frame. It is better to scale down your HD image to crop something out rather than scale up an SD image.</p> <p>I would assume cropping in flash will result in a weird aspect ratio.</p> <p>Then export your H.264 file.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/i-need-advice-on-rendering-compression#post-51432 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:36:15 +0000 robgrauert 51432@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>"When I imported the video in it was WAY bigger than the provided frame (I chose Dv/NTC Widescreen)"</p> <p>Did you originally shoot in an HD format? I don't see any other reason why video would be larger than the frame. It sounds like you brought in HD video and are using it in an SD timeline.  </p> <p> </p> <p>"is there a way to change the settings to make adobe premier just inheirt the width X height of whatever I am importing in?"</p> <p>Yes. Work in an HD project (if that's what you originally shot.) You have to set up your project to match the parameters of the video you shot.</p> <p> </p> <p>"The video will stream at 400 kbps."</p> <p>If you are making video for the web, DV/NTSC is not the codec you should be exporting to. See, a computer screen uses square pixels, but SD video, such as DV/NTSC, uses non-square pixels. Trying to display an image with non-square pixels on a device that uses square pixels results in....crap. The reason why your HD video looks sharp (if you did shoot HD) is because HD video uses square pixels. And DV/NTSC requires too much bandwidth for the web. Try exporting to the H.264 codec. </p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/i-need-advice-on-rendering-compression#post-51429 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:32:26 +0000 mindy 51429@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>I exported at:</p> <p>Format: Microsoft Avi</p> <p>Preset: NTSC DV</p> <p>Video Codec: none</p> <p> </p> <p>For cropped:</p> <p>When I imported the video in it was WAY bigger than the provided frame (I chose Dv/NTC Widescreen), so I just resized it smaller, but only to the point that I could only have what I wanted showing showing. (the left part had to be cut off, it was destroying the composition of the video) Is there a way to change the settings to make adobe premier just inheirt the width X height of whatever I am importing in? I could do the cropping in flash.</p> <p>My intentions:</p> <p>The plan for this is to import the video into flash and be able to play it. I am attempting to make a series of video tutorials and want the vide I am importing in as sharp as the original mpeg (it is so sharp!) so that it looks nice in flash. The video will stream at 400 kbps.</p> <p>I'm painfully new to this (I was basically ordered to learn about digital video to make this work by my boss, Im a web designer lol), so if you have any advice on where to start or a book I could get, that would be great. </p> <p>Thanks so much for the reply!</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/i-need-advice-on-rendering-compression#post-51426 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:46:33 +0000 robgrauert 51426@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>Well, MPEG isn't an editing codec. Ideally, it should have first been transcoded to an i-frame codec like DV/NTSC, and then edited.</p> <p>What do you mean cropped it? Enlarged it? That will make your image less sharp.</p> <p>What settings have you tried when trying to compress for a final export? And what do you intend to do with this video that your editing program spits out? </p> <p>Without this kind of information, it's hard to pinpoint where you've gone wrong.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/i-need-advice-on-rendering-compression#post-51425 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:32:24 +0000 mindy 51425@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>I have an mpeg file. I trimmed it, cropped it and keep trying to export it out with horrible results. The original video is so sharp and clear, but I only get that result in an export if I have no compression., The original mpeg is like 80mb, the export to reproduce that sharp look of an avi is like 300mb.  What compression can I use on a file that was an mpeg that will give me the same sharp results? I have done a lot of experimenting and nothing I select seems to work.</p> <p>Is there a selection I can make to just save the video file at its original defaults? I can't afford ANY quality loss because I am importing this into flash. The old file imports into a lovely sharp image, whereas these almost but not quite the same quality other video files leave my footage fuzzy.</p> <p> </p> <p>Thanks so much for the help!</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/just-in-hell-premiere-elements-gt-youtube#post-35446 Sat, 08 Mar 2008 06:16:35 +0000 xoxos 35446@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>Thanks for the replies, my guess is it due to the frame size as JB indicated.</p> <p>I selected an arbitrary screen region for my screen record based upon economical capture of the gui region. I assumed it would have no difficulty correcting for the region.</p> <p>With the same material I achieved an 320.240 export candidate from Premiere Express 3.(.002 or similar) at a 'reasonable' size for transfer of ~40 meg (for 3.5 minutes) in mpeg1. I haven't investigated expanded codec and plugin options yet; other formats were poor or ridiculously large, considering the 'stretched on youtube' .wmv is of equal quality at 3.4 megs.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/just-in-hell-premiere-elements-gt-youtube#post-35432 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:18:56 +0000 CVP 35432@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>You tube gennerally works best with formats in Divx format.   Their help even suggest that.   (<a href="http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=55744&amp;topic=10526">http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=55744&amp;topic=10526</a>) Hope the link works.   Just a "favorite plug"  I like <a href="http://www.veoh.com/">http://www.veoh.com</a> for uploading videos, no time limit, no file size limit.</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/just-in-hell-premiere-elements-gt-youtube#post-35428 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:49:47 +0000 jburkhart 35428@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>Hi Rurik.</p> <p>I understand your frustration. There's a thousand different variables and if you select the wrong setting on any one of them, your video can go wonky.</p> <p>1. Can you tell me what version of Premiere Elements you have?</p> <p>2. We use <a href="http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp">Camtasia</a> here for our windows screen capture and it works pretty well.</p> <p>I'm assuming that the problem is that you may be using a non-standard video size from your screen capture, and premiere is an application that really only edits video. So you will need to conform to a standard size and codec for premiere to really work well.</p> <p>As a test use the following NTSC DV settings: {Size 720x480, 29.97 frames per second, Compressor: DV, Audio PCM 48,000}</p> <p>This file will give you a small screen size (if it ends up on youtube it will be even smaller), and a fairly large file size in MB. But should be able to be edited in premeire very easily.</p> <p>From there you can compress and upload to youtube directly. (or you can if you have the latest premiere elements 4)</p> <p>Hope this helps, and we're here for you. If you're still having problems let us know and we'll try something else.</p> <p>Don't give up, and Good luck!</p> <p>JB</p> http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/just-in-hell-premiere-elements-gt-youtube#post-35426 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:35:57 +0000 xoxos 35426@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ <p>Hi,</p> <p> I make audio software and have been struggling to make instructional videos.</p> <p>The first issue I/we have had is finding a screen recorder program. It took me a full day to find a software and codec combo that was remotely passable and the timing drifts - some parts are synced, others are up to 3 seconds off.</p> <p>*Any* advice here on softs or codecs is welcomed.. I am part of the synthedit community and there's several of us that have been attempting to do this. It's frustrating given that gamers have evidently been capturing screen activity easily for years. Obviously, some amount of synchronisation between video and audio content is necessary.</p> <p>My solution was CamStudio's codec with AviScreenClassic. Many other softs were unusable - black screening in premiere elements, jittery keyframing, et c. et c. I used an audio program to record audio, which is obviously correctly temporally calibrated.</p> <p>Win xp2 on a dual core..</p> <p>...A day later.. with content in Premiere Elements, I have pieced together a trashy, frustrated vid and uploaded it to youtube..</p> <p>..their conversion process has transformed my 3 1/2 minute video into 10+ minutes.</p> <p>Obviously, this will not do! I really don't want to lose day after day of development time troubleshooting a field I am greatly nescient about. Getting screen activity onto youtube shouldn't be this much of a hassle, should it??</p> <p>Several of the export options are really not suitable, eg. quicktime has tragically poor audio (5.5kHz with no antialiasing prefilter?!!!! destroys voice, let alone instrumental content).</p> <p>So:</p> <p>Screen Recorder advice -</p> <p>Premiere Elements &gt; Youtube advice - what works for you??</p> <p>Any assistance will be shared with several users and is very gratefully accepted!</p> <p>Sincerely!</p> <p>Rurik.</p> <p><a href="http://www.xoxos.net/">http://www.xoxos.net</a></p> <p>frustrated and hasty first attempt here (crooked titles are produced by accidental clicks with an impetus to move on and solve the logistics..)</p> <p><a href="http://www.breathcube.com/miniseries1.wmv">http://www.breathcube.com/miniseries1.wmv</a></p>