Encoding Videos for Online Viewing 10votes Posted by: Shiv Kumar Views: 2717   Favorited: 0 Comments: 13
	May 22, 2008 05:54 AM Filed Under:  FAQ Tags:  Help, Video Encoding

Encoding Videos for Online Viewing

Encoding videos for online viewing purposes can be a daunting subject for a lot of us. To make things more confusing you have a multitude of “containers” (Quick time, Flash Video, Windows Media etc.) and a multitude of codecs (Encoders/Decoders) and most containers typically support many if not all codecs. So the choices available in just the combination of containers and codecs alone are huge.

Quality Of Video

The quality of video is primarily governed by the Video Bit rate used during encoding. The eventual file size is also directly proportional to the Video Bit rate used during encoding. The larger the dimensions of the encoded video, the higher the video bit rate needs to be in order to maintain the quality of video.

Encoding Settings for HD Video

If your video is HD we recommend the following:

1. Dimensions 1280x720
2. VBR 2 Pass
3. Video Bit Rate of 3000-3500Kbps
4. Audio Bit Rate of 192-224Kbps

For audio, make sure the source audio’s bit rate is higher than the audio bit rate setting you use. Most MP3 files available online are encoded at a bit rate of 128Kbps and lower. So if your source audio is 128Kbps then use this setting for your audio. In other words the audio bit rate you use during encoding should never be higher than the original. The same goes for video too but the settings mentioned above are well below the original HD source video’s bit rate.
FCP Users: The “best” quality is no good for HD video. So please override the settings and use those mentioned above.

 Exporting Recommendations for Final Cut Pro

For those members that use Final Cut Pro below are some screen shots with recommended settings.

 

 

 

 

 

Do your Quicktime movies seem a little washed out?

If you are working on a Mac, you might find the video looking “washed out” once it is uploaded to ExposureRoom.  The same QuickTime file that was produced on a Mac will appear less saturated when played on a Windows PC.  The link below is to an article written by one of our members, Marco Menestrina on how to solve this problem.

Do your Quicktime movies seem a little washed out?

 

Comments

	Marlon Diaz    July 03, 2008 06:51 PM
	HD is the best. if you guys use apple compressor for encoding i have a preset i can email u to convert your videos to HD. preset is: quicktime h.264, dimensions 1280x720, video bit rate at 3000kbps. the quality is great.you can peep some HD videos i got uploaded around the internet, you can search "mad vision productions" on Vimeo.com , Dailymotion.com , and see my HQ music videos shot with Canon XH-A1. Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Shiv Kumar    July 03, 2008 07:21 PM
	Marlon, So what's stopping you from uploading your videos here. Our quality is far superior than any other website :). Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Christian Carmona    July 25, 2008 02:40 AM
	Muchas gracias Gracias Marlon, la verdad a mi me sirvió mucho tu ayuda. Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Stef Chalang    August 24, 2008 10:56 AM
	Best Online Video! I have tried them all..... Vimeo, Dailymotion, Youtube, Google etc... XR has the best definition, best audio... smooth delivery, easy upload... Love it... so far. I hope not all viewers will have tu upgrade their Flash Player like I did have to... but, hey, everybody should have the latest one... so they can watch my fantastic content ;-) Suggestion: would be nice to be able to choose the frame used for the thumbnail... Good show! Splendid app... good luck. Stef Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Shiv Kumar    August 24, 2008 11:10 AM
	Stef, Welcome to ExposureRoom! Thanks for the wonderful compliments! Your suggestion is already a feature. I'm going to point you to our news page. This page has all the features and things that have been added over time. In there you'll find the all sorts of goodies! ExposureRoom News Or you could click on the Thumbnail link next to one of your assets. Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Pablo Sommer    September 18, 2008 04:07 PM
	Compression at FCP Hi Shiv. I tryning to post a video in EX but I can´t get the best compression. May be you can help me. My video is 720 native. HD. When I try to export I can´t find VBR 2 Pass. In FCP I go to export/using quicktime conversion/ and the optiones a use are: compression H264 data rate restrict 3500 quality best size> 1280 x 720 BUT... I can't have nice quality. Some ideas? thanks Pablo Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Theodore Salido    October 06, 2008 04:24 AM
	Vegas mpeg compression Hi, Can you help me what settings to use to upload my video. I'm using sony Vegas 8. Thanks and more power Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Ajay Miranda    October 09, 2008 11:22 PM
	FCP compression: mp4 vs h.264 I've seen some videos here where the source file is as big or bigger than anything I've uploaded, but the compressed streaming version has a file size that's a fraction of what my videos' compressed versions end up with. I'm wondering how that happens. My FCP export settings are .MOV files with MP4 encoding at 4400 kbps. Is it because I'm using MP4 instead of H.264? Other than that, I don't know why my streaming videos are huge (triple-digit megabytes) when files of equal length are a fraction of that. Any advice is appreciated. Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Ian MacLean    October 25, 2008 01:04 PM
	Frame rate v video bit rate I'm still researching this, but I assume that encoding to a limited video bit rate makes the frame rate of the film irrelevant. In other words, whether the short is 24fps or 30fps becomes irrelevant as the variable bit rate encoding will reduce the original quality regardless. Another way to ask would be, what is the video bit rate of uncompressed 720p30? Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Daniel Adderley    November 21, 2008 10:05 PM
	I've got an 848 x 480 that comes out of huge no matter how I compress it. Trying for a mov with h.264 out of premier, any tips? Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Shiv Kumar    November 22, 2008 10:39 AM
	Daniel, What are you trying to do withyour video? How long (minutes) is your video? Have you read the blog post this article points to? Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

	Dave Rudolph rudolphMedia    December 02, 2008 03:35 PM
	Frame size unexpectedly changes during upload I am uploading an HDV file from FCP. As per the suggestions illustrated above, I am reducing the 1440x1080 frame to 1280x720. After uploading though, the frame size ends up at 1280x539 (stretched wide). What am I missing? Title: Comment:          Indicates Required Information

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