exporting quicktime movies for the web

[a***@adobeforums.com]

recently tried exporting a streaming quicktime movie for the web. it was tiny, unbelievably crap quality and enormous - a 4min 6 second music video = 89 megs. the same video in WMV is 13 megs and great quality..

what's the story?

cheers

angus

[b***@adobeforums.com]

Try the h.264, 256K streaming option.
--Bob

[c***@adobeforums.com]

I am having the same problem.
I tried the h.263, 256k streaming option (I don't have a h.264)and the file was still much larnger than WMV and looked much worse. Anyone know how to get comparable quality and file size for Quicktime and WMV? I have a one minute clip I want to be around 1MB

[Steven Gotz]

The only way to get great Quicktime movies is to buy Sorenson Squeeze to get the Sorenson Pro codec. The free versions of the codec are terrible in comparison to the outstanding Pro version.

[a***@adobeforums.com]

alrighty then ......

[Steven Gotz]

Seriously, the tests I have seen show that you get twice the quality at half the file size. Remarkable difference.

[unknown]

How does it (QT with Sorenson Squeeze) compare with DivX-5?

[a***@adobeforums.com]

alrighty meblighty then...

[Steven Gotz]

I have never seen the comparisons with DivX. I prefer to stick with Quicktime or Windows Media files.

Since most of my personal stuff is all about editing with Premiere Pro, then WM9 is the way to go. Professionally, I have to deal with a few Mac users, so I use Quicktime for my telecommunications tutorials and training sessions.

[unknown]

Just downloaded Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite Trial - and still don't see Sorenson Video 3 Pro codec among the available choices (there is Sorenson Video 3 SE that came with QuickTime). I'll export in DV and see what kind of performance & quality I can get from their standalone encoder.

I hear you wrt. QT vs. WM9. I lean towards WM9 myself too... But the WM9 encoding time seems horrible - 30+ minutes for 5 minutes of DV??? For a simple WM9 NTSC 64K profile? I'm tempted to ask: am I doing something wrong? :-)

[D***@adobeforums.com]

The Sorenson Video 3 Pro codec with the true benefits of it is only available within Sorenson Squeeze or Cleaner. If it so in the Suite Trial, I don't know.

Encoding for web has always been time consuming, just learn to have a lot of patience if you want good quality.

Dag

[unknown]

Oh rest assured - it is so in the Suite Trial. First-hand testimony.

Wrt. patience, I haven't figured the settings yet - either for WM9 or for QT, that would provide me the quality desired - so I could wait with a peaceful mind (knowing the result of those hours will be an acceptable encoding :-).

Any book or article dealing with the issue of fine-tuning the encoding setting, especially for QT, WM9 and MPEG-2?

[D***@adobeforums.com]

"Any book or article dealing with the issue of fine-tuning the encoding setting, especially for QT, WM9 and MPEG-2?"

Not as I know of, but I think it would be kind of hard to write such a book because settings will depend very much on the type of footage.

But, there are a couple of helpful manuals to read, the user manual for Sorenson Video 3 Pro and the user manual for Main Concept Stand Alone mpeg encoder:

<http://www.sorensonmedia.com/documents/SVideoUser3.pdf>

<http://www.mainconcept.com/downloads.shtml>

On the last link you will find the link to the manual under MPEG Encoder.

Dag

[Ruud Blauw]

"Any book or article dealing with the issue of fine-tuning the encoding setting, especially for QT, WM9 and MPEG-2?"

Ben Waggoner: Compression for Great Digital Video <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/157820111X/002-2195394-4054434>
Stanford: Digital Compression Training <http://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/courses_assets/compression.html>

[K***@adobeforums.com]

Damn, Ruud. Beat me to it.
:)

A great book from the self-confessed "World's Greatest Compressionist." It's a few years old now but you'll learn so much about video codecs it's scary.

[unknown]

Gentlemen, thank you for your help! For now downloaded the mentioned manuals.

Ben's book isn't that cheap, and I'm not sure if it's "my level" - i.e. that it tells me what I need to know and doesn't drawn me in the ocean of information I don't need to assimilate. (Plus the "wife factor" - she can't stand any addition to my 4000+ volumes personal library :-) Will try to locate it in a public library.

Stanford course is of course (no pun intended :-) out of question.