why are my video clips on my website not clear?

[chinalewis]

I have VS 9 and when I share I export in wmv format (about 7to 9mb) but when i upload to my website they look fuzzy and dull. I try avi which is very clear but a 2 minmute video in avi is about 300mb and its too large to upload to my website. mpeg is about 60mb, also too large to upload

look at my website and u can see.

www.beijingmotorsports.com

Is there any way to compress avi? am i doing something wrong?

[rguthrie]

chinalewis,

For video on the web your video looks fine. Don't mess with it.

Ron G.

[Ken Berry]

Couldn't test it, I'm sorry. I tried the first two of your 6 videos (Fast and Furious, Lamborghini) and got a 'connecting to video' message for a minute or so in the small WMP 10 player which appears, then it said 'Ready' but nothing happened automatically. When I pressed the Play button, it went back to 'Connecting to video' and so on. (I have a fast DSL connection by the way.) So I tried 'Fast Mandy', got the 'connecting to video' message, then Ready, but this time when I clicked the Play button, everything greyed out and nothing further occurred. So I am afraid I gave up at that point. Nice active opening to the website, however, though I would probably find a better quality photo of the Great Wall as the centrepiece. It looked very grainy, almost pixelated, on my monitor (19 inch CRT).

[GuyL]

That looks like a great compromise on files size vs quality.

[chinalewis]

Hi Ken Berry.
Thanks for the reply but no one has commented, except you, that the video clip is unviewable. You are the first to say this. Even another poster after you said that the file video quality was ok. So i dont know why you cant see them. If you care to try again and view them... I still dont think the videos in wmv format are very clear compared to avi.

www.beijingmotorsports.com

[sjj1805]

I tried to view a couple of the videos but the media player just freezes up. I right clicked on the media player and viewed the error details which are as follows;

Cannot open 'http://69.41.254.138/InTouchVideo/vup2514.wmv'. Please verify that the path and filename are correct and try again.

Suggestion: Check the web site or content source for information about playing this content.

Cannot open 'http://69.41.254.138/InTouchVideo/vup2547.wmv'. Please verify that the path and filename are correct and try again.

Suggestion: Check the web site or content source for information about playing this content

Hope this may assist.
regards Steve J

[chinalewis]

I have checked all my videos on my website and they all work. I have also used another computer and I can view all of them. Could you tell me the names of the videos that you cannot access.Thanks....

[lancecarr]

I just checked the vids myself and all are available and loaded quickly, I am located in Taiwan. Is the site itself hosted in China? Other people may be having trouble due to traffic problems.
As far as the quality goes it looks fine for web content. Your starting avi's are always going to look better on your computer than when you compress the hell out of them and post them on the net. Remember wmv is a "lossy" compression so you will lose a lot going from 300mg down to 8-9mg.
One thing I might suggest is that where possible get the best light you can and also use a tripod as much as possible. If a tripod is unrealistic in some situations try to concentrate on keeping the cam steady or brace yourself against something solid like a wall. Camera shake just adds more "movement" data in to the avi that is not actually needed or wanted and this will add to the quality degradation when you compress. What you want to achieve is the highest quality original files you can which you then compress.

[sjj1805]

The two error messages relate to:
Video 1) Fast and Furious in Beijing
Video 6) Chinese Drag Racing

I checked a couple of the others but they just got stuck also, then gave up.

[chinalewis]

Im sorry I cant explain why you cant see the videos.. Although I am in Beijing China, the host websites (for my website and host for the video) are both in USA. Many people have seen these videos in USA without a problem and I cant explain why the poster in England and Australia cannot view them.. Internet traffic jam as one poster suggested?

The poster who said keep video movement steady when shooting is a good suggestion but doesnt solve my basic problem.

Am I the only one who has this problem. Has anyone uploaded an avi versus an wmv to the web?.

Here is a direct link to the number 6 video. Please try again

http://744-ChineseDragRacing.intouchvideo.com

[sjj1805]

Still stuck. It may be something to do with the firewall here at work.
I'll check it again at home when I finish this night shift!

[Ken Berry]

I have tried again -- several of the clips -- with both Firefox 1.5 and IE 6 and continue to get looped from 'Connecting to video' to 'Ready' and then back to 'Connecting to video'. No error messages, though. I even took a deep breath and switched off my Zone Alarm Security Suite, but that made no difference either. It is curious since I normally have no trouble playing embedded video or video as an attachment to a (trusted) email...

[sjj1805]

chinalewis

Must have been the firms firewall, it worked at home.
Nice clips, pity about the shaky cameraman in the middle!!

Checked your other clips, they were all fine, loaded in fairly quickly and played nicely. I would stick to whatever format you are using.

Regards
Steve J