If I wanted to create a short film (2 or 3 min) of something I wanted to share with family and friends and then post it for them to download what would be the best choice in “Create Video File”?
I have used the WMV (320X240, 30fps) but the quality is not as good as I would like.
These are my other choices.
Is there some custom settings I could use to increase the size and quality of the film?
I have seen some DivX short films that look great. Should I use that to create a film?
Thanks in advance!
aka James or dd :)
MB Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3P
CPU Intel 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz
Windows 7 64bit
GeoForce GTX 260
4GB of RAM
DirectX 10
LiteOn DVD Burner SOHW-1693S
Sony HDR-CX550V camcorder
And if you go the DivX route, you might be interested in the following note which I wrote about my own experiments with producing high quality DivX several months ago. Sorry it is rather long, but my basic conclusion is that you have to carefully tweak the DivX codec after you have selected it in order to get good results.
"FWIW, I have just run an experiment, as much for myself as anything else. I have never before used VS to produce a DivX file, but, intrigued by this thread, have now done so twice. It happens that I had readily to hand two files of exactly the same video: one in DV format/PCM audio and running for 5 minutes 21 seconds; the second, of the same length, in DVD-compatible mpeg-2, 6000 kbps, Dolby dual channel stereo. I bought the Pro version of the DivX Create bundle some time ago and recently upgraded the codec to 6.2.2. [And since this experiment, I have more recently upgraded to 6.2.5]
I consecutively rendered each of these files to DivX Home Theatre Profile (i.e. single pass 780 kbps). The DV file converted in 5 minutes 32 seconds (i.e. near real time). The mpeg-2 file converted in 6 minutes 30 seconds. I would not say that either meet my perhaps exacting standards as far as video quality is concerned – noticeable blurring in parts, though no obvious pixelation in the DV version. However, there was near-pixelation observable in the mpeg-2 version. Also, in the latter, there were quite a few audio pops. So I would certainly agree with John on both fronts: use better than 780 kbps, and also use an original DV file for conversion in preference to an mpeg-2.
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As a further footnote, and with more time on my hands than I know what to do with , I just carried out some more experiments with the same DV/AVI original file mentioned above.
First, I used the Home Theatre default of 780 kbps but set the encoding quality at 'Insane' -- the highest available in the codec. This took 12 minutes 58 seconds to render and produced a file of 92 MB -- though this time without the DivX watermark! But I can't say I was any more thrilled by its quality than I was by my original experiment.
I then tried raising the bitrate to 3000 kbps. Rendered at 'balanced' (default) quality encoding setting, it took 5 minutes 10 seconds to process and produced a file of 171 MB. The quality was perceptibly better but still not good IMHO.
I then tried 3000 kbps at 'insane' quality: 14 minutes 45 seconds to render and a file the same size (171 MB) but again, perceptibly better in quality thought still not particularly good. My main complaint about this and the previous two files was noticeable blurring in parts (though improving through the sequence of 3 videos I produced) and very noticeable and to me unacceptable stippling (a haloed or rainbow effect) on plain single coloured walls or backgrounds.
I next tried using 'multipass 1st pass' in the configuration of the DivX codec (which I think is what skajkingdom originally chose), at Balanced decoding setting, but set at 3000 kbps bitrate as recommended by John. It seemed to process the file OK, and took 5 minutes 25 seconds to do so (just a little faster than the original single pass 780 kbps). But VS10+ crashed at the end of it -- though a file had been produced. The audio played (erratically) but the video would not -- either in VS preview, WMP or Cyberlink PowerDVD 7. In other words, I appear to have replicated skajkingdom's original problem, but have no idea what is causing it in this mode.
I then tried 'multipass Nth pass' at 3000 kbps bitrate and using the Balanced (default) encoding setting. This took 5 minutes 10 seconds to render (faster than real time) and produced an extremely good quality mpeg-4 file 178 MB in size. No blurring or stippling.
Just to say I tested them all, I also decided to use the final quality setting in Home Theatre mode -- '1 pass quality mode'. This took away the bitrate setting and substituted a 'Target Quantizer' set at 4. It was also set to use Balanced default encoding mode. Rendering took 5 minutes 50 seconds and produced a file of 184 MB -- the largest, but noticeably the best in quality (though not much more so than that produced with multipass Nth pass at 3000 kbps). I played this file on WMP and PowerDVD, as well as the original DVD-compatible mpeg-2 of the same video, and I had a hard time telling any significant differences in quality on my 19 inch CRT computer screen.
So skajkingdom, if you are reading this and can live with mpeg-4 file sizes this comparatively large (around 180 MB for 5 minutes 21 seconds of video), then I would go either for multipass Nth pass at 3000 kbps or 1 pass quality mode with quantizer target of 4 for the very best quality output in mpeg-4. The second method takes slightly longer (40 seconds for a video this size), but for me this is not significant.
I did not test either of these settings using higher quality (longer processing time) encoding settings such as the Insane one I used in the earlier tests -- but given the results in those earlier tests, I imagine if the higher settings were used with either Multipass Nth pass or 1 pass quality mode, there might be some improvements. However, as I say, I was hard pressed to see any difference as it was between these two at default encoding settings and the DVD-quality mpeg-2."
