Best Video Export format for Internet

[aza]

Hi: I am using the VideoStudio 11 trial version. I have a couple of questions:

1). I plan to post my video on the internet. What is the best format for rendering my video in?

I have heard that Flash in the best format for internet videos, but VS11 doesn't seem to have this rendering option. In the Share Video Online section, it only renders in WMV format, while the Create Video section has mostly DV, HDV, MPEG, and WMV formats.

2). When I apply Color Correction functions like White Balance or Auto Tone Adjustment to a video clip, they seem to slow the movement in the clip down, almost like a Slo-Motion effect.

My video clip was shot on a miniDVD camcorder, and it is MPEG-2 format. The clip shows people moving in normal speed.

How can I use White Balance or Auto Tone Adjustment without causing this slo-motion effect on movement in the clip?

Thanks.

[lancecarr]

Can't help you much on the online stuff but I can on the MPEGs.
To understand it you need to understand that your cam is heavily compressing each frame it takes into MPEG2 and burning on to the dvd cam disc "on the fly. It is ideally suited to shooting and replaying fom the original disc.

MPEG2 is a lossy compression and the word compression is actually misleading. It is not so much compressing but discarding. It only has about one full frame for every 11 or so incomplete frames. The incomplete frames use the full frame just gone and the next full frame coming to calculate motion and everything else. MPEG2 was designed for distribution, not editing.

Now having said all that you can still edit MPEG2's as long as the editing is reasonably conservative in it's approach.

Applying filters to MPEG2s can give you very mixed results. When you apply a filter it causes an adjustment to each individual frame BUT, remember you don't have a series of complete individual frames. You have some full frames and a big bunch of incomplete frames so the results vary.

[Black Lab]

You would have to use a third party flash converter to convert your file (mpeg-2, avi, etc.) to flash.

There are other options that give you great quality on the web (WMV, MOV). Of course you have to have the players to play them, but I think most people have Windows Media Player and Quicktime.

As for your slow down after applying filters, are you talking about your project, or the finished DVD? It's possible that during preview it could get choppy, but this shouldn't happen to the finished product.

[Quijote]

Hi,
There is a terrific freeware program called SUPER that can make your flash videos. They are nice because they load quickly and can stream. Google SUPER and give it a try. There is another one called RIVA that also works.

[aza]

You would have to use a third party flash converter to convert your file (mpeg-2, avi, etc.) to flash.

There are other options that give you great quality on the web (WMV, MOV). Of course you have to have the players to play them, but I think most people have Windows Media Player and Quicktime.

As for your slow down after applying filters, are you talking about your project, or the finished DVD? It's possible that during preview it could get choppy, but this shouldn't happen to the finished product.

The slow down happens during preview. I haven't rendered the project yet, so I don't know how it looks like after applying the Color Corrections.

And would it be better to post the video immediately online using WMV or MOV format, instead of first converting the rendered video to Flash before posting it online?

If I use a Flash converter, won't this degrade the image quality further?

[Ron P.]

Slow, choppy video on previewing withing VS is very common. The program must throw everything together "on-the-fly". With very little editing done to the video clips, the preview can be somewhat smooth. However when you apply filters, it must add that to every frame. Basically ignore the choppiness of the playback, the finished product should not appear that way.

Next the format depends on if you're going to use one of the commercial hosting sites, such as YouTube or Veoh or others. When you upload a file to them, in whatever format, it is recoded to FLV (Flash Video) format. This is a very highly compressed format, and it's only use is for streaming video content over the internet. This recoding in my opinion really knocks the quality down. On your PC viewing your finished WMV or MPEG-2 file may appear great. Let one of the hosting sites recode it, and you'll be horrified. So it really does not matter that much what format you use. Just try to get the highest quality to start with.

If you're going to host it on your own website, then I would use either WMV, MOV or FLV. Any one of those can be streamed, and the quality quite good. The difference is that it is not going to be recoded by the server before being presented.

[tommytucker]

It looks like uploading a quality video to a site like youtube is not possible then according to the many trials and comments here. But it does look like you could upload a quality streaming video in FLV or WMV to a site one owns? I assume you are saying that it would NOT be re encoded as on youtube? I just wanted to get that clear so I can stop trying to tweak a way to get a good look on youtube. Perhaps place it on a site of my own and just direct friends and family or interesrted parties there. Am I understanding that right?

Thanks!

[lancecarr]

That's correct. On your own site you can dictate the file size and the encoding to suit yourself.

[Black Lab]

I think on Veoh you can get them to look pretty good. This one even has a lot of fast motion and is still pretty clear. http://www.veoh.com/videos/v4523748Z8jk ... blacklabdv (except for the beginning - it's supposed to be blurry )

I could never to get it to look that good on YouTube.

[tommytucker]

Seems like the best copy of this file that I was able to upload to youtube was a fvideo file output in WMV HD 1440 in VS10+. Not great, but fewer blocky fuzzies.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GRHyHwaipZw

[Black Lab]

The settings I used for mine was:

MOV
320 x 240
Sorenson 3 - 50%
Fast start
Progressive

[tommytucker]

I don't see a Creat Video File output format for MOV. I am using VS10+. Am I missing something here?

What is Sorenson 50%?

[Black Lab]

From Share>Create Video File click on Custom (at the bottom of the list). In the Save As Type box choose Quicktime Movie Files (mov). Click on the Options button, then click on the Compression tab. Sorenson 3 is in my drop down list when choosing the compression type.

[laurentje]

...Next the format depends on if you're going to use one of the commercial hosting sites, such as YouTube or Veoh or others. When you upload a file to them, in whatever format, it is recoded to FLV (Flash Video) format. ...

In BLIP.TV you can see the uploaded wmv-file in this format. The file you uploaded is exactly the file you're seeing.
For Flash I find Vimeo higher quality then Veoh (see frames per sec)

[tommytucker]

aren't you a wealth of information? Those sites look most interesting. It does appear that Blip lets you specify that your video NOT be converted to Flash, but play in WMV if you dictate that. Vimeo is a Flash conversion required site, but they claim superior image quality. Only downside seems that the restrict you to 500 MB size for all video files. I have not tried these sites yet, but they seem to offer better video quality than youtube if I am reading them right.