Web codec

CB

What codec (and settings) should I use to export a video for the web? I tried using just DV NTSC, and that looked great, but made a 902MB file out of my 4min. video. That's just too big. I tried MPG4, and that gave me a better file-size (still 3x bigger than it should be), but even at 100% quality, it was very artifacty (unwatchably so).

Any recommendations?

UPSLynx

I absolutely adore the h.264 codec in .mov format. It has a GREAT compression/quality ratio and generates the smallest sizes while still looking great compared to every other codec I've tried.

I use it for every single 'Mind' episode, as well as any other feature video I've worked on.

It does tend to crush blacks and lighten video to a weird extent when used on PC. I've found a certain tweaking of the video levels can counteract this, but you have to play with it to know for certain.

rolleggroll

I second the h.264 codec.

kryyst

I'll third h.624 and recommend a program called Super Video Converter to do any encoding.

CB

I don't see h.264 in my list of export codecs.

kryyst wrote:

I'll third h.624 and recommend a program called Super Video Converter to do any encoding.

Well, I'm encoding directly from Adobe Premier where I created the video. Is that not the best solution? Should I be exporting DV NTSC, then re-encoding for the web with another program?

primesuspect

h.264 aka QuickTime. You can install Quicktime and find support for it in the list.

UPSLynx

CB wrote:

Well, I'm encoding directly from Adobe Premier where I created the video. Is that not the best solution? Should I be exporting DV NTSC, then re-encoding for the web with another program?

I always export directly from Premiere. On my Mac I sometimes use Compressor externally after exporting video, but that's done through FCP.

Are you certain you've got Quicktime selected as the file type? That list looks like a list of .avi codecs (ffdshow, cinepak, divx, intel, huffyuv...)

Though my Premiere nomenclature is probably radically different from yours, as I primarily use Version 7, which came out in 2003

CB

Aha! I didn't even see the option to change the file-type before selecting the codec. trying h.264 presently.

CB

Okay. That looks good, and the size is a bit more manageable (although still bigger than it should be).

kryyst

I know I mentioned it before but run it through that super video converter I linked to. I've had better results with crushing files down using that then any other program I've played with and I have tested a lot at work for posting up company videos to our intraweb. I'd say it was roughly 50% more effective then any other video converter I tried.