What's a good video format?
 

We've been offering our videos now at 720x576 in MPEG1 format.

10 minutes runs around 200MB.

Is there a format out there that can give a better quality without too much bigger file sizes? What would you prefer to recieve, or is this a decent enough format?

n00b.. :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Just playing chris.. i prefer movies in MPEG. that fram size seems a little odd.

Bumpity up for you buddy.

Better format that does not increase files size? Nope.

I'm no pro (and probably don't even know what I'm talking about) but shouldn't you be able cut the file size in half by using MPEG2 without losing quality? I've done a little encoding in the past and MPEG1 was not my format of choice.

WMV9 at 640x480 2100kb/sec is pretty much TV-quality, which is great for an internet based site. And it would save you about 4x the space you're applying there.

true :thumbsup

Was going to mention wmv. :)

Some more opinions plz.... ? :glugglug

MPEG 1 uses a DCT-based encoding scheme similar to jpeg but with adaptions for compression between frames. MPEG 2 is similiar to MPEG 1 so you won't get much better compression.

MPEG 4, the latest version of the MPEG standard, uses wavelet compression, a much newer technology that gives much better compression at the same quality. WMV 9 is based on the same technology and gets similar compression and quality. The problem is a lot of people have to download new decoders to watch these movies.

That's the background. I prefer WMV 9 myself for size and quality of the video.

use to be mpeg, now wmv I feel is comparable in quality without the size.

1. WMV
2. WMV
3. WMV

I do everything now in wmv format since the advent of MS's video 9 codec.

MUCH smaller files than mpegs with just as good if not better resolution.

The only way to go.

quicktime, for many obvious reasons

you forgot #4, which is wmv

yeah... sorry about that

:Oh crap

Quicktime is the best IMO

Another GREAT video tip for compressing file sizes is to drop your frame rate to 15 FPS. YOur fies size cuts in half and your vid looks the same because the image quality doesn't change.

go with wmv man....

For a sample video/tgp what do you guys average per minute (per mb) on a wmv9 file?

What are you settings as far as bitrate, size, etc.

200MB :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh
Use DivX ! Go here www.divx.com

Commercial

Anything other than personal use falls into the category of commercial use. Commercial use is not free. You are required to get a license to use any DivX software product commercial purposes. The cost of a commercial license varies depending upon how you intend to use the software.

http://www.divx.com/divx/licensing/

I'm so sure you licensed, right?

MPEG1 at 720x576? that should look horrible.

There is no one better FORMAT, it all depends on what the use and the delivery medium will be.

If you are planning to do professional work, be ready to do a lot of experimenting with different CODECS and different settinngs of those CODECS to achieve your target size at the maximum quality.

Wmv !
Dvix !

I'd say DivX, Xvid and WMV. divx is not as spreaded as windows media video so stick to wmv to avoid problems.

ummmm...did any1 mentioned WMV is the best format ? LMAO

WMV is fine

:pimp :pimp

I found this thread after searching for 'compressing video' and this post caught my eye....if what your saying is true with WMV 9 being comparable in quality to the original MPEG file that I compress, then why is the resulting WMV so much granier?.....for example, I've got a 2 min MPEG clip at 77MB and use AVS Video Converter (trial version) to go from MPEG to WMV....but the WMV file that it creates, although heaps smaller in size (~13MB), just doesnt have the same quality as the original....it's actually quite poor in comparison....I tried going to AVI also and same thing - around 11MB in size but very average clarity.....how the hell do all the other sites manage to do this yet keep the quality?

Maybe I'm doing something wrong???....can someone help me with this please as I have a stack-load of vids that need compressing to put on the web.

Thanks in advance.

Gg

Nice to see more people smartening up and accepting WMV's superiority over mpg.

WMV for wide-spread acceptance and fairly nice quality-to-size ratio thus for your web audience; H264 Mpeg4P10 if you want the absolute best quality-to-size ratio for personal use or archiving purposes (Note that H264 encoding is slower than a retard trapped in a hedge maze).

bump bump

mpeg1 yuck

.flv is on the rise and besides the fact it is slow as shit to encode its pretty nice.

otherwise wmv

You own a Mac and don't give a shit about the rest of the world?

"Many obvious reasons"

WTF is that supposed to mean?

Less than 2% of my site members watch the Quicktime formats. It cost me more time and money to encode them than I make from offering them.

Wow, this thread came back from the dead. What I was looking for was the most general format I could give my content store customers as a download. Something easy for them to to convert into any format they need, and high quality, but not huge file size. WMV is good quality I agree, but I don't like proprietary formats for something like this.

I hate Quicktime. Almost as much as I hate opening .pdf files on the web.

Well yeah its WMV, but to have other options then MPEG works, but has alot higher disk space usage.

I wish more surfers used divx its a awesome codec

x264 encoded video in mkv/mp4 files have the best quality & smallest file size. But unfortunatelly, most people don't want to bother themselves installing software which allows to play them... :(

MPEG2 - 720x576 - 6000 Kb/s the besty format! Who cares about file size? Quality that is important stuff

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

I just hate how SLOW encoding it is... ugh.

wmv :)

:1orglaugh Yes, WMV does have the filesize advantage, but the quality sucks big time.