help with codecs with wmv..

[daza]

k i make a few animated movies from games etc. i used to use xvid mpeg-4 codec however thats dinosaur stuff. i realise wmv provides better quality for same file size. i have a movie inputted into vegas 5.0 as avi (codec radius or somehting) but once editted in vegas will be rendering it as wmv.. my question is this...

what settings will give me the best file size to quality ratio (this movie is to be downloaded from the net). so i want file size minimal but quality not to be hindered all that much. any ideas.... ????



p.s. when rendering with wmv i normally use settings as "best" and then set to "90" for quality but i normally dont touch any other settings as im not sure what would change etc.

[bugster]

k i make a few animated movies from games etc. i used to use xvid mpeg-4 codec however thats dinosaur stuff. i realise wmv provides better quality for same file size.

Not all will agree with that.

As for best settings, try a few experiments and see what you think provides the best compromise between file size and quality. Only you can determine what quality is acceptable to you!

[laspis59]

Not all will agree with that.

I dont agree.

XviD kicks WMV's ass.

[daza]

ive found xvid gives good quality, however file size is ridiculous. i can get wmv to the same quality as xvid but with half the file size. for those of you whom ,live and die by xvid what xvid settings do you use to get these great results? maybe my settings are why i look down on xvid

[thecoalman]

what settings will give me the best file size to quality ratio (this movie is to be downloaded from the net). so i want file size minimal but quality not to be hindered all that much

There's no good answer to that, too many variables. Resolution and your target audience are big factors. If they are on dial up I doubt they are going to want to want to download a video for an hour just to see a minute or two no matter what the quality is.... It's usually a good idea to provide two files if your making this for a webpage. One for broadband and one for dial-up.

Create a custom template with your desired resolution and do some test encodes. Drop the data rate until it becomes unacceptable. A quick hint, drop the framerate as well, less frames allows for less bandwidth per second. 15fps is adequate for the web IMO, even 10 if your aiming for 56ker's.