Video to web = MPEG1/MPEG4/WMV/QT/????

[wwwill]

Sorry for the newbie question. Idid try searching but didn'treally get clear answers.

I need to put 30 minutes of 720 x 480 AVI on the web. I would REALLY like a resolution of 320 x 240, but I will live with 240 x 180. I plan on having it embedded on a web page.

I usually use TMPGenc for my DVD MPEG2 files and I edit in Premiere 6.0.

What format should I look at for the best in:
- widest range of compatibility
- smallfile size/bandwidth
- video quality

It seems that MPEG1 seems to be the best of all of theses, particularly the compatibility issue. ConventionalFlash was an idea but Flash's 16000 frame limit only yields maybe 10 to 15 minutes of video, which is not enough for what I want to do.

What do you guys think? If MPEG1 is the best solution then how can I do the conversion with TMPGenc, or something else. Or should I be looking at Quicktime, Windows Media, RealMedia or something else?

Please weigh in with your decisions.

[dcsos]

Mpeg 1 is playable on all platforms no downloads.
It makes a huge file size versus quality. VCD is most universal and is my choice for use.

MPEG-4 for Ipod is the only other logical choice these days as WMV sucks..

also...The codec for hi-def .H264 from Mac is an attractive solution but hardly playable by anyone

Have you really checked FLASH? I hear Flash 8 will do long video clips and despite cost to you..delivers for MAC & PC

[dipstick]

WMV9.

Excellent Quality(even very low bitrates) and easily the most compatable besides mpeg-1.

[kschang]

I am going to say WMV/AVI, with MS MPEG4 codec. I was able to convert someone else's WMV into an AVI that's about 35% of original size, without losing anything big (it's a sequence of driving from NFS: Most Wanted) and it actuallyed plays back BETTER on my low-end system. And nowadays MS gives away the codec and the player and encoder and all that.

Though I must warn you... a 30-min video will end up well over couple hundred megs for sure, unless your stuff is VERY compressible or can be done with VERY LOW bit rates.

QT... quite compatible, but their older Sorenson codec just wasn't that good, and their latest H.264 codec is just not very popular... yet.

[wwwill]

Thanks for the replies. The biggest goal is for wide-spread compatibility and small file sizes. I was hoping to find a solution WAY UNDER 100MB, something along the lines of 20-30MB. Does anyone know how compatible WMV is on say Apple or *nix machines?

[moyea]

Flash is the perfect solution for video as the installed base of flash is extremely large, the load time is quick and the video quality is better than ever using new On2 VP6 codec (flash player 8 is required).