Video on the internet

[CT2]

I am building a web page and would like to put clips of some of my home videos onto the site. Which files work best on the web for video (not streaming)? Quicktime file, Real, Mpeg2?? Which one can I put a 30 second clip onto my site and have it work right?

[Gazorgan]

The only thing "guaranteed to work" is MPEG1. Windows doesn't support MPEG2 or MPEG4 natively. MAC and LINUX support MPEG1 natively as well. MPEG1 runs about 10 MB/minute, so a 30 second clip is 5 megs or so, 30 seconds on broadband. 1/2 hour on dialup.

[mujahid7ia]

The only thing "guaranteed to work" is MPEG1. Windows doesn't support MPEG2 or MPEG4 natively. MAC and LINUX support MPEG1 natively as well. MPEG1 runs about 10 MB/minute, so a 30 second clip is 5 megs or so, 30 seconds on broadband. 1/2 hour on dialup.

That's true about MPEG1, but for the sake of filesize, I'd say QT, real, or WMV... I'm sure most ppl have these players and can support them, and you can provide links where to get them.

[energy80s]

I have been experimenting with low bitrate DivX for my PocketPC and can get near VCD quality at 2 megs a minute. It might be worth going down this route and just providing a link to the current DivX codec on your website.

[jimmalenko]

I'd recommend WMV.

[energy80s]

If you go WMV use an older codec (say version 7) as most PCs won't have version 9 loaded.

[rgs_uk]

You can lower the bitrate of MPG1 to get smaller filesizes (so it does not have to be 10 MB/minute as someone said) but the quality for any given filesize will not match WMV or Real because it is older technology. 2Mb per minute for a 240x180px window is about the minimum I would use with MPEG1.

I see you do not want to stream, but I will go through all the options that I offer on my sites... I provide streaming WMV, plus files to download in WMV, MPEG1 and XVid/MP3 audio for people on a slower connection. It is not worth streaming for 56k users IMO, as the quality is always terrible whatever you do. Xvid is a bit of a grey area I think, as I understand it is only free for 'educational' use. But someone correct me if I'm wrong

The great thing about MPEG1 is it plays for almost everyone. Although they say MPEG1 is a streaming format, I would forget about that anyway. I only stream WMV, setting up an ASX file for each video. That launches the player.

I settled on 375 Kbps as a good rate for streaming WMV in a 320x240 window or 384x216 for widescreen. That leaves a bit of headroom for people who are on a 512k connection, otherwise they may get buffering. I am streaming from a normal webserver and find the movies play without buffering at that rate. If you encode at that rate for download, then you always have the option to stream the same files later

However, currently my WMVs for download are 240x180 at 175Kbps as that makes them smaller for dial-up users.

I find Vegas Video is the best tool for encoding WMV or Real. It makes it all very easy and you can do it direct from the timeline. Though often I load the final rendered video into VirtualDub, resize in that and do some filtering, then load back into Vegas and encode.

I would definitely not use MPEG2 as users need to buy a player. Nor Quicktime, which is terrible on PCs. I don't like Microsoft (WMV) but I dislike RealMedia and their scabby player even more. So I don't offer Real.

[mujahid7ia]

I'd recommend WMV.

Was that post changed I could've sworn it was "never recommend"..