trying to decide on format for (web)distribution, have ffmpeg and mencoder

[sybariten]

Hi,
i'm gonna distribute some video clips to customers and i need to decide on an appropriate format.
The clips feature animation together with a presenter, the presenter has been shot in front of a back projection. I will most probably have the video delivered to me as a DV-PAL clip in a .mov container.

My customers are sort of big and they will be showing this material online, as "web TV". Most probably directly in a browser window.
Maybe some of them will convert it to some flash format, since that's all the rage in 2008.

My question is if you have any recommendations for a "general format" i can tell them all, that i can deliver, considering that i have mencoder and ffmpeg.


I could also have some communication with each of these media houses and ask them what they want, but i think i'll prefer to offer a standard format.

For instance, i guess its not very professional to say "an avi file" or "a wmv file", since thats not very specified?

Basicly, i need to find out exactly what formats my mencoder or ffmpeg can produce, since these are not the bleeding edge svn compiles. And i dont think i will have the possibility to upgrade.

I want the format to be something that media houses in 2008 will accept gladly. I am aware that they may resize the video, or put commercials before it. So in other words, my delivery format cant be of too low quality, it has to survive another conversion.

[sybariten]

Here's some info on my input video

bash-3.00$ midentify.sh /data/temp/0_3719995.mov
ID_VIDEO_ID=0
ID_AUDIO_ID=1
ID_FILENAME=/data/temp/0_3719995.mov
ID_VIDEO_FORMAT=dvcp
ID_VIDEO_BITRATE=0
ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=720
ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=576
ID_VIDEO_FPS=25.000
ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=0.0000
ID_AUDIO_CODEC=pcm
ID_AUDIO_FORMAT=twos
ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=1536000
ID_AUDIO_RATE=48000
ID_AUDIO_NCH=2
ID_LENGTH=59

When trying to do

 mencoder -profile wmv-medium /data/temp/0_3719995.mov -o /data/temp/0_e371999r5.wmv

i get a nasty "Trace/breakpoint trap" and mencoder dies.
That profile works for other conversions.

When doing

ffmpeg -i /data/temp/0_3719995.mov -hq -b 1000 -s 4cif -vcodec mpeg4 -acodec mp3 -ab 128 -deinterlace /data/temp/justatest.avi

i get some sort of result, but the video runs like five times to fast when played with mplayer. VLC says the avi has a broken index.

So, in other words, i probably will have to use ffmpeg, but i have to find a stable distribution format.
What audio codec is mainly used together with wmv, for instance?

[Baldrick]

Give them the dv mov or convert to dv-avi container?

[sybariten]

Baldrick: guess i could do that.... but i guess i also wanted to get away a bit from the 250 mb file we will have then, since there will be a handful of customers. But its one solution.
What does it essentially mean to go to a dv-avi container then?

[Soopafresh]

I want the format to be something that media houses in 2008 will accept gladly. I am aware that they may resize the video, or put commercials before it. So in other words, my delivery format cant be of too low quality, it has to survive another conversion.

Check with the client, but they most likely use Final Cut Pro, in which case your DV file in the .MOV container is the way to go.