Cleaner 6 vs. FFmpeg

[dss]

I'm new to to this app and was wondering if anyone had any legitimate opinions about comparing the two app's. I love the applescriptable interface of Cleaner 6 and the ability to output several formattes at once. I've not kept up with compressionist technology in the last couple of years and would also like to know what people consider to be the best web movie codec that is most widely excepted, has the best quality look and sound (H264?), and is of small file size and yet biggest possible size for viewing? Is it considered bad to have it open full screen and pixel doubled?

Thanks for any input.

[Case]

I'm new to to this app and was wondering if anyone had any legitimate opinions about comparing the two app's.

The pricetag of Cleaner puts it in the video professional category, where ffmpegX at just 2.5% of that price seems better suited for the home video enthusiast.

I love the applescriptable interface of Cleaner 6 and the ability to output several formattes at once.

You'll find neither in the current version of ffmpegX.

I've not kept up with compressionist technology in the last couple of years and would also like to know what people consider to be the best web movie codec that is most widely excepted, has the best quality look and sound (H264?), and is of small file size and yet biggest possible size for viewing?

WMV seems widely supported with so many Windows machines on the net. But your Mac friends won't like it.
FLV is great for the web (YouTube, Google Video), but you won't find much high quality or high res samples. Widely supported through Flash for webbrowsers.
XviD is still very popular for desktop movies, but the viewer needs to get the right player/codecs.
H.264 is great for scalability (low res and high res), with a superb quality for the filesize. No idea what is needed for WMP playback, tho' (VLC would work, of course).

Is it considered bad to have it open full screen and pixel doubled?

I think most people can find the full screen playback function in their fav player, if they would like to view it that way.

[dss]

The pricetag of Cleaner puts it in the video professional category, where ffmpegX at just 2.5% of that price seems better suited for the home video enthusiast.

Yea, I knew after I posted this that price issue would come up. I guess my point with Autodesk taking it over and not supporting the Mac end (upgrading) of it any longer was, is there something out there with that kind of extensibility? Of course it would be cool if FFmpeg would come up with some basic scripting for the obvious reasons of productivity.

WMV seems widely supported with so many Windows machines on the net. But your Mac friends won't like it.

And your right I don't like it. Because dumbed down is the phylosophy of the day it's become cool like Blair Witch to have crappy looking video, let alone foolish subject matter.

FLV is great for the web (YouTube, Google Video), but you won't find much high quality or high res samples. Widely supported through Flash for webbrowsers. XviD is still very popular for desktop movies, but the viewer needs to get the right player/codecs.

So I'm wondering if getting the right player is harder then getting the free QT that has a large installed base of windoze users already? Unfortunately I think MS likes to screw the install of QT up with their own WMP, and I can only think Vista will make things worse! Asta la Vista!

H.264 is great for scalability (low res and high res), with a superb quality for the filesize. No idea what is needed for WMP playback, tho' (VLC would work, of course).

Well, I'm thinking my question is answered and I'll go this direction with H.264 for quality and file size. Thanks Case!

If anyone would help with the specifics of H.264 with my iPhoto question in the forum, I would appreciate it, since I just got a 60MB file and squashed the video making the women look a little bigger;-0 I thought that I was resizing and transcoding it down, but I guess not.