Tips to Convert to Web Ready Quicktime Movie

[ehmjay]

Okay so here's what I'm trying to do.

I want to take my film and put it on my portfolio - I want to encode it to a quicktime movie that's web ready (that is to say embedded in the site for viewing right there, like the quicktime trailers for example).

I used to just use the convert to iPod (it yielded great file sizes and was perfect for uploading to youtube/google video). Problem is, it does not embed in sites (from what I can tell).

I have quicktime pro and a few other apps if need be - I just need to know what the best settings are (or even if theres a quick and easy way to do it).

I realize that with encoding there is no EASY answer and that everything is finicky but I was just wondering if anyone had any tips.

Thanks!

[Case]

You'll have to make a choice: FLV (Flash, like YouTube) or MOV (QuickTime, like Apple trailers).
If you want to embed the clips in a site, you need to have access to the (HTML) source of that site, in most cases. Then just cut-and-paste the appropriate code.
FLV became as popular as it is now, because of the huge install-base of browsers with the Flash plugin. FLV files are often often used with a generic .swf file that links to the FLV file (*), so that you don't have to do the extra step of embedding every Flash movie inside a .swf container.

[ehmjay]

the embedding question isn't really an issue. That I can deal with fine - its the creation of the webready video I'm looking into and needing help with.

I want to use quicktime probably (since it is better quality and allows for people to save and rewatch much easier) - I just don't know what settings I should be using.

Thanks for the advice though!

[terryj]

I would encode through Visual Hub to H.264 .mp4 video, using the notch
above standard quality. That way, I have:

(1) A Quicktime compatible file

(2) A high quality video with a medium file size as to not choke most
people's internet connections ( you'd be amazed how many people
are still not Broadband....)

(3) then if you have those who would at a later date, want a copy of your
video to show to their boss/project head to give you a job,
you have a high quality/medium sized file perfect to have them
download or ftp from your webspace.

[ehmjay]

awesome, great!

and this should embed nicely (like the quicktime trailers)?

[Case]

QuickTime 7.3.1 Pro has an 'Export for Web' in the File menu, with 3 options for 1.5 Mbps, 900 kbps and 56 kbps. Have you tried that? Not much tweaking possibilities, but it couldn't be easier.
Let's see if that is still so in QT 7.4...

[terryj]

yes, the embed code will be the HTML.
The embed tags work for ANYTHING,
I remember in the old days ( circa 1998)
how fun it was to embed audio snippets,
and then later video once QT 3 came out.

but, the HTML standard has always been the same....

[ehmjay]

okay just did everything in visual hub as per your instructions and it worked great.

my only issue is that the dimensions of the video is pretty big - too large to embed in my website.

so how do I go about creating a smaller size (dimension wise) version using visual hub?

[zoobie]

quicktime was voted one of the 10 most annoying things about computers...ha ha

[ehmjay]

umm thank you for that...

anyone have an anser to the question?

[Baldrick]

Change the width and height?

[terryj]

Baldrick's right ...
for web video you want a Width of 320
and a Height of 240.
You also want your Framerate (fps) to be 15 for webvideo.
(embeded) For Downlodable webvideo, 15fps or 30fps is fine.

also if that doesn't cut it, then force the video to fit within
10 to 30mb in filesize.

[ehmjay]

Okay, so I am trying to embed this movie file into my website and nothing seems to be working.
This is the code I'm currently using:

<OBJECT CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" WIDTH="480"HEIGHT="286" CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<PARAM name="SRC" VALUE="3x-Screener.mp4">
<PARAM name="AUTOPLAY" VALUE="true">
<PARAM name="CONTROLLER" VALUE="true">
<EMBED SRC="3x-Screener.mp4" WIDTH="480" HEIGHT="286" AUTOPLAY="true" CONTROLLER="true" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>

Someone told me that it loads everything first and THEN plays - but perhaps it just doesnt work.

You can see the actual page its loading on here:

http://imagearts.ryerson.ca/aschoales/portfolio/films/3x-watch.html

one thing i should note - i didn't change my FPS - could that be the issue?

[Case]

Okay, so I am trying to embed this movie file into my website and nothing seems to be working.

It appears that "3x-Screener.mp4" isn't in the same directory as "3x-watch.html", while your code says it should. The embedding won't work if the movie file isn't found.

[ehmjay]

thats the thing - it is there... im thinking that perhaps the server im using has blocked mp4 because if i try to load it directly/download it loads a cannot display page - if i change the extension to .mov it lets me download it just fine...

but it still wont let me embed it - even if it's set to .mov

[terryj]

should let you embed, perhaps its a caching issue on your end?

[ehmjay]

i have a feeling whats happening is that the whole video is loading first - and then playing - the problem is after waiting for a while the little quicktime image changes to a questionmark...

however if I do it locally it all works fine.

so I have no idea what the heck is going on. Flash video is working fine - just not QT.

Did i have to set something when I encoded the video to quicktime? i used visual hub with the settings mentioned previously...

[terryj]

you can set the video to Streaming start when encoding from
Quicktime Pro, not from Visual Hub.

Check the other post...this two posts on the same subject is getting confusing
to keep up with....

[ehmjay]

okay well how were those clips created?

perhaps I should tell you the whole process i went through and you might be able to pick out where I went wrong:

• edited in final cut pro
• exported as "quicktime movie" (the first option - what i would normally use to export to iDVD or what have you
• took that file and placed into visual hub - here i changed the dimension to get it smaller
• upload to website
• embedded to page

so I'm guessing I might be missing a step some where?

the file size is about 99 megs - but the fact is no matter what its not opening and progressively downloading like it would on the QT Trailer Site.

so am I doing something wrong in the process?

[terryj]

99 MBS!?!?!? Geeze.....
something like that would hog all bandwidth to stream and
more than likely, your ( is it a school?) server is limited on
how much it can per connection stream to people.

The test files I created were from a 6.8MB movie trailer I downloaded from
IMDB.com. I took it into QT Pro, and cut 10 secs front and at the end
and made the two clips.

If you have to have it as 99MB, you'll need to have it downloaded,
not set as an embedded object. The same file should download easily
enough because it routes that through a specific port service on the web server.
Regular traffic, including embeded video, usually all
goes through port 80, and if others are trying to view their
web pages while somebody tries to view your video, your
vid will probably be put on hold.

Your steps are sound as to creation.
Here is where I would veer to the left from
what you are doing.

First, how long ( length of time) is the project?
Second, do people need to see the WHOLE thing or just
the first 10-30 secs to get an idea?

Once you have those two questions figured out you will be able to
understand this scenario:

1. Edit project in FCP, say finished project is 45mins total.
2. Export as QT Movie from FCP.
3. Go Back into FCP, and cut a smaller "Trailer" or "highlight" reel
of the project
4. Export that as QT Movie from FCP.
5. Take the trailer or Highlight reel, no more than 1 min in length,
and export it from QT Pro as the following:



6. Then, code my HTML page.
7. upload the HTML and the .mp4 file onto the web server

You can substitute QT Pro with Visual Hub, just tweek the settings in
the MP4 preferences to match.

But your file size is what I believe IS THE PROBLEM.

[ehmjay]

okay well its a 13 minute film - so a "trailer" wouldn't really be ideal.

What I want people to be able to do is navigate to my site, and watch the film (as it currently is with flash).

could I perhaps compress it more so that its smaller than 99 megs? (the 50mb flash file plays just fine)

I really don't want to have to make users download the file and then open it seperately - although perhaps in the end that is the only solution?? even if i could do what the QT High-Def trailers do where it opens the file in QT and then lets it load - ut the ideal solution would be to watch it all in the browser.

[terryj]

so 50MB is the magic ceiling....
ok so what you do is dial down the mp4 settings to get video under 50 mb.
using my example:

Audio: tweek to 32khz 128kbps audio
video: 128kbits data rate, at 320 x 240 with a 15fps rate with auto keyframing
Streaming: Enable Streaming, Max packet 512bytes, with max duration of 50ms

that should put it under 50mb for your site.