Best Method/s For Embedding Vid

[izzi]

Hi all,

I've been working on a project in which the main elements are two clips (3D model animations) output from Autodesk Inventor in .AVI format. I put some text/fades in between and a pan across an engineering drawing with text fades, about 2:30 min total.

The problem I'm having is that: 1) the animations have a gradient background, 2) the rotating 3D models seem to be extremely sensitive to compression, too much and artifacts abound.

I want to embed these in a web page and I have in fact but in using .mp4 for progressive download the playback is constantly catching up with the download and stopping/freezing. The file is at approx 18MB now and even at this size there are some color issues with the rotation. I've experiemented up and down the size spectrum and can't go much lower than the 18MB size or serious quality issues occur.

This vid needs to be useable in the later versions of Internet Explorer. While I don't use IE myself most of the viewers of this item will be using it. I tried embedding a .wmv but all that happens is a separate instance of Windows Media Player is launched and that's not what I want. I assume this may just be the code I'm using but it may be a fact of life, I don't know. Both of these options seem to work well in FireFox but I have to assume many of the viewers will be using IE.

I'm also considering .flv but my editing software (Vegas Pro 11) doesn't output to .flv and I have yet to nail down the best output/conversion method.

I need to get this project up and viewable asap but for the future I'd like to nail this stuff down for viewing by the widest audience. I'm also going to investigate what output options are best from Inventor. I didn't create the 3D stuff and don't have a clue about Inventor so I'll have to go back to the designer to find out what works best.

Any suggestions on how to get this done in the near term and how to better accomplish this in the future will be greatly appreciated. One thing that would be very helpful would be the best .flv conversion setup and if it's worth it, a paid solution is not out of the question (except the full version of Squeeze, can't afford that).

Thanks!

Iz

PS Here are links to the MP4 and WMV pages;

http://www.ifab.us/skidvid.html MP4
http://www.ifab.us/skidvid-win.html WMV

[Baldrick]

Flash supports mp4. Just make it with h264 video and aac audio and then use it together with flash player like flowplayer.

[izzi]

Flash supports mp4. Just make it with h264 video and aac audio and then use it together with flash player like flowplayer.

Thanks for the input.

I was thinking this vid rendered or converted to .flv might be smaller in size thereby addressing the bandwidth/playback issue. Btw, there is no audio so thankfully that's a non-issue here.

Iz

[Baldrick]

You can use same video codec for both flv and mp4. And h264 is best for smallest size with best quality.

[izzi]

You can use same video codec for both flv and mp4. And h264 is best for smallest size with best quality.

From what I'm seeing h264 is not available to encode output from Vegas. One recommendation I've seen is outputting to .mov and converting in Quicktime Pro.

Iz

[aedipuss]

You can use same video codec for both flv and mp4. And h264 is best for smallest size with best quality.

From what I'm seeing h264 is not available to encode output from Vegas. One recommendation I've seen is outputting to .mov and converting in Quicktime Pro.

Iz

vegas calls their mp4 encoders mainconcept avc and sony avc.