[Cipher13]

Ok heres the thing, I just recorded a movie for someone, on my Sony miniDV camera, and I need to send it to them over the net.
They've only got dial up, so I'd like to keep this movie small.
Resulution is a prob in itself, but I don't want to shrink it.
Its currently at 780*576, and I'd like to know what compression schemes or other tricks I can employ to get this movie down to a good size.
Currently it is around 350 megs, ripped straight from the camera, for a few minutes worth of footage...
I will try a bunch of different ones, and I'll try things like dropping frames and that, but whats a good scheme that will leave high quality (or at least decent quality), for a small size?
Sound is not so important, as long as they can hear the words being said...
I have Final Cut Pro, After Effects, all those things, to use for this... Media Cleaner is sitting around somewhere, so...
TIA

Cipher13

[noliv]

I like H.263 and Sorenson (for sorenson, don't check the box which can limit the data per second but choose a medium quality)

For the net (small sizes), they are the best ones

noliv

[Demonhood]

A little experiment.
I took a 7 second uncompressed DV clip and compressed it in every quicktime codec. All the codecs were set to their best quality. I left all the other settings besides the codec and movie size (i moved it down to 320x240, since that's a more reasonable web size) exactly the same as I compressed each file with Media Cleaner 5.
Original movie size 26.0MB

Animation:
Playback is jagged due to filesize. Not suitable for things that aren't...well, animation (or simple).
size = 49.0MB

BMP:
Terrible. Plays at like 10fps (actual fps is 30). BMP has got to the be the dumbest compression ever (just look at any windoze desktop picture size).
size = 50.0MB

Cinepak:
The old school winner before Sorenson came on the scene. Noticable compression in video. 'Digital haze' quite evident. Not terrible though. Plays smoothly.
size = 3.5MB

Component:
Looks really good. Plays smoothly. No real complaints. Well, besides the size listed below.
size = 33.4MB

Graphics:
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. This only compresses in 256 colors. You can guess what that does to the video.
size = 8.9MB

H261:
Nice. No visible artifacts. Plays smoothly. I had never used either H26* codecs before, so I was pleasantly surprised.
size = 5.9MB

H263
Very similar to above.
size = 4.5MB

Motion JPEG A:
Had to quit and restart Quicktime player to get it to play smoothly. But that was probably my fault. Fair quality. Somewhat digitally cloudy (jpeg compression artifacts? just really really small?).
size = 18.3MB

Motion JPEG B:
Same as above
size = 18.2MB

Photo JPEG:
Same as above only much smoother.
size = 8.7MB

Planar RGB:
Too much data per frame.
size = 50.0MB

PNG:
Same as above. Although stills look ok.
size = 29.4MB

TGA:
Again, too much information per frame.
size = 49.7MB

TIFF:
Clean stills. but still too huge.
size = 49.8MB

Video:
Compression galore. This is the cheap and easy codec. You use it if you have a slow machine and you're in a hurry.
size = 9.3MB

Sorenson:
The image is a little darker than the source, but it actually looks good. Smooth as silk. Sorenson compression takes the longest, but it is usually worth it.
size = 5.2MB

And now I get to delete this 394.1MB of testing. Hope it helped.

[Chuck_star]

Here's what I think Cipher
For smoothness in play at the smallest file size goes to Cinapak on its lowest setting. Although it does put a small film or haze over the screen. If you don't like the haze then you may want to use sorenson. You will need to use their best setting and the file size will be more than double. If you don't use the best setting it will get pixelated. As for FPS and Key frames 12 is the absolute minimum for motion but would recommend at least 15fps. As for sound you can get away with 8bit 22khz mono unless stereo sound is important.
Minor comp test: One minute video clip all 12fps key every12 16bit 22khz stereo.
encode times file size results
min:sec
Cinapak
least :02:00 5.9mb minor haze but good
best :22:07 13.5mb minor haze but good
Sorenson
least :02.30 2.8mb Pixelated
best :04.50 13.9mb Best tested
good luck

[Cipher13]

Thank you all very much for the help.
I tried sorenson before posting and the thing was it ruined the sounds - its as if it sped it up.
I sounded like a bloody chipmunk
Anyone know how to fix that?
I'm gonna give H.263 and Cinepak a go right now - thanks again for all the effort
BTW, Sorenson brought it down to an 8 meg file. Some artifacts but still very very nice

Cipher13

[Chuck_star]

Your video compression settings should not effect your sound. That should be a separate setting. If you want it to have good sound use no compression and settings at 16 bit 44khz stereo. 8 bit 22khz st. is acceptable.

[noliv]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
the thing was it ruined the sounds - its as if it sped it up.

?
what were your sound compression settings (original and new file).

IMHO Quicktime is missing a good audio codec, smaller than IMA4:1 and with better quality than QDesign... (something close to mp3...)
For internet use, I like QDesign but it really alters quality...

but in your case Cipher, I don't know what happened... I don't have MediaCleaner... I never had sound problems (I'm not satisfied bu the codecs, but it's acceptable)

noliv

[This message has been edited by noliv (edited 01-08-2001).]

[Cipher13]

Um... I'm not sure.
I didn't change anything.
I just dragged the movie into Media Cleaner EZ (the pro vers is on the other computer), used the menu to select Sorenson, and let it do its thing...

Cipher13

[noliv]

what about trying, with quicktime player, to export the sound track...
that way we will see if QT is able to convert it
then try to convert (in Quicktime player again) a little part of the movie (picture and sound with sorenson and uncompressed audio)
if it works, it means that the problem is in media cleaner...

noliv

[This message has been edited by noliv (edited 01-08-2001).]

[stux]

Best thing to do for the audio is encode the audio track with an MP3 encoder such as SoundJam (iTunes?) and then remultiplex it back onto your newly encoded video.

you can hold option when you paste in QT Pro to add over the top...

heh... see if you can work out the rest