Encoding odd ratio videos?

[Corey]

There are lots of video codecs which wll allow you to deploy your video in AVI form in AMS via the Media Player Object but there are other people around here who know much more about that than me so I won't make any specific suggestions. If you don't need to use it for some other reason, then flash is probably not the best choice strictly from a video quality vs. file size standpoint.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[eric_darling]

Re: Encoding odd ratio videos?

MPEG file sizes must be divisible by 16 in BOTH height and width to be legal. That's just a limitation of the format, unfortunately.

There are a number of ways to get around your issue, but do realize that uncompressed AVIs, even if physically capable of being stored on your CD-ROM, won't run properly. It's just too much data trying to squeeze out of a slow optical disc too fast. Even the fastest CD drives pale in comparison to the slowest HD.

So, now to be actually HELPFUL. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

You may want to consider using a utility called Squeeze to move your video into native SWF format. Squeeze is made by Sorenson (http://www.sorenson.com), and uses their Spark codec. It's the best way to get "normal" looking video into native Flash. Bear in mind that you'll need to have the Flash v. 6 player installed to use the files, however.

You could also use Windows Media to encode odd file sizes. WMV v. 7 should be backwards compatible to WiMP v. 6.4 or so (I think). Version 8 is better, but less universal still.

And last, but not least, you could use AVI, but to get the quality you are probably looking for, you'll need to employ some third-party codec that probably very few people in your distribution list would have installed on their machines. For distribution, I think AVI is a thing of the past, really.

You could always go QT, but then you couldn't count on everyone being able to play your files, and you'd have to embed the QT movie in a browser object to get it to work inside the AMS interface.

BTW, if you choose to go the Spark/Flash route, do NOT render from AE in SWF format. Render to Animation Codec QuickTime and then use the resulting render file inside Squeeze to give yourself the most control.

At this kind of dimension file size, you'll need to be mindful of your codec and frame rate. Don't ask the processor or optical disc to do too much. Be realistic.

Remember, there's no substitute for time and grade. Good luck.

[ghobii]

Re: Encoding odd ratio videos?

Why the strange dimensions to begin with? You are pretty close to the aspect ratio of mpeg1 so you might want to consider using that and stretching the media player larger. I play back video this way all the time from cds and the quality is pretty good. It's very compatible with just about every machine out there.

[renderizer]

Re: Encoding odd ratio videos?

Have you ever tried the Xvid Codec?

It's still under developement, but I like it better than the DivX stuff.

There are no known restrictions to the format, and the quality is better than DivX, even though the files might get a wee bit larger.

Ah yes: it's free.

I have experienced numerous problem when trying to encode DivX (from targa sequences) in Combustion (2.1), but Xvid seems to work much better (and so does 3ivx).

Take a look here: http://www.divx-digest.com/software/xvid.html

Give it a go!

Renderizer

[RadDVDMaker]

Re: Encoding odd ratio videos?

OK, working on those suggestions – Thanks.

Ghobbi – Well, these intros deal mostly with logos and I would be afraid to have it even the slightest be out of proportion via stretching ( imagine the McDonalds logo stretched, even just a little, they’d have my head on a plate!). And, if I didn’t have things flying in from the edges I could go with a black background, stay with the mpeg ratio and no one would know but each video is a little different and there no way to guarantee what I’ll have to do next. But thanks for the suggestion…
Rad