video compression

[tj]

Hi

I'm brand new to this site - and self taught when it comes to web design.

I have been working in video graphics for years and want to post animations to my site yet they are extremely slow to load. I have Quicktime Pro, After Effects and flash (but have not learned it yet) but have not found a setting that plays back nicely. My video production buddies say i must have Media Cleaner - but that is very expensive and I am hoping that there might be a way around that $500 expense.

Any suggestions as to compression settings and max sizes would be very helpful.

Thanks

[WebCraft]

Based on how long your video is, and whether your sound is Mono or Stereo, you can get away with a variety of compressions in Flash.
Frames per second should be around 12 with a stream optimization.

I personally have used 24.000mhz on the sound so that the file does not sound like it was recorded underwater and has loaded and sounded just fine with little to no frame stalling or jumping.

Let us know how long it is.

[tj]

thanks WebCraft -

most of my clips are under 30 seconds (between 5sec - 30sec). some have audio some do not.

I have never processed video in Flash - and am quite unfamiliar with the program although I own it (MX) and have been meaning to get into it. I will dig out my books --

will I need to imput video already scaled at the 12 frames per second into FLASH or is that an adjustment I make there?

thanks

tj

[WebCraft]

tj,

I know that in the older version of Flash that I have, you can adjust all the compression in the preferences within the program.
you may want more of a detailed overview from the Flash section of the forums. I know that there is definately a group of people that can answer that more than I could.

I was just relaying my experience as I have encountered it. As far as MX goes, well I cannot help there. Just ask them at the Flash forum.

I wish you best of luck.

[Sualdam]

You can alter compression setting very easily in Flash MX and depending on the physical dimensions you want you should be able to get your 30 second clips easily down to the 100s of kbs rather than MBs.

In a nutshell, all you do is import the video file and it ends up on the timeline on its own layer.

[tj]

thanks guys - I will give it a shot in the AM.

[tj]

You can alter compression setting very easily in Flash MX and depending on the physical dimensions you want you should be able to get your 30 second clips easily down to the 100s of kbs rather than MBs.

In a nutshell, all you do is import the video file and it ends up on the timeline on its own layer.

thanks - I have been trying to inpost a clip and keep getting memory problems - I have bumped the memory alotted to Flash up to 300,000 right now and still having trouble - so I have started to re-render the video clip at a smaller size before importing.

Do you have any size recommendations? for imput or output? the original file was 800mg I have it down to 200mg now (scaled it to about a third of the size which is fine). For audio and video playback, do you think the 12 frames a sec is ok?

sorry for the stupid questions - my MX upgrade did not ever send me the basic books - I have been trying to work with "How to do everything with Macromedia Flash" and it is a bit confusing.

btw - should I re-post this in the Flash section or can one of the mods move it there?

[Sualdam]

Uh-oh. You're on a Mac.

I can't make any comments about how to resolve Mac issues.

Read this section on Macromedia's site.

http://www.macromedia.com/support/fl...deo/index.html

You can reduce the size of the SWF by changing the physical size of the video, the quality of the video, or both (plus a few other bits).

Most people get greedy and try to keep DVD quality whilst reducing the filesize of huge videos to just a few kb. :) You can't do that.

If you have an 800MB video you aren't going to get it down to much less than a sixth of that size (about 1.5MB-ish) without serious loss of overall quality and/or change in physical size compared with the original.

Basically, you have to change your expectations.

Remember that if you stream then you can play while it is downloading.

[tj]

thanks Sualdam.

I do not mind compromising. Unfortunately- most examples of what I do are full rez quicktimes for my video clients - I have made a couple small and have attempted to post them on this page but they take forever to load as is - which is the reason I have been asking about compression and format:
http://www.tonicvision.tv/master_pag...ation_new.html

I need to re-design and streamline the entire site - so please be gentle with crits :-)[/img]

[Sualdam]

I've got a feeling you aren't streaming.

There's technically nothing wrong with a large video as long as a) people with wet string and coconut half connections to the Internet are made aware that they might not be able to see it, and b) you stream so that a portion of the video loads into a buffer, then starts to play, and the rest of the video loads in the background.

Transient issues on the web mean that just as you can't expect instantaneous downloads of even text-only pages every visit, neither can you expect jump-free downloads whilst streaming video.

Even if your server and the user has technology that came out of Star Trek, the wet string in the middle (of the USA :) ) can slow it all down.

:)