Quicktime Widescreen?

[AQUARIUSDUDE]

I have a few short films I want to publish on my website. I have seen quicktime videos play like 2:35 and 1:85 without the black bars, but I dont know how to publish the movies that way. I know its probabaly some stupid setting or something but if anyone could help me out I would appreciate it.

[kai]

I do my web compression through Cleaner 6 on Mac and there's a setting in there for output aspect ratio...

[GenJerDan]

Yeah. What's up with that?

Using Vegas and outputing a WMV as 640x352, I get a nice normal widescreen image.

Try that with a MOV, and it's got the black bars.

Dan

[J.R. Hudson]

I always use Sorenson for the final output and t has a CROP option; click and hold to CROP and done.

[David Jimerson]

720x390 does a nice 1.85:1. Be sure your pixel aspect ratio is 1.000.

[GenJerDan]

720x390 does a nice 1.85:1. *Be sure your pixel aspect ratio is 1.000.

Not 0.909? Hmmmm...I think you're right... 909 does look a teeny bit wrong. Damn.

Well, I can't get the stupid mov files under 20MB, anyway, so screw it. ::)

Dan

[David Jimerson]

Well, I can't get the stupid mov files under 20MB, anyway, so screw it. * ::)


That's why I detest Quicktime. NOT worth it.

[GenJerDan]

That's why I detest Quicktime. *NOT worth it.

Yep. Got a WMV that comes in at 8 MB. The Quicktime version that doesn't look nearly as good is sitting at 35 MB.

Not going to aggravate my ulcer for the 17 people in the world who still use Apples. ;D

Dan

[Bischofftep]

Just a little note of sanity... QuickTime is just the underlying architecture: like AVI. The size and quality of your final piece depends on selecting the correct codec and configuring it properly.

John, you mention you use Sorenson. I assume that's Sorenson 3? Do you use the Pro version or just go with the Standard (free) version?

[David Jimerson]

Just a little note of sanity... QuickTime is just the underlying architecture: like AVI. The size and quality of your final piece depends on selecting the correct codec and configuring it properly.


Understood, but there is no software Quicktime codec which will come close to matching the file size/quality ratio of Windows Media 9.

I grew tired of accommodating the 8% of the computer world which can't be bothered to play WM9 (which can be done on a Mac; many users simply refuse to use it) and now I only use WM9.

[AQUARIUSDUDE]

This is probably a really dumb question, I'm using FCP how do I do the WM9 thing from final cut. I just want my film to play on the internet in a 2:35 or a 1:85 aspect ratio. Im kinda new to this whole upload your films on the internet thing.

Brian

[Alexa]

ggeez. never knew compression could be such a hot-button issue.

[David Jimerson]

This is probably a really dumb question, I'm using FCP how do I do the WM9 thing from final cut. I just want my film to play on the internet in a 2:35 or a 1:85 aspect ratio. Im kinda new to this whole upload your films on the internet thing.

Brian

You probably want to check in the FCP section to confirm, but I don't think FCP will render to WM9 format. However, Microsoft has a converter, and it's free.

[GenJerDan]

ggeez. never knew compression could be such a hot-button issue.


Only after waiting through hours of rendering, tweaking, rerendering, tweaking, rerendering, tweaking, opening another bottle of bourbon, rerendering, tweaking... ;)

Dan

[Alexa]

Only after waiting through hours of rendering, tweaking, rerendering, tweaking, rerendering, tweaking, opening another bottle of bourbon, rerendering, tweaking... *;)

Dan


Read that newbies??? Compression takes work, experimentation, and practice. there is no one answer on "how to get the best...." If your video looks like ka-ka, then one good reason is that you aren't tinkering enough on your own. or you don't have the software for it.

in truth, it can be such a pain that I too, say.. "screw all the people who don't have this player or that player..or are too lazy to download whatever..or no hi speed, etc" lazy. oh, well.

[GenJerDan]

My only complaint about Vegas is the rendering options.

A HUGE list of codecs drop down, and there are a zillion settings for each one. Some of them are obvious as to what they do....some of them....huh? What the heck does this do? And will it make it bigger or smaller?

My "favorite" experience to date is rendering a WMV 9 Advanced (or however it is listed). No matter what I do, it errors out with an "unexpected error"...3 seconds before it would have finished. :o

Dan

What the heck is an "unexpected" error? Like the programmer expects it to break, but not in that way? For me, an unexpected error should be something like "Your toilet overflowed, and the nasty water short-circuited the mains, causing a spike in your computer, ruining this footage."

[David Jimerson]

Vegas lists every codec you have on your machine, even from other programs.

[HansK]

Well, I can't get the stupid mov files under 20MB, anyway, so screw it.

One thing to try is turning off the streaming server support. That can add overhead to your Quicktime file. Also, reducing the audio quality can reduce file size significantly. Use the "QDesign Music 2" codec for sound and a format around "22kHz 16-bit".

[HansK]

I grew tired of accommodating the 8% of the computer world which can't be bothered to play WM9 (which can be done on a Mac; many users simply refuse to use it) and now I only use WM9.

Yes, I wish Apple would upgrade their codec to catch up with WMV9.

I have looked at the ratios of Quicktime to Windows Media Player downloads of my videos and have found that they are still neck and neck overall. Although, on this board the ratio is 2:1 in favor of Quicktime.

[antomic]

yay quicktime! :D

[WaveRiderXIX]

I do my web compression through Cleaner 6 on Mac and there's a setting in there for output aspect ratio...

Kai,
I am using Cleaner 6 at work. Whenever I set a numerical crop value to eliminate the blacks on the letterbox 4x3, it turns out fine when it autoplays. However, once i resize the window, the image wigs out and squashes it to 4x3.

What settings do you use to get your wide movies out?

[princigalli]

I used to encode a lot on PC, but now I'm doing it almost exclusively on Mac. Anyway: I encode excellent windows Media files and Quicktime files, and none is larger or smaller. Not by much anyway, and there's no visible difference in quality. Windows Media files produce more trouble in some specific situations, like protected members areas on the web.

Anyway, I produce 3:4 and 16:9 sized media in both formats, both in progressive download. I can easily go from squeezed anamorphic video to 16:9 or 3:4 with black bars. Or I can cut the sides. It's really easy to get whatever result you need. Cleaner is very intuitive for this kind of work and I recommend it. I would not export anything directly from Final Cut Pro. It just doesn't make sense. I like using MPEG4 compression on Quicktime, which is more or less the same as in WM9.

If anyone needs specific settings please email me and tell me wkat you need to do. I will tell you what settings I would personally prefer.

[Alexa]

Kai,
I am using Cleaner 6 at work. *Whenever I set a numerical crop value to eliminate the blacks on the letterbox 4x3, it turns out fine when it autoplays. *However, once i resize the window, the image wigs out and squashes it to 4x3. *

What settings do you use to get your wide movies out?

I'm a interested also, though I use Sorenson 4. Have thought about Cleaner for Mac.


If anyone needs specific settings please email me and tell me wkat you need to do. I will tell you what settings I would personally prefer.

very nice of you to offer!

[Loki]

Understood, but there is no software Quicktime codec which will come close to matching the file size/quality ratio of Windows Media 9.

I grew tired of accommodating the 8% of the computer world which can't be bothered to play WM9 (which can be done on a Mac; many users simply refuse to use it) and now I only use WM9.

Mac users refuse to use a piece of shit product like Windows Media Player for a specific reason..

do your homework dude, you'd realize the implementation of Media Player on OSX is pure junk. Honestly if you get a chance, try out Media player on OSX and you'll understand why it sucks crap.

Not only does it not open all microsoft formats properly, it lacks video scrubbing, has huge lag time when trying to move forward in a video file. It has pretty much none of the features of Media player that the win version has. In essence the player is useless.

And why is it people talk about Quicktime as if it is a format? QT is a programming API/Application that contains over 20 Different Codecs for use. It is all in the compressor and settings and codec used that makes a good vid.

Media Player for the PC is fine. Works great. on the Mac it is terrible.

I will say that WMV is probably better at the moment for delivery on the web, it just seems to have better picture than most QT movies, and smaller file sizes.

But I think once Tiger is released it will be a moot point since QuickTime 7 is built around the H.264 MPEG4 codec, which looks amazing.

[David Jimerson]

Mac users refuse to use a piece of shit product like Windows Media Player for a specific reason..

do your homework dude, you'd realize the implementation of Media Player on OSX is pure junk. Honestly if you get a chance, try out Media player on OSX and you'll understand why it sucks crap.

Not only does it not open all microsoft formats properly, it lacks video scrubbing, has huge lag time when trying to move forward in a video file. It has pretty much none of the features of Media player that the win version has. In essence the player is useless.


It'll play WM9, which is all I ask of it to do.


I will say that WMV is probably better at the moment for delivery on the web, it just seems to have better picture than most QT movies, and smaller file sizes.

'Zactly.


But I think once Tiger is released it will be a moot point since QuickTime 7 is built around the H.264 MPEG4 codec, which looks amazing.

That's the word. But for now, WM9 is it (which is already a variant of H.264).

[Terry_Lasater]

For those of you looking for a smaller file size that will play back on a Mac, you might try Sorenson's MPEG4 compression. It rocks! Cleaner 6 can't come close to the small file sizes and quality of compression that Sorenson Squeeze gives (I have both). MPEG4 files play back fine on Macs.

[princigalli]

It isn't a matter of opinion. It's a fact. The only decent codec at the moment for delivering excellent quality at reduced sizes is Sorenson 3. Nothing else compares. All the Mpeg4 and other codecs are pure junk. Unfortunately, as far as I know, Sorenson 3 is only available for Quicktime at the moment. So Quicktime is the only game in town when it comes to excellence. Windows Media has great faults. Their player doesn't work well on all platforms, their encoding software is faulty, it's not very flexible when it comes to encoding options, and it doesn't resize well. It's way too blocky when you go full screen. Color reproduction is poor. What's amazing about Wondows Media and other MPEG4 codecs is that even when you play your video at large bit rates, the image is poor. Finally, and that's an issue for some users, if you ´r Windows Media file is placed in a password protected directory on your server by the presence of an .htaccess file, it will give you unexpected behavior. In the best cases, you have to type in a password for every file you play, but often you'll have to download the whole file in order to play it.

A very elegant solution is a Flash player including Sorenson encoded video. No quicktime required.