Sorenson Support???

[Russian]

:furious3: A quick warning to anyone thinking of buying Sorenson right now. There latest release has some major issues that are not in anyway getting addressed by there support team.
I'm trying to get a refund out of them right now.
All i can say is it may be working for some - just be warned and read the posts on the sorensonmedia web site / support / squeeze form. Not very confidence building.

If anyone has a good recommendation for a compression suite that works i'd love to here it. I'm using HVX footage done to web posting and DVD out put. Avid XPHD is my edit software on Windows XP.

Good luck.:badputer:
</IMG></IMG>

[vidwerk]

Sorry to hear your troubles.
I'm still using Sorenson Squeeze 4.1.
I'm also using Canopus Procoder 2.0. So far so good.
Export QT ref out of Avid, verify frame rate on QT ref, Compress QT ref in Procoder.

vidwerk.

[Demistate]

SHORT ANSWER: It depends on how you are delivering your content.

LONG ANSWER:
For web release, I'll use flash video, since it has some better market penetration of QT and WMV put together (I know that 95% of people who visit TAVproductions.com have flash 8+ before visiting) There is a free Flash video encoder (The name is slipping me right now) Or you can use the one bundled with Premiere Pro 2.0. (Also, Macromedia Flash 8)

If you are distrobuting a physical disc, SD DVD is the most compatible format you can use. Practically everybody (except the state government) has access to DVD, this includes Laptops and other portable devices. I use adobe Premier Pro 2.0 mpeg2 encoder (I believe it's provided by MainConcept). The quality is good, but as always it takes awhile to do 2-pass encodings. Use your own DVD software to create the menus, or you can use P-Pro 2.0 to make a quick and dirty menu.

If you just want something handy to carry around with you, Apple iPod has video support for 320x240 4x3 video. However you'll need to share earbuds and it can pose a health issue (dirty ears) So, you may want to invest in a PSP, and use the Mpeg4 format to make Widescreen videos with external sound, if you just want a quick in your pocket demo that you can show in any place. I've seen video played back on these devices and they look wonderfully sweet. Also There are free utilities for making PSP videos, like MeGUI and StaxRip

If I want to be able to show a client content in HD, i'll usually encode it mpeg-4 with AAC audio in an mp4 container. Staxrip does a wonderful job of doing this for free, and keeps the file size manageable (50mb for a 720P file that is 4 minutes long, with excelent quality). Any Version of QT7 can decode this. Also, if you are doing business with mostly Windows XP clients, WMV does almost as good of a job keeping the quality high, without a huge filesize. Plus you don't need to install anything extra to the OS to play the files back, but you'll need a pretty sizeable CPU to do either Mp4 or WMV support in HD. (2+ghz is my recommendation)

I would avoid Quicktime MOV for anything other than your personal archive. It's not a format that is easily read by most people, Its not installed right or updated all the way on all comptuers, and there are issues with the mpeg-4 encoder and h.264 encoder/decoder.

[Russian]

Thanks for that answer Demistate... greatly appreatated and great info.
Sorenson was intouch after i went for the re-fund suggesting the Avid Codec was the problem and to swith to the Annimation Codec comming out of Avid / it would solve everything. WRONG!! No change.. have a feeling there stalling till my 30 days are up. Your info has me looking in other areas... much thanks.