Help with EX-1 settings for Web content

G

Granville

Well-known member
I am just about to shoot some footage that will end up as testimonials and training footage on the web. I have not done anything for the web before and am asking for a bit of guidance with the camera settings.

I was thinking that I would I would shoot 720 30P which would be plenty of resolution also having a progressive look and slo mo options to boot. 720 60P also looks good.

Any experienced suggestions?

any other considerations when the end goal is the Web?

Thanks
 
24p is MUCH easier to stream than 30p on the web, makes smaller files, etc. Trying to stream 60 frames per second is nearly impossible.
 
Thank you kindly Perrone

Mostly interviews and Landscape footage so 24P would be perfect.

I've got a week and a half to prepare and the Web is Terra Nova. I have finally accepted the fact that there is a large plate of bread and butter called the Internet and now I have to cram some knowledge for the upcoming jobs.

What about the size of the footage? I don't think anyone is going to drop 1280X720 onto their page. What are common scales? I would think that even with downsizing the EX-1 footage will look great.
 
Another option is to shoot 30p and stream 15fps (1/2 the frame rate). That's pretty common as well. Looks fine in my opinion.

Common sizes are: (for 16:9 projects)

320 x 180
640 x 360
960 x 540
 
PerroneFord said:
24p is MUCH easier to stream than 30p on the web, makes smaller files, etc. Trying to stream 60 frames per second is nearly impossible.
Click to expand...

Perrone, is your choice of 24p due to file size or less for the local computer to handle?

I don't see how 24p 30p would be that different if both had enough bandwidth or that the bandwidth used is that far away.

To me, the biggest concern is the bandwidth the end user has. If they have enough bandwidth, you can use any format and it will play fine.
 
Bassman2003 said:
Perrone, is your choice of 24p due to file size or less for the local computer to handle?

I don't see how 24p 30p would be that different if both had enough bandwidth or that the bandwidth used is that far away.

To me, the biggest concern is the bandwidth the end user has. If they have enough bandwidth, you can use any format and it will play fine.
Click to expand...


A few things:

1. When trying to stream HD, Sites like Vimeo only stream up to 25fps. So 30fps gets re-encoded badly to 24fps. 24fps is streamable from Vimeo, Yahoo, Exposure Room, and everywhere else without issue.

2. It might not seem to be a large difference to you between 24 and 30 frames per second. Try pushing 100+ unicast streams like I have to do for work, and those few frames make a difference.

3. Older computers can struggle trying to play back 30fps, especially since in streaming, there is no guarantee packets will arrive in order, and need to be reassembled before playing.


It's not just end user bandwidth that has to be considered. It's every link in the chain between the source and the end user. And frankly, the idea of streaming at 15fps begins to look pretty good. I wouldn't go higher than 24.
 
Good points.

I am used to thinking about just my business, but I can see that it could get out of hand with larger operations.
 
Great stuff.

Thank you for your input (please, keep it coming). I am hoping that the experience of others will help me to plan intelligently.

Perrone, I am with you in trying to consider all of the links in the chain.

Can anyone recommend some good learning resources (regarding web streaming) such as books, articles, dvds?
 
It's important to make a distinction between video "streaming" and video "downloads". I've been working in this business for over 20 years now and I've only had to do video "streaming" twice. Everything else has been downloads. In my experience I almost always use this work flow:

1) Purchase Telestream Flip4Mac WMV Studio HD ($179). Adds WMV export to all applications that us Quicktime.
2) Edit in FCP or Quicktime Pro or your audio editing software...what ever you use on a Mac
3) Export using Quicktime Conversion and choose Windows Media
4) Choose one of the many well labeled presets (both 4:3 and 16:9) and Export
5) Upload the file to an FTP site and send the client a link to it. An FTP site can be Apple Mobile Me/iDisk or Senduit or YouSendIt, what ever

Setting up a video stream is MUCH more complicated. You have to get an IT guy to set up a streaming service address and you need so send a live video stream to it. I've done this twice now and it's worked fine, but I could have never done it without the help of an IT guy (we paid him for his services)

Video Download = Not live, archived video
Video Streaming = Live video

Where things get blurred is when you talk about Flash. You could technically say that Flash is video streaming, but when you set it up, it's very similar to setting up a video download.

This is over simplified, but I thought it would help. :)
 
Thanks Mitch,

That helps a lot.

While I don't expect to be a pro overnight, With some help and some hard work I may be able to at least move out of the novice box in a short time.

Experience being the best teacher, I am grateful for this forum and to the people on it who are willing to share theirs while I am gaining mine.
 
MitchLewis said:
Setting up a video stream is MUCH more complicated. You have to get an IT guy to set up a streaming service address and you need so send a live video stream to it. I've done this twice now and it's worked fine, but I could have never done it without the help of an IT guy (we paid him for his services)
Click to expand...

I honestly believe that anyone who can edit video can stream. Windows Media Encoder is reasonably simple, and absolutely free. Just pay for your bandwidth and you're all set to go.
 
That's what we used, Windows Media Encoder, but I was lead to believe that setting up the streaming server was tricky. Maybe I was wrong. Wanna share your work flow? (who you buy your bandwidth from)
 
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