What codec to use ?? H.264 is useless?

T

thabo

Well-known member
I just shot a short 7min movie and as I have the new FCP production Suite I used compressor to encode it to H.264. It looks fantastic (24p and well lit) and I have created a 300Kbps and 800Kbps version. I later found out that most people (poor Windows bastards) won't be able to view the movie cos Windows users will have to get QT 7 (a 20meg download) and it has to be downloaded from the apple.com website as a user can't simply get an update from their current QuickTime Player. Christ on a Bike! I cast ye to the lowest pit of the Abyss Microsoft (and apple too!)

So it seems the H.264 codec is totally useless if you want the masses to watch your movie? What is the best most widely compatible format to encode my pride and joy with. Real perhaps (another download and not included with compressor) or should I just choose a QuickTime 6 mpeg4 option (divx??) option.

TIA
Cheers
R
 
Not Divx if you want it watched on most Macs. True MPEG-4 would be ok.
Sorenson is the choice for most places with pro video.
 
Almost everyone has Flash built-in their browser and you have a pretty good guarantee against users right click and saving your videos if you use Flash. It can be done, but not by the average Joe user. But, and this is a big one, I don't have the experience with web quality video encoding to compare it with Sorenson 3 in terms of quality or download size. So, maybe Sorenson is the stuff? Couldn't tell you. Sorry.
 
Well, one thing for H.264 is that it is compatable with the iTunes 6 and the new video iPod, according to the Apple web site. I think that it will catch on pretty fast, even to those poor MS folks on the Darkside.
:evil:
 
i'd just use windows media or quicktime sorenson at around 500kbps. They're both pretty safe. H.264 is great, and will catch on, but right now its an annoying update and most viewers probably wont be patient enough to wait.

I beileve the new flash 8 codec (On2 VP6) is not compatable with older flash players and requires an update.
 
I don't know is I have Sorenson in Compressor. I have QuickTime 6 - Mpeg 4. I Don't want to have to buy Sorenson seeing as I just forked out $1200 for FCP production suite.
 
Of course, you wouldn't believe how many hardcore Mac people don't have QT7. I get bitching all the time because they can't play my H.264 files . . . and QT doesn't auto-update the codec. (According to them, not me.)

It's bad enough I have to cater to this tiny minority by sending them QT files at all (I find WM9 to be superior in every respect), but if they can't be bothered to update their own players, then screw 'em. They just won't get to see.
 
I just encoded in QuickTime 6 Mpeg4 @ 300k and 800k - they look fine and took far less time to encode but the 300k version has noticeable artifacts and when you select double size it looks really crap compared to H.264 @ 300k (to be expected when comparing a 10 year old codec to a newer one)

I will probably end up encoding a few versions and I have noticed that the stand alone version of QT 7 is hidden on apples website (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html) cos I guess they want people to download Itunes bundled with it! This reminds me of the difficulty one had in getting the free RealPlayer - a tiny link hidden on the bottom of the page I recall. No windows media player for me as I just switched from Linux to a Mac. RealEncoder does not work with Tigger.
 
Sorenson is already available to output from QT applications. There is a pro sorenson codec that allows user control of settings but the built in codec works ok.
 
Looks like I have sorenson video and sorenson video 3 - don't know much about them but video 3 seem to be for QuickTime 3 ?????? Old codecs perhap.
 
I also have trouble sending H264 files with the people who recieve em. And I also believe wmv is a superior and widely used format than most quicktime files.

So my question is, is there a way I can encode from FCP into wmv directly? my way right now is output it to avi then transfer to my pc then use windows movie maker to wmv. I know, retarded.

Thanks
 
Encode to Flash 7 .flv file. That will work with just about everyone. It will cache on your PC, but who cares, becasuse you can't play it without downloading a flash flv player.

Flash 8 is very good, and I agree with mr. wells. It will catch fire becasue it is less than 1MB download / plug-in. Get sorenson and get on with it. Flash will rule the world until true broadcast quality comes around for broadband.
 
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