THE OFFICIAL VIDEO TIPS THREAD
Danpape Colabo posted,
Hey Coast,
There's been a lot of talk on forums lately about video, both filming and editing and what's the best way to get it out there. I wanted to start a thread where film enthusiasts can come to get tips on how to get the highest quality format out there. Having said that, I'm not professing to be an expert in all areas of video making but I have learnt a few things in the past years of making vids for the community.
Video upload sites are battling for top rank positions for the most popular sites to go to. This thread is not to start animosity amongst different opinions, but just so we can work together on getting our shit out there in pristine format. Youtube does this!!! Vimeo is that!!! I'm just saying what I know for sure so let's keep this thread positive. Please.
2 nights ago I uploaded a video to Youtube. Youtube now allows 1GB Videos on it. The good thing about this you can edit a video, and maximize the quality as much as possible to get as close as possible to that 1GB. That way you've maxed out the allowable and your video looks sick. The downside is users have to know that they need to choose HQ (High Quality) in order to watch it in it's most beautiful colors. This video was 698MB. This is rad as long as the HQ option is chosen when people view it! The non-HQ version is painful to watch.
Then last night I uploaded the exact same video to Vimeo. The restriction was that it only allows a 500MB maximum. Therefore I went back into Final Cut and re saved the video in a lesser quality format. The end edit ended up being 450MB or so. In this particular case I got the video closest to the maximum to take advantage of what was available. If your videos are shorter in length and only 2 or 3 minutes long (or shorter), try to export as close to that maximum as possible. In otherwords, before you export your finished video, check the maximum allowable on each individual site in order to get that video our looking sick.
Recommended formats are MPEG4 and H.264.
I reviewed both videos and to my surprise the Youtube Video on HQ was better. It wasn't a dramatic upgrade in quality but enough that I threw the YouTube version up on my site with a note saying....DONT FORGET TO CHOOSE HQ!!!
Proof is in the pudding as they say so check it out for yourself. Watch the HQ Youtube Version (uploaded at 698MB) and the Vimeo Version (uploaded at 450MB) and see for yourself.
If anyone has any questions or needs tip, please feel free to refer to this thread. As a community we can get tons of video out there and show the world that Longboarding, Speedboarding, Skateboarding Down Hills....whatever you want to call it - IS HERE TO STAY!
2009 January 23 4:15 PM
the slimer replied,
thanks dan, i think that will help me alot this year
2009 January 23 5:39 PM
danpape replied,
just found this on vimeo.....may be
useful
Frame rate
This is usually 29.97 for
USA/Japan/Canada, while in Europe and
rest of the world it's usually 25. If
there is an option that says "current"
just go with that. Please note that
Vimeo converts all HD videos only up to
25 frames per second in order to
optimize playback performance.
Keyframes
Every 30 frames. This is basically how
often the compressor references your
uncompressed video.
Data rate
1800 kbits/sec for standard definition
4:3 video , 2500 kbits/sec for
widescreen DV, or 5000 kbits/sec for
high definition. Making these numbers
higher will increase both quality and
size.
Size
640x480 for standard definition 4:3
video, 872x480 for widescreen DV, or
1280x720 for high definition. It is
also best to export 1920x1080 or
1440x1080 video as 1280x720 too.
Deinterlace
Yes. If you do not deinterlace, you
will often get weird-looking horizontal
lines in your video.
Sound sample rate
44.100 kHz
Audio quality
You want audio with a bit rate of 128
kbps. You can set your audio to really
good quality without increasing file
size too much.