Audio with video still - min size wanted

capturevid wrote on 10/17/2005, 9:35 PM
I'd like to spice up a voice recording by showing a still image while the audio is playing. I could drop a still image into Vegas and encode the audio as a video file, but I really want to keep filesize at a minimum.

Is there anyway to display a still image while audio's playing and keep a minimum file size?

In Sound Forge, within the 'Summary' button on the 'Save' window I notice I can add a 'Picture' in .bmp, .cur, or .ico. I've tried adding a .bmp, but it doesn't have the effect I want. Actually, I'm not sure what it does.

Any help is appreciated.

Comments

farss wrote on 10/17/2005, 11:04 PM
mpeg-2 or WMV would achieve want you want I think, it might take the image a few seconds to build but if you can live with that you should be able to encode at a very low bitrate with either a long GOP or with a large time between keyframes.
Bob.
VOGuy wrote on 10/17/2005, 11:49 PM
If this is for the web, you should probably consider using Macromedia Flash.

Example at:
http://www.onebigzoo.com/sealions

You can modify flash presentations to accomodate all kinds of streaming situations, including dialup

-Travis


Spot|DSE wrote on 10/18/2005, 12:06 AM
I'd agree w/Travis on this one for sure. Encoding to Windows Media means regardless of the action, you'll have a full frame, and file size will be much larger than necessary, and at low bitrates, the image will still look blocky. Flash will see the image as a single image and only encode the audio to MP3 or whatever format you choose. For no-motion graphic display...flash would be best, IMO.
johnmeyer wrote on 10/18/2005, 8:22 AM
If you are distributing this on DVD, then you can make an ultra-small version by using the Music Compilation feature. The still is encoded as a single frame, and the music plays along with it.
capturevid wrote on 10/18/2005, 4:49 PM
Flash seems like it can perform as I need. No motion on the still - audio playing. Minimal filesize/bitrate needed.

Seems like flash is getting a lot of well-deserved attention these days. DV Mag even wrote a follow up article about flash video when a lot of the readers complained it wasn't mentioned in an article in the previous issue. Thanks everyone.

My thought was I'd be posting this audio to the web, but I appreciate John Meyer's suggestion about the DVD.