best format to use for corporate event playback?

seanfl wrote on 1/19/2008, 4:43 PM
I have a client that I send completed 60 second video projects over the net. This client plays videos at auditoriums; it's not for broadcast. They play off of mac's and pc's (pro video player for the mac and not sure on the pc).

In the past, I've exported a compressed avi and then inside of of quicktime exported it out as a .mov with the LAN/intranet setting which seems to be h.264 with a bitrate of 1500 or so. They look pretty good.

That said, I'd like to skip a step and export from vegas 8.0 directly. Would you suggest using mainconcept aac/mp4? Is that going to give me the best quality for a certain target file size?

I not, what would you recommend if I'm aiming for about 20 meg per minute for the best quality?

thank you. Sean

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/19/2008, 5:58 PM
is there a reason you're not just making a DVD on a RW?

anything that can play at the FPS & res you want is fine. I normally use WMV or MOV when I makes files for this purpose.
DJPadre wrote on 1/19/2008, 6:40 PM
Id recoemdn you discus your options with your client..

Personally i always recomed that they embed their videos as WMV's into thei Powerpoint slideshows.
It used to be MPG1 but WMV does allow u to use higher bitrates at higher resolutions

Its slicker, looks much more "organised'" and they do not have to leave the interface in which they are working from during the seminar/pitch
seanfl wrote on 1/19/2008, 7:31 PM
thanks guys. A little more: the client needs same day delivery, so overnight is out.

I've discussed with client and they'll be glad to take anything that plays. They are not very technically inclined...hence my search for the highest quality format.

They don't use powerpoint; they are playing from a professional video playout system on huge screens.
http://www.renewedvision.com/pvp.php

It'll take many file formats. So is WMV more efficient than mp4?

Asked another way, for a 1 minute file that is roughly 20 meg, what's the highest quality codec to use at present?

Sean
Yoyodyne wrote on 1/19/2008, 11:22 PM
I do a bunch of multi screen event stuff with a similar system.

I use WMV out of Vegas, encoded at around 7mbps, looks great and seems to be the most problem free.
busterkeaton wrote on 1/19/2008, 11:50 PM
I would think that mp4 is more efficient than wmv, but at high bitrates, it's not going to matter.

WMV is a more universal format. They won't have to be messing with finding codecs and installing them.

Both wmv and mp4 are very efficient codecs, plus if you're throwing tons of bits at it, the video should look great.

I would render WMV at 1meg/sec and then render another at 2 meg/sec and I would keep going up until I saw no increase in quality. At some point you going to find, you are getting bigger files but with very little visual difference.
Dave Jones wrote on 1/20/2008, 12:23 AM
This is from Renewed Vision's FAQ (http://www.renewedvision.com/support.php?item=pp#14):

Smooth playback can be effected by the Codec (short for compressor/decompressor) used for compression and the Data Rate of the compression settings. Movie clips that you receive from a manufacture are set to the highest quality possible. Original files from various manufactures should be compressed for optimum playback for the target machine. We have found Sorenson 3 and DV produce a nice balance between high quality and high performance. For HD playback, you should use H.264 or PhotoJPEG (50% or middle quality) on faster systems (Core 2 Duo) as they are processor intensive and require the extra power (avoid these on slower/older systems). Uncompressed clips using PhotoJPEG at 100% will not play back well on any machine as this is raw, highest possible quality footage (i.e. Digital Juice Jumpbacks), so be sure you have recompressed them before trying. For the most reliable playback, use either the DV or Sorenson3 codecs. DV will be seen in the drop down codec list as either "DV - NTSC" or "DV/DVCPro - NTSC".

DJ