For those needing to encode to flash.

farss wrote on 11/14/2007, 9:05 PM
Don't know if this is any help or not. I've encoded some video to flash with the on2 encoder and a bit of help from people here but most of it is beyond me so I was just glad when the client was happy and went away.
I did sit through the lady who runs this site's presentation and she sure seemed to know her stuff, some of it really applies to any lossy encoding. She did promise to put here presentation on her web site but it's not there yet, probably have to wait until she gets back to the USA.
One thing she did say that stuck. It's not a trivial task to get good flash encoding. Budget enough time and money to cover spending time optimising the encoding, every video has it's own unique best profile.

Bob.

Comments

Grazie wrote on 11/14/2007, 9:34 PM
Thanks Bob.

Y'know what? My latest is going directly to the IT Dept for them to Flash encode themselves!!! I really should get my head around this fab technology. Should I? I suppose there comes a time when I put up my hands and say: "Here's the AVI. Here's £X quid. Seeyah tomorrow!" . . or upload it here . . or whatever.

I need/want to spend more time on the content. I guess it IS a question of balance - I know that!

Getting back to the IT Dept - they were the first point of call I made when the prospect of this job came up.

It was the following of yours that sent another, techno shiver down my spine: "Budget enough time and money to cover spending time optimising the encoding, every video has it's own unique best profile."

.. uuuhhh....

And yes, before someone, Grissom-like, thwacks on the back of my head, there WILL be a time when I wont be able to hand-off the final to an IT dept. And then I guess I'll come grovelling here.

But till that time comes . . and yes, Bob, thanks for the link. Saw some of the PDFs already. It just hurts . . .

Grazie



<spilling edit>
farss wrote on 11/14/2007, 9:56 PM
I'm 110% with you, enough to learn as it is.

Now some brief tips if you aren't going to do the encode yourself and I hope I got this right:

1) The shoot:

a) Don't wave the camera around, stick the thing on sticks.
b) Switch of anything auto. Auto focus, auto exposure and auto white balance can cause all pixels in the frame to change value. That uses up bandwidth.
c) Have as much light as you can muster. More light = less noise and noise is your enemy.
d) Shoot progressive if possible.

2) The edit:

a) If you're green screening or compositing deliver background plates if they're static separately, same with titles. Deliver video with alpa channel. Flash can send these once and the player does the composite. Saves bandwidth.

b) Avoid dissolves. Cuts only if possible.

Hope this helps.

My own tip:
If getting the IT department to do the work try to retain some control over the end result. If the result looks like crud that's how your work will be judged even if it's not your fault.

Bob.
busterkeaton wrote on 11/14/2007, 10:58 PM
You can use wipes if you need to.

Things that affect all pixels in the frame like dissolves, blurs, pans, etc, make the encoder work harder.

Wipe are pretty efficient when delivering to the web.
DJPadre wrote on 11/15/2007, 6:41 AM
should try the Riva FLV encoder.. works a treat with DV and HDV... in fact looks absolute kick ass.. a lil larger in size than WMV, but its worth it.. trust me..

Oh and theres no stupid flipping required either