My target audience will be desktop PC's. Our company will be hosting the files themselves. What I have done in the past is render out a WMV at 656x480. I want to see if I can play these files in a web-based flash player in the H.264 codec.

Is that possible with Vegas 7?

The MainConcept mp4 file will play in the newest flash, but and this is a pretty big but, it doesn't "fast start", which means the whole video will have to download before it will start playing. And depending on your needs/file size, etc that can be a very big issue.

Maybe someone knows of another work around but I export out of Vegas as an avi file or an quicktime file and then use QT pro to convert it to an mp4. It's an extra step but it plays like it should with the flash player.

i use MainConcept MP4, not Sony MP4.

i use a constant bit rate of 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 for frame-sizes of 720x540 to 960x400...
average 400,000 pixel size... (roughly where you are)

profile: main
uncheck the adjust frame-rate or size boxes
reference frame is set to 1 (but i haven't been able to see the difference between #'s)
audio set to 48kHz, and 128 - 192 kpbs depending on content

i use Good or Best quality depending on content

It doesn't "fast start"? That sucks. That's good to know. I never thought of QuickTime Pro. I did see MainConcept's product but it's like $600. I think QuickTime Pro may be a better option.

Hi robwood. Yeah I want to use MainConcept's AVC not the Sony PSP template.

Handbrake (free) will do everything you want, including web optimized files.
It will also encode 15-25% faster than MC in Vegas on 2-pass renders, by some tests I ran a while back.
Quality is as good or better than the previously mentioned encoders.

mp4 - you have to flip a bit using YAMB. See the second part of this article.

>"Handbrake (free) will do everything you want, including web optimized files

FWIW AFAIK most of the free or lower cost flv encoders use the same ffmpeg libraries... for H264 there are quite a few using x264, or Xvid. The code & methods the app uses to do things like re-size can make a difference, but the actual encoding is going be be very similar if not identical between apps using the same code. That can give you a lot of leeway when you're trying to choose an app -- go for the one that a) you like to use, b) & won't screw up your system... Many low cost & free video apps like to use & install other free apps/packages -- this often breaks other, similar software you have installed, or in some cases downgrades versions.

That's not to say Handbrake isn't good, or the Vegas encoder isn't good or any of that. Depends on what you need/want... batch encoding for example might be really good to have if you're converting a lot of video. If you're using dual or quad CPUs, some of the faster encoders work more efficiently doing more than 1 stream [video] at a time.

"It doesn't "fast start"? That sucks"

I may be the only one that cares about this, but mp4's rendered using the MainConcept encoder will download progressively without problems when playing them through a Silverlight Media Player. I've tested this by feeding the same video file to both a Silverlight Player & a Flash Player. Here's the results:

Silverlight: http://www.jazzythedog.com/jazzySilverlightMC.aspx
Flash: http://www.jazzythedog.com/jazzyFlash.aspx (be patient, it took 2.5 minutes to start playing on my wireless laptop.

If I use the mp4FastStart.exe utility to "fix" the render, the Flash Player will download progressively just fine.

...Jerry

Does anyone know if QuickTime Pro or other encoders support "Fast Play"? I want to use a software encoder that will download progressively without problems using the Adobe Flash Player 9.