Video compression

michaelt wrote on 4/8/2008, 3:28 PM
I have Canon HV20, and I work with VMS 8 Platinum. Once project is complete I render it as MPEG2 in two formats: HDV (.m2t file, 1080x1440, 60i) and DVD (.mpg + audio files).

I would also like to render it in the most compressed format that preserves high quality, upload it to the internet, and e-mail the link to the friends so they can download and watch on their computer. Again, the most important thing here is the smallest size and the high quality.

So far the best I came up with is XviD codec, 640x360, 24p, about 1,250kbps. For a 20min footage it results in ~200MB avi file (compared to 3.7GB for HDV and ~800MB for DVD). I am still somewhat unhappy with it and would like to have quality slightly higher and the size of .avi file slightly smaller (around 150MB).

I have seen movies with sizes bigger than 640x360, rates much smaller than 1,250kbps, yet much better quality while the size of only 700MB (1 full CD) for 1hr 40min movie. That's amazing - how do they do that?

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 4/8/2008, 5:50 PM
Simply use a lower bitrate. Don't expect higher quality though. Most of these people who encode pirated movies usually have tweaked the XViD encoder to death.

If I was to suggest to you something is to not do any of that. Just export in 720p using the tutorial here:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/11/09/exporting-with-vegas-for-vimeo-hd/
and then export to Vimeo. That's 720p HD quality and the original file remains available for download as long as you have a Vimeo account. You can also set a password to the page so only your friends see the video.

Vimeo quality sample: http://vimeo.com/466491
michaelt wrote on 4/8/2008, 6:06 PM
Eugenia, thanks a lot for advice. Vimeo is not ... how to put it... comcastic! ;-) It's too slow for my Comcast high-speed and Core Duo. And the computers of my friends are even way slower.

Is there an XViD forum or some other place where I can get recommendations for XViD settings?

Although I don't have Vegas Pro, would H.264 give comparable results (say, as XViD) or worse?

Thanks again!
Eugenia wrote on 4/8/2008, 6:34 PM
h.264 is better than XViD, so it will give you a better quality/filesize ratio. Use my tutorial to export in h.264 from Platinum:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/11/from-dvhdvavchd-to-ps3xbox360appletv/
Don't expect miracles though.

As for Vimeo, I am on comcast too, with a slower PC than you have. 30p HD videos are slow to decode on Vimeo, but everything else works fine. Especially with a PC like yours. And it's fast to stream Vimeo videos with comcast so I am not sure what the problem is on your end.
Shamo wrote on 4/8/2008, 7:30 PM
I have not used any XviD compression, but oped to use the purchased version of DivX. While I have not been using it for the expressed reason of sending to others, I do comparasons to original footage, and have a tough time telling the difference.

Also DivX has pre programmed formats that are of standard formats: 720, HD, and also you can tweek the heck out of it.