Vid Codec Question

[rubba-chikin]

What codec and settings do you guys use to encode your vids, I can't seem to get any decent settings that will give me nice clear video thats not a million megs big...

Everytime I encode using divx5.11 through Adobe Premiere it comes out all craptastic.

[Rik]

I've had success with Xvid codec using VirtualDub... with my stuff it was dependant as much on the raw footage as it was on the codec settings.
Save your file as a .mpg, and use VirtualDub, you get alot more control over the whole process.

[danv]

One thing I found was Gordian Knot pack or something - it is a software package designed for ripping DVDs and then encoding them. I found it a bit hard to get the hang of (I had no real prior knowledge). It was really good for encoding movies. I used Xvid codec, it supports Divx and others I think.

Do a search for it.

I ripped entire feature movies, and compressed them to 2 cds (1300mb) and it kicked the shit out of TV qual, and was very close to DVD.

oh yeah, its like a collection of different programs. VirtualDub mentioned above is included.

[projectsplat]

Hi,

Based on you wanting to encode clips for web delivery, such as the clips often seen here, I would probably recommend taking a look at the Windows Media encoder built into almost every PC.

It has got good compatibility with PC's, and produces nice clean results for the file size. If you were to encode using the following settings, you should get something that looks decent.

Codec : Windows Media Video 9
Screen Size : 352 x 288
Frame Rate : 12fps
Data Rate : 800Kb/s
Audio Codec : Windows Media Audio 9
Data Rate : 96Kb/s @44.1khz

This will still produce a largish clip (about 35MB for 5 minutes), but is still in the realm of downloadable.

If you want smaller, drop the video data rate to 300Kb/s and the audio data rate to 64Kb/s.

If you dont have access to the Windows Media 9 encoder, then the Windows Media 7 encoder is freely downloadable from :
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/16656
The WM& encoder will still do a good job, just not quite as good as the WM9.

If you are on a Mac, then check out the QuickTime encoder, using the Sorenson Codec. It has similar performance to the Window Media encoders, and good compatibility for web delivery. The QuickTime encoders work in Bytes instead of Bits, so the settings would be :

Codec : Sorenson Video 3
Screen Size : 352 x 288
Frame Rate : 12fps
Data Rate : 100KB/s
Audio Codec : QDesign Music 2
Data Rate : 44.1khz

Cheers

Al