Quicktime movie settings for web site?

[iMan]

What are the best settings for saving Quicktime video movies for my web site, are my settings correct?

I have tried 320x240 in size using Sorencen on medium quality at 15fps with compressed audio set to QDesign Music at 8 KHz with a Key Frame every 150 frames.
A 30 second clip comes out at 2.6MB.

I have tried changing the settings to 160x120 and ajusting the Sorencen quality setting to low but the file still comes out at 2.6MB, (no difference) why is this? and although the two file sizes are the same, because of the picture size difference i.e. 160x120 & 320x240 will they both take the same amount of time for the user to download or will the bigger picture size (320x240) take longer even though it is still 2.6MB in file size?

Is there any way I can get my file size any smaller or is 2.6MB about the right size for a 30 second video clip.

Any other advice for putting Quicktime files on my site will be greatly appriciated as I am not too clued up on all this compression stuff, Oh and finally how do I make them so the person viewing them can start to watch it before the whole file has downloaded? there is a dropdown menu with Fast Start, Fast Start - Compressed Header and Hinted Streaming, is this something to do with it and do I need to select any of these? or should I leave “Prepare for internet streaming” unchecked?

I am using Final Cut Pro 3, OSX.2 jag and Quicktime 6 (yes I know Iv’e got guts all you OS9 users)

[PaulD]

Hi
You should be able to get QTs for web use down a bit less than 2.6MB/30".
If the movie is remade at a smaller size then the file size should be smaller. Beware that some QuickTime compression processes can only happen once. To recompress at a smaller file size you have to go back and apply the compression to the original movie file - if you try to recompress the Sorensen file QT wont recompress again, its just copying the file with smaller dimensions...
(No I dont know why it does this - but it does. It can happen with JPEG still files as well - once compressed you cant make them smaller....)

Have a look at Shakey's movies on the link he's put here
http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubb/Forum10/HTML/008692.html
A 60" movie is 1.9MB, and he's described how he did it.

The QT Export facility does give quite good results.
You set the dropdown menu to Fast Start - Compressed Header for 'progessive download' from an ordinary HTTP server. The 'Hinted' setting is only used in a RTSP server - a special server which can 'broadcast' live QT files over the internet.

To get smaller Quicktime/Sorenson files you have to use Discrete's Cleaner, and upgrade to the Pro version of the Sorenson software. Then you can use VBR (variable bit rate) settings rather than CBR (constant). Look at the Wallace and Gromit movies to see VBR in action.
With VBR I can get full screen (ie quarter frame playing double size) 25fps movies at 3MB per minute, and much smaller for web sized movies.

Once you've saved your movie in Fast Start mode you just embed it into your web page HTML in the normal way.
Regards

BTW here is a page of free QT goodies from Apple
http://developer.apple.com/quicktime/quicktimeintro/tools/index.html


[This message has been edited by PaulD (edited 20 October 2002).]

[drjonp]

Try this (you'll need Quicktime 6):

Video settings:
- MPEG-4 codec
- medium quality (50%)
- 15 frames per second
- key frame every 15 seconds
- no limit on data rate

Audio settings:
- MPEG-4 codec
- 48 kHz
- 16 bit
- Mono
- bit rate 32 kbits/second

... and select "fast start - compressed header" in the "prepare for internet streaming" section.

[LGane]

does anyone know how to prepare the export file for streaming in premier 6?

[mike velte]

Quicktime movies do not need to be "prepared" or hinted for http delivery. Basically a progressive download that begins playing after about 20% is buffered.
Unfortunatly the controls in Premiere are not going to give you very good results at a reasonable bitrate. Premiere also cannot "hint" movies that are destined for a RSTP server.
You will need Cleaner and Sorenson's Professional codec to do both right. Sorenson's Squeeze also does a good job of compression.
I have put up a testing page with a test clip encoded with different codecs and bitrates. www.video2stream.com (http://www.video2stream.com)
Click on "Testing"