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Best quality output for web uploads
Hey guys,
Ive got a 60 second intro video for my website that im wanting to put on youtube. Ive rendered it with the format .avi but the size of the file comes out massive, it was 1.17GB!! much too big to upload on the web.
I can render it out as .wmv but the quality isn’t as great, so how can i change the settings in AE to get the best quality while trying to keep the file size down?
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8 Replies
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AVI isn’t intended as a web video format since it’s generally either uncompressed or has relatively little compression. By definition, all compression (regardless of the codec and file type) sacrifices quality for file size. So, a WMV or any other compressed file will never be the same or even comparable quality to uncompressed.
Similarly, the quality of the WMV you made is a direct result of the compression settings you chose, as will be the case with any other codec or format you choose. So, you could make a WMV that meets your quality standards by raising the bitrate and adjusting other settings such as frame rate, dimensions, etc. Also note that, although it does offer quite a few options to generate various types of files, compressing/converting video to various formats isn’t AE’s specialty … generally software like AE is used to make content and separate compression software is used to convert that content to different formats for different purposes (i.e., Sorenson Squeeze, Canopus ProCoder, Autodesk Cleaner, On2 Technologies Flix Pro, etc.).
With that all said, via the “output modules” in AE’s render panel, you can choose any of the web-ready file types and codecs such as FLV, WMV, MOV, etc. They all have pros and cons, but those are way too much to go into in a short forum post. You might also check the YouTube recommendations for files to be uploaded to their site and make your file accordingly.
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Yeah, it’s not your file format that’s killing you, but the compression setting within that file. I suspect your AVI file was set to “uncompressed”, that’s why it was so huge. Try encoding the AVI file with DV/DVCAM codec or MPEG-2 (set to 6 mbps) and you’ll easily fit within YouTube’s parameters. The quality will go down slightly, but nothing that’s not already going to go down on YouTube.
Troy Witt, President
Take One Productions, Inc.
http://www.TakeOneDigital.com video production & webcasting -
Thanks for the info guys.
I did go over to YouTube and check out there guidelines for best quality ect, like you guys were talking about they were talking about frame rate and all the rest. Which i don’t fully understand it all and what kind of difference it will make.
I was looking around in my project and looking for the different settings, Troy by encoding the AVI file how did you mean? how can i encode that using AE? in the render panel i can change the output to MPEG-2 but i can’t find the DV/DVCAM in there. And how would changing this be encoding the AVI file?
Ive also tryed looking for them in the comp settings, like the presets and stuff but can’t find them there.
If it has anything to do with comp settings i had them set to the preset NTSC DV, frame rate 29.97 and output to AVI.
Where do i go to set it to “compressed”?
But anyway i can just go and change the output settings to MOV ect just like Dave said…… but how long will it take to render?! both WMV and AVI took about 40mins for a 60 sec clip to render… im guessing this has something to do with my bit rate or frame rate, but how to i change these around??
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[how can i encode that using AE?]
Encoding is just the process of generating a new file in any given codec … basically the same as what is called rendering in AE.I mean no offense at all by this since everyone has to start somewhere, but it sounds like you would benefit greatly from some reading/research about After Effects, digital video files in general and, more specifically, codecs, video compression, etc. They aren’t subjects that can be understood well enough from a few forum posts. AE has been a integral part of video production for many years now so there’s no shortage of resources.
With that said, a few things that should get you in the right direction for now …
[Where do i go to set it to “compressed”?]
Everything you need is in AE’s render queue, rather than comp settings, although you do need to know your comp settings and make sure they are what you need them to be (frame rate, aspect ratio, etc.).I don’t have AE open right now and I do most of this stuff without thinking at this point so I might be a little off on some things, but close enough. When you add a comp to the render queue, you choose a “render setting” and “output module” … I’ve been using my own presets for many years now, but if I recall correctly, you can just choose “Best” in render settings and you won’t need to change much, if anything. You’ll want to get to know the output modules though. Thats where you choose the file type to render/encode and the related details. Note there is a difference between file type and codec … a MOV or AVI can be made with many different codecs … even a WMV can be made with WM7, WM8 or WM9 codecs. You choose your codec and the various options that affect file size and quality in the “Format Options” of the output module window.
[how long will it take to render?!]
That depends on too many things for anyone to be able to answer including your computer specs, the number and type of effects you used in your comp, the render settings & output module you choose, etc. Note that when you render from AE you are creating 30 entirely new frames for every second of video (if your frame rate is 29.97 as you mentioned) so, yes, it takes a long time in general terms.Until you have a better understanding of the subject as a whole, I think the easiest thing will be to just make a WMV and increase the video bitrate until you’re happy with the quality, although you won’t want to go over YouTube’s specs. That squeaky stuff that goes with video (the audio) shouldn’t need more than 64kbps or so.
I hope this is helpful … I have to stop now since the more I mention, the more I think of that I could mention and this post is already among the longest I’ve ever written. ;~) Good luck!
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hahaha yer thats cool, Thanks a lot Dave.
I really do need to find a good resource for learning about codecs and compression and bit rate and all that.
Do you know a good place or a section in creative cow?
I found that using AVI i had a nice smooth flow with a fast sequence i had in my intro video and with WMV that fast sequence was a bit sketchy, im guessing this is all because of the compression and stuff.
So i need to find a good place to study all of the technical stuff… till then i am actually messing with quick time outputs as i have read that they are also good with web uploads, and tweaking different codecs to increase quality and keep file size down, but im finding that they are still a bit large, so as you said i might go and make a WMV file again and increase the bitrate.
thanks again 🙂
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My pleasure, Jeff.
It’s been many years now since I did any training beyond minor refresher/update type stuff so I don’t make a point to keep up with the current resources. With that said, in my opinion, the best way to learn anything is always via a balanced combination of instruction directly from other people (aka classes) and direct research/reading.
It’s obviously up to you whether you want to go as far getting formal training, but for the research/reading, some ideas that might help …I’m not sure if they still do, but Adobe use to put out a good crash course type free document called the “DV Primer”. There is also a massive amount of info on the subject available on the web via Google searches (try terms like “digital video”, “streaming media” & “video codecs”). You might also try searching the COW tutorials, articles and archived posts for similar terms and the COW “Web Streaming – Audio|Video” forum is another good place togo when you have specific questions.
Best of luck!!!!
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Just to clarify, the “over 98% of internet users has installed” actually refers to the Adobe browser plugins that allow viewing FLVs through web pages only, rather than Adobe’s standalone FLV player for which I’m not aware of the install stats, but my guess is that they’re currently way below 98%. What that means is that, yes FLV is a good web video format and most will be able to view FLVs posted to a web page without doing anything they haven’t already done (install those plugins), but it is also important to note that most people on any O/S will have to install Adobe’s standalone player in order to view FLVs on their local systems since neither Macs nor PCs natively have the ability to play FLVs independently (i.e., if you want to email or otherwise share the file, in addition to posting it on a web page).
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Understood, and yes i ended up converting the files into flv and i now have a cool flv player on my website 🙂
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