• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Exporting to AVI for web streaming

  Posted by David Thompson on February 15, 2008 at 5:57 pm

  I have a corporate client who wants a series of 30 minute videos encoded into AVI for them to stream.

  Does anyone know the best way to encode them from Final Cut so that:

  1) The audio quality is good (video not so important)
  2) They will stream fast and without stopping on slow broadband connections
  3) They will play on pretty much any PC – even ones where downloading of any additional software or codecs is impossible (so no flash, Quicktime or anything!)

  What codec should I use? And what software will I need to do it?

  Any help much appreciated!

  Mac Pro
  2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
  4 GB RAM
  NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
  Final Cut Studio 2

  Zane Barker replied 18 years, 3 months ago 4 Members · 6 Replies
• 6 Replies

• 

  David Roth weiss

  February 15, 2008 at 6:16 pm

  David,

  There isn’t a single AVI codec I know of that is suitable for Web video distribution or streaming.

  Is it possible that you misunderstood and your PC-based client actually wants you to output AVIs so that he can then encode them to a suitable Web video format on a PC?

  I think you might want to check back with the client on this one, because it just doesn’t sound right.

  David

  David Roth Weiss
  Director/Editor
  David Weiss Productions, Inc.
  Los Angeles

  POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

  A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
• 

  David Thompson

  February 15, 2008 at 6:26 pm

  Hi David,

  Thanks so much for getting back to me!

  I suspect that they just said AVI cause they’d heard of it, and you’ve just saved me hours of sending stuff backwards and forwards!

  What format/codec would you recommend for streaming video so that it will play on any PC on slow broadband, where video quality is not a big problem, but they want sound to be good?

  Thanks for your help!

  David

  Mac Pro
  2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
  4 GB RAM
  NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
  Final Cut Studio 2
• 

  David Roth weiss

  February 15, 2008 at 7:14 pm

  WMV is a very good candidate for you. However, you will need to purchase Flip 4 Mac Studio (for $49) in order to export WMV from FCP or from any of the QT based apps on your MAC.

  David Roth Weiss
  Director/Editor
  David Weiss Productions, Inc.
  Los Angeles

  POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

  A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
• 

  Greg Ball

  February 15, 2008 at 8:25 pm

  If you need to export AVI files try mpeg streamclip
• 

  David Thompson

  February 15, 2008 at 8:50 pm

  Thanks both!

  I have Flip 4 Mac, so yes that does sound a good option, I’ll push for that.

  The only trouble is, apparently business versions of Vista don’t come with Windows Media Player, so for my poor hedge fund investors with their ‘download software and you’re instantly fired’ policy, so there may be no solution…

  I’ll try MPEG streamclip too, looks like a useful tool.

  Thanks again!

  Mac Pro
  2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
  4 GB RAM
  NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
  Final Cut Studio 2
• 

  Zane Barker

  February 16, 2008 at 2:18 am

  There is absolutely no universal format that will definitely work on every machine out there.

  Flash is by for the most universally compatible format you can use, I believe that all the common web bowsers have the flash plugin already in them.

  Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!

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