Advice for best FLV performance

[Daniel Low]

that’s a huge frame size for the given datarate and also neither 4:3 or 16:9? Are you using AE to do your encoding? It’s ok for casual stuff but nowhere near good enough for client ready work.

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[Mike Lacher]

The frame size is big so the characters fit the background and the data rate is so low because I had to bring it down for slower connections. Quite a bit of compromise, as I’m all too painfully aware. It’s not 4:3 or 16:9 because it’s keyed DVCPRO HD footage cropped to the minimum size needed.

I admit a large amount of ignorance when it comes to compression software. I’ve always just used AE because it’s what I have. Is there stuff you recommend or somewhere good to look to learn more? I doubt it’ll be an option for this project at this stage in the game, but I’d be interested to learn more. Would using better software help with performance, or would it mainly help with appearance?

Continued thanks,

Mike

[Daniel Low]

Flash video works best at certain frame sizes. It’s best therefore to stick to defined aspect ratios and frame sizes equally divisible by 8 or 16 on both axis.

You will almost certainly get better results using a dedicated encoding application. I’d recommend Episode from Telestream but there are other on both platforms ranging from free to very expensive that can probably do a better job than AE.

Ultimately – I’d reduce the frame size as I’m sure your client will see less of the problems. You can’t compromise too much without messing everything up, something has to give and in your case it’s playback performance.

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[Mike Lacher]

Thank you. That’s really interesting about frame size. I’m going to try changing that and see what happens. Also going to look into getting my office to buy compression software. The more I read, it seems like an obvious advantage over AE.

Do you mind me asking (and I realize you’ve already given me plenty of your time) what free programs you’re talking about that encode better than AE?

Continued continued thanks,

Mike

[Daniel Low]

Mac or PC?

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[Mike Lacher]

PC.

I changed some videos from their strange dimensions to 16:9, and they actually look better. Thanks for the advice. I would have never thought of it. Still waiting to hear if it has any effect on the client’s end.

Also starting to play around with a trial of Episode. I have a lot to learn…

[Rich Rubasch]

In your original post you said the videos preload before the client sees them, but the problem playback in the first 10 seconds indicates that there is a load problem. Is the buffering set for a particular duration of time or the entire clip?

Could make the buffer time longer.

I agree that frame size is a critical component of smooth playback. Ask the client to preview some smaller frame sizes and see how small they will go, then slim down your bitrate in small bites until it plays smooth for them. You are really at the bottom end of the bitrate scale however.

My DSL connection at my home always chokes on flash videos. I am getting about 175 kbps download here at the end of the DSL line in my home. They are telling me it is a 512 kbps service!

Good luck,

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Mike Lacher]

The videos are fully preloaded before they start, so I can’t do much in terms of buffer. I just ran tests and they’re definitely loading all the way before playing.

And sadly I don’t have much wiggle room with frame size at this point. They like how it looks and I’d have to redo interactivity and backgrounds and everything. It’s certainly something I’ll keep in mind for the future though so hopefully i can avoid this happening again.

The good news is, changing the frame size to 16:9 instead of the non-standard size i had seems to be making a difference. They haven’t been having any playback issues. This could also be a fluke, since this problem doesn’t happen consistently for the client. I’ll have to wait and see if further problems arise. I finally got specs from them any they’re running it on a machine with a centrino duo processor and 2gb RAM, which seems more than enough to handle low-datarate FLVs. Maybe it’s some bizarre glitch with frame dimensions.

Thanks again to everyone for their help,

Mike

[Mike Lacher]

Just for the benefit of anybody reading this at a later junction, it turns out resizing the videos to standard aspect ratios worked. I made all the videos 4:3 or 16:9 and they’re now working great for the client.

I’m still not sure why exactly they had performance issues. They were running it on a dual-core centrino with 2gb ram, which seems beefy enough for low-datarate FLVs. It also turned out that no one in the user test reported problems (which of course the client decided not to tell us for some time).

Anyway, much thanks to Daniel. I would have never thought to change the aspect ratio to improve performance. I really really really appreciate it. You’ve saved me and my coworkers from added weeks of drama.

Thanks again,

Mike

[Daniel Low]

Mike,

Thanks for letting us know.

Daniel.

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Please post back saying what solved your problem. It could help others, and saying ‘thanks’ is free!