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Best way to compress spots for iWeb website
I’m completing a website with a streaming 8 spot demo reel and then the 8 spots individually available for viewing on the same home page. What would be the best way to compress for best quality video? If its Compressor, then what Codec shoud I use? I’ve been advised to use H.264, but the files become too big for streaming. I need viewers to have little or no delay. What setting in Compressor can do this? Right now, I’m using the high setting in Quicktime Pro, and the individual spots are coming in at around 5mb, but they’re not great. The website is posted on iWeb.
https://web.me.com/jeffweiser/Site_2/Page1.html
and
https://web.me.com/jeffweiser/Jeff_Weiser_Director_Cinematographer/General_Reel.html
Also I’m getting rough edges on some shot where the subject is moving. Is that a de-interlace problem? It seems that whenever I de-interlace a spot it looks not as crisp. Thanks.
Jeff Weiser
Director/Cinematographer
Directors Syndicate
je********@*******nk.net -
2 Replies
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Your work is beautiful and your encode seems good, but of course I have a very big pipeline. Does iWeb stream or is it progressive download? They are different animals. Another question to ask, what is the most common bandwidth of the viewers. If 90% are high, then I would experiment with bit rates and balance it out with the image quality you want to maintain to the bit rate.
You should not de-interlace if you shot and edited in progressive–just turn that setting off. Always de-interlace as close to the source if it is interlaced. Don’t save it for the encoder if you can help it. I will choose a custom progressive setting and a self-contained movie straight out of Final Cut Pro on all of my old programs these days. That is generally how I keep my masters.
Crushing the blacks is helpful, but I use Episode Pro, which is touted as a better encoder for H.264 than Compressor, although Compressor does most other codecs fabulously. So I crush blacks by taking black 15-20%.
I use VBR using Peak Rate: average 600 then 1200 as the peak, but you may get by with more. This is a bit low for moving material, as I have a lot of static shots in the material I am codecing. The programs I hoist up to Surgeon Today are long programs mostly. Well, that isn’t really a consideration. but average rates are generally set at half the peak rates.
The other question to ask is does iWeb re-codec it like YouTube. You won’t see the final good looks on YouTube for several days, so you can’t work with it immediately, but if they recodec it you can certainly put up what you want. I don’t know anything about iWeb.
This being said, I have a breakdown in my site at https://www.surgeontoday.org/faq/ so you can check out the Best Practices FAQ. I would love to have more knowledgable experts look at that menu and let me know if there is anything they think I would need to improve on that H.264 codec? I am not an expert, but am trying.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
You might have better luck with embedding a streaming video within your iweb site. You could upload and stream your video from Vimeo, for example, and simply embed the code on your page. Within iWeb it’s one of the “widget” functions (if memory serves) to embed.
Bob Piercehttp://www.lightstreamassociates.com
Mac Pro 2.66 – 8GB memory –
Mac Book Pro 2.33 Duo –
FC Studio 2 – Kona Lhe
Adobe Production Suite CS4 –
Sony Multiformat 14″ – Panasonic 42″ Plasma –
Ikegami HLDV7 – PVW EX-1
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