-
Compression for Flash and Archiving
Right now when working with video I typically stick to uncompressed when rendering out. This workflow has been successful, when I give the video to our flash developers they are able to take it and add it into their projects.
But even with four hard drives in my system I’m running out of space fast. Aside from web based compression like Mp4 or FLV I haven’t really played with any other compression codecs.
Can you recommend me a good codec that both Vegas and After Effects would have (my two main tools)? Something that will give me better file size, a range of options (frame size/frame rate, square pixels, ect) be compatible with flash and other peoples machines and not degrade the quality much, as it often goes through another level of compression for flash(swf) output?
-
4 Replies
-
What you are asking is not entirely possible, that is the reality of the matter. When you compress enough to save any real amount of disk space, you will see quite a quality loss, particularly if the intent is to re-compress the video at a later stage.
You say that you render uncompressed, and from After Effects that would often be reasonable, but what is your source footage? It seems uncompressed is a little OTT if you are working with video footage.
-
Depends on my source footage. If I shoot it myself it will usually either be DV NTSC or HDV 1080 30fps via a Canon XH-A1. However if I get it from another production house, which is the case half the time then I’m not sure exactly what the source started as, but it always comes to me as uncompressed AVI’s, often times 720×486.
In the end my video often ends up being 320×240 at 150kbps-400kbps FLV compression. So it’s very low. That’s one of the reasons I think a little 2:1 compression or so on my intermediate files wouldn’t be too bad.
Having the source and the intermediate files both be uncompressed is using a lot of file space quickly.
-
Maybe it’s just me, but I hate to archive footage at high compression. I would get some archive media. Blu-Ray burner, tapes, a bunch of cheap external hard drives. Something like that.
-
You might consider archiving in XDCAM/MXF format. This way, it’s less compressed than the original, more compressed than uncompressed (obviously), and can be opened by any NLE you choose, so it’s a great archive format.
Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASSTCertified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up