Flash Compression

[Craig Seeman]

The usual “20 questions”
Quicktime what? Quicktime is a wrapper not a codec.
Exactly what pixel dimensions is your source?
BTW 16:9 source can be anamorphic such as DV or full square pixels such as various HD codecs.
What version of Squeeze?

[Tony Luke]

Codec: DVCPRO HD (720p60)
Dimensions: 960X720
Version: Squeeze 4.5

[Craig Seeman]

How are viewing the encoded file?

I have Squeeze 5 and did an encode from DVCProHD to Flash 8 FLV 480×270 and tested in both Eltima’s free player and the new Adobe Media Player. Media Player makes it look as if it might be letterboxed since it is surrounded by black. Eltima’s flash player showed white background with a 16×9 image.

I suspect your encode is 16:9 but there might be some confusion in how the player is showing it.
You’re not getting an “odd” pixel shape are you?
If you have it on line I can take a look there. There may well be some odd programing with your embedded player (swf). I have a hunch the flv itself is fine though.

[Craig Seeman]

Try installing Perian 1.1 and checking your FLV in Quicktime. It’ll show it as 16:9 if your flv is actually 16:9.

I’d remove Perian after that since it seems to be the source of some codec conflicts in my experience.

[Tony Luke]

Hey thank you so much for the tips. I’m gonna try this all out and get back to you.

[John Farrell]

Speaking of FLVs– besides embedding them inside swf players, are there other tools out there for protecting your content (say the way Cleaner used to allow you to save-disable your QuickTimes)?

John Farrell
“Digital Movies With QuickTime Pro”
https://www.charlesriver.com/titles/digitalmoviesQT.html

[Craig Seeman]

These days there’s very little to protect content on the web short of going a DRM route (and there are ways to break that too).

I’d go so far as to say if you don’t want someone to download it, it shouldn’t be on the web sans DRM. Certainly there are ways to mask direct file links too but any screen capture utility renders that near useless.

[Dane Henry]

Tony,

Basic question back at ya:

Are you going up to the viewer window and making sure you are at a 16:9 aspect ratio. Even if you are encoding at 480×270 if the preview window is showing 4:3 you will get a 4:3 video.

When I bring in DvcPro hd 720p it gives me an auto custom aspect of 1.7778. But, If it is giving you a 4:3 (1.33) switch it 16:9.

Also try using unconstrained aspect when editing a new preset.

– Dane H

[Dane Henry]

Tony,

Are you going up to the viewer window and making sure you are at a 16:9 aspect ratio. Even if you are encoding at 480×270 if the preview window is showing 4:3 you will get a 4:3 video.

When I bring in DvcPro hd 720p it gives me an auto custom aspect of 1.7778. But, If it is giving you a 4:3 (1.33) switch it 16:9.

Also try using unconstrained aspect when editing a new preset.

– Dane H

[Tony Luke]

Hey Dane thanks for the tip – yeah everything’s working out in that respect now, I get a nice 16X9 compression, main problem now actually is we need the letterbox bars in order to fit the embedded flash player (as someone else suggested was the problem earlier – thanks!)

I feel like this is something to take care of in Compressor first? I’ve tried and tried and I can’t seem to get Flash to place the black bars in order to fit a 4:3. Has anyone done this before? I theoretically could down-res the HD sequence into an NTSC timeline for the black bars, compress it from there and send on in to Squeeze for flv compression, but it seems so unnecessary to lose that quality.

Thanks guys!
-Tony