H.264 for Flash

[David Roth weiss]

Yes, the trick is making the h.264 good enough that it won’t get hammered when going through the 2nd compression when its Flash encoded.

I’ve been using a bitrate of 3000 to 5000 for 1280×720 h.264s that I send to Vimeo, with excellent results.

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

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[John Fishback]

David’s suggestion is great if your client is doing the Flash encoding. However, if your question is whether you can use Compressor to make a Flash file (flv) the answer is maybe. I’ve read posts that talk about encoding a h.264 file and simply changing the .mov to .flv. Here’s a link that discusses that (see page 3) and more: https://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/hd_video_flash_player.html
You need to set Compressor to use aac audio, a frame size designated by your client and a data rate specified by your client. I suggest you test this with your client. I’ve never tried this. We use Sorenson Media’s Squeeze to encode flvs using the On2 VP6 codec. https://www.sorensonmedia.com/products/?pageID=1&ppc=2
Flash Encoder in CS3 and 4 also can use the On2 VP6 codec.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870
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[Mick Haensler]

Thanks guys. You both answered different parts of my query. I’m going to give them an H.264 file to start with though something tells me they’re going to need an actual FLV file. At which time I’m going to have to make the decision to get Squeeze and have the ability to give clients anything they want. I really don’t want to learn a new program right now. I’ve spent the last week delving into the minutia of Motion.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[David Bogie]

[Mick Haensler] “. I’m going to give them an H.264 file to start with though something tells me they’re going to need an actual FLV file.”

That’s not a good workflow. Give them your best video as a media file, not a compressed delivery format.

We have seen this discussion go many different directions. The path you take is based on your client’s needs or delusions. Your clients may think they know how to transcode to Flash. I don’t think they do or they wouldn’t be asking for h264. They’d be asking for an uncompressed, or not-as-throughly-processed video file.

bogiesan

[David Roth weiss]

Bogie,

Trust me, an h.264 file compressed at 3000 to 5000kbs/sec is:

a) much smaller than the uncompressed original:

b) but very, very high quality, and very capable of taking on good Flash compression.

It’s the perfect way for Mick to deliver a file to a client that is otherwise way too big to deliver without sending a hard drive.

I suggest that you try Vimeo Bogie, which had excellent Flash encoding. However, you still do have to upload your video file to them. But, with a properly compressed h.264 the results can be stunning. And, we’re talking about a 1280×720 Flash file, which Vimeo is very capable of streaming perfectly.

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

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Rafael Amador]

[david bogie] “Give them your best video as a media file, not a compressed delivery format. “
I agree 100% with Bogie.
Export an Uncompress movie with the very size of the clip-in-the-web. With Square pixels and perfectly de-interlaced. Then just a transcoding is needed. No cleaner workflow.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[David Roth weiss]

Rafael,

Of course the best option is always to send an uncompressed file to the client that’s identical to the timeline, but that’s often impractical and unnecessary.

If I’m working on a 30-min project for a client at 1080i that’s going to be streamed on the web, sure I could send them the 31Gb ProRes file, but there’s no need, sending them a 5000kbs/sec .h264 at 1.2gb is more than adequate.

I’m going to post a clip here a little later that clearly proves my point.

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 Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Mick Haensler]

Thanks David. I like your thinking on this. Up until now I’ve been able to avoid this aspect of business because most of my work is corporate for DVD production, or the client had a competent IT person who could do the encoding. But times being what they are, the more I can do in house, the more I can be a valuable asset to my clients. I look forward to seeing your example.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[David Roth weiss]

Mick,

Later, when you see the file I’m going to post that streams Flash from Vimeo, you will freak… and it will be an h.264 to Flash, made just as I’ve mentioned.

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

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Rafael Amador]

My dier friend David,
I agree with you that if the client wants a H264, is not necessary to send him a few GBs Uncompress movie.
What I mean is that is very important to pas through an Uncompress (no ProRess) .mov with the final size (square pixels) and de-interlaced. If the movie looks well, will look well when transcoded to H264, Flash or even WMV.
I see very risky to import to Compressor a, let say, DVCproHD 1440×1080 (HD pixels) Upper-first and get in the end an H264 480×270 (Square Pixels) Progressive. If your H264 looks bad you may not be sure of the reason: The downscaling? The de-interlacing? The transcoding?
As I mentioned before I don’t use ProRess. I use 8/10b Unc because are free of Macroblocks constrains.
Cheers,
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com