Output for Presentation – MPEG?

[John Pale]

[jm knowles] “But when I look at export to quicktime options there are a number of MPEG options like MPEG IMX 525/60 (35Mbs VBR) and different variations. Which should I use? “

Dont use any of these. These will only work on systems with FCP installed…these are primarily to edit with Sony Beta SX decks.

I am guessing they meant MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, which can be encoded using Compressor.

I don’t agree with who told you to do this. MPEG-1 is old and pretty crappy, quality wise. MPEG-2 is the same compression used for DVD’s, but requires the MPEG-2 component on non-FCP systems (its not free)….. H.264 is not buggy. It’s probably the most common format out there these days and ideal for most multimedia presentations. It can be played in Quicktime or with Flash. Describe the problems you are having with it and maybe someone can help you.

[Chris Tompkins]

Are they on Windows? Using powerpoint? Then make it a WMV file.
For others use Mpeg4 H.264

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta

[Mark Suszko]

When I come across this issue it is usually in regard to making a video you can embed in powerpoint. MPEG 1 will always work for that, but it is poor quality.

Whether a WMV will work somewhat depends on the particular laptop and how up to date the hardware and software in it are; I often find this to be hit-and-miss, varying with each laptop you try, but In your case I would try a WMV or an H.264 or Mpeg4. If they don’t mind having to play it outside of powerpoint, that makes things easier.

Sometimes when they ask me to put video in a powerpoint, I counter-offer to put better versions of their powerpoint slides onto a DVD with the video. Just another option, and it too has limits in that you can’t edit it in the field once authored, whereas with a powerpoint, you can. And you need to make the navigation as easy as a slide show is.

[Jm Knowles]

I am having a weird issue where when I playback on my system in quicktime 7 and 10 some codecs look awful. Strangely, when I play them back on the web through FireFox or in within FCP they look fine. It is really worrying me. The frames in question were created in Motion.

https://www.extravaganzacreative.com/Milk/colorspaceIssue.html

This video looks terrible when I play it on in quicktime from my system but looks fine on the web
https://www.extravaganzacreative.com/Milk/testBad.mov

I originally thought it was the so-called H.264 gamma shift but but it is appearing when I output and playback in Pro Res (sometimes). I know that there are a lot of settings I need to hit. I am wondering if I have the right bit depth, the right color profile or if there is some other thing. Could it be that I had to adjust my frame size? I am baffled.

For some reason though when I ouput to MPEG it looked ok when I played it back on my system.

I love working with video but this sort of stuff makes me feel like I am about to have a heart attack. I have been going through this for a week trying to find the elusive problem.

PS Thanks to all those who have responded so far Mark, Chris and John.

[Brad Elliott]

If they are running PP on a PC you need to check the files on a similar PC and/or the PC in question. Just because it plays on your Mac doesn’t mean it will work on their PC or in PP. There are a myriad of reasons for this.

PP before the latest version uses the first version of windows media player. It can be found from the run window/type mplay32 and test your file there. Just because it plays in the latest version of Windows Media doesn’t guarantee PB in PP.

I would choose wmv over MPG-2. MPG-2 is limited to 720×480. MPG-1 is smaller. You can stretch these in PP but why? 864×486, 960×540, 1280×720 will all look great.

AVIs with the TSCC codec will also look great but there are number of caveats to get them created from the Mac world. Flip4Mac and Compressor can do an OK job but Episode is the best option on the Mac side. I prefer TMPG on windows.

The good news is that the 2010 beta version of PP will play H264 files and all of the codec and version issues will become mute.