Output for video loop

[Michael Szalapski]

What was the data rate set as when you did your less-than-stellar compression? H.264 is pretty much the go-to compression scheme for playback of HD video right now. You just need to make sure you get the settings right.
To borrow from Dave LaRonde’s stock answer #3: “Making good-looking compressed files is almost as much an art as it is a science. It is NOT straightforward at all. I recommend asking a few questions at the COW’s Compression Techniques forum.”

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Joseph W. bourke]

Alex –

You don’t say what it will render from for 8 hours. Will playback be from a laptop or from a DVD player, or otherwise? This is very important to your decision of output format.

I regularly output graphic loops for use on a News set monitor. We chose (of course), the cheap, reliable way: the cheapest possible DVD player purchased at the cheapest local store. You don’t need any advanced features to make a loop play back. When you encode the DVD, there’s a choice to make it replay. Our tactic was to put multiple copies of the loop on the timeline, so that our looping covered an entire half hour Newscast, so there was no chance of it resetting (a slight pause, or frame of black) during the Newscast. You might want to pick a random time which would allow the most viewers to see the full production several times, then chance the slight “hiccup” in the playback.

For DVD you need a 720 x 480 file. Weigh where your viewers will be against the quality you are seeing with your nose right up against the monitor. You will most often find that the viewer will be at a distance of from 2 to 6 feet at a convention/tradeshow, so don’t worry too much if it doesn’t look great close on.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Alex Kittavong]

I have the data rate set to Automatic. I agree with that quote, its tricky…Thanks for the response, I’ll be sure to post on the compression techniques forum as well.

[Alex Kittavong]

Hey, thanks for the response. This will be playing from a Mac Mini. Its dedicated to only playing the video and we bought it brand new. It loops flawlessly without me having to copy and paste the layers to cover for the 8 hours. You are right about the distance from the audience at the convention. I do however want it to play smoothly and look pretty good still.

[Michael Szalapski]

Data rate set to automatic? Yeah, don’t do that.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Alex Kittavong]

Should i restrict it to 6500? What about the frame rate? That was at automatic too, should that be every frame rate to what i have set when i rendered it from After Effects?

[Walter Soyka]

If you have FCP on your machine, you could render to ProRes. It should play beautifully on the Mac Mini, and you won’t have to worry about tweaking your encoding parameters to minimize artifacts.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Stefan Hinze]

hey

try to export as h264 // use about 5000kBs // keep the original framerate

or

Export as Animation (don´t use the animation for playback, it will be to mutch work for the harddrive!)
open the file in QT – then export for web (LOOK at the file, maybe there is a color shift, if not, your fine!)

hope that helps

(take a step back, to see the bigger picture)