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Quicktime to WMV
I have an uncompressed QT movie at 1280×720 that I need to play in Windows Media Player. I’ve tried a few different formats (mp4 (h.264) and mpeg-2) and I’ve noticed that both formats choke at certain times during the animation (in WMP in Quicktime on the Mac the mp4 plays beautifully). The mpeg-2 played much better than the mp4 but there are still a few random skips during playback. I thought my best option would be converting my QT to a wmv. I purchased Flip4Mac Studio but noticed the options are limited. It looks like the Studo Pro version will give me the options I need. It’s about $180 so I just wanted to check and see if any of you had a better option first. Unfortunately the majority of our audience will be viewing this in Windows Media Player (and older versions at that).
Thanks in advance of any advice you can give me.
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4 Replies
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an mp4 compressed with h.264 should give you a smaller data rate than mpeg2 at similar image quality. and an mp4 container should be able to be viewed in wmp, qt, vlc, and most other players.
what did you use to create the mp4 with h.264 (you don’t want to use ae)? you’ll want to make sure that the software is doing a multipass encode, and if you have a target data rate, most compression software can use that to help keep the data rate low enough for smooth playback.
you might also post over in the compression forum. they may be able to give you some help with determining a good target data rate for what you’ll be playing back on, and probably some other suggestions.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
[Kevin Camp] “an mp4 compressed with h.264 should give you a smaller data rate than mpeg2 at similar image quality. and an mp4 container should be able to be viewed in wmp, qt, vlc, and most other players.”
Windows Media Player 12 is the first version that’s capable of playing H.264 and MP4 natively. Previous versions require installation of a separate codec. Of course, the other players mentioned will work fine.
Please note that you may need admin privileges on the machines in question to install additional codecs or software, which is not a safe assumption in some environments.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Walter Soyka] “Windows Media Player 12 is the first version that’s capable of playing H.264 and MP4 natively. Previous versions require installation of a separate codec.”
i did not know that…
however i’ve been sending mp4s to my boss and producers for approvals for a couple years now, and they’re all on older pcs with xp that aren’t running anything that would have installed codecs (like an nle or video i/o card software)
i’m sure a few of them have quicktime installed, and they may view them there. but i know my csd doesn’t… nor does he know what a codec is.
however, i’ll make sure my future responses are more correct.
thanks
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
Everthing else being equal, H264 requires more processing power during playback than MPEG2. Having said that, H264 should result in a lower datarate in order to obtain a specific finished quality relative to an MPEG2 video.
Me thinks the original poster may want to tweak the datarate settings of the H264 file to come up with a suitable playback result. FWIW, if there are multiple machines with different specs, it may be a good idea to provide a variety of movies at different datarates.
HTH
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