-
Render output suitable for downloads?
So i have about twenty 90min films archived as either DV AVI or Cineform AVI.
I have been rendering these to mpeg2 for dvd….but i’d now like to be able to put them online.
Any advice on what file type and file size to render them down to market as a download? I see some films of similar length at 1GB WMV for sale on large retail sites.
The next question would be how to host them? As these are fairly amateur i don’t really want to pay a host a load of money for storage and bandwidth use. Although i sell footage, i don’t shift enough to justify spending too much on presentation.
Should i use a password site (dropbox?) to share these films…or perhaps a torrent site? Perhaps i’ll have to open multple accounts to keep to their free storage limit? I’m guessing speed is the most important thing for downloads. Any advice how best to share 1gb files (with password protection).
Finally do you think it would be a good idea to place these on a tube site like vimeo? I could password protect each film and offer them as a kind of VOD. Again i’d have to work out the file size limitations whilst maintaing best quality.
Any advice would be appreciated 😉
-
4 Replies
-
For internet delivery I think you want to keep the file size as small as you can, which means you want the best compression you can get and keep the quality to your standard. AVC (H.264) is probably the best compressing widely available encoding you can use.
The x264 encoder would give the the best quality at lower bitrates. People commonly use Handbrake as a front end interface for x264 and use the free DNxHD MOV codec as an intermediate file to Handbrake.
Use High profile encoding for best quality. In x264 speak, use Medium preset or slower for best quality.
Also note that WMV with the VC-1 codec should be pretty good as well.
-
“For internet delivery I think you want to keep the file size as small as you can,”
If you are uploading to a hosting service like Vimeo, then deliver the best quality that you can, which is the opposite of small file size, because they will re-compress it anyway.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Yes, it is a given that if you use things like youtube/vimeo/smugmug to deliver your video you give up all control over what format and bitrate is delivered.
For the other options the OP talked about one should consider format, bitrate and such.
Never so much about upload, but customer download or streaming depending on what you do.
-
Thanks Guys.
If you wanted share a video online would you consider dropbox or a torrent site?
I’m thinking about giving ppl a link after a payment. I could then change the password after 48 hrs to prevent it being linked to on open sites/forums.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up