tryin’ to email a preview: which best MPEG?

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

Here are some ideas for QuickTime.

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/qt_movies_from_fcp.html

They work for me.

QT Player can be downloaded free by anyone PC or Mac.

[Ewin]

Hi and thanks for the link. Trouble is, a 4 minute NTSC sequence exported as a 240×180 MPEG-4 is about 6 MB vs 68 MB using Ken Stone’s Sorenson 3, QTime Conversion (all else same settings) method.
Could be MPEG-4 is as good as it gets, I just don’t know why PC users are seeming to have trouble with it.
Thank you,
Ewin

[Kevin Monahan]

I’ve also found that MPEG 4 from QT has a lot of problems associated with it for PC users. Use a .mov.
As for the file size, sending previews by email is rather primitive. Suggest you upload it to your webspace via FTP.
If you don’t have a web presence, I suggest getting an iDisk with a .mac account. It’s very easy to upload and download
larger files.

Email is supposed to be for just that: text. Video should be downloaded from a server for best performance.
Keep in mind email programs may have a file size limitation, and that’ll screw ya as well.

Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
fcpworld.com

[Ewin]

Thank you for your reply. I agree on the “email distribution is a bad idea” idea and plan on trying to convey that to the client again.
It’s good to learn that I’m not alone in the MPEG-4/PC issue. That should support the Web distribution argument.

[Annaël Beauchemin]

[ewin] “Trouble is, a 4 minute NTSC sequence exported as a 240×180 MPEG-4 is about 6 MB vs 68 MB using Ken Stone’s Sorenson 3, QTime Conversion (all else same settings) method. “

The built-in sorenson codec is pretty bad, but the commercial one is far, far much better. It competes with MPEG4 for video, and for graphics it’s better than MPEG4. It’s also more compatible, as even older QT versions can view it. The problem is that it’s expensive if you buy the Squeeze Compression Suite. But worth every penny for those who have to send previews by email very often.

[Neil Ryan]

[Matte] ”
QT Player can be downloaded free by anyone PC or Mac.”

Not really ‘everyone’

We’ve been caught out sending QT files to clients in large organisations, who can’t read QTs because its not installed on their computer, and they need their internal IT department to approve and conduct the installation, which, in some organisations, can be such a difficult process, it becomes unworkable.
Hence, we’ve been using Windows Media files a lot; suits all PC users, and is a lot easier for Mac users to download & install Windows Media Player for Mac.

We use (I know, not everyone has this) Canopus ProCoder, which does a nice job of turning my final QTs from FCP into a variety of WMV files, either for preview (small) or full video size (for use in PowerPoint, etc.)

That’s our experience.

[J. Tad newberry]

Ya, I have a client who insists they want to send out an “imbedded” 80 second video via email to potential clients of theirs, and i am trying to persuade them the best option is still to simply send a link to a better quality video either on their own website, FTP site, or even a YouTube link. Be that as it may, my best smallest file I’ve been able to make is an mp4, but it is still 10MB, too big for emailing, and pretty small for good viewing. Any other ideas for a client who still insists on an emailed video? The other option i use for larger files is to upload it to YouSendIt which has worked pretty well.

Thanks again!

J. Tad Newberry
Big Ya Productions
Power Mac G5
Dual 2 GHz
http://www.bigya.tv