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universal screener for corp. America via a Mac
I had to prepare some small screen videos to send to a big Silicon Valley internet co. and was told they could not open mp4 files I prepared in Apple Compressor. I took this preset “mpeg-4 300kbps” and modified it for 16×9 The client said they just got a question mark when they tried to open it. (extensio was .mp4)
I purchased a guide last year “SimpleEncodingRecipes” that said (paraphrasing) that using an iPhone video preset is the safest bet for a universal web video solution. Allowing for the fact that the client (PC) is downloading not streaming, I *do* want universal.
2 questions, first for corporate America, what is the best route for a Mac guy to prep such video files.* Second, if the iPhone flavor is viable, I can’t seem to modify this preset for 16×9, others?
Thanks,
Paul
* I also have Flip4 Mac which can make (big & ugly) wmv files. Also have Cleaner 6 and Squeeze 5
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8 Replies
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Have you asked them what format, resolution, and bitrate they want for their deliverables?
If not, that’s your first step.
Most of corporate America runs on Windows, and WMV playback is built in. If it’s for their network, that’s probably a good starting point. Then think about adding playback for devices, etc.
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The screener in this case is not a deliverable per se, it’s more interim. Though I asked, I’ve found the vast majority of my clients don’t have a clue what they would want as a screener, unless they can point to the last file that worked for them. In the recent case the client is on the other coast and I can’t look at their files
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If it’s for internal use WMV is fine.
Note that WMP12 can play H.264 .mp4 but that’s not what you gave them. The setting you used in Compressor is for the older MPEG-4 Part 2 as opposed to MPEG-4 Part 10, which is H.264.A “secret” is that Apple’s iOS settings that encode to .m4v are actually mp4 and not mov. You can take an .m4v file and change the extension to .mp4 and it should play in WMP12. Of course WMP12 is only on Windows 7. If they have XP machines with WMP11 it won’t play the file.
So unless they have WMP12 (Windows 7) on all their machines, it’s probably safer to give them WMV9. To do that you would need Flip4Mac Studio series otherwise Telestream Episode. I believe Squeeze does does VC1 (which is a wmv spec) which should also work. Personally I’d stick to WMV9 in this situation.
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Thank you Craig. Now I just have to experiment more with Flip4 Mac to see if I can work up something better looking. Anyone know about modifying the iPhone (Compressor) preset to get it to be 16×9
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If your source is 16×9 I’d think your encode would be 16×9 using the preset. Is that not what’s happening?
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I tried to copy & modify the preset “h.264 for ipod video & iPhone” but could not change the aspect ration, width & height, all greyed out.
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Aspect ratio should follow source without modification of preset I believe.
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Shazaam! That seems to be true, thanks.
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