What Compressor 3 MP4 settings should I choose for a 10 min 9GB QT video (exported from FCP) to be uploaded onto a website?

[Peter Dunphy]

I found a similar video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip0P3xs9TSw) and when downloading the file, the info in Window > Activity showed a data rate which varied between 350 – 625 KB/sec.

Should I then input a similar data rate into MPEG Streamclip?

I’m guessing that in MPEG Streamclip I should tick the Limit Data Rate box and input a maximum data rate. In this case it would be 625 KB/ sec.

How does this sound? It’s a video for a UK website, by the way.

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5

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[Craig Seeman]

[peter dunphy] “Activity showed a data rate which varied between 350 – 625 KB/sec. “

That’s your download data rate. You have to open the file in Quicktime or, better still, MediaInfo and look at the file’s data rate.

Download the Mac version with GUI.
https://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en/Download

[Peter Dunphy]

Thanks again Craig

The GUI for the similar video I downloaded from YouTube shows:

Video
710 Kbps, 640 *360 (16:9) at 29.970 fps. AVC (Main@L3.0) (CABAC / 3 Ref Frames)

Audio

129 Kbps, 44.1 KHz, 2 channels, AAC (LC)

So, I’m thinking now that I should limit my data rate to 710 Kbps. Would that be right?

Here is the video I will be compressing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq94NMGm0bc However, I’m using the original 9GB version of it to compress (not this YouTube version)

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5

[Craig Seeman]

[peter dunphy] “So, I’m thinking now that I should limit my data rate to 710 Kbps. Would that be right?”

That would be reasonable for video at 640×360.

[peter dunphy] “129 Kbps, 44.1 KHz, 2 channels, AAC (LC)
“

As well as this although you’d be targeting 128kbps. Sometimes there’s a little overshoot or undershoot when encoding

It was probably set at 700kbps for video and 128kbps for audio.
That’s 828kbps overall.

[peter dunphy] “(Main@L3.0) (CABAC / 3 Ref Frames)”

In some professional compression software you’d be able to set this as well. CABAC can improve quality a little bit. A program like Telestream Episode would allow you to set this.

[Peter Dunphy]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the information.

Due to feeling like I’m ‘stabbing in the dark’ I’ve written back to them with the following:

‘Can your IT contact please confirm the following:

1. What ratio is the compressed MP4 required in? (Currently at 1920 x 1080)
 
2. What data rates limits are required for video and sound? (e.g. video data limit of 1 Mbps, 128kbps for audio)

3. What is the maximum file size allowed for the compressed MP4?’

If they only want the video in a smallish box then that will no doubt use less data than a video that has to fill full-screen and remain clear of artifacts.

Will post again once I hear back.

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5

[Craig Seeman]

Good questions. It’s important to ask clients things like this.
You’ll find out whether they really understand and know what they’re asking for and, if not, they will then entrust you, if they don’t, rather than second guess you afterwards.

[Peter Dunphy]

Hi Craig

I received the below from the tech department of the client. If you can offer any advice whatsoever I’d really appreciate it:

“I downloaded the video from the website yesterday. The video seems to have an interlacing problem. This is nothing to do with compression (necessary to keep the download size manageable).

You can see it in the attached screenshots; any time there is movement, a series of jagged horizontal lines appear around the movement. This is quite apparent in the close-ups of interviewee speaking.

I believe the video should have been interlaced before it was supplied to us. Interlaced footage is designed for web delivery; de-interlaced footage as seen here is only used for TV broadcast and DVDs.”

The video was shot at 50i on a Canon XHA1 (PAL) in the UK then edited as ProRes 422, exported as Quicktime from FCP, then brought into MPEG Streamclip.

Using MPEG Streamclip I created a compressed MP4 with the following stream info:

Duration: 0:10:24
Data Size: 89.98 MB
Bit Rate: 1.21 Mbps

Video Tracks:
H.264, 640 × 360, 25 fps, 1.08 Mbps

Audio Tracks:
MPEG-4 Audio stereo, 48 kHz, 128 kbps

Under the MPEG Streamclip heading ‘Deselect for progressive movies’ I had ‘Interlaced Scaling’ ticked (yes), ‘Reinterlace Chroma’ ticked (yes, greyed out) and ‘Deinterlace Video’ not* ticked (no). Field Dominance is set to Upper Field First.

I’m pretty confused since I had ‘Interlaced Scaling’ ticked.

What do you think please?

Warm regards

Peter

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5

[Peter Dunphy]

The client had shown me a ‘testimonial’ page on their website which showed videos at 640 × 360. Small little boxes. They asked me to copy that, so I compressed the video to 640 × 360. To me, in the small 640 × 360 box, the video looks good and comes in within the 100MB data limit they wanted.

It was only once I’d delivered the compressed MP4 at 640 × 360 that they uploaded the video directly to their website. However, for my video (not the previous testimonial videos) they included a ‘Download’ option. Now, when they expand the video to view any bigger that the 640 × 360 small box they’d requested from me, the video image looks jagged.

Do you think this is less about interlacing and perhaps more about the less-than-100MB data limit the client wanted for the video?

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5

[Peter Dunphy]

Update – by ticking ‘Deinterlace Video’ (Interlaced Scaling and Reinterlace Chroma greyed out and ticked) the ‘jagged edges’ seem to go away. Does this sound normal?

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5

[Peter Dunphy]

Here is a photo of the jagged version vs the new version (ticking ‘Deinterlace Video’ (Interlaced Scaling and Reinterlace Chroma greyed out and ticked) the ‘jagged edges’ seem to go away)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/55202877@N06/6807028307/

Peter Dunphy

2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4870, ATTO ExpressSAS R380, Sonnet D800 Raid 5