What format/settings to stream videos on the internet? Final Cut Studio 3 with compressor

[Craig Seeman]

[Dave Chavinsky] “Are these settings optimal for web delivery?”

They’ll work but “optimal” is very subjective. It depends on what your potential viewers are capable of.
Compresser 3.x only does the old MPEG4 .mp4 which is generally inefficient.
Compresser 4 does H.264 .mp4 (as Quicktime Pro has been able to do for some time).

H.264 .mp4 can be wrapped in Flash, play straight on WMP 12, Quicktime, iOS devices. How you deliver depends on your viewer’s computers, devices, internet connection speed.

[Dave Chavinsky]

Thanks Craig,

I figured it would be quite subjective. For our purposes, we’re streaming sermons that we want everyone to have the most access to. There are a lot of old people who wouldn’t have very good equipment.

The most universal format I suppose.

We’re switching to Adobe CS5.5 also. Is there a “Compressor” equivalent that comes with the adobe suite?

[Craig Seeman]

[Dave Chavinsky] “We’re switching to Adobe CS5.5 also. Is there a “Compressor” equivalent that comes with the adobe suite?”

Adobe Media Encoder.

[Dave Chavinsky] “There are a lot of old people who wouldn’t have very good equipment.”

Equipment and Internet connection speed. Both are important.
When targeting the lowest common denominator you can alienate those with newer computers and faster connections.

You may need Windows Media 9 for people with old Windows computers who don’t update Quicktime or Flash. You may need Flash H.264 .mp4 for those who do update Flash, have newer computers, gives you the option to do HTML5 for iOS devices.