What is the most compatible video codec for web presentation?

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Ian,
The codec of choice is H264.
To play an H264 QT with Flash Player, just change the extension to “.flv”.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Andrew Hunt]

Hey Ian,

I agree that H.264 is the way to go. I’ve been using the compression settngs from a website called “Wiredrive” (no affiliation). They are a hosting site for Commercials production companies and directors and it’s in their interest for the material to look good on their site so they release their own settings for compressing material for the web.

They include settings for using Compressor and Mpeg Streamclip (a great free tool if you haven’t already got it). I don’t know if they deal with Sorenson.

Here’s the link: https://www.wiredrive.com/customercare/video-encoding-for-wiredrive/

It includes overviews on compressing for the web and then you’ll see halfway down the page a section with step by step settings for Compressor, Mpeg Streamclip and Handbrake.

I found the settings excellent and easily tweakable once you get under the hood.

Good luck.

Andrew Hunt
Writer/Director
New York
http://www.andrewhunt.me

[Tom Brooks]

What do you think of MP4 with H.264 and AAC audio? Flash is able to play mov and mp4, as long as they contain those codecs. Even Windows Media player can play such mp4’s nowadays. YouTube and Vimeo like the format. I find I can make them in Compressor by using an H.264 preset and modifying it to set the mp4 extension instead of mov, but I get slightly better results in Squeeze.

[Ian Dillon]

I just checked out the site. I think wiredrive gives you the settings so it will upload and convert to their codec best (like YouTUbe and Vimeo). Am I wrong?
That could still be OK, but I would have to embed their html player link as opposed to uploading my video to my server.

Playroom Creative
http://www.playroomcreative.com

[Andrew Hunt]

Hey Ian,

You don’t have to embed anything. All those settings show is how to compress your films using one of those applications. Wiredrive is much more sophisticated than vimeo or youtube becuase it’s set up specifically for the Commercials world. It’s designed so a rep can take a director or production company’s collection of commercials and create a client specific reel (eg: all their car commercials) and showcase it to the client on the wiredrive site.

So Wiredrive puts the onus of doing all the compression and encoding on you but helps you by giving you those settings.

I don’t have my work hosted on Wiredrive but I use their settings and host the films on my own site, on vimeo, on exposureroom and so on.

I suggest you try the settings yourself and judge the results.

A

Andrew Hunt
Writer/Director
New York
http://www.andrewhunt.me

[Rob Deutsche]

That is correct. Wiredrive doesn’t do any transcoding of uploaded media, rather it plays exactly what you put into it as-is. We wrote those settings with the idea that they would be create good looking video that will play well over the average internet connection (whether it be a bonded T3 or a Starbucks Wi-Fi) and not be massive in size.

For an even better breakdown of general settings, that are not application specific, check out:
https://www.wiredrive.com/customercare/archives/5028/

[Erik Freid]

Mediasilo does sever side encoding, you can send them any reasonable size file (up to 2 GB) in most major codecs that are not proprietary like prorez & DNXHD, they convert to flash for the web and an h.264 version for iphone automatically and they host and provide you the locations or embedded code to use. Also there is lots of other things they offer a post house like client collaboration, all at a reasonable cost. They have a free demo to try out.

[Mike Chiavetta]

At Simian (asset manager, web presentations, client review web app) we agree the usual h.264/AAC/faststart encoding is best as far as marketshare and playback support. Bit rate is an important factor as well. Longtail video has a good write up on all this stuff https://bit.ly/aUO6WW

If you’re interested in delivering video for web and mobile Simian stores your original native video file and also transcodes for mobile so high resolution videos playback fast on smartphones without managing/sending 2 separate files. We also use HTML5 to present on the iPad and Chrome (beta browser).

If anyone wants to dive in further tweet us @gosimian

Mike @ Simian