[Ivan Myles]

What version of PowerPoint and what OS? Have you tried H.264/MP4 instead?

[Ivan Myles]

Nvidia just announced a price cut for the GeForce GTX 770 and 780 to $329 and $499, respectively. Both are on Adobe’s system compatibility list for GPU acceleration. Power consumption peaks around 250 watts, so you should check what’s available from the power supply.

[Ivan Myles]

Try encoding a test clip that is a few minutes in length with the following parameters and upload to YouTube (set Format and Level first):

Format: H.264
Level: 3.1
Profile: High
TV Standard: Either will work; use same setting as the source material
Width: 854
Height: 480
Frame Rate: 24 fps [1]
Aspect: Square Pixels (1.0)
Bitrate Encoding: VBR, 2-pass
Target Bitrate: 0.52 [2]
Maximum Bitrate: 0.78 to 1.0 [3]

Scroll down to the Advanced section and set Key Frame Distance to 72 frames.

On the bottom of the panel enable Use Maximum Render Quality.

Open the Multiplexer tab and check that Multiplexer is set to MP4 and Stream Compatibility is Standard.

Open the Audio tab and set the following:

Codec: AAC
Output Channels: Mono
Frequency: Same as source (typically 44.1 or 48 khz)
Audio Quality: High
Bitrate: 64 kbps
Precedence: Bitrate

When ready to encode, click the Export button; do not use Queue when scaling the video.

After encoding the test file(s), check for any quality issues. If all looks good, upload to YouTube and verify that the final YouTube version looks OK. If so, go back and encode the entire lecture using the best test settings. If not, try reducing the frame dimensions or frame rate and encode/upload again.

Notes:

[1] You will get best results by exporting with the same frame rate as the source material. As per our previous discussion, 24 fps allows you to hit the file size target. If the source footage is 30 fps, consider exporting at 15 fps (every other frame skipped) or 20 fps (every third frame skipped) instead.

[2] The 0.52 Mbps bitrate setting should allow you to meet the 1GB file size constraint. The uploaded file will be re-encoded by YouTube to about the same bitrate, which might impact image quality. If the test file has quality issues, try 640×360 instead.

[3] YouTube will re-encode the file using a maximum bitrate around 1.5x the average bitrate. Try two or three different settings to see if there is any impact on picture quality as it appears on YouTube. I suggest 0.78 and 1.0 Mbps.

Other: If you are exporting the file from Premiere Pro (as opposed to Adobe Media Encoder) and your computer has an Nvidia graphics card, go into the Project > General settings and enable GPU acceleration (Renderer: Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration). It should reduce the time required to encode the files.

[Ivan Myles]

Here’s the detail to support the other comments:

i) Create the end video on a 5760×60 composition. Note that its center point is x=2880, y=30.

ii) Create a 960×360 composition.

iii) Drop the 5760×60 comp into the 960×360 composition six times and set the Position coordiates as follows:

1: 2880, 30 (far left on top)
2: 1920, 90
3: 960, 150
4: 0, 210
5: -960, 270
6: -1920, 330 (far right on bottom)

iv) Export the 960×360 comp, possibly with Adobe Media Encoder depending on the codec.

This approach allows you to focus on the final output in the 5760×60 composition without having to worry about splitting and synchronizing each slice.

[Ivan Myles]

There are ways to optimize the encoder settings to produce better quality at low bitrates. In this regard it would be helpful if you posted more information regarding your export settings. Beyond that, there are design choices in your video that don’t lend themselves to high compression.

H.264 uses a small number of complete frame images to generate several other frames. Many of the CoD animations in that trailer use stable backgrounds that move but otherwise don’t change much. (There is a lot of simulated camera shaking, which minimizes the background deltas to the edges of the frame.) This enables pixel blocks in one frame to be reused in neighboring frames with a manageable level of change. The sections with more motion (like the train explosion at 0:22) still exhibit blocking/pixelation; it’s just not as noticeable because it is a very short portion of entire video.

Try simplifying the animation. For example, focus on the circle and eliminate most of the horizontal lines. Try encoding again to see if the quality improves. If there is headroom, add some more complexity. If the problems still exist, keep simplifying.

[Ivan Myles]

[Ryan Geldermann] “I export it (either as prores or animation) and it looks almost as pristine, but already slightly pixely. “

[John Cuevas] “Youtube is going to convert and compress your video, so you should expect some loss of quality.”

+1

The sample video above is suffering from macroblocking, which is a symptom of bitrate starvation. The bitrate of a typical YouTube video is about 1/10 of a DVD/BD disc, less than 1/50 of ProRes HQ, and a tiny fraction of QT Animation.

What is the target delivery method for the final video? The animation should be designed for low bitrate if it will be distributed primarily via YouTube. This means solid colors instead of gradients and reduced variation from frame-to-frame over a smaller portion of the image. Also set AE color management and bit depth to minimize color conversion artifacts.

[Ivan Myles]

Jeremy, you can only upload 1280×720 if you have a free account with a 500MB limit. Even if you could upload 1080p, go with 720p if bitrate is an issue. Vimeo recommends 5-10 Mbps for 720p. How long is your video?

[Ivan Myles]

[Ben Hilton] “If I encoded the 4 hour videos to 854×480@24FPS, what Bit-Rate would I use to still match the 1 GB limit.”

Total bitrate will be 583 kbps. It is defined by the target file size (1GB) and the length of the video (4hr).

Subtract the audio bitrate from 583 kbps to determine the target video bitrate. I think 64 kbps mono audio should work well for a lecture, which leaves about 520 kbps for video.

Unless the footage can be edited to about 3 hours, you might consider cropping the frame to 640×480, scaling the resolution to 640×360, or reducing the frame rate to 15fps. Otherwise the encoded video will likely have macroblocking, which will make it very difficult to see detail on presentation slides or a white board. Try encoding a short test file at a few different settings to determine the best alternative.

[Ben Hilton] “Also, do you have any ideas as to a more efficient codec than H.264?”

H.264, and specifically the x.264 implementation, is the most efficient codec available at this time. H.265 is still in development.

[Ivan Myles]

For an intermediate codec to create a master file consider downloading DNxHD or Cineform. Otherwise, uncompressed YUV 4:2:2 produces the best quality, but at very high bitrates. PNG or JPEG2000 image sequences are compressed and lossless, but there is a risk of color banding if the file will later be transcoded to a YCC format like H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, etc.

For a high quality H.264 file that will be played from a local drive set bitrate target to the equivalent of 0.35-0.40 bits per pixel:

~8 Mbps for 1280×720-24p with High Profile @ Level 3.1
~10 Mbps for 1280×720-30p with HiP @ L3.1-3.2
~20 Mbps for 1280×720-60p with HiP @ L4.1
~18 Mbps for 1920×1080-24p with HiP @ L4.1
~22 Mbps for 1920×1080-30p with HiP @ L4.1

Set Maximum Bitrate to 1.5x to 2x the target bitrate, and Key Frame Distance to one half the frame rate.

I’m not sure if there is a Multiplexer setting in CS5.5. If so, set it to MP4 with Stream Compatibility set to Standard.

The bitrates listed above are also good when submitting files to YouTube or Vimeo. To create your own H.264 files that will be streamed over the internet divide the bitrates listed above by two for good quality, and by four for minimum acceptable quality.

[Ivan Myles]

Thanks for the info. Just create a sequence that meets the export requirement (29.97fps NTSC DVD), and insert the 15fps footage in the timeline. Premiere will automatically duplicate the frames to generate the required frame rate.

You could also interpolate the extra frames using After Effects, if available. Take a look at Time Warp and Frame Blending with pixel motion.