[Jack Westburg]

I don’t have experience using AE to export mpegs, but after quick glance it looks like the options it provides for are on par with other compression software.

For you’re job, my first choice would’ve been Cleaner.
Squeeze is on par with cleaner, but I don’t like it’s clunky interface and sluggish performance on mac.

AE is great for rotating and up-sampling (some compression software/codecs do a poor job of resizing creating pixelated images, and most cannot rotate the picture)
AE can output a variety of containers and codecs BUT it does not go a good job of using those codecs to compress the file size. (ie: you would get a smaller file size with the same quality using a program actually meant for compression). This is based on my experience with MOV containers, perhaps AE handles mpegs more efficiently.

[Jack Westburg]

Thanks all for the confirmation!

All the abbreviation in formats and framerates really gets annoying.

[Jack Westburg]

fat16 max file size = 2gb (rarely4gb)
fat32 max file size = 4gb
NTFS max file size = 16EiB (bigger than your hard drive)
HFS+ max file size = 16EiB (bigger than your hard drive)

If you’re client is using a version of windows installed on a Fat32 drive, you must be making some WMVs using a 10year old codec because…wow…nobody installs windows on a Fat hard drive anymore.

The only issue would be getting it to them if the video is over 4gb. (macs cant write to a NTFS drive, and PC’s can’t read a HFS+ drive, which are the only file systems available to transfer a 4gb+ file) (…you could try the unix file system but external drives always break for me when I format them that way)
Since you are on a mac, you would have to make a HFS+ external drive, and give them some software called Mac Drive so they can read the HFS+ drive.

Shouldn’t be an issue if you manage the bitrate to keep it under a 4gb file.
(ie: for 2hr video, keep below 4640kbps total birate (vid+audio) which will make a file under 4gb).
Use Bitrate Pro to do the math (enter TRT and file size you want, then click calculate under Data rate)
https://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/bitratepro.html

I really doubt packaging hours of video in a single WMV is wise.
I’d be weary of the WMV drifting out of sync because of weak hardware playing it. Thats even if the computer can play it at all if it is a high resolution and high bitrate. If there are any break points in the video you might consider making multiple WMVs. Make a playlist and the video will feel like it’s “chaptered” in the same way a dvd is. Smaller file sizes, smoother playback on weak computers.

I’ve had bad experiences exporting FCP sequences directly to a compression program (such as compressor, or flip4mac). It feels very unstable, takes twice as long, and creates larger files. Compared to exporting sequences in their native format/codec to quicktime container, then compressing that file.

[Jack Westburg]

great thanks!