Interim compression format - from DV to Mac to FTP to Windows Media Encoder?

[stevenrblake]

I am looking for suggestions for a good compression codec that videographers in the field can use to ftp video clips to me so that they can then be compressed to Windows Media 9 320x240 300k video. I would be curious what the online transcoding services are reccomending.

The challenge:
- Small file size to accomodate slow Internet connections in the field
- The videographers are independent and often use Mac only platforms.
- Raw DV is too big
- Frame accurate editing is not a requirement

Ideas I am thinking of:
- Having them crop to 320x240 first.
- Anything lossless is likely too big as well
- MPEG2 should work
- H264 – I haven’t tried feeding FCP compressor’s version into Windows Media Encoder.
- Any rules of thumb? (Bigger is better, common colorspace, etc.)

Any information or web links would be appreciated.

Steve

[wcaulfield]

We stay strictly old school on this: 720x480 Motion-JPEG or 320x240 PhotoJPEG at 99%. You can drop the quality down to get a smaller file. I've taken PhotoJPEG down to 75% with no noticable difference.

Everyone wants to do H264 for this, but the specs vary so widely it's difficult to satisfy each side. Using the Apple H264 (QuickTime Export) we've had good results with "keyframes: all" at 75% quality.

[stevenrblake]

Thanks Bill,

That sounds like good advice.

[benwaggoner]

Is PhotoJPEG @ 99 quality going to be any smaller than DV?

If it's all about file size, I've seen several news gathering agencies use Flip4Mac to export to WMV straight from FCP for later processing. You can get down to 5-6 Mbps in full 720x480i30, preserving the ability to edit later.

If you really want 320x240 WMV, you might just try encoding the final file straight from the timeline using Flip4Mac. Can't beat that for simplicity and a small file!

[stevenrblake]

(02-07-2009 01:49 AM)benwaggoner Wrote:  Is PhotoJPEG @ 99 quality going to be any smaller than DV?

If it's all about file size, I've seen several news gathering agencies use Flip4Mac to export to WMV straight from FCP for later processing. You can get down to 5-6 Mbps in full 720x480i30, preserving the ability to edit later.

If you really want 320x240 WMV, you might just try encoding the final file straight from the timeline using Flip4Mac. Can't beat that for simplicity and a small file!

Thanks Ben, You always have good advice. I'll do what I can to get them to encode onsite. But because I often work with a variety of freelance videographers, some don't know their way around compression tools short of video editor presets. I guess I am trying to figure out a good failsafe standard - if there is such a thing.

[benwaggoner]

(02-07-2009 01:27 PM)stevenrblake Wrote:  Thanks Ben, You always have good advice. I'll do what I can to get them to encode onsite. But because I often work with a variety of freelance videographers, some don't know their way around compression tools short of video editor presets. I guess I am trying to figure out a good failsafe standard - if there is such a thing.

The good failsafe standard is a DV export .

Flip4Mac is dirt-easy, and you can add presets to it.

I've actually got a meeting with them later today; I'll ask them about putting in some mezzanine preset options.