Any suggestions for online video format?

[Dimwhit]

I've got a website that has, at any given time, a few dozen 2-3 minute video clips. I'm currently converting the files to mpg and keeping them to about 4-5MB in size. But the files are small and bad quality.

I'm looking for a better format to use that is widely compatible and a reasonably size. What has worked for other people? Any suggestions?

I see the video Apple puts on their site, and I'd love to use that (I assume it's quicktime), but I suspect the file sizes would be too large.

Anyway, thanks for any suggestions you might have.

 

[Eidorian]

Flash, MPEG-4, or even h.264

It be better to know what your user base is. You don't want to exclude users if you use MPEG-4/h.264.

 

[Dimwhit]

The userbase is varied. It's an adoption website, and we probably get more Windows users than anything. I used to use basic Quicktime, but I got some complaints from people not wanting to install QT. I figured mpg would be more universal, but I'm not at all happy with the quality. MPEG-2 is better quality and would work, but that requires a codec or something to be installed, which I'm trying to avoid.

 

[Eidorian]

The userbase is varied. It's an adoption website, and we probably get more Windows users than anything. I used to use basic Quicktime, but I got some complaints from people not wanting to install QT. I figured mpg would be more universal, but I'm not at all happy with the quality. MPEG-2 is better quality and would work, but that requires a codec or something to be installed, which I'm trying to avoid.

I agree with the complaints about Quicktime installation. MPEG-2 is a tad bit old though.

I know the movie length, what about the resolution? Is there anyway you can live with a slightly larger file size? Any idea on the connection speed of your users?

Flash can be an option but I have little experience with it. I'd be more then happy to try some sample video if you're able to let me tinker with it. I understand the need to protect your media though.

 

[Dimwhit]

I agree with the complaints about Quicktime installation. MPEG-2 is a tad bit old though.

I know the movie length, what about the resolution? Is there anyway you can live with a slightly larger file size? Any idea on the connection speed of your users?

Flash can be an option but I have little experience with it. I'd be more then happy to try some sample video if you're able to let me tinker with it. I understand the need to protect your media though.

I could go with Flash, but I'm not a huge fan. You can see a sample here:

http://www.idahowednesdayschild.org/profile.php?id=12426

I'd also like to embed the video rather than have a link to it. I don't have a problem going a little bigger on the video file, but I don't want it to be too big. I don't know if most users have dial-up or broadband, so I want to limit the download. Maybe 8MB or so? I'm flexible on that, if the quality is good enough. The current resolution is 232x176, but I would like to get that a little bigger, too.

 

[Eidorian]

Ouch those are some painful artifacts.

According to OS X and Quicktime it's MPEG-1 video. I'd give Flash a try at those low resolutions for an embedded video.

 

[Dimwhit]

Yeah, the artifacts are nasty. Thanks for the help. I'll play around with Flash and see what I get.

 

[Eidorian]

Yeah, the artifacts are nasty. Thanks for the help. I'll play around with Flash and see what I get.

Good luck!

Sadly, Flash is now the lowest common denominator when it comes to internet video. Hopefully Adobe will improve its video compression abilities without compromising its backwards compatibility.

 

[Dimwhit]

Well, I played around with some conversion, and I can actually get a nice looking video for the size I want. Certainly worlds better than what I have.

The pain is redoing my site to accommodate flash. I've got some php files to modify...

 

[mariahlullaby]

I really like the video player over at http://www.bigcontact.com because you're stil hosting your own video.