[solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

CaspianXI · 2008-06-19 02:11:51

I have some high-resolution videos I want to be able to give to people using windows and mac. They're currently encoded in avi, but my windows and mac friends can't open them. I've tried converting them to flv, h264, and mp4, but the details in my high-quality videos become very fuzzy.

Should I be using different a different file format which will preserve my high resolution? If not, how can I decrease the loss of quality during the conversion?

Thanks!

Last edited by CaspianXI (2008-06-21 11:43:05)

Daenyth · 2008-06-19 03:15:44

I'm sure several people will yell; avi isn't a codec, but rather a container. Try running "file" on the videos to see what you have. And tell your friends to install some codec packs or use vlc.

schivmeister · 2008-06-19 10:56:07

If they're going to be compressed anyway, they're going to lose detail.

Last edited by schivmeister (2008-06-19 10:56:23)

CaspianXI · 2008-06-19 15:07:13

Well, is it possible to convert my avi to another format which mac and windows can read? My friends are pretty computer illiterate, and can't (and don't like to - lol) install software on their machines.

Both mac and windows recognize avi as a movie file, but they can't open them (mac can tell how long my movie is). Is there a difference between the avi mencoder makes and what mac/windows uses? Is it possible to convert to *that* avi format?

Mac and windows have to have some uncompressed file format -- don't they?

carlocci · 2008-06-19 15:35:27

file highqualityvideoyouhave.avi
highqualityvideoyouhave.avi: RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 9999 x 9999, 119.98 fps, video: XviD, audio: MPEG-1 Layer 3 (stereo, 48000 Hz)

have them install the right codecs, or better the combined community codec pack, or worse VLC (windows)
mplayer + codecs (linux and osX)

I don't think you can produce wmv 9 or quicktime video on linux.
You could also try to convert the file to mpeg2, but it's very space consuming

pelle.k · 2008-06-19 15:55:19

Well, if it's SD (standard definition) DV, it'll take up about 215 Megs per minute, and that isn't even RAW, but compressed. So uncompressed video takes up HUGE amounts of space. It's not an ideal format for sharing your video clips.
I'm fairly sure most computers can play mpeg1 video, and PCM audio without any modifications though. mpeg1 loses quite a bit of quality using much compression though.
Mac avis are often encoded using quicktime, which supports quite a bit of exotic codecs so the resulting avi is often not playable on you average windows pc out of the box, while windows avis are often some form of mpeg4 + mp3 audio, which is commonly supported by many media players / encoders.

method 1; xvid (mpeg4 codec) (2 pass is better than 1 pass encoding) + mp3 audio = Small size, good quality. (They would have to run *some* mpeg4 codec pack to play such content though. xvid/divx/3ivx, on a pc, quicktime on a mac.)

method 2; mpeg1 (2 pass is better than 1 pass encoding) + pcm audio = Big size, good quality

iBertus · 2008-06-19 16:17:25

I used the msmpeg4v2 codec to encode some high quality video for a windows-only visualization machine at work. The machine is attached to a 20-foot wide super resolution (4200x1080) wall display and the video was clear and crisp. It played without the addition of any new software and once the bitrate was set to proper level, managed quality on par with my uncompressed video.

watsonalgas · 2008-06-19 16:25:42

If they don't want to install anything, have them download the VLC zip package, which they only have to unpack and run, not install. This is for Windows, you may have to install Mac one, but then again it may just be a binary. This is much preferred than installing all the crap that something like CCCP (combined community codec pack) would do.

pelle.k · 2008-06-19 19:44:24

speaking of codec packs, there is only one "codec pack" i use in windows, and that is "ffdshow". It isn't really a codec pack per se, but it plays pretty much everything you throw at it. It is essentially the open source "ffmpeg", made for windows distribution. But VLC is very nice as well.

carlocci · 2008-06-19 20:18:51

watsonalgas wrote:

If they don't want to install anything, have them download the VLC zip package, which they only have to unpack and run, not install. This is for Windows, you may have to install Mac one, but then again it may just be a binary. This is much preferred than installing all the crap that something like CCCP (combined community codec pack) would do.

you don't know what you are talking about.
cccp is the latest ffdshow + vobsub for decent subtitle rendering (much much better than vlc)+ a splitter for matroska containers + mediaplayer classic (much better than vlc)

CCCP is very common among the anime community which has been using mkv,h264 and fancy subtitle renders for quite while now.
The linux counterpart is mplayer with libass support.

watsonalgas · 2008-06-21 05:07:17

carlocci wrote:

watsonalgas wrote:
If they don't want to install anything, have them download the VLC zip package, which they only have to unpack and run, not install. This is for Windows, you may have to install Mac one, but then again it may just be a binary. This is much preferred than installing all the crap that something like CCCP (combined community codec pack) would do.
you don't know what you are talking about.
cccp is the latest ffdshow + vobsub for decent subtitle rendering (much much better than vlc)+ a splitter for matroska containers + mediaplayer classic (much better than vlc)
CCCP is very common among the anime community which has been using mkv,h264 and fancy subtitle renders for quite while now.
The linux counterpart is mplayer with libass support.

I may not know what I'm talking about, but I know the situation the original poster is talking about and the people he is dealing with. He specifically said they didn't want to install anything, and a codec pack (for people who may not know much about these things) is going to put stuff on there that they will not know how to handle or uninstall. Basically, I don't think we are dealing with anime fans or anything of the sort, just a normal computer user that is trying to play one video.

CaspianXI · 2008-06-21 11:42:47

Hi, Thanks everyone for your replies . Sorry it took me so long to reply... it took me a while to get access to both Mac and Windows machines to try out some test videos I had encoded.

I was able to use msmpeg4v2 to make some avis which I was able to play on Mac (using quicktime), Windows (using windows media player), and Linux (using mplayer), and the quality is exactly the same as my original avi which I created on Linux.

For reference, I using the following tutorial on how to do 2-pass encoding using mencoder and the msmpeg4v2 codec:
http://personal.cscs.ch/~mvalle/mencoder/mencoder.html

Finally, as a clarification, watsonalgas is right that the people I'm dealing with only use the software which came pre-installed on their computers. So, it's very difficult for me to convince them to install something (or even let me install it for them).

Thanks, everyone for your help .

Last edited by CaspianXI (2008-06-21 11:45:38)

jacko · 2008-06-21 19:55:17

burn vlc to a cd and pop it in their cdrom, no install, just run vlc into mem and watch a video.

skottish · 2008-06-21 20:50:34

CaspianXI wrote:

I was able to use msmpeg4v2 to make some avis which I was able to play on Mac (using quicktime), Windows (using windows media player), and Linux (using mplayer), and the quality is exactly the same as my original avi which I created on Linux.

msmpeg4v2 playing in QuickTime on Mac? Wow! They must have Windows Media Player installed on that machine also.

schivmeister · 2008-06-22 16:48:38

Should be added to somewhere in wiki..those multimedia-dedicated pages

Arch Linux

#1 2008-06-19 02:11:51

[solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#2 2008-06-19 03:15:44

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#3 2008-06-19 10:56:07

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#4 2008-06-19 15:07:13

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#5 2008-06-19 15:35:27

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#6 2008-06-19 15:55:19

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#7 2008-06-19 16:17:25

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#8 2008-06-19 16:25:42

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#9 2008-06-19 19:44:24

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#10 2008-06-19 20:18:51

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#11 2008-06-21 05:07:17

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#12 2008-06-21 11:42:47

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#13 2008-06-21 19:55:17

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#14 2008-06-21 20:50:34

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

#15 2008-06-22 16:48:38

Re: [solved] Encoding high-quality videos the rest of the world can play

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