bound2burst.net

I have placed a number of video samples at http://www.bound2burst.net/test.html using the same sequence as before, but with output in Quicktime, MP4 and WMV at a resolution of 1280x720 pixels but with five different bitrates. The file sizes are listed, and the clip is always 35 seconds long.

Obviously, I am looking for the lowest acceptable bitrate to keep the file sizes as small as possible without sacrificing all that HD has to offer. At the upper end, the file size is around 70 MB per minute which is clearly too high for downloads, except for very short clips. Obviously, one could produce a 5-minute clip at a high bitrate, but the downside is that the file would be more expensive because now the Dreamhost download fee we pay is bigger (it is $1 for every 400 MB). Short clips would be equivalent in cost to Clips4Sale prices of around $1 per minute.

Dropping down to a bitrate of 4000 kbps, the file size is around 32 MB per minute, making a 20-minute movie clip 640 MB. It's doable, but again the price will have to increase to cover the extra bandwidth for download.

In my opinion, the old 2,500 kbps option is too low and the movie quality suffers badly for it. This shows much less with DV 640x480 pixels, which is what I have been using, but with HD the loss is great. It does give a file size of around 18 MB per minute (the DV versions were around 15 MB per minute of video).

Please play the various formats and bitrates and let me know what you think so that I can provide you with the quality and file sizes you can live with.

Thanks for your time,
Dave.

P.S. I am also in touch with several people who have more experience than I with manipulating video encoding, and I hope that they can help me improve on the above values.

Dave

I'm all in favour of higher quality movie files from Bound2Burst. Though I'm a PC user I download the .mov files where available, and I have no problem playing them. I think the .wmv sample you uploaded is lower quality than the .mov file, but still better than the current .wmv files. So that's a thumbs up from me.

Maybe I'm being picky, but I wouldn't call anything below 1280x720 'HD', though it is higher definition than your current clips.

I'm afraid I have little experience converting movie files between formats, so I can't recommend any good software.

I know the issue of higher quality files has come up on the forums a few times and you've always said the file sizes would be a problem. Just out of interest, what's made you change your mind? Is this simply the way the market is moving?

Chris

Oh yes, the reason. Both of my older cameras have developed faults, and on one of them the record/playback heads are showing signs of wear (image break-up even after cleaning). I could have them both repaired, but it will only be a matter of time before they really do wear out and I record a shoot only to find the results unusable. So, time to move forward. Most cameras are now HD so I went for it, although this one does have the option to switch to normal DV definition if the HD proves too problematic.

Like the new quality, even tried the 1080p video

I agree with Chris about the hd part though. Im also the same in that I will choose the QuickTime or mp4 over wmv, though only because it's the best quality, if you released something in better quality in a weird format I would download that over the others haha!

I'm not too sure about a conversion program, there are a lot out there with a range of prices, I guess the best thing you can do is have a look around and try a few, I presume you want to do a basic conversion of mov to wmv so I would of thought there would be a lot of software out there, maybe someone here will know a good one

The 720p issue though, Im guessing that you are creating the movies/video at little to none compression in order to insure best quality. 230mb per minute seems ridiculous, but since other video sites or anything with video for that matter seem to manage it, surely there is a way? I would guess they use some sort of compression? I'm not really sure why else a 720p video would be 230mb yet other sites or whatever can get a good few minutes out of 230mb.

There must be someone a bit more educated on this matter than me, but maybe one problem could be something to do with using iMovie to output the video first as mov, where other sites will probably do straight wmv and/or possibly mp4. If this is part of the problem that might be a bit more tricky to solve. I'll keep thinking but hopefully some others will come on and post some ideas too, just might take a while during the holiday season (or not!)

Hello Dave
Yes there is a difference like you said with the colour drop out and that was under normal house lighting conditions you said.
So how would it look if it was taken outside under natural daylight conditions?

SM

It's looking like your having more success!?

The 1080p mp4 video looked great to me, and 15mb is a lot smaller than 309mb!!
The 720p also looked good as well, haven't checked the wmv yet but they were even smaller, so getting there with the size issue then!?

There is still a way to go. I think I can improve on the quality somewhat, especially with the mp4 version. The WMV format is a harder thing to fix, but in the end I will go with the best compromise I can find. I will probably output the movies at 1280x720 pixels for the most part, although longer ones will have to be at reduced quality to make them manageable.

In any event, there won't be any releases in HD until around mid-January, by which time I hope to have the issues resolved.

720p would be fantastic, it's a big upgrade in quality from what videos are now, and even your initial test videos (I certainly wasn't expecting anything higher, was just saying the others looked good). After some perfection on the quality settings for file size it should be win-win, quality upgraded (to keep hd fans happy for a while) with minimum file increase.

Looking forward to seeing some of the new movies in January/February

That´s sweet scenario. I just wished to see the train turned on and riding.

Reminded me this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH_RlC6Ahe8

Dave, perhaps you could arrange a movie with the model playing around, and saying "Snoopy saw me wetting my pants", like that.


Merry Christmas everybody !

My suggestion, Dave is - so you could let the biggest files to clips4sale.

I for sure would pay more, for a bigger file size within higher quality.