Video Compression.

[FatTrucker]

I want to take some video of my emulation setup and my Mamecab for use on Facebook (yes I know) .

The problem is if I take the vids in anything like decent quality the files are huge. If I take them in lowest quality they are still quite large but the footage is too low quality and pixellated.

Anyone know how to take decent quality video and compress it into a smaller file in a format that's usable online?.

I'm talking about taking video with a video camera not using video capture on the PC.

TIA.

[ulaoulao]

Hey FT, this is a word in itself. Video compression is not an easy thing to master. And I'm not claiming to be one to help but I have worked with a lot of professionals.

As far as the source goes, that is irrelevant. If you made it with a video cap, or rca recorder its all going to end up in the same place, on the net..So its all in how you re-encode it. I would pick up virtualdub to start out with. The first thing is you want to get the size way down and resolution as small as your ok with. Go with a divx or xvid compression, I think they still give the best. I would make a few types of compressions to test with.
NOTE: you may be limmited to a type or types of compression on FaceBook, not sure.

The next step is how to "web" it. I'm not sure how facebook works but I'd hope you can do more then just upload a video. But if that is all you got .your at the mercy of how they did it. My guess would be flash, and that is why it always looks like ass. Flash will hold any video and convert it to a crappy web friendly video for you.

If you do get controller, as in you can write your own video code like myspace does ( or did ) then you have some play.. This is where I fall out.. I'm not much the " web " friendly guy. But I do know there are tricks.

[FatTrucker]

Thanks mate, think I'll just YouTube it and stream it. Anyone know what the upload limits are?.

[ulaoulao]

this may help

[Zach]

You probably need to consider a codec such as Xvid, or x264.. as for online streaming I'm not really sure. There is WMV ? Most sites will convert to a FLV (Flash Video) or similar format when you upload something anyway..


But in terms of capturing your video, then re-encoding it so its decent enough to upload and then transcode with minimal quality loss.. I have no real experience with that.

If you just want to host some downloadable videos, but not stream it, making an MKV with Xvid or x264 is the way to go.
You may want to look into something like MeGUI. It is a multiple purpose front-end for Xvid/x264 and is pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it.. Depending on your technical level you may require a drag & drop type solution though. Video encoding is a long and arduous process to learn even at the basic level.. I spent two weeks just learning some very basic stuff once..

[Jale]

I've been using Xvid4PSP for quite some time and it didn't let me down. If you're looking for high quality videos at lower bitrates, then this little app is just what you need. It can compress into many formats and it's multi-pass (up to 3 passes) and multi-threaded (runs on my Core 2 Quad at full speed).

(yeah, I sound like an advertiser already).

If you're going to upload a video to Facebook, MP4 (H.264 for video and AAC for audio) is just what you need.

[FatTrucker]

Thanks Jale, I'll check this out tonight.

[Jale]

You may also want to use x264 codec for AVI files.