Video (and audio) compression

  1. Mike Romkey
    Mike Romkey
    Have we had a discussion about this? Is there anyone out there well versed in the arcane secrets of video compression settings who can make straight the crooked and plain the complex for the rest of us?

    I'm endlessly dissatisfied with what YouTube does to my vids. I've resigned myself to recording the audio (while doing the video) into Logic Pro through Onyx A/D converters, using a decent condenser mic. I add a some compression, limiting, EQ and the faintest hint of reverb to the audio mix, export an AAC file, import it and the video into iMovie, synch and edit the video, and, voila, after way too much work, have something that usually (but not always) sounds OK.

    But the video always ... always ... looks like it was shot with a laptop cam in somebody's basement. Which it was. But that doesn't mean it can't end up on the web looking more like it does played off the desktop. Does it?

    I read the Vimeo docs online last night regarding compression and, despite the fact that my Vimeo video refused to be posted here (insert swear words) it did result in a better-quality vid to upload to YouTube. I only put up the improved one in the "Harvest Home" thread, but if you want to compare, do a search on YouTube; they're both there.

    Here are the main things I changed, which helped, based on Vimeo recommendations:

    Frame rate/keyframes: Bump up to 30.

    Data rate: Bump up from something in the hundreds to 3000 kbits/sec. (I might have went with 2000 because I wasn't sure going that high would really work.) HD is 5000.

    Resolution and Deinterlacing: I skipped that part, not wanting to go overboard in my quest for quality.

    Audio: I bumped that waaay up 44.100 kHz, which makes sense. It says to change the bit rate to 320 kbps. I'll worry about that next time.

    Any thoughts on the above, video gurus?

    You have to delve into iMovie to customize the automatic compression settings, but it made enough difference to be worthwhile.

    Advice welcome.
  2. Joe Nobiling
    Joe Nobiling
    I noticed your playing sounded a lot better than previous posts. It sounded as though you were playing tunes you were much more familiar with than ones you weren't as familiar with and I know you're familiar with quite a few.

    It really seems as though you're going to great lengths to get your vids processed. I think you're always going to have a bit of a problem with using a webcam. It's just not as good as a camcorder or even a still camera shooting a vid. The lens doesn't have the resolution needed to capture everything cleanly. Movement can become 'jaggy' or blurry.

    30 fps (frames per second) is standard for NTSC. Comrpession usually involves compression that 30 fps into something like 15 or so.

    I've not been displeased with what I've run through YouTube and I'm using a small Canon consumer camcorder (dvtape). (Perhaps you've already tried that route and still aren't happy?) Then, as you, suck it into iMovie, export to CD-ROM quality and upload the .mov file to YouTube. (The export to CD-ROM also compresses the video.)

    The harddrive/memory card camcorders do a good job as well.

    I think anytime one puts something out into Vimeo or YouTube you want to give them the best possible material you can so the end result is the best possible that the YouTube compression algorithms are going to process.

    I liken this process to taking a good photo and manipulating it in photoshop as opposed to taking a poor photo and expecting photoshop to wave a magic wand and make it super great. Doesn't work.

    That's my best understanding of the process.

    Perhaps I'm just not as fussy as you are or I'm exhibiting my own personal character flaw(s)?
  3. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Chris Travers uses a Flip Mino HD I think and his videos always look great. YouTube does horrible things to the sound no matter what source video I upload, but Vimeo seemed a lot better, as in



    It looks just about as bad on both, but I think that's just my cheap web cam. Looking at your video on Vimeo Mike, the problem seems to be the frame rate. Does your video look as jumpy as that when you play it on your desktop AFTER you've compressed it ready to upload?
  4. farmerjones
    farmerjones
    I've got a Flip Mino HD as well. It creates MP4 files. None of my local busses can handle the files. Locally they're all jerky. Blaming old laptop nothing else.
    They, without a doubt, are the crispest video and sound. But i can't watch them on my own laptop, so i default to ye olde webcam. And really i'm not creating cinimetography. I think of it the same way as my cheap mandolin. The message gets though. If i were Ricky Scaggs, there'd be somebody following me around with a steady cam, and maybe a boom and a dolly. Plus sound guys. Somebody would bring me Pelagrino water, in between takes.
  5. Eddie Sheehy
    I'm less interested in the quality of the audio/sound than I am in the comprehension of the tune. I post the vid to expose my shortcomings so I know what to work on. I'm not producing a performance for the Youtube-watching public - I pretend that only SAWers pay any attention to my vids.
  6. Joe Nobiling
    Joe Nobiling
    I should probably correct a statement I made earlier about the lens' resolution. There's some truth to the quality of a lens in being an element of a good video or photo. There is also the element of the size of the CCD (Charge-coupled device, an electronic light sensor used in digital cameras). They make a difference in quality along with the lens. You can probably bet on a webcam having a lesser quality lens and CCD than the Flip Mino HD not to mention any other camera all up the scale.

    If you've ever heard the statement, "You get what you pay for," then one can also apply to this as well as any other situation in life. Kinda like the reason you have an Adam Steffey model Gibson as opposed to a Kentucky 150.
  7. Mike Romkey
    Mike Romkey
    I really don't want to fuss with details. "Hurry up, get it done" is my motto. But doing these week after week has made me wonder about getting better, more consistent results. I'll try my Sony Handicam next week and see what damage I can do with it. I just found it, excavated the power cord, and hooked it up to charge.
  8. Joe Nobiling
    Joe Nobiling
    I'll be curious to see if your vids don't turn out better using you Sony Handicam. There's nothin' like Irish coffee in the a.m.! and the p.m. and all hours in between!!! (Where's a totally snockered smiley face choice when you need one!)
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