Video File Format Help!

RastaManBob

RastaManBob

RastaManBob

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30 Dec 2003
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2,254
Hi,

I'm currently producing an .avi compressed using Indeo Video 5.10.

The output file size is still very large and the video does not play on some media players.

Can anybody suggest the best tool to produce a video that will be playable in all/majority of video players, and ideally with a reasonable file size?

Thank you.
 
It is a video that I've produced from MATLAB. It is high resolution (I think it essentially does screengrabs and makes a video out of them).

I would like to keep them at a decent resolution as the video contains a number of subplot graphs which I would like to discuss at a presentation.

I'm sorry I'm not able to provide any better technical explanation... I didn't realise video encoding was such a mine field!

Thank you! :)
 
Your exact requirements are a little bit sparse but I would recommed getting a copy of Handbrake (free) and encode whichever video format you have into an MKV container using H.264 codec.

That combination provides excellent compression to quality ratio.

However you will need to install some extra codec software to enable something like WMP to play it.
How soon do you need it and is it available on the web anywhere to D/L?

If you are stuggling buddy, I'll be happy to encode for ya and upload it.
 
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handbrake for mp4 or mkv
autogk for avi (xvid)

In the filesize field, I'd suggest using around 10mb per minute of video.

Without more information it's hard to suggest things..

How long is the video? Does it have audio?
 
tbh if your planning on showing this somewhere as a presentation then I'd be tempted to make an avi version maybe using AutoGK and a wmv version using windows movie maker just to make sure your video will work with what ever hardware/software setup you'll be presenting on (unless its off your own laptop?).

you could go for something like Handbrake and encode it into a mkv but you'd need a player/codec that supported it. portable VLC may be a good option here as it will run off a memory stick but may be complicating things when you could just as easily fire up windows media player on the PC and play your wmv file straight out
 
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AVIDMUX will do exactly what you want, specify a fielsize for the video (using 2pass so high quality) and a whole choice of codecs to use.

It's also free!
 
Thank you for all of the replies, and my apologies for the delaying in getting back to this thread.

More details regarding the file:

It's 6 mins 31 secs at 1280x932 resolution, 25 frames per second. It has no audio.

When generating the video I used MATLAB and selected Indeo 5.10 for compression. That file was in the region of 500 MB. The best that I've managed so far is Xvid which has brought it to 291 MB. I tried a number of freeware converters however they generally either produced a terrible video or did not support the resolution (which I think is necessary to keep in order to maintain the detail).

I have included a screenshot to demonstrate the contents of the video:

Link to screenshot.

(Not sure what the black bands in the image are, across the top and bottom... Some consequence of playing the video in VLC to take a screenshot?).

The six graphs scroll though the axes does not change. The video pane obviously does change. In terms of the video pane the quality is not terribly important... So long as it doesn't look terrible and it is clear what is going on. The film in the video pane was taken using a video camera and came in at 12 GB for approx 15 mins of footage, so that video was compressed, also using Indeo 5.10, before it was processed using MATLAB.

Whilst quality and file size are important, in reality so long as the video pane is clear enough and the graphs are clear (the problem I've encountered most) it's not a huge problem. Likewise, small file size would be convenient but not essentially.

However, what is essential is that the video is in some format that is widely supported. I will probably bring a portable media player on a pen disk as a backup but I would feel more comfortable if, for example, it was possible to play on Windows Media Player. I have no idea what codecs, etc, are installed on the machine that I will have to use (my laptop will not be suitable), which is one of the reasons I intend to take a portable media player, though as above, this is only for backup purposes, ideally.

Additionally, I am likely to wish to make a variety of smaller videos containing the areas of interest - Playing the entire six and a half minutes, containing some unnecessary footage, for a fifteen minute presentation would not be acceptable. Therefore, if anybody could suggest what tool I should use to complete this... Whether this is before or after I reduce the file size over all.

Any help appreciated... If I'm missing any more details please let me know and I'll do my best to clue up a little better.

Thank you! :)

EDIT: Obviously this will be enlarged when used on a video projector, if this makes any difference. Thanks! :)
 
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