Video for the Web - Hosting and Compression

May 30, 2005 10:40 AM

Okay, videophiles...two questions. 1) Where can I host 50-75Mb of QuickTime files online (preferably for free), and b) What are the most efficient web compression settings?

I have a website already, that a friend is hosting for free. I don't want to take advantage of him, so I'm looking for elsewhere to host my portfolio video files. Ourmedia is taking too long for my tastes. I want a service where I can direct link to my files from my site.

And compression - all of my shorts are less than two minutes in length, but some of them I can't get under 5 or 6Mb. I know there has to be a way to get them even smaller. I've got access to Final Cut Pro 3 and Cleaner 6. Suggestions?

posted by ArsncHeart to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Depending on how preferable it is that it's free, try Neptune.com. They could use the business if they're going to weather the storm from Google Video.
posted by Hildago at 10:45 AM on May 30, 2005

Less than 2 minutes?

Compression is an art...it's all a balance of size, frames and quality.

Here are the (reasonably) best codecs:
WMP-9
H264 (part of the MPEG-4 spec)
Sorenson 3 pro.

Wait, I hear you saying "divx". Stop - realistically, anything that causes the end user to install something else is bad.

MPEG-1 is the most universal codec - works cross platform, on iffy machines.

WMP9, H.264 are both specific...
WMP9 is more windows based (although you can playback on a Mac)
H.264 will be out when QT7 is available for windows....if they installed quicktime ever.

Sorenson 3 is in all installs of quicktime (back to QT5)...but to encode well you'll need the pro version of their codec...which is getting quite dated (and nobody buys anymore)

flip4mac.com has a WMP9 encoder for the mac that's fairly cheap.
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Whichever codec you go with
Reduce the picture size (usually divisible by 16 helps due to macroblocks)
192x144, 320x240, 400x300
Cut your frame rate in 1/2 to 15 fps (12.5 if pal)
If you have the option to do a 2 pass VBR encode, do so.
Reduce the audio to mono, smaller sizes (96kbs is fine, unless you're trying to preserve the quality of music.)
posted by filmgeek at 12:21 PM on May 30, 2005

The question to ask is: How many people will be downloading said files? And do you mind there being banner ads?

Many places offer free hosting with banner ads. (Enter "free webspace" into Google.)

Alternatively, provided the number of people accessing it will be below say 30 people a day, I'll be happy to host them for you. (I have plenty webspace I doubt I'll be using anytime soon if ever.)
posted by Zarkonnen at 1:04 PM on May 30, 2005

ourmedia.org seems like a good place. I don't have any experience with it, but I dig the idea.
posted by whatevrnvrmind at 4:51 PM on May 30, 2005

I second ourmedia.org. It is free and space is unlimited. It's designed for exactly what you're looking for. I compress videos for a student film festival and used to use variants of the following: Quicktime, 320x240, MPEG-4 video and audio compression, 29.97 fps, data rate at or below 64kbs, stereo audio (I don't remember the keyframe settings). At this rate, a 9 minute movie is about 22mb. However, I'm planning on moving to movies embedded in Flash using Sorensen Squeeze to get away from both Quicktime and Windows Media Player.
posted by FakeOutdoorsman at 11:26 AM on May 31, 2005