Making FLV from different sources

[shiftless]

I've been given a music video in a few formats and have been trying to use the Flash Video Encoder to make a nice (and small) version that can be loaded into their web site. I can't seem to figure out the settings I need to make a small optimized video. In many cases the FLV is larger than the original source video.

Been searching this forum and google and there doesn't seem to be one plain spoken guide to this. So first:

Which file should I use as my source:

6.9 MB quicktime version at correct size (240x180) or
22.6 .M4V file that needs resizing to correct 240x180 size or
811.2 MB .DV file, 720x480

Second: Should I use Quicktime Pro to process the video (resize, or compress) before using the Flash Video Compresser to make the FLV? What are the usual settings for a small FLV file. Keep in mind this is a music video, so lots of motion and the audio must be decent quality.

I have to say the Adobe documents on this online are sure confusing, and not well written. Please help guide me to some good info!

[shiftless]

so, no one has an opinion or info on this?

[layerburn]

As far as source files go, I would use the best quality. I usually use Quicktimes with great results.

You're having trouble importing the video into Flash with the encoder? Again I usually use quicktimes as my source and haven't had any problems. I also use Cleaner sometimes to make videos straight to flv or swf format if I don't need to go into Flash, had great luck with these as well.

As far as settings go, you'll just have to play with those. I know that Flash has defaults for high, medium, and low quality when you use their encoder. These are just defaults, you can select one and go in and tweek it accordingly. It will largely depend on the size you're shooting for for your final output. I do a lot of high quality video myself and have found the defaults to be usually pretty good. I would have to look at the video myself and do some tests to give you specific settings.

I hope this helps. If you have any more specific questions, I'll try to help you out.

[assembler]

I've had only little experience with video, so you may want to skip this, but if the quicktime is in h.264 (or whatever number) then it might be hard to get it any smaller (It's a damn nice compression format). I think that Flash mx04 has Sorenson's encoder, and Flash 8 has that plus On2VP6, which is also pretty hot. Because you have lots of motion, the video is going to use a lot of keyframes, motion doesn't compress very well at all, and sound quality... well.. but I'm sure you already knew these things.

Maybe have a look at the Riva encoder, which is based on FFMPEG:
http://rivavx.com/index.php?encoder&L=3

FFMPEG supports h.263 which is pretty nice, but the difference between h.264 and h.263 is more than .001...

There's no science behind this next bit: quicktime's h.264 is better than On2 VP6. I don't know why, there is no basis to that statement, that's just the sense I got when playing with a mate's bands promo video (probably not dissimilar with video/audio requirements)

If it's an bandwidth issue, you may have to serve up a heavy and a lite version, with mono audio and crappy video quality. Or a popup button linking to the quicktime (which can be done inside flash...)

getURL ("javascript:NewWindow=window.open('quicktimeholder.html','newWin','width=400,height=300,left=0,top=0, toolbar=No,location=No,scrollbars=No,status=No,resizable=No,fullscreen=No');  NewWindow.focus();");

Mmmmm.... Best of luck!

[RandleHandle]

1) issue regarding larger file than it started out as: it could be your source file had a lot of compression already with whatever codec it used.

2) best solution is to have the source as high quality - with as little compression as possible. So if you can have a no compression quicktime - that would probably be ideal.

3) what settings? i think the encoders medium or high default settings should be fine. if you want to tweak: because its music you may want to make the audio slightly better quality - but just a suggestion.

4) which encoder to use? i've had issues with them all - though keep in mind that the Riva mentioned above (and all other freebie ones based on open source ffmpeg) will encode using the older Sorensen Spark video codec instead of the new ON2 codec used in the Flash 8 Video Encoder.