best codec

[pdrake]

hi, i'm trying to send out some sample cds and need the most universal codec available. something that anyone can use.

i've tried windows media, but media cleaner pro won't let me encode that without an audio track.

i need 720x486 30fps with pretty good quality and smooth playback. thanks.

[toby]

You'll have to author a DVD for everyone to be able to view it, especially at 720x486. ( Actually if you're not worried about quality you could use Cinepac ) You might be able to get Cleaner to make a large mpeg1, I did it once, but failed when I tried it recently - got iDVD?

[pdrake]

yeah, but i just want to send a cd.

i get so freakin' mad at windows and their unconformity.

[riki]

Glass Master DVD is the best way to go.

Alternatively I'd supply the video files in a few different formats as a fail-safe.

[Beamtracer]

Quicktime is the best cross-platform solution, as all the video codecs that come with the standard free Quicktime player are available on both Mac and Windows. So the solution is to use one of the standard Quicktime codecs.

For preview use (and small file sizes) I recommend:

Sorenson (works with QT 4 and above)

Sorenson 3 (smaller file sizes, works with QT 5 and above

MPEG-4 (gaining ground as the world standard, and is compatible with QT6 and above, as well as some players from other vendors).

Cinepak is a really really old codec, and is not as good quality as newer ones. I think it was developed by some school kid a long time ago. Apple still provides the codec, but there's better stuff around these days.

[Haven1000]

I would agree with Beam, I couldn't get by without QT Pro.

One other option for you which happens to be free is an app called ffmpegX, you can encode mpeg1, mpeg2, Xvid, Divx, Mpeg4 (AVI), and others and it also happens to be fast at encoding.

[Danner]

720x486 on a CD for computer playback is not a good idea, change it to 640x480 so it has a better aspect ratio and smaller size and bitrate.
Lots of computers won't be able to play back a file at that screen size anyway, be it from old, slow or dirty CD roms, or from slow processors, no matter what codec you use, the fail safe method is to use mpeg1 files, wich look lousy (320x240), but are universally compatible. Many computers don't have quicktime installed beleive it or not.

[pdrake]

thanks, that cleared up alot.

[Zarathustra]

I'm a little curious why you're sending out your work on cd.

[marlo.steed]

The other option here is to go with QuickTime but provide a full-standalone-installer (available on Apple's site) so that you don't require an Internet connection.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone/

[pdrake]

cds seem to be easy and cheap. it's a few sample clips and i didn't want to make a dvd.

why? do you have a better suggestion? alot of the people i do work for are gov people and all of them have laptops. and all of them are doze machines.

what do you send your work out on?

[wacom]

Might I suggest too that you render your compressed version from an uncompressed one- such as series of targa files. Artifacting becomes a real problem when you re-compress. Mpeg one is the most universal in terms of even a dog slow old computer being able to play it. If you use a non-compressed master, and up the bit rate as high as is resonable it should work. Other than that I suggest using Divix or another Mpeg-4 (Quicktime) format- and include the install files on the disk with instructions since you should have the room for it.

If the computer that is going to have it played back on is fast enough you might want to try Quicktimes Animation compression at 75%, 24 fps with a key fram at every 15. It often looks very nice and plays fine.