Compressing Videos for Web Play

[Kung Fu Steve]

I am a total newbie, yes I have been laughed at several times already, feel free to laugh some more.

I'm trying to get videos up on my website but the videos I recorded are freaking huge files and obviously won't play. How the hell do I compress these files to the point where they will play like all the other gurus?

Video 1 was 5 minutes long 80meg or something. Lighthouse got it down to 13 meg for me so it plays right away on the website. - Check.

Video 2 is 16 minutes, 795 meg or so.

Video 3 is 26 minutes, 1.15gig or so.

Video 4 is 3 minutes, 66 meg.

The software used to edit was Final Cut Pro. Apparently it does not have a way to convert to FLV(??). I'm quite lost. Throw a karate guy a board?

 

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[NHS]

One of the things I do for a living is convert video for the web. Nothing like setting up a batch of files and billing someone for computer time while I am fishing.

For high quality FLV you need to make SWF files which are a huge pain to work with. Use MP4 instead.

Not sure if you are doing HD or SD. Thats gonna make a big difference in size.

For SD 1800 kbps is the size I use for high quality. For 720p I use 3000.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

I really don't know what the hell I'm doing haha.
I'm guessing Final Cut Pro should be able to convert
those files into MP4... (I hope?) I will check with my
guy later tonight to see if he can do that.'

In the mean time, would you mind answering some questions?

How do I get the smallest file size with the best quality?
I keep looking at Frank Kern's videos and they have great
quality and still load fast.

My introduction video is an embarrassment. The video is dark,
grainy, and I even look uncomfortable! Yuck!!!!

 

[NHS]

If your original footage is dark then go back and reshoot it. Get ahold of as much light as you can. Use white sheets, or white boards to balance it out. If you are shooting outside make sure you are in the sun and not in the shade. Use boards to kill the shadows.

If your stuff is dark it's just not going to transfer to web well.

Also look at your camera settings, turn off the gain. If your camera needs the gain then you are not using enough light.

If you look uncomfortable have a few drinks and you will loosen up and relax.

Smallest size and look good is up to personal opinion. 720x480 is the lowest I would go in this day and age. Even my poorest customer has at least 720x480 on his site. If you are shooting in HD then 720p is the way to go. Like I said MP4, Variable bit rate(vbr), 3000kbps, H264 codec.

Don't even think about FLV files, that went out of style in 2007-08.


Also when I do this for customers I do multiple settings. I do them for Ipod, Iphone,(mp4), high rez, medium, low, in both MP4 and WMV. I also do them in sections for longer videos. So for one video I end up with 16 or more files per video. Not saying you have to do all that but just letting you know how others do it.

 

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