31 October 2010
The best video for web browsers
What’s the best format of video to use for web delivery and browser compatibility? It depends on your audience.
The short answer is either Quicktime or Flash. Now the long answer...
When we talk about video formats, these days what we really are talking about is the wrapper. Think of it this way: you can buy a flat screen TV that has the Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, etc., brand on it, but chances are the guts are the same. In the same way, most videos today have the same guts.
The de facto standard guts, or codec (codec is short for COmpression/DECompression) is h.264 as part of the MPEG-4 family. MPEG-4 is found on Bluray discs, and is the most efficient and ubiquitous codec for web delivery. It looks pretty amazing! So, chances are if you are watching a video online, the format underneath the hood is MPEG-4. It might be called a Quicktime movie. Or you might be watching a YouTube video. Before it was packaged as these, it was probably exported or captured as the h.264 variation of MPEG-4.
Quicktime used to be a Mac-only wrapper. Now it can be easily downloaded for PCs.
Flash is found on just about every new computer sold today. And it’s easy to download if you don’t have it already. Also, Flash is what you see on YouTube, Facebook, etc. Flash has a 75% market share (according to Adobe). BUT, Flash is not available for 6.4 million Americans! Who are these unlucky folks? iPhone users. And some other smartphone users.
Flash is not supported on the iPhone. It’s a competitive move by Apple. However, iPhone users can watch videos on websites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook because these sites have separate webpages made especially for iPhone users.
That brings us to the answer to the original question. If you want to reach everyone, then you need to make separate web pages (and therefore videos in Flash and Quicktime wrappers), and you need your website to be smart enough to know what type of device is being used to view it. But, before you go out and redo your entire website, there might be some rumblings that will change everything.
A new Safari plug-in for the iPhone is called Skyfire, and it will trancode Flash movies into a format that iPhones will display: HTML5.
So, if iPhones can read HTML5, and HTML5 is supposed to be universal, why not just make movies in HTML5 format to begin with? Well, it is not easy to implement. And Internet Explorer version 8 and below (the most recent version is 9), will not play HTML5 video. Aargh!
My honest opinion: Quicktime has always been a higher quality wrapper. But Quicktime has issues on the PC (from personal experience). I create most of my videos using Quicktime, and then export a h.264 movie to upload to the web. I use a service like Vimeo to showcase my videos. On a web browser on a PC Vimeo displays Flash. On an iPhone Vimeo displays Quicktime. Slick. Somehow, Vimeo knows what type of device or browser you are using, and streams the best video format.
The short answer is either Quicktime or Flash. Now the long answer...
When we talk about video formats, these days what we really are talking about is the wrapper. Think of it this way: you can buy a flat screen TV that has the Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, etc., brand on it, but chances are the guts are the same. In the same way, most videos today have the same guts.
The de facto standard guts, or codec (codec is short for COmpression/DECompression) is h.264 as part of the MPEG-4 family. MPEG-4 is found on Bluray discs, and is the most efficient and ubiquitous codec for web delivery. It looks pretty amazing! So, chances are if you are watching a video online, the format underneath the hood is MPEG-4. It might be called a Quicktime movie. Or you might be watching a YouTube video. Before it was packaged as these, it was probably exported or captured as the h.264 variation of MPEG-4.
Quicktime used to be a Mac-only wrapper. Now it can be easily downloaded for PCs.
Flash is found on just about every new computer sold today. And it’s easy to download if you don’t have it already. Also, Flash is what you see on YouTube, Facebook, etc. Flash has a 75% market share (according to Adobe). BUT, Flash is not available for 6.4 million Americans! Who are these unlucky folks? iPhone users. And some other smartphone users.
Flash is not supported on the iPhone. It’s a competitive move by Apple. However, iPhone users can watch videos on websites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook because these sites have separate webpages made especially for iPhone users.
That brings us to the answer to the original question. If you want to reach everyone, then you need to make separate web pages (and therefore videos in Flash and Quicktime wrappers), and you need your website to be smart enough to know what type of device is being used to view it. But, before you go out and redo your entire website, there might be some rumblings that will change everything.
A new Safari plug-in for the iPhone is called Skyfire, and it will trancode Flash movies into a format that iPhones will display: HTML5.
So, if iPhones can read HTML5, and HTML5 is supposed to be universal, why not just make movies in HTML5 format to begin with? Well, it is not easy to implement. And Internet Explorer version 8 and below (the most recent version is 9), will not play HTML5 video. Aargh!
My honest opinion: Quicktime has always been a higher quality wrapper. But Quicktime has issues on the PC (from personal experience). I create most of my videos using Quicktime, and then export a h.264 movie to upload to the web. I use a service like Vimeo to showcase my videos. On a web browser on a PC Vimeo displays Flash. On an iPhone Vimeo displays Quicktime. Slick. Somehow, Vimeo knows what type of device or browser you are using, and streams the best video format.
Post-Production Video Editing Primer
03/11/10 20:38
I get asked a lot about what software I use to edit video. The real question these frugal people are asking is “What software is the best for the money.” That’s easy to answer... with a question. The question I ask is “How frustrated do you want to be?” The short answer is, use Apple’s iMovie for the best value and ease of use. Use Apple’s Final Cut Express if you want more control and output options. Use Apple’s Final Cut Pro Suite is you want to edit like a pro. Use all other products if you want to be frustrated. They are not bad products. They just are not as easy to use.
You want to save yourself the headache? HIRE AN EDITOR! Think of the opportunity cost involved in getting the software, loading it, learning it, editing the video, exporting it, and hoping it comes out looking professional. An editor (like me) is paid to take away the PAIN of editing. It can be a real pain. My advice: treat editing like the flu- do everything you can to avoid it unless you have a constitution of steel.
Let’s go back in time, when non-linear editing meant cutting film, and video was ugly. Enter Avid Media Composer, the first robust video editing software (only available on the Mac of course!) that allowed one to edit video non-linearly! Sure, a gig of storage cost $10,000 and the quality was terrible. And you couldn’t finish a video on it; you could only rough it out or “offline” it. Soon, even more expensive Avid platforms came around that allowed finishing (color-correction, audio mixing, etc.), and these cost $1000/ day (or more!) to rent.
The original competitor to Avid was Adobe Premiere. And there was NO competition. It crashed. The workflow required a Master’s degree.
Enter Final Cut Pro. Editors worldwide rejoiced at a system they could afford. Instead of $100,000 for a system, we could have one for $1000! It changed everything. Not all good.
Now everyone who has $1000 thinks they can edit. And they can! If they want to spend the time to learn the tools and they have a natural sense of timing and the ability to sit in one place for 12 hours in darkness. In fact, you can spend $150 on Final Cut Express and have a really amazingly robust editing tool that functions nearly identically to Final Cut Pro. Of course, you have to own a Mac to use both of these. I recommend Macs highly for ease of media management (deleting video, moving video clips from one computer to another). Plus, Apple makes the software AND the hardware, and this just makes for better engineering.
But if you don’t have a Mac (May the Lord bless you) you can buy a consumer version of Avid software to run on a PC. Avid is still used by Hollywood and thousands of Post professionals. The Avid software will give you lots of options and a professional workflow. You can’t go wrong, but you will find the learning curve is steep.
Adobe Premiere is all grown up now (and has some very cool workflows), and I have it running on a PC, just in case a client has a Premiere project. There are quirky things going on, however. Like all Adobe products, it seems like you have to know a secret language to figure it out. One big downer (with CS4 at least) is the Media Encoder crashes often. So, whenever you want to output your video, you have to use Media Encoder, and it can be maddening when it crashes. When it works well and you have figured out the presets (they are not perfect) the results are terrific. When it works, that is.
On the consumer side (read:cheap) I tried Window’s Movie Maker, and honestly, it wasn’t bad. I figured it out. But it is limiting (and confusing) in the way movies are exported or output. Still, very good for FREE! But I would only use it for the simplest of projects. Like, transferring VHS tapes to DVD and making a few edits. Like 2 or 3 edits. Seriously.
Adobe also makes Adobe Premiere Elements. I downloaded the trial. I was not impressed with the Elements version at all. It is similar to Windows Movie Maker. Clunky and limiting.
The easiest consumer program to use is Apple’s iMovie. It has gone through several changes over the years, and many users complain when things change. That’s why at a minimum I would use Final Cut Express. But if you want a really easy program, then iMovie is the ticket.
Sony has some video editing solutions that are popular. I have not tried any of them. Why? Between Final Cut, Avid Media Composer, and Adobe Premiere, I think I have it all covered. But that is just me.
But, buyer beware! For the money and time, an editor will give you a better product faster, and possibly cheaper than all of your invested time.
That said... Happy Editing!
P.S. Don’t forget to go out in the sunlight once in a while.
You want to save yourself the headache? HIRE AN EDITOR! Think of the opportunity cost involved in getting the software, loading it, learning it, editing the video, exporting it, and hoping it comes out looking professional. An editor (like me) is paid to take away the PAIN of editing. It can be a real pain. My advice: treat editing like the flu- do everything you can to avoid it unless you have a constitution of steel.
Let’s go back in time, when non-linear editing meant cutting film, and video was ugly. Enter Avid Media Composer, the first robust video editing software (only available on the Mac of course!) that allowed one to edit video non-linearly! Sure, a gig of storage cost $10,000 and the quality was terrible. And you couldn’t finish a video on it; you could only rough it out or “offline” it. Soon, even more expensive Avid platforms came around that allowed finishing (color-correction, audio mixing, etc.), and these cost $1000/ day (or more!) to rent.
The original competitor to Avid was Adobe Premiere. And there was NO competition. It crashed. The workflow required a Master’s degree.
Enter Final Cut Pro. Editors worldwide rejoiced at a system they could afford. Instead of $100,000 for a system, we could have one for $1000! It changed everything. Not all good.
Now everyone who has $1000 thinks they can edit. And they can! If they want to spend the time to learn the tools and they have a natural sense of timing and the ability to sit in one place for 12 hours in darkness. In fact, you can spend $150 on Final Cut Express and have a really amazingly robust editing tool that functions nearly identically to Final Cut Pro. Of course, you have to own a Mac to use both of these. I recommend Macs highly for ease of media management (deleting video, moving video clips from one computer to another). Plus, Apple makes the software AND the hardware, and this just makes for better engineering.
But if you don’t have a Mac (May the Lord bless you) you can buy a consumer version of Avid software to run on a PC. Avid is still used by Hollywood and thousands of Post professionals. The Avid software will give you lots of options and a professional workflow. You can’t go wrong, but you will find the learning curve is steep.
Adobe Premiere is all grown up now (and has some very cool workflows), and I have it running on a PC, just in case a client has a Premiere project. There are quirky things going on, however. Like all Adobe products, it seems like you have to know a secret language to figure it out. One big downer (with CS4 at least) is the Media Encoder crashes often. So, whenever you want to output your video, you have to use Media Encoder, and it can be maddening when it crashes. When it works well and you have figured out the presets (they are not perfect) the results are terrific. When it works, that is.
On the consumer side (read:cheap) I tried Window’s Movie Maker, and honestly, it wasn’t bad. I figured it out. But it is limiting (and confusing) in the way movies are exported or output. Still, very good for FREE! But I would only use it for the simplest of projects. Like, transferring VHS tapes to DVD and making a few edits. Like 2 or 3 edits. Seriously.
Adobe also makes Adobe Premiere Elements. I downloaded the trial. I was not impressed with the Elements version at all. It is similar to Windows Movie Maker. Clunky and limiting.
The easiest consumer program to use is Apple’s iMovie. It has gone through several changes over the years, and many users complain when things change. That’s why at a minimum I would use Final Cut Express. But if you want a really easy program, then iMovie is the ticket.
Sony has some video editing solutions that are popular. I have not tried any of them. Why? Between Final Cut, Avid Media Composer, and Adobe Premiere, I think I have it all covered. But that is just me.
But, buyer beware! For the money and time, an editor will give you a better product faster, and possibly cheaper than all of your invested time.
That said... Happy Editing!
P.S. Don’t forget to go out in the sunlight once in a while.
Reel-to-reel audio transfer
03/11/10 15:08
A client, who came to us via www.mydigitalconversion.com, had some reel-to-reel magnetic tape recordings of her mother and father corresponding (when long-distance telephone calls were very expensive) during the 1960s while her father was stationed overseas.
The interesting, and frustrating thing about these tapes were that they were recorded on technology that used 9 volt batteries. As the batteries died, the reels turned slower. Playback at normal speed on modern equipment progressively plays the voice at a very slow speed as the tapes rolled by the heads.
It was a challenge, but I successfully sped up playback, and adjusted the pitch frequency in order to get a consistent sound. It took a long time, but the client was so happy she almost included me in her will. And making people happy feels good.
Isn’t old technology so romantic?
The interesting, and frustrating thing about these tapes were that they were recorded on technology that used 9 volt batteries. As the batteries died, the reels turned slower. Playback at normal speed on modern equipment progressively plays the voice at a very slow speed as the tapes rolled by the heads.
It was a challenge, but I successfully sped up playback, and adjusted the pitch frequency in order to get a consistent sound. It took a long time, but the client was so happy she almost included me in her will. And making people happy feels good.
Isn’t old technology so romantic?
