Upload tips for Vimeo?

PositiveFuture

PositiveFuture

I'm going to start uploading some test vids to Vimeo soon, so some of you might be able to look at the 50 minute documentary I'm working on at some point. I chose Vimeo because you can upload AVI's directly. When I encode to Quicktime or flv my vids start to look bad.

IF you have any tips for maintaining great quality please let me know. I can't afford to lose any, especially soundwise. I know Vimeo have tutorials but a lot of people seem to disagree with their advice.

Okey...

- What settings do I need to ensure the best quality?
- What frame rate is best
- Are there any other vid sites better than Vimeo?
- How do I keep the sound good.

Sorry for the boring question and thx.
 
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I read somewhere that everything on vimeo and youtube are played at 24p, so thats your best frame rate.

I use handbrake to convert my high Animation quality rendered quicktime movies to h264 movies .mp4 files.

2 pass Constant Bit Rate (CBR) of 5000 KBS. Sound encoded AAC3, I don't recall the audio bitrate, but its the highest in the drop down box.. (360kbs i think)
 
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The "best" quality is subjective because there are so many factors that affect this.

Use the same frame rate as your source video. Both YouTube and Vimeo can use 29.97 Fps and can play back at that rate (now). YouTube maxed out at 15Fps until about 2 years ago when they opened the door to most standard frame rates.

The *.MP4 encoded with the H.264 codec is 100% correct, The bit rates will need to be adjusted through trial and error or a bit rate calculator online to see how to best get your 50 minute video to fit the 500 meg limit (unless you get a Vimeo Pro account). We don't know if it's SD or HD and even then if it's 720p or 1080p. All these factors will affect bit rate and sound rate.
 
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Thanks for your answers both of you. I have some half decent looking AVI's but have realised that uploading is an art in itself. Sonny, your 'intern' uploads to youtube looked and sounded great, as good as anything on Vimeo, so you must know what you're doing.

My footage is either shot with a DVX in progressive scan, or is keyframed jpgs. So SD. And, 720 x 576 resolution.

Seeing as my files are huge and need to be uploaded overnight I don't want to retry too many times. I guess I should do some 50MB tests.


Wheatgrinder,
I will have a look at handbrake if I need it, but I'm hoping to upload the raw AVI's, even though it's a hassle becasue they're about a Gig a piece. I'd prefer to have the hassle at this end than release a bad quality movie. Thanks for the settings, that's what I was looking for.

Sonny,
I will get a Vimeo pro account. I don't know if I will release the whole 50 mins in one go. My plan was to upload 5 to 10 four minute AVI's at 1GB a piece. If that becomes ridiculous I'll have to convert them but I have a fast connection here. All my previous conversions ended up pretty low quality.

I'll just keep plugging away.
 
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If you get a vimeo Pro account, I recommend uploading the entire thing, but leave the "available for download" option turned on so people can play it outside of the web too.

You'll still want to encode to H.264 for the web instead of uploading an AVI.
 
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Really? So AVI's are completely impossible? Is that a time/convenience thing or are there other factors?

What's the best encoder?

EDIT: Wait, so I can use handbrake to convert AVI's to decent Mp4's. And you use that freeware software, Wheatgrinder, even though you have the budget for something commerical? Hmmm, checking it out now.
 
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This is a fairly good tutorial if anyone's interested.

http://www.vimeo.com/forums/topic:4038

EDIT: THe reason I wanted to upload the raw AVIs, Sonny, is I thought I'd be "saving myself a stage of quality degeneration" only having them converted once, internally, by Vimeo. Better that than once by me and then again by Vimeo.

I don't know if I'm right about that... So "Speed, size, quality: pick two."- I'll pick size and quality and deal with the speed.
 
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macroblock tree rate control and weighted P-Frame prediction.

lol what the hell is that?

Looks like I'll have to sit down and learn the art of compression patiently. Handbrake looks awesome.

Damn, just noticed that AVI is not supported. EDIT: Or maybe you can Input AVI's but not output to them. That's fine if I'm right.
 
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Wow I just tried handbrake on a file and WHAT an excellent program! Thanks a lot WheatGrinder. You know how many bad encoders I tried that turned my film to crap??? Now I can barely tell the difference between the input and output. It even adds a nice compression to the sound.

I swear I asked for the best AVI to Mp4 converter on a bunch of forums 6 months ago and no one mentioned this... I remember WG maybe mentioning it in a PM but I didn't follow up.

Oh well...
 
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handbrake has some power.. its using "x264" to encode the h264 format (x264 is like brand name, open source dev project, whereas h264 is the encoding designation.

The h264 encodes I get out of Premiere or After Effects take twice as long to render and look half as good!

You can improve the quality of the output even more, it can take much longer to encode... but dig into it if you want to learn more.. I did not realize that big movies have a CODEX technician just for dealing with this crap..
 
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what I dont like is that handbrake cant read my cineform encoded AVI files, which suck cause they look great, play back smooth as butta .. ..

So basically I render three times.. lol.
First render is cineform HD AVI. I watch this and proof on it..
Then I render an animation quicktime file. HUGE uncompressed quality, which WONT play back worth a crap on my PC...
I then run the quicktime move through handbrake, getting the tinny mp4 and upload that... it looks good too so Ill usefully delete the other two to conserve diskspace..
 
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PositiveFuture said:
Really? So AVI's are completely impossible? Is that a time/convenience thing or are there other factors?
Click to expand...

AVI's are not impossible, just a lot less practical. All of the video sites recommend H.264 because that is the standard they convert to flash from, so it takes less time, less compression and makes a very clean transfer to their formats.
 
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The h264 encodes I get out of Premiere or After Effects take twice as long to render and look half as good!
Click to expand...

That's my issue with handbrake. It's too damn fast! I want to feel that it's putting some work into it.

Q: Are there any simple settings I can change so it works harder and slower, but the output file doesn't increase in size? I can happily wait an hour.

The manual says that more than 70 per cent quality will output a bigger file than the original. But I'm finding that I can stick it on 80 and still cut file size from 500 to 200MB.

I did not realize that big movies have a CODEX technician just for dealing with this crap..
Click to expand...

I'm sure it's a full time job. I wonder if they use different parameters for different scenes + shots....? I bet a fast dark action scene needs different settings to a bright outdoor establishing shot.

AVI's are not impossible, just a lot less practical. All of the video sites recommend H.264 because that is the standard they convert to flash from, so it takes less time, less compression and makes a very clean transfer to their formats.
Click to expand...

OK got it. Yep, it's a nightmare uploading 1GB files when you're stuck out in Asia.
 
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dont be fooled by its "iPod" encoder feel and defaults.. its good for any h264 you need. At least so far as Iv used it.

I have had some problems with VERY large, high bitrate files, like QT animation codex..
 
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