ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

10 years, 10 months ago - Andrew Morgan

Little hint - right-click on the .MOV and select 'Open with... Windows Media Player' - it'll play just fine (being MP4) - you can also just change the file type from .MOV to .MP4 for convenience.

10 years, 10 months ago - Marlom Tander

I normally keep out of tech talk, but is this a case of not seeing the wood for the trees...

1.5GB? for a website movie? - if its going to be accessed by staff using the NHS site network, perhaps lots of people at the same time, then it really should be as small as is sensible to minimise network congestion.

But one answer to the actual question, chop into clips, convert each clip then stitch them back together in, maybe hold your nose but Windows Movie Maker :-) Available of any mates PC :-)

cheers

10 years, 10 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Good point Marlom - 1.5GB isn't a website/intranet corporate, it's a 90-minute feature length HD BBC iPlayer feed. The intranet network managers will likely refuse to allow it if they've any sense - it requires a CDN-style server setup or it'll buffer badly.

10' needs to be maybe 40MB total (512kbps) to stream successfully over a congested/contested corporate network.

10 years, 10 months ago - Chris Robins

Hey,
Try Format Factory for PC http://www.pcfreetime.com/. It's not as professional as some other software but it's free and really easy to use with has some useful presets for keeping file size down.

10 years, 10 months ago - Kieron Clark

Thanks both for the replies and thoughts.

I'll certainly look into Sorenson Squeeze and Super. And, yes, I probably could get the file down to a smaller size before conversion: 1.5GB is the size of the master H264 file. Obviously I want it look as good as possible, but I'll double-check with the NHS tech team exactly what they need and how they'll be handling it.

10 years, 10 months ago - Kieron Clark

Thanks Chris. I'll give that a go.

10 years, 10 months ago - Kieron Clark

Thanks for the replies. The file is for an NHS Trust to use on its internal website: it's a training video for staff. The web team at the Trust have specified that the only format they can work with/upload is WMV.

10 years, 10 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

The transcode is when you'll do the shrinking, you don't need to shrink, then transcode, just select the appropriate parameters when you do the transcode. Be aware though, even if you understand all about containers, codecs, bitrates, streaming vs progressive, etc., it still takes some experimenting to get reliable results. You might want to make a 30 second edit so you have something faster to experiment with.

Naturally, you want to keep quality, however be realistic about where the film is going and your audience. NHS staff may not have much time to wait for a buffering film - it will frustrate them, or you might be eating into clinical time which is worse. The networks are highly congested with legitimate medical data flowing and so on, they really may not have the bandwidth you have at home or in a big corporation, so playing it off your hard drive doesn't simulate real life conditions for those experiencing it. Finally, they likely have crappy old computers. Parts of the NHS are paying for extended Windows XP support - so that means they have rafts of computers they cannot upgrade, likely pre-2007. That's not going to be able to cope with modern HD H.264 huge files, and is probably why they want WMV delivery. They probably don't even have the disc space to download it or the monitors to display it at HD.

In all, the target environment is going to be straining, so in a play-off between keeping quality or being seen, being seen requires proper consideration. I'd make several versions optimised differently - maybe make a 512kbps version, a 1Mbps version, and a high quality version. That way people can make their own decisions and hopefully it'll get watched more, which is ultimately also what your client wants.

10 years, 10 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

My first check would be why WMV? Instead how about a container like .mpg or .mp4 which mean you don't need different transcodes for Mac and PC? An .mp4 will also play on your phone, tablet etc.

WMV is actually a pretty technically solid format, but the only time is use it for delivery is for a corporate environment with 100% Windows plus a political preference for it.

10 years, 10 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Well, if you've no option, I'd choose Sorenson Squeeze (££) or you can use an ancient version of WME for free if you can find an old enough box to run it on.http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17792

10 years, 10 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

eRightSoft also have a transcoder 'SUPER' which is powerful, with a terrible interface. As I recall you can transcode to WMV, and it's free so you can experiment.