Encoding Question

[rhino_chris]

Quick question regarding encoding.... We have purchased ProCoder 2.0 which wil convert our video's from just about any format to any format. All of our videos have been edited on a Mac. Which are the best file formats to begin with? .mov , mpeg-4 etc?

I have noticed that when exporting the video project on the Mac to .mov the quality is very good but the color ends up a little muted. On the flip side when exporting the same project to mpeg-4 the color quality is much better however you really have to tweak the settings to get it right.

Any help would be appreciated Thanks!

[UncasMS]

what do you want to do with the final files?

[rhino_chris]

Sorry, should have mentioned that the encoded videos will be utilized (downloaded) on the web.

[UncasMS]

i personally cant stand MOV files and would prefer avi by far

wmv, however, might be a very common format as it is the native windows media player format and thus very handy for many windows users

still i'd rather convert to mpeg-4/avi

[celtic_druid]

Go with mp4. You need to be carefull with settings for quicktime compatibility though. Same would be true if you were using mov as a container though.

mp4 makes much more sense than avi. It is the official MPEG-4 container, doesn't have fourCC's messing things up and no hacks for bframes, etc.

The only advantage that avi has is that windows ships with an avi splitter, but since you need to install a decoder for the video, I don't see installing an extra splitter as a big issue.

[rhino_chris]

Thanks for all the quick responses! Looks like mpeg-4 is the way to go