Hi Dan,

I understand your dilemma, it can seem overwhelming.

Let me ask you two questions:

1. What type of source video are you using when you edit? Resolution? Bit Rate? etc.

2. When you are thinking of producing your video how do you plan on viewing it? Make a Blue Ray Disc? or a DVD? A file on your computer? Upload to the web, maybe facebook or YouTube? Send the video as an email attachment?

Depending on what type of device or media you place your produced video on, will determine or result in a different answer. If you want to send the video as an email attachment, then you want to create a video that has a smaller resulting file size. If you want to create a Blue Ray Disc, then you would choose something that would have a very high quality setting.

Does that make sense? Let us know the answers to the questions and then we can give you a more difinitive answer.

Kevin
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Hello Cap'n Kevin,

Thanks for your response. I love that photo of you in your shades with that older guy in his shades.

You're asking what my particular need is at the moment. I'll respond, but I think there's also a broad need to be able to identify the best format in general.

Here's my current need:
* The video's aspect ratio is 16:9
* It was recorded at 7 FPS
* It was recorded in stereo
* It was recorded with at cannon vixia HF S100 which records video at 6.01 Megapixels
* I'd like to output 720 x 480 pixels
I'm looking for a video format that meets these constraints with a minimum file size.
I plan to show the video on Motionbox, which can handle these file types.
.3g2, .3gp, .3gp2, .3gpp, .60d, .ajp, .amv, .asf, .avi, .bik, .bix, .box, .byu, .camrec, .cvc, .d2v, .d3v, .dat, .dce, .dif, .divx, .dmb, .dpg, .dv, .dvr-ms, .dvx, .dxr, .eye, .flc, .flh, .fli, .flv, .flx, .gl, .grasp, .gvi, .ivf, .ivr, .ivs, .lsf, .lsx, .m1pg, .m1v, .m21, .m2t, .m2ts, .m2v, .m4e, .m4u, .m4v, .mjp, .mkv, .mnv, .mod, .moov, .mov, .movie, .mp21, .mp4, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .mqv, .mts, .nsv, .ogm, .par, .pds, .piv, .pmf, .qt, .qtch, .qtz, .rm, .rmvb, .rp, .rv, .scm, .scm, .scn, .sfvidcap, .smil, .smk, .smv, .spl, .ssm, .str, .svi, .swi, .tivo, .tod, .tp, .ts, .vdo, .vfw, .vid, .viewlet, .viv, .vivo, .vob, .vp6, .vp7, .vro, .wm, .wmv, .xvid, .yuv, .zm1, .zm2, .zm3, .zmv

Actually, in exploring around, I found this video by DAFYDD; Creating and adding new WMV templates to CyberLink PowerDirector 7 http://seemyworldonvideo.com/view/218/creating-wmv-templates/ It seems that the 168 options I see are just profiles someone has set up, and I can set my own profile to meet my particular situation.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Hi Dan,

Hey, Glad you liked the photo....the old guy in the picture tries to be cool.....but he's not as cool as me!!

Creating your own WMV Templates is what I do myself and I think it will be a solution for you as well. That way you can specify the parameters of the profile that work for you.

Dafydd's tutotial is great and it will explain it very well. If you still are having trouble I have included another link that also shows how to make WMV profiles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw2RlzIt9EM

Good Luck!

Kevin
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Dan wrote:

I imagine a table with all the alternative selections. Then columns would show, for each alternative,
the output pixel dimensions,
the aspect ratio,
the number of FPS,
whether the audio is mono or stereo,
the number of kbps for the sound,
the file suffix (eg .wmv)
and about how many MBYTES per minute the produced video uses.
Users could consult this table to find the alternative that meets their need.

Dan,
If you just click on the Details and Create A New Profile tabs/buttons, it will give you a list of all the details you desire.

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Thanks Cap'n Kevin,

Cranston - your suggestion makes sense, and it would be terrific, but I'm not seeing a button for "create profile" on the Produce Tab of Power Director 8. Please tell me a bit more about where to look in the User Interface.

@ Dan: what Cranston was talking about is located when (for example) you click on the H.264AVC format for creating your desired movie.

right above the details of the format, you will see an icon that looks like a picture frame and a plus sign on it. by clicking that you will be able to edit the resolution, bitrate, etc to what you want.

i would still stick with the WMV format since your desired resolution isn't that high. plus the amount of time to produce a file in WMV is much shorter than AVC.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Tuan,

Yes, with your help I found the "Create a New Profile" under AVC, MPEG-2, and MOV formats, but I don't see it under .WMV, RM, AVI, MPEG-1, or MPEG-2. So my current thinking is that if I want a non standard .WMV profile I need to use the file copy/rename approach.

You say that WMV is a good choice unless I want even better quality. Which do you advise using if I want to improve quality? Actually the general question here is how you choose which of the eight file formats to use. Power Director gives some hints, but I'd be interested in any rules of thumb you use.

Thanks again for your time and expertise.

Hi Dan,

If you will allow, here’s two more cents worth, .

In your initial posts, you indicate that your main intended purpose for your productions, is to upload and display on a website. In your case Motionbox.. You say you want 720x480, but you don’t state what bitrate you desire. (BTW, are you certain that MotionBoxes’ player is 720x480, and not 640x480?).
You say you want it to be as small a file as possible, but I assume you’d also like your video to display in crisp clean quality.
As an analogy, it’s like you are saying/asking… I want a pastry that’s not as sweet as a cupcake, but sweeter than a blueberry muffin, but smaller than both. Well, how sweet a treat is, isn’t so much determined by the “type” of desert you choose, but by the amount of sugar (bitrates) that’s in it.

Look at the dropdown menu in the WMV profiles. If you have 720x480 video in the timelines, a…
- A WMV9 DVD Quality(2000k) profile will give you a 720x480 file at 2000kbps.
- A WMV9 DVD Quality(1600k) profile will give you a 720x480 file at 1600kbps.
For an upload to MotionBox, the WMV1600k will display in 740x480, and be a smaller file, and upload faster, than the WMV2000k. But the WMV2000k will probably look crisper and cleaner in quality, though it will be a larger file, and take longer to upload.
- Mpeg2 DVD HQ will display in 720x480, and will be 8.0 Mbps file. It will be a lot larger file, take a lot longer to upload than WMV2000k, but will probably display a lot crisper and cleaner than the WMV2000k.

So there really isn’t a definitive answer. It’s a matter how large of a file (and how long it takes to upload) that “you” find expectable. Versus what the minimum standard of visual quality “you” are willing to settle for. And where these two lines cross, is your starting point in determining what format/profile best suits your needs in meeting your preferred standards.

Also, in the Mpeg2 profiles, you can > click on the Profile name/Quality dropdown menu > choose one > then click on Create New profile button/tab. There you enter/ modify to your desired Resolution and bitrates.

Yes, some formats including WMV format profiles do not have the Profile Quality button associated with them. But the bitrate info is right there in the drop down. Menu, as well as in the Properties box just below is audio, bitrates, resolution information. And they are pre-set and optimized for the parameters.
(And Dafydd, our moderator, has made some great custom WMV profiles that are available at SMWOV)

Again Dan, there is no definitive answer. Which is better pick-up? Chevy or Ford? Which one should I buy?
You’ve got to test drive them, weigh the features versus price (bitrates versus file size versus quality) and decide what best suits your needs and pocketbook.
I upload to Youtube and other sites a lot, and for 16:9 production, I use WMV9 HD Standard Quality, and for 4:3, I use the Mpeg2 DVD HQ.
You however may find those two format/profiles creates files that are too large and take too long to upload, and don’t suit your needs. So you may find a project that is rendered to (for example) WMV9 DVD Quality(1600k) is file size you can live with, and that the quality when displayed on MotionBox is expectable for your needs.
It will just take a few tests and experiments, of 15 second snippets of a few of your videos, uploaded in various formats avilable, for you to pinpoint what is the right fit for you. You can always delete your tests once you’ve evaluated them.
If then, nothing is to your liking, then you could start delving into creating custom profiles, as you will be more familiar with the benchmarks of the pre-set ones.

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Excellent explanation Cranston. Now - can you help me out with this one...

Following your instructions, I've produced my blueberry muffin. Huge it is! 237MB - but it's just right. Not too sweet & has a nice crisp finish! After a few attempts, I did manage to burn it to DVD... haven't tested it yet.

Anyway - now I need help uploading it to YouTube.

You've got me this far. I just need your guidance with the final step.

Cheers - someone else who signed in as me.
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Tony,

Please send me about a dozen of those Blueberry muffins to test and evaluate, and I'll get back to . Click here PDtoots for a collection of PowerDirector Tutorials and Tips

Cranston,

Thanks for your reply on Feb 1. Sorry it's taken me a few days to find the custom WMV profiles Dafydd loaded to SMWOV. I found 3 in each format, PAL and NTSC, which I'll play with.

I certainly understand your point about there being no right answer - it's a balance between file size / load speed, and quality.

Can you help me understand the difference between bit rate and frames per second? In your response you frequently say "bitrate" as a measure of quality. This surprised me because I'd understood that the frames per second was a measure of how many images are flashed each second, and more fps would result in smoother action. I'd understood that bitrate tells the server and the client how fast to pump the video file across the WAN/LAN.

Thanks again for volunteering your time to helping us newbies get up to speed.

PS, I seldom make muffins but I can do a mean brownie.

in this case, bitrate is not the transfer rate of your LAN/WLAN. but it's the quality of picture (aka if you can see the stubble on someone's face).

exactly how long is the movie clip you intend on making? if it's under 10 minutes, i usually shoot for 150mb to about 300mb. usually under that size i get around 720p picture quality.

hope all is going well and keep it up!

Hi Dan -

Here's something of a guide to the basics of bitrates and things... http://ocentertainment.net/tutorials/a-simple-guide-to-bitrates-resolution-and-other-techy-video-stuff-you-dont-wanna-learn-about

Even though it's a bit "casual", it does provide some decent explanations.

Cheers - Tony
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Tony,

The guide you pointed to in your 2/4 post is really useful. All of the other suggestions in this string have been useful too. I now have a functional solution, but I'm afraid that I'm still not clear about the interplay between bitrate and all of the other quality parameters.

The situation reminds me of those shopping carts you see in the grocery store, with a little seat to put a child in. There's a steering wheel in front of the seat. The kid thinks they're steering the shopping cart, and the parent also thinks they're steering. Only one of them really is.

In a similar manner, I can adjust the bitrate, or I can control the various quality parameters such as resolution and frames per second. Which one is really determining the quality? Who's really driving this shopping cart?

Basically bitrate determines quality to a certain level. It is not really helpful to produce your video to a higher bitrate than the camera produces. You usually only end up with a bigger/mb video and no increase in quality.

Having said that I saw a video on youtube last year that had outstanding quality while being small in size/mb. It wasn't until I found out the name of the camera that took the video cost $45,000!!!! that I realised that we as amateurs can't compete.

So you see for us plebs who are using consumer quality video cameras we have to find out the balance that we are happy with between bitrate and mb's of the video.

With my Panasonic ZS3/TZ7 which shoots at 1280X720 at 14-17,000 Kbps I have come to the conclusion that PD's mobile phone setting of 9,000Kbps is good enough for me. I then change the extension to MP4 and end up with a video that is almost as good as the raw footage with a 10 minute video being about 500-600mb, which I upload to youtube. Luckily my service provider does not charge for uploads.

I hope that helps and doesn't muddy the waters too much.

Cheers


Robert S My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Maybe I'll get the right post this time

If you haven't already read it, this thread might also help:-
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/9807.page

As Robert indicated, bitrate is useful to a point but this post (from the above thread) might help :

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/9807.page#42906

The end equation might actually be :

best quality= high resolution+high bitrate+best codec+best equipment

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
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