Most asked question: Best codec?

[Reactant]

I just finished my first anime music video (well really my second since the first one is lost when my laptop fried ) and now comes the time when i compress the 514MB movie file to an acceptable size.

According to my brother, he suggests that I should convert my music video into a quicktime file since everyone has quicktime (PC and MAC people). I was wondering what AMV's community's take on a suitable codec that is not only able to compress 514MB into something less than a 100MB but also popular amongst PCs and MACs users.

What i mean to say is a standard codec that virtually everyone has. I know i m asking a lot, but i m curious if such a codec exists. Any suggestions....
What codecs have u found suitable and delivered minimal problems?


BTW, who can forget, it has to deliver excellent image and sound quality.

Thanks in Advance

[Zarxrax]

Ahahahaha quicktime.
Many people, myself included, wont even download quicktime files. They are more annoying than RM files to me.
If you want something that everyone can play, go with mpeg-1. If you want something a lot better that *nearly* everyone can play, go with Xvid.

[Zero1]

No, never use quicktime, the software is buggy on Windows.

I would suggest DivX/Xvid or MPEG.


MPEG is pretty much the safest bet compatability wise, I'm also of the impression that its low on system resources..

Quite a lot of people know of and use DivX now, simple to set up even for new users, and then there is XviD which is pretty much the same as DivX but better quality.

I think most of this is covered in the guids

[Scintilla]

BTW, who can forget, it has to deliver excellent image and sound quality.

Um, one codec alone can't deliver both video and audio.

As has been said before, MPEG-1 is your best bet on the video side if you want to make sure everyone can play your video; you're then pretty much restricted to using MPEG-1 layer II audio. XviD/DivX is better, but not <i>quite</i> as ubiquitous; however, MP3 audio is, and it's what you should use for audio on distro AVIs, no questions asked.

[KirinRiotCrash]

I probably wouldn't use QuickTime, unless you use something industrial strength like Discreet's Cleaner or Apple's Compressor or whatever programs are used to encode the music videos and movie trailers in the iTunes Music Store to take advantage of the under-the-hood stuff of QuickTime.

Like AVI, QuickTime is a container format so as long you can play around with the encoding settings with a good codec, then it should be no problem. Usually, Sorensen 3 or MPEG-4 works pretty decent but I'd personally wait until H.264 comes into the scene.

I personally would use XviD or DivX with MP3-Lame audio, especially when it comes to anime. Although, MPEG-1 would work too, but if you ever watched VCDs then the quality of MPEG-1 would be familiar to you.

Hope some of that helps.

[Scintilla]

I personally would use XviD or DivX with MP3-Lame audio, especially when it comes to anime. Although, MPEG-1 would work too, but if you ever watched VCDs then the quality of MPEG-1 would be familiar to you.

That's not a completely fair statement though, because there's nothing saying that distro MPEG-1s <i>have</i> to be VCD-spec. I could make a 720x480 MPEG-1 (and I have, for DV:UI) with an average bitrate of 4Mbps (haven't done that though), and it would look ten times better than a VCD.

[Reactant]

LoL i thought quicktime would be thought highly apon in this community. And i m amazed on how quick you guys responded.

Thanks for all your help. I am going to experiment with with xviD, DivX and Mpeg-1.

BTW Zarxrax, i find your avatar oddly strange but funny.

Thanks again.

[Zarxrax]

Quicktime on the PC just plain sucks. And it's Apple's fault. On the Mac, I'm sure quicktime is an absolutely wonderful format, but over here in PC world, apple just totally neglected it. The main drawback was that you had to use Apples quicktime player in order to even view the files. (Although recently some filters have been released which allow you to view quicktime files in any player you want, I believe they aren't legal to use)
First of all, no one wants to have a different player just to play every type of file that they have. People want 1 player for all their videos. The quicktime players main flaw was that it lacked the ability to watch in full screen mode! I simply can't enjoy a video when watching it in a tiny little window, full screen is a must. Perhaps full screen was offered in their "pro" version or whatever they called it, the one you had to pay for. But why would anyone pay for a player that wasn't worth using to begin with?
Aside from the whole player fiasco, quicktime is just plain buggy. The auto-matic updates have completely failed to work more than a couple times... and a few times quicktime has caused other software I use to totally break.
Aside from that, theres nothing that quicktime really has that you cant do better with other formats, IMO.

[KirinRiotCrash]

That's not a completely fair statement though, because there's nothing saying that distro MPEG-1s <i>have</i> to be VCD-spec. I could make a 720x480 MPEG-1 (and I have, for DV:UI) with an average bitrate of 4Mbps (haven't done that though), and it would look ten times better than a VCD.

I've always thought that MPEG-1 was specific to VCDs, like MPEG-2 is somewhat associated to DVDs but I guess MPEG-1 has some form of scalability. I might want to try MPEG-1 again ... it's been a while since I encoded an MPEG-1 file.

[lefty]

I'm also having loads of trouble with codecs.
I've been having to use .rm, and my friends have hated it...
http://lefty.sprintslash.net/codec.jpg
I'm using adobe premiere 6.5

every one of those codecs either make the file size far too large, or just won't work. The only thing I've managed is .rm, and everyone hates that.

I'm not good at all with this codec thing, can someone please tell me what to use? and where can I find one that I can use?
I'm not looking for high quality, most of the vids I make are just for laughs among friends.
Thanks for reading this.[/url]