encoding to flash video format .flv
 

Ok what's the fastest encoder that gives good quality....preferably something
that I can run in batches on a powerfull server. I don't want to do this shit
manually :winkwink:

Sorenson Squeeze.

I'll second that. Plus the fact that Sorenson will encode your original source file into almost any format you want and you can do multiple source files in batch makes it AWESOME! :thumbsup

Cleaner XL 1.5 for pc also encodes to Flash and can do batch processes.

cool ffmpeg can do it.....:thumbsup

cheching that out now.....sounds just what I need :thumbsup

ya it can but you get a crappy outcome, the one used in ffmpeg is an old version its not the new one yet

hmm most of this stuff is windows tools and they take FOREVER to encode
something.....isn't there anything fast......? We've got TONS of material
to encode

Where is smokey when you need him lol......

bumperdibump

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SUPER_1

super works well and also does batch encodes

Episode 4.3

If you upgrade to 4.3.1 and have a Mac and FCP you can access it thru Compressor allowing you access to cluster rendering and batch processing.

I would give a try to ffmpeg...

serverside go with ffmpeg, we batch encoded 7,200 videos (500gigs) in 3 days on a dual xeon.
worked great for the low b/w version.. high b/w version could be a little better but good enough when time is a factor

with a 71% member retention, I don't see the benefits of switching to sorenson yet.. and yes I own a copy :)

Here's the tutorial to setting it all up, thank me later

http://luar.com.hk/blog/?p=669

is that the freebsd mascot in your sig ............................

Use the fastest processor you can to speed the process, and use multiple computers hooked up to multiple hard drives if you can to encode more files simultaneously. I upgraded my main encoding machine this year to a E6600 Core2Duo pc w/ 4 Mb cache and 3Gb of Ram and it halved my encoding times from the older dual core Pentium D machine that I still use to capture and edit hdv.

Better yet get one of those new Core 2 Quad processors! You don't have to spend top dollar on a whole fancy new computer for enthusiasts. Just get a bare bones machine with the fastest processors and lots ram or build it yourself.

What's the point of a server side app like this? Is it basically, that if you have a lot of video files already online on a server somewhere, doing it server side saves you the hassle of finding the original source files and encoding them locally and uploading hundreds or thousands of the new flash files through ftp?

i'm trying to improve the playback quality of our flash videos. We have encoded content that'd being uploaded and then encoded on our servers into flash so everyone can then watch the video like youtube. But i can't seem to get the variables right. Here are the settings we have in ffmpeg:

exec("$config[ffmpeg] -i source.avi -pass 1 -g 240 -qcomp 0.6 -qmax 15 -qdiff 4 -i_qfactor 0.71428572 -b_qfactor 0.76923078 -maxrate 950 -bufsize 485 -s 5\
12x384 -b 800 -refs 1 -subq 1 -r 25 -acodec mp3 -ab 48 -ar 22050 -ac 1 -y $config[flvdodir]/".$vid.".flv");

Any ideas what we can do to improve the playback quality?

Sorensen. For sure.

Although you kinda need to finesse it a bit. Buy the VP6 plug-in and use the Streaming .flv patches for the best quality, although there's a great setting that wil give you an SWF file that will call on the .flv file so you can have a still image that won't download the movie until you click the file.

REALLY saves on bandwidth and looks good.

I've never used Sorenson, but I have used Super and Flash Video Converter (from Macromedia directly) I can't recommend Super for it, because the quality kinda sucks, but it is good for other video conversions, it does almost everything. Flash Video Converter is pretty damn good though, quick and easy.

Sorenson is one of the best choices for encoder. Its flash and wmv outputs are among the best. For flash flv streaming videos, currently the best codec is On2 VP6 Pro.

If anyone is looking to get a large quantity of videos encoded, we provide professional grade encoding services at very reasonable price and fast turn-around. Saving you lots of time and effort to try to look for the optimum choice for your encoding needs.

quality with ffmpeg depends much on what encoder/compressor you use.
there's more than 1 that can do the job.

The reason I prefer serverside is that I have physicall access to the servers
and have way more of them than workstations that are anywhere near as
powerfull as the servers that I have. None of the servers however run windows and I don't intend to install a bunch of them with windows first
coz that takes as long as converting the videos itself :winkwink:

I'm gonna test a few of the suggestions before I make decision which way
to go. thanks for the all suggestions I appreciate it very much and I'll keep
checking this thread to see if there's more :thumbsup

Can you use this as a stand alone encoder for an online web streaming portal such as a youtube clone, and any examples of the net result after re-encoding through the software?

Sorenson products are for encoding the movies only, not for hosting. You can see some samples of encoded results on our website.

your demo page is broke http://www.encoding.tv/product.html least for me. All the vids are not found.

I just checked your site and clicked demo.....all the flash demo's are
404 file not found. :2 cents:

damn you beat me to it :thumbsup

btw you are going to get sig owned soon if you dont change that.

Ya I always look to see what quality other people are getting hehe. :winkwink:

I use notepad.exe to do all of my file conversions and video work.

Lets talk about that on the beach .. :)

I use Riva FLV Encoder, one vid at a time no batching. Works well.

I've just hit you up dude :thumbsup

Sorry we were doing some updates yesterday. All links are working now.

Play with the options :) ffmpeg can make some pretty decent quality vids, but not with a default command line.

They aren't working for me on FireFox. Going to check IE now.

Sebs

P.S. they work in IE

Sorry Folks. Guess Firefox really does certain things differently from IE. Will fix this soon. Thank you all for the feedback.

Will Sorensen let you put a skin on the flash? Or do you have to do that in Flash itself?

Sebs

If you are talking about watermarks, Sorenson itself does not impose watermark. That function is not yet available. However, there are a couple of ways to impose watermarks on your flash: 1) Use a custom flash streaming player that impose watermarks on the flash movie it plays, such as the flash player from mediaconductor.com. 2) Watermark the source (e.g. mpeg) first using a 3rd party software before encoding to flash movie with Sorenson.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:thumbsup

Nope, I know what a watermark is. A skin is something else. the colors and lay out of the flash player, it allows you to able/disable options such as pause/play, full screen etc.

Sebastian

Oh, Sorry. I misunderstood. The players are usually custom made by streaming hosts. For example, I have seen Youtube flash players put a big round play button in the middle of the video screen for you to push to play; Mediaconductor.com has a very unique function on their players that allows viewer to push a mini thumbnail button on the player tool bar to open up a thumbnail view of selected scenes from the movie so you can click the particular scene you want and instantly jump to that scene.