Optimal ElevatedX FFMPEG settings..
 

Hi,

Just wondering if any other Elevated X users would care to share the settings they have found work best for converting to Flash in the Elevated X cms admin.

I've been playing about with it all day but can't seem to get an output file that's not either bloated or significantly poorer quality than the original.

Due to the preset fields in Elevated X there's only so much you can change.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. http://www.gofuckyourself.com/images...NEW/1zhelp.gif

Shark

I would be interested in this too.

Ive reverted to encoding all the HD stuff on my home PC but thats definetly not as fun as server side :)

Server side encoding was one of the main reasons I got EX though.

somebody using Elevated-X about 6 months ago showed me the videos he'd encoded or transcoded with that CMS - all i could say was 'um.......what's wrong with it? it's horrible'

do your encoding on your own computers i think is the solution. tube sites are fine with ffmpeg - i like to give members a pristine high quality video to download for their money.

Very true, it would certainly save time if it gave good results.
It was one of the things that most interested me also as my current didn't have it.

If I reduce the height and width down from the original it gives good results, but at the same dimensions its rough.

I've heard some people have had fairly good results, saying that with the right settings you can almost get the same quality as the original file.
It makes it when you can't use command line instructions I guess.

Does anyone have suggestions on software and settings to use doing it offline ?
I've been playing around with Super, its pretty complex and I haven't found settings I'm happy with yet.

Can you hack the code any? Most tube scripts I have seen get better results out of 2 pass mencoder, rather than ffmpeg.

"Due to the preset fields in Elevated X there's only so much you can change."

This is actually not true. I'm not familiar with the nick "Shark" but there was a support ticket submitted to us a few days ago and I think it may have been you. The answer given there was that by default, our system does allow you to enter custom flags to be passed to FFMPEG. Out of the box the encoding is simply done using base codecs hence the mixed results.

For the average user this works fine. For those who want more control over things and are seeking higher quality, the server side encoding often doesn't do what they need.

What you need to look for is "optimal settings for FFMPEG"

We'll work on adding better default flags to the system

We don't provide FFMPEG so anyone comfortable doing so is able to hack it to produce different results. On our end we facilitate the passing of flags which work well for a lot of people as someone mentioned already.

Adding 2 pass encoding and better default flags is planned so this should improve in time.

This is of interest to me as well.

We're working on it. In the 24 hours since we saw this thread we've already added 2 pass encoding to the system and hope to have some high quality default flags shortly.

We'll keep you posted. :)

let me pass this thread to Czarina

thanks, Lisa!

Mutt: elevatedx has added a lot of new features and improved its existing ones; the quality of the transcoded server-side videos nowadays is much better nowadays. I've been doing it for some of my clients in the last few weeks and the results are remarkable.

It's really all subjective. 1 person will say video sucks and is terrible when another person will see the same video and say it's fine. Just like 1 person will come to my house and say my stereo sounds great but to an audio buff they'll say it sounds like shit. All that matters is if I'm happy with it...

We power some very large programs, some of which encode videos server side and we hear no complaints and they claim our system has greatly increased their revenue. On the flip side, we've had pure startup Webmasters who have never operated a pay site before or made even 1 penny selling memberships piss and moan that the FFMPEG video quality is too poor for them.

Neither person is right and neither is wrong, it's all a matter of opinion and preference. Is the video "horrible"...? No, absolutely not, it's simply horrible by 1 person's standards and basis for comparison.

The number of people who are satisfied outweighs those who aren't 10 to 1. That being the case we still want to find ways to produce the best quality video possible using 100% automated methods.

Our goal as software developers is to work to find a happy medium where both types can be satisfied. That's the ultimate goal.

So far the initial tests we're doing with 2 pass encoding look promising and with new encoding flags we expect big improvements. :thumbsup

Keep in mind that these huge programs that are using your server side encoding im sure already have talented experienced folks to fine tune and setup their ffmpeg and settings in EX. While the webmaster new to encoding has to rely on the stock ffmpeg and EX settings which in many cases sounds to be subpar or this thread wouldnt be here.

So before you talk any more smack about less experienced program owners, maybe this is something to consider. :2 cents:

In my opinion any huge talent heavy program can get a script like yours to do well and look good. Its the smaller programs with less resources to draw from that if they can make your product work well and do good then thats what truly makes a good product. If your only interested in selling and having huge programs be successful with your product then good luck because you'll be out of business in the long run.

I would be interested in hiring your services as a consultant to my elevated x and ffmpeg settings. Sounds like you know how to get good results.

Or you could be so kind as to post them. :)

352987817

Large programs account for less than 20% of our entire user base. Hopefully this puts the issue to rest before any more wrong assumptions are made.

The point I was trying to make is that quality is subjective.

What I wrote accurately represents our position and our goals:
"Our goal as software developers is to work to find a happy medium where both types can be satisfied. That's the ultimate goal. So far the initial tests we're doing with 2 pass encoding look promising and with new encoding flags we expect big improvements."

In this case, "both types" refer to clients large and small, those who feel the default quality is sufficient and those who don't. We're working to improve this for everyone who uses our system.

We saw this thread, responded immediately, took immediate action and added 2 pass encoding the very next day. I believe this proves our intentions and our committment to our clients and that everyone will be happier with the results. This is the best we can do.

AJ

That's very impressive, excellent work AJ! I wish more services would cater to customer requests this fast.

Ok great then, how do we begin using this 2 pass encoding? Last I heard you were "working on it" and it wasnt finished.

Im assuming I must update the script somehow? Please give the steps of what to do. Thanks

2 pass encoding is in. What we're working on is new FFMPEG flags. Once we have them added for all the common video formats we'll make an announcement and I'll contact you directly (not on GFY) so we can update your CMS.

FFmpeg and server side encoding is only a option, if you don't like the results then encode off line and upload. simple really.

Ok thanks :thumbsup