I want to post video clips of my recent 'live' performance on my website.

The original DV video footage was captured and stored on a Mac G5 hard drive using a Mac program called: 'Final Cut Pro'.
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/

This software only allows you to store the completed project as a video file in one of the following formats:

* AVI
* MPEG4
* MPEG2
* MOV (Quicktime)

'Final Cut Pro' (Mac only program) unfortunately doesn't support saving directly to the Windows Media (.WMV) format. Because Windows Media (.WMV) appears to be the universal video clip format of choice these days (right?), I would like to subsequently convert the Quicktime file to ".WMV".

Questions:

1) What video format (above) should I initially save the video clip to?

2) What PC software program is best recommended to subsequently convert this file into .WMV format?

Thanks in advance for feedback and advice on this.

Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 02-11-2004).]

Scott I have no idea.... but I'm dying to see the videos

Scott

I believe mpeg2 is the most common choice followed by avi. Most browsers will be able to handle these choices with the right plug-ins. And both choices will not create overly large files, etc.

Tom G.

Tom (and/or others): I'm now seriously considering storing my video clips as AVI format files. But can AVI format video clips be opened & viewed easily with both Windows & Mac versions of 'Windows Media Player', or is it preferable to go the next step and convert the AVI file to WMV format, avoiding any potential incompatibility issues with Windows Media Player?

What PC Windows: 'AVI to WMV' conversion software is recommended to perform this task?

Thanks, - Scott

Scott,

The Avi format is an older format, I believe it was already used in Windows 3.1, However, Avi can use different codecs, such as Xvid, Divx etc. to compress video data and of course other codecs for audio (such as MP3 or plain uncompressed Wave).
But the users who view these files also need the same codecs installed which you have used to compress your Avi files, else it wont play properly.
Personally I would prefer WMV, it is a much newer format used by Windows Media Player, the codecs are standard in Windows Media Player, so they would play fine on every computer that has the latest version of Windows Media Player installed (which can easily be downloaded at Microsofts site).

Here is the link for Windows Media Encoder, which you can use to convert Mpeg or Avi files to WMV files:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx

Greetz ,
Marcel

[This message has been edited by Wazza (edited 02-12-2004).]

[This message has been edited by Wazza (edited 02-12-2004).]

Scottee,

I recently posted a few videos on the internet from home-made videos and dvd. What is best to use is a controvertial issue among the video community, but MPEG2 is the compressed video format used by the vast majority, and you will find no difference between PC and Mac users as far as the WinMediaPlayer is concerned.
Now, your second point is about how you actually produce the video and what software you should use. Again, any recent video-edit software (eg. Adobe Premier, Pinnacle, etc) will allow you to edit and render your video and then produce an output tailored for different uses (on tape, on dvd, e-mail, or -as our case- for the internet). Most advanced sw will allow you the output in a STREAM format, which is commonly readable by most users.

Hope this has been of help.

Amelio

Tom, Marcel, & Amelio,
Thanks for the valuable input. Ok, I'm now 'FOR SURE' going with WMV !

That being said, before finally converting the video to 'WMV' format, and considering the fact that my video software: "Final Cut Pro" only supports saving to: AVI, MPEG4, MPEG2, which one of these formats should I initially save the video to before finally converting it to 'WMV'? Is there any avantage (audio/video quality etc) to converting initially to a specific one of these formats?

Realizing that the Microsoft WMV conversion software that Wazza recommends supports conversion to WMV from either AVI or MPEG, which (if any) offers a better quality conversion result?

Thanks, - Scott

For Video editing nothing really beats VEGAS video 4.

I Use Vegas video, and it's the most streamlined software for video and audio recording.

It will let you render you final work to any format. For posting online, you have to consider the file size. You don't want to put raw AVI files on the web, they will eat up your bandwidth and space. It's like compressing wav files to mp3 files.

Using Windows Media 8 compression:

For 100 Kbps you can have 16KHz Mono sound and 320x240 15 frames per second video.

For 512 Kbps you will have 16K stereo sound with 320x240 30fps video.

For a 16K stereo sound and 640x480 30 fps video you will need a 3Mbps bandwidth.

So, you can customize the settings. If you prefer sound over video, you can have 16 bit stereo sound, but small video with low frame rate.

Scott, it doesn't look like you're getting the right response to your question. I think you should show it on a white concrete wall and then use a 8mm color camera to capture the projected image. Transfer the 8mm to CD and then you can make a wmv file of it from there.

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. Good luck transferring your video from 'Final Cut Pro' ultimately to WMV.

Scott,

go for the MPEG2 format. No doubt. Gives you the best quality results in a reasonable "small" file size.

PS. make sure you back up your important data before operating changes in format.

Amelio