Best Format/ Stage of Compression for Online Distribution

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:21 pm

Hey, there. You all may realize what this is about. It's about the Fandub project. capsuleman has the Movies DragonBox(es), and has agreed to get the footage for us, and get it to our video editors.

Problem is, I don't think anybody's quite sure as to how to go about that. I've been reading through the technical guides at AMV.org, and have been slowly but surely teaching myself the ins and outs of Video tech, but I'm not quite good enough to figure this out on my own.

If there were some good way to put up the .vob's for download straight from ripping the DVD's then I guess that would make sense. But I know from what little I've experimented with that .vob's are unicorn!in' HUGE, and would be a pain in the ass, if not impossible, to put up anywhere for download. We want to keep the video quality as good as possible, so compressing things might cause problems, even though we don't need to include audio at all.

So here's my question. What video format, or at what stage of prepping footage for editing, would be best for distributing large amounts of footage (i.e. an entire DBZ movie) over the internet to others working on the project? Can I and the video editors get some pointers if there is a way?

JAPPO · Post by **JAPPO** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:21 pm

AVI can fit an entire movie at 700 MB without losing much quality.

You can go even lower than 700 MB if it's a small movie. 500 MB, even.

DBZ MAN · Post by **DBZ MAN** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:28 pm

Still a big file to send via the Internet no? Maybe having to resort to sending the ripped DVD's Via postage will have to do?

tarsonis · Post by **tarsonis** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:35 pm

JAPPO wrote:AVI can fit an entire movie at 700 MB without losing much quality.

You can go even lower than 700 MB if it's a small movie. 500 MB, even.

It really depends more on the actual video codec used. AVI is merely a 'container' to hold video and audio.

Post by **VegettoEX** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:37 pm

DBZ MAN wrote:Still a big file to send via the Internet no? Maybe having to resort to sending the ripped DVD's Via postage will have to do?

When we were doing the "Doomrider" project, the HuffyUV master tracks ranged from... like... 300 MB to 1 GB. People who were far away or on dial-up (yes, there was still dial-up back then...) just sent their stuff burned on CD and such.

I'm not promoting bootlegging, but if it's for a project like this, you'll find a way. Be it snail mail or long, overnight transfers via AIM... you'll figure it out!

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:02 pm

Vegetto EX wrote:When we were doing the "Doomrider" project, the HuffyUV master tracks ranged from... like... 300 MB to 1 GB.

I assume you mean folks' individual chunks of the project, and not the whole thing, right?

Either way, Doomrider is 10 minutes long, and Movie 3 is 50-something minutes. Even without any audio data, and compressed, that's gonna be big...

Well... guess I better keep experimenting, then.

I already have my own copy of movie 3 ripped, and have been fiddling around with various AMVapp things lately, so I can probably figure out a way before long.

To the Kaboom Cave!

*Spin-out Transition Effect*

Acid_Reign · Post by **Acid_Reign** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:25 pm

The answer depends on a few factors.

How important is the quality to you?
How big are your video editors' hard drives?
How many do you need to get it out to, and how fast?

If quality is of the utmost importance, and your editors have the space and a lot of patience to upload/download, it would be good to find an FTP repository to host the uncompressed footage. I wouldn't host the entire disc; just the ripped video. Raw VOB files would work but it'd require each of your video editors to convert them to a manageable format afterwards, so Uncompressed AVIs are probably the way to go there.

If, however, your resources are more limited, then compression is inevitable and you'll just have to find a balance between size/quality. In this case, re-compress to MPEG-2. The files won't necessarily be teeny but they'll take a lot less time to transfer compared to anything uncompressed.

When the whole thing's said and done and you're preparing it for the masses, go with MPEG-4, which was designed for internet distribution. As for the complementary DVDs, you could always write the finished project to a burnable ISO rather than ship physical copies out to everyone individually.

I know that's a lot to swallow, but hopefully it helps you some. Let me know if you have any other questions, and I will assist you the best I can.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:41 pm

Wow. Thanks, AR, that really helped. A lot more than "other people."

I know I have space to spare on my system, and the power and internet connection to handle transfers, but I have to make sure our 3 or so video editors (Didn't you sign up, too?) are the same. Also, this kinda depends on capsuleman's ability in this regard, too. If he isn't capable of getting out big amounts of footage (I assume he is, since he volunteered), then we'll have to do without DragonBox footage. Worse case scenario is that I'll end up with something decent we can use after all my experimenting.

Thanks agian for the help, anyhoo. A little more experimentation and I should have a good idea as to what to have everyone do.

Acid_Reign wrote:If quality is of the utmost importance, and your editors have the space and a lot of patience to upload/download, it would be good to find an FTP repository to host the uncompressed footage.

That idea had crossed my mind... any idea how one goes about getting, or gaining access to one of these?

Acid_Reign · Post by **Acid_Reign** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:36 am

Hey, no problem. Helping out is what I'm here to do.

Yes, I did sign up. I have roughly 35 GB left on my HDD so as long as the project as a whole doesn't exceed that I should be fine. Long-ass transfers don't faze me either.

And in the event that you can't get your DBox footage, I have Tree of Might on DVD so I'd be willing to provide that. (It'd be better than nothing.)

I've got a server with FTP access that you can use. It'll take some setting up but I could probably create an account for all of the video editors to utilize.

Let me know if this interests you. I have to sign off for the night, but I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, good luck!

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:59 am

Alrighty, thanks. I'll PM you about it in a bit.

DBZ MAN · Post by **DBZ MAN** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:15 pm

I'm okay with VOB files. That's what format my DVD footage was in when I made my music video.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:20 pm

Right now, I'm saving a huffyuv .avi of the whole movie, to see how big it ends up. 72% finished as I type this...

Kanzenshuu

Best Format/ Stage of Compression for Online Distribution

Best Format/ Stage of Compression for Online Distribution

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