Encoding QuickTime Video Streams
Encoding QuickTime video streams often causes confusion for several reasons. First of all, many video production programs export uncompressed videos with a .mov file extension. These files typically transfer data at rates in excess of 4Mbps, which is over ten times the traditional encoding rate for broadband video, and still far to high to play over today’s “standard” 2Mbps ADSL connections. The files will also not be in a suitable streaming format any way.
The next problem that many people encounter is that when encoding QuickTime movies is that there are two different formats for encoding a .mov file. One is for progressive downloads and the other for streaming files. A progressive download QuickTime .mov file will not stream and will result in a 404 error. It is important therefore to make sure the right encoding parameters are selected.
The other problem that many people also encounter when encoding QuickTime video streams is that many third party software programs do not restrict the bandwidth to the assigned levels very effectively and subsequently the file sizes and encoded bit rates are a lot higher than those which have been selected. After using lots of different software, I have personally come to the conclusion that the best program to use is Apples own QuickTime Pro.
Despite the adverts saying that it costs $29.99, in the UK you will actually end up spending more like £25 for some bizarre reason!
This is still considerably cheaper than other software and saves a lot of frustration!
Add comment August 16th, 2005