Video Encoding Settings for 2010

In late 2008, Adobe, which owns Flash Player, enabled the latest version of their popular player to work with H264 files types including MP4, MOV and M4V. Since then, the adoption of Flash Player has exceeded 98% of all computers worldwide. The H264 video has reached near universal acceptance as the best compression format for the Web. As a result of these events, iPlayerHD no longer recommends the use of FLV files for the Web. Instead, we recommend the H264 codec as MP4, M4V or MOV. In a previous entry, we demonstrated how you can encode and place your videos in iPlayerHD for Mobile devices using M4V. In this entry, we’ll show you how to encode your videos to H264 as MP4.

Note: In 2010, iPlayerHD will begin encoding videos to MP4 for you. While you may take full advantage of this new feature when it arrives, you may want to convert new videos (and older ones) to MP4.

Encoding your videos for iPlayerHD

The encoding settings provided may be used in most encoding software tools. We’ll use QuickTime Player Pro as our encoding tool and we’ll do it on a PC. There may be slight variations in the appearance of the options but the choices will be the same if you do this on a Mac. QuickTime’s encoding tool does not accept AVI file types so you’ll need to export your edited file, within your editing system, to an H264 file – we recommend MP4 or MOV. Many editing systems have MP4 encoding tools that may work with the settings we provide so you may not need to use QuickTime. We like QuickTime because of its simplicity, ease of use and excellent quality output.

QuickTime Player is a free tool you can download from Apple. Once downloaded, you must upgrade to the $29 Pro version to use the Export encoding option. The option to upgrade can be found in the Player’s Options. Once purchased, you’ll need to enter the exact name of the User and the registration code in the Registration area of the Player to activate the Pro version.

In QuickTime Player Pro, after you complete your first encode, the parameters will be saved as “Use Current Settings”. “Current Settings” is always the settings used for the last encoding session.

iPlayerHD uses a bandwidth technology that delivers video at a speed that best matches the speed of the viewer’s machine. To take advantage of bandwidth detection, we recommend creating two versions of your videos: 1000 for the first encode and 2000 for the second encode. These are recommendations only – you may encode up to six different bit rates for your iPlayerHD Channels.

Open your source video file in QuickTime Player Pro.

· Click File then Export (not export for Web)

· In the window that opens, find “Export “and choose “Movie to MPEG 4”.

· Click “Options”. This window has several panes. The second pane down includes Video, Audio and Streaming. Begin with Video – you’ll choose Audio when we are done configuring the Video encoding options. Have a brief look at Streaming. You should never enable Streaming and the default should be an unchecked “Enable Streaming” box. Be sure it is unchecked. With Video chosen:

· File Format: MP4 (not MP4 ISMA)

· Video Format: H264

· Recommended data rates: 1000 for the first encode and 2000 for the second encode.

· Optimized for Download

· Image Size: Custom

· Widescreen Width: Any resolution may be used up to 1080. Your goal should be to deliver the best performing video to your audience – the higher the resolution of your encoded video and the lower the CPU of your site visitors speed means more skipping of video frames. Because many of your website visitors do not have HD monitors or the fastest CPUs, you may want to encode at 360, 480 or 720 although you may encode at 1080.

· Non-Widescreen Width and Height: Use the resolution of the source video.

If the image size width and height match the video’s aspect ratio, you should ignore the preserve aspect ratio option. Most will ignore this option.

· Frame Rate: Current

· Key Frame Rate: Automatic

· Video Options Window choose Restrict Profile to Main and Best Quality-Multi Pass

To create the audio settings, change Video to Audio in the second pane.

· Audio Format : AAC-LC Music

· Data Rate: 128 kbps

· Channels: Stereo

· Output Sample Rate: 44.100kHz

· Encoding Quality: Better

You may now click OK. Be sure you include the bit rate in the name of the file for reference when uploading to your iPlayer account. Click Save and the video will now encode.

As always, if you have questions or need support, email us at info@iplayerhd.com or by telephone at 603.778.7000.