Best Flash Video Compression Settings
Encoding an FLV
| Resolution |
|
|---|---|
| Codec | On2 VP6 or h.264 |
| Encoding | 2-Pass VBR |
| Maintain Aspect Ratio: | Off (The above Resolution settings will provide the correct aspect ratio.) |
| Frame Rate: | 30 fps 24 and 25 fps footage should be encoded as “Same-as-source” |
| Video Data Rate: | 464 kbps |
| Audio Data Rate: | 48 kbps |
| Total Data Rate: | 512 kbps |
| Keyframe: | Every 6 seconds |
What program to use?
If you already have flash, it comes with flash video encoder which is a separate program in the same directory as your flash application. If you don’t have flash you could download flix standard which is inexpensive and available for windows and mac.
Batch h.264
If you’re going to be doing a lot of compression you should look into this USB device that comes with it’s own software: Elgato Turbo.264
Our client Arsenal Films uses it for all their compression — in their own words:
It’s basically compression software with a USB stick that adds processor juice to your computer. It gives you all these different iPhone, Apple TV, iPod, YouTube, optimized codecs. it cranks things out super fast and doesn’t lock up you computer – and it’s under $100 bucks
Exporting a Quicktime out of FinalCut
These are the best settings to export a Quicktime movie out of FinalCut for us to encode for flash. You should make sure you set the size of the movie to the final size we’ll be showing the video on your site. If we resize it ourselves when we encode the movie, the quality will not be as good.
- Go to Export
- Choose Using Quicktime Conversion
- Format: Quicktime movie
- Options: Settings (Compression Type: H264, Frame Rate: 30fps, Key Frames: Every 180 Frames, Compressor: Best)
- Size: Dimensions (Custom 480×360)
- Use: Broadband-High
Leave a Reply
Add a new comment
9 Responses to “Best Flash Video Compression Settings”
When was this written?
It was first written in 2008 then updated in late 2009, the settings listed are still good as of 2010, but if you have any specific question or suggestions to make it better please leave a comment
Great. Thank you for providing
I made animation movie in Flash 8 (720×576, 25fps), converted it to AVI, edited in Adobe PremiereCS3. Now i need to export the movie very good quality and show on the wall with a projector and DVD player.
please tell me flash 8 export setting and Adobe PremiereCS3 export setting
Why did you export the movie originally at 720×576? That seems like a low resolution to be using to edit your original footage. Small outdated computer monitors are 800×600 which is larger format than what you are using. You should find out what resolution your projector is capable of displaying and try to export your AVI out of flash accordingly. After you edit the footage together in Premiere you can export it in any format you want assuming you’re playing the video on your computer and feeding it to the projector that way. A good free video player is VLC which should be able to play nearly any format you can export out of Premiere at full screen. Hopefully this helps, good luck!
Hello,
I think for compressing videos with flash is really cool. If you do not know then I would like to tell you that you can even compress video of h.264 file format. http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1354200.htm#post5017170
I work at a small television production company and we do primarily high-end sports television productions. We mainly shoot in 720p and it’s generally faster cuts. Currently, the movies on our website (which a separate web company manages) are in wmv format and we’re discussing the move to Flash for the sake of having a more universal format. At the moment, we squeeze files with Sorenson. But for Flash, our Sorenson has no H264 codec and from what I’m learning, that’s the most universal Flash codec and the way to go. We can only choose between On2 VP6 and Sorenson Spark Pro. And because our videos are our product, we want to have the highest quality videos available, which are universal, provided they load somewhat quickly and are easy for every general user. Conversations on one pass versus two pass and what a good bitrate and key frame rate is- is probably the next chapter, but not our concern at this immediate moment. Unless I’m wrong.
Do you have any suggestions for what we should do? We’re willing to get new compression software if H264 outputs are truly the way that 98% of users can watch our stuff without any problem. Or maybe I’m looking at the wrong things and considering the wrong changes.
BTW, we are working on Avids. We have a FinalCut system but never really use it. And getting a file or tape off of a deck onto that system is an extraordinary hassle.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
If your concern is to get the highest quality I would stick with Sorenson, they have a great reputation and since you already use their software you could just upgrade to the latest version which does support the H264 codec. Judging by the amount of detail you have in your post here I’m guessing you might have already come up with a similar decision. Let us know what you end up doing.
Fantastic. Thanks so much.