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Experienced Camtasia Users - Keeping vid quality high/file size small ... Which format is best?

by s4nt0s
6 replies
Greetings warriors,

I'm launching my first product in the next two weeks. The product is a series of video tutorials that range from 4:00-10:00 minutes a piece with a total of 12-13 videos.

Unfortunately, my site has already been created and I won't be able to use a membership area for the content so my costumers will have to download all the videos from one single link after purchase. I will be using amazon s3 so speeds should be decent depending on their connection.

So what I'm wondering is, what would be the best format and resolution to save my videos in to keep the file size small and video quality high?

I'm afraid that if the product download size ends up being 200-300mb, I'll end up getting a lot of refunds. What's a reasonable size for a product to be?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Talk soon,
Devin
#camtasia #experienced #format #high or file #keeping #quality #size #small #users #vid
  • Profile picture of the author geegel
    The .swf format is your best bet. It's the Shockwave Flash format and it is specifically designed for the web. The thing is that some players can't use it. This is why I also recommend you to promote the VLC player (freeware) or to only allow in-browser views.

    Hope this helps.

    Best regards,
    George
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    The Persuasion Expert: Capture. Solve. Create. Persuade
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill Farnham
    Have you thought about breaking the download up into smaller files such as one file per video?

    A ten minute video should not be that large if it's in a mpeg4 format. Don't use AVI, as an exaple, unless you are using those for master files. In other words, AVI is great for creating video segments to be used as building blocks, but not as the final product.

    You also can keep the file size down by making the video screen size small but allowing for the user to enlarge it at their discretion if needed.

    A lot depends on if you want your videos downloaded to a hard drive, or if you want them to be viewed on the web.

    ~Bill
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    • Profile picture of the author s4nt0s
      Originally Posted by geegel View Post

      The .swf format is your best bet. It's the Shockwave Flash format and it is specifically designed for the web. The thing is that some players can't use it. This is why I also recommend you to promote the VLC player (freeware) or to only allow in-browser views.

      Hope this helps.

      Best regards,
      George
      This was exactly what I was thinking. I'm just curious to know if more people would ask for refunds do to them having to download an extra software, just to play the videos.

      Originally Posted by Bill Farnham View Post

      Have you thought about breaking the download up into smaller files such as one file per video?

      A ten minute video should not be that large if it's in a mpeg4 format. Don't use AVI, as an exaple, unless you are using those for master files. In other words, AVI is great for creating video segments to be used as building blocks, but not as the final product.

      You also can keep the file size down by making the video screen size small but allowing for the user to enlarge it at their discretion if needed.

      A lot depends on if you want your videos downloaded to a hard drive, or if you want them to be viewed on the web.

      ~Bill
      Bill,

      When I had the website created, I didn't have my web designer build the download page with multiple download buttons. It has one big download button to grab the full package. (I should have planned that out better)

      It looks like my best bet will be going for .mp4, swf, flash format and recommending the use of VLC player. I'll create a video on the thank you page to show them exactly how to download and get everything up and running.

      Do you think I should also .zip the files? I'm just nervous to get an influx of emails with people not being able to figure out how to unzip the files or play the videos.

      Thanks again for the feedback
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      • Profile picture of the author Bill Farnham
        Originally Posted by s4nt0s View Post

        Do you think I should also .zip the files? I'm just nervous to get an influx of emails with people not being able to figure out how to unzip the files or play the videos.
        By all means use zip files for large downloads. In my experience most people sophisticated enough to want to download files can unzip them. The big monkey wrench in the deal is folks on dial-up. You can always send them a dvd or equivelent, but think that option through. It may have some pitfalls.

        Also be prepared to have a backup plan such as being able to break any large files down into smaller segments for easy downloading. I've had to do this, and it's just another way to be sure your customers get what they paid for if they need that extra help.

        ~Bill
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  • Profile picture of the author geegel
    Alternatively, you could just make the video software part of the ZIP file (like some add the Adobe Reader). It's open source, so there's absolutely no problem on that side.

    However it has around 18MB, which might defeat the purpose altogether (keeping the dl size small).

    Regards,
    George
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    The Persuasion Expert: Capture. Solve. Create. Persuade
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    • Profile picture of the author s4nt0s
      Originally Posted by geegel View Post

      Alternatively, you could just make the video software part of the ZIP file (like some add the Adobe Reader). It's open source, so there's absolutely no problem on that side.

      However it has around 18MB, which might defeat the purpose altogether (keeping the dl size small).

      Regards,
      George
      Hmm great idea! I didn't even think about that. I'll see how big the file is when I'm done rendering all the videos.

      Originally Posted by Bill Farnham View Post

      By all means use zip files for large downloads. In my experience most people sophisticated enough to want to download files can unzip them. The big monkey wrench in the deal is folks on dial-up. You can always send them a dvd or equivelent, but think that option through. It may have some pitfalls.

      Also be prepared to have a backup plan such as being able to break any large files down into smaller segments for easy downloading. I've had to do this, and it's just another way to be sure your customers get what they paid for if they need that extra help.

      ~Bill
      Hmm I didn't think about breaking it up into smaller downloads as a backup plan. Thanks a lot, I'll definitely do that.
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