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Video advice?

by DavidO
2 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
If there was a competition for the most confusing web technology video would win by a mile! Why oh why do we need so many formats?

I'm creating a series of screen-capture videos to play on my site. I was using a capture device that outputs to avi. Using this method I have to convert my avi video to flv. Just for one example, the original avi file is just over two minutes long and 102 MB!

It converts to an flv file of about 12 MB.

Then I found another screen capture tool with swf output. My website video player can play swf so I figure it may be better not having to convert. But the same video in swf comes out to about 20 MB.

The file size in all these formats seems ridiculous. I used to make the same type of videos with a final flv file size of around 5 MB. Too bad I've forgotten which tools I used at that time.

So my questions are:

Is it better to go with the bigger swf file that eliminates converting?

Or use the smaller flv file that gets converted from avi?

Are these file sizes (swf: 20 MB, flv: 12 MB) excessive for two minutes of video? Keep in mind that there's a music soundtrack (although the same file without audio isn't much smaller)

Is there a better way of doing this? (screen capture to flv final product)

Thanks for any help. This is really driving me nuts.
#advice #video
  • Profile picture of the author Steve Solem
    Hi David,

    Can I ask what you're using to record and produce these screencasts?

    I don't reacll exactly right now, but the last screencast I did with Camtasia was about 45 minutes long, and rendered at a decent high quality, came in at just around 200MB in size.

    I would try to get the best quality at the smallest file size possible, so 1) it doesn't eat up all your bandwidth or disc space and 2) so things load faster for your viewers.

    Have you tried the free Jing Project from the Camtasia folks? I think you're still limited to 5 minutes of recording time and you can't edit it all that much, but it may be an good option if you're recording only 2 minute videos.

    HTH,

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author DavidO
      Thanks, Steve. I'm getting good quality now using a Camstudio capture device that outputs in avi and then converting to flv with Moyea Video4Web.

      The finished videos are 12 to 14 MB for a little over 2 minutes of video and music. This compares well with your 45 minutes at 200 MB.

      So can I assume that approx. 5 MB per minute is acceptable for website video?
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