Video format and load times

Video format and load times

by Whitney Lowe -
Number of replies: 7

I have a series of video clips that are running in a presentation. There are about 10 clips of only two minutes each. I am struggling to find the best video format for them because I would like for them to play on an iPad as well and have a decent load time in the presentation. When selecting formats fv4 is about 40MB for a 2 minute clip, flv is about 9MB and mp4 is about 80MB. Here are my questions?

1. Some of these file types seem very large for only a two minute clip. I am producing them out of Adobe Premier Elements and can't seem to get them smaller. Formerly I had used Camtasia to shrink some of these clips and they ended up around 5 MB for the same length of file. Is there a recommended file type that would be best and also be able to play on an iPad? I had heard mp4 was better for this option, but I can't seem to get the mp4 file sized down to something reasonable.

2. I want to minimize the load time for this presentation.  I'm wondering if it is faster to put the videos in the authoring project (built in Lectora), or simply load them into the Moodle file structure and link to them from within the Lectora title, so the user does not have to wait for all of the videos to load before seeing certain pages. Which of these options would be better?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Whitney

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In reply to Whitney Lowe

Re: Video format and load times

by Dan Trouten -

1) I'm uploading 1 hr classes made in Adobe Premier Pro. I use H.264 (MP4). They might not be the smallest but they are flexable for the iPad which is our target tech and usable on other mobile tech. You may have to use ftp to upload them.

2) I load mine straight into moodle via ftp. Create a folder in uploaddata/repository/(new folder) and then create a link to them in Administration>plugin>repository>filesystem. They should show up in file picker and you place with the filmstrip icon (Moodle Media).

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In reply to Whitney Lowe

Re: Video format and load times

by John Romain -

 A number of things are going to effect your file size. The dimensions of the clip, bit rate, codec, etc. You should be able to change the bit rate in the software you are using to export the clips. When we embed the video into our swfs it is just a link that points to a folder on the server so it's the same as putting it on as a file in moodle. We just have more control from within the swf. You can check out this link for optimal dimensions for your clips: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/apps/flv_bitrate_calculator.html. Although it talks about flv there is info there for mp4 as well.

J

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In reply to Whitney Lowe

Re: Video format and load times

by Lael ... -

those file sizes seem large to me for H264. I would expect something more around 5mb per minute max. What type of video are they (screencast, low motion - like interview, full motion video - like sports, etc) and what dimensions are you delivering?

I've been using handbrake (win and mac) and mediacoder (windows) to encode h264 screencast video files into an mp4 container. I usually find that using a 2 pass encode a 900 abr provides suitable quality.

let me know if you want any further detail.

Lael

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In reply to Lael ...

Re: Video format and load times

by Dan Trouten -

The videos are full production. We use a hdv Sony to do the video and we live capture the powerpoint presentation where the teacher uses a tablet to draw on them. It's mixed back and forth with Adobe After Effects and finished in Adobe Premiere Pro.

D

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In reply to Dan Trouten

Re: Video format and load times

by Lael ... -

So its a screncast of the powerpoint with pip video of the lecturer? It still seems high, but I haven't encoded anything quite like that before. I would give another encoder a go and see what results you get. Lower than that is definitely possible.

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In reply to Lael ...

Re: Video format and load times

by Whitney Lowe -

Hi Lael:

In response to your question about the type of video they are studio shots of medical treatments being performed, so it isn't complicated. I tried your suggstion of using Handbrake on the clips after extracting the clips from Adobe Premiere and that worked very well. I set the output in Handbrake to be around 5 minutes per MB, and that came out with a very good quality. Thanks very much for this information!

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In reply to Whitney Lowe

Re: Video format and load times

by Lael ... -

Hi Whitney,

Totally welcome. Glad it worked out well.

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