Hi there,
Slightly off-topic but I was just compressing a video that I generated with Materials Studio today and thought this might be useful for other users.
Why do I compress videos? Not only does it save disk space - sometimes massively - but you can also get better playback performance.
I use a piece of software called VirtualDub . This looks really complex because it has so many options but you don't need to do much to get some decent compression without creating artifacts in the video. Here are some basic instructions:
1. File | Open video file...
Select your video file
2. Choose Video | Compression...
There are many codecs you can use and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. For home stuff I tend to use xvid or divX but you need to download them and the codecs need to be installed on any computer you are going to play the video on (can be tricky if you are going to a conference!) For work, I use Cinepak Codec by Radius. This has not let me down so far and gives acceptable size, good quality, and it plays in PowerPoint.
3. Choose Cinepak Codec by Radius and click on OK.
4. Choose File | Save as AVI , enter a filename and off you go.
This should produce a compressed version of the initial AVI with very little change in the quality. In the example I just used, my initial AVI was 297Mb and my compressed one was 8.5Mb.
Disclaimer - I am not an expert in video compression and there are probably better codecs and other programs to use. This is just a personal opinion on one way of doing this..... Also, you should always test video playback if you are playing it on another machine!
Use different software? Get better compression? Please feel free to post on your experiences!
Cheers
Stephen
Slightly off-topic but I was just compressing a video that I generated with Materials Studio today and thought this might be useful for other users.
Why do I compress videos? Not only does it save disk space - sometimes massively - but you can also get better playback performance.
I use a piece of software called VirtualDub . This looks really complex because it has so many options but you don't need to do much to get some decent compression without creating artifacts in the video. Here are some basic instructions:
1. File | Open video file...
Select your video file
2. Choose Video | Compression...
There are many codecs you can use and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. For home stuff I tend to use xvid or divX but you need to download them and the codecs need to be installed on any computer you are going to play the video on (can be tricky if you are going to a conference!) For work, I use Cinepak Codec by Radius. This has not let me down so far and gives acceptable size, good quality, and it plays in PowerPoint.
3. Choose Cinepak Codec by Radius and click on OK.
4. Choose File | Save as AVI , enter a filename and off you go.
This should produce a compressed version of the initial AVI with very little change in the quality. In the example I just used, my initial AVI was 297Mb and my compressed one was 8.5Mb.
Disclaimer - I am not an expert in video compression and there are probably better codecs and other programs to use. This is just a personal opinion on one way of doing this..... Also, you should always test video playback if you are playing it on another machine!
Use different software? Get better compression? Please feel free to post on your experiences!
Cheers
Stephen
