This is document is an intended guide for anyone looking for more information regarding high quality video encoding for online advertising, especially with use of Eyeblaster ad-serving platform/HD delivery system.
Understanding
The best way of getting the highest quality export is by either using high quality compressed video assets with the highest resolution/data-rate you can get your hands on, like say for instance 720p/1080p or by using uncompressed video assets so that will allow you to get best quality possible when compressing that video down further so you can get the highest compression ratio out of that file. Your goal is around 30secs/1minute – 10/15MB 1.5/3minutes – 20/30MBs. What you don’t want to do is take an old video asset that already been compressed down using older codec’s that aren’t even H.264 then re-encoding that asset again that will give you terrible results so keep that in mind.
Technology
Tools of the trade this plays a major part in the equation. Here are a few of the most popular Industry standard encoding applications available; Flix Pro / QuickTime Pro / Sorenson Squeeze & Adobe’s very own “Media Encoder” we have seen a massive update within the new ‘Adobe CS4’ release, they brought out a media specifically in mind for FLV & HD and essentially to clear up the mess of using the hacked together MP4 use of the re-naming of extension containers as there has been issues from the go around this format especially due to the fact that the meta data has been unreadable causing issues when streaming the media (then trying to download the headers of the file it would In some cases download the whole video file instead of downloading the headers and streaming the file when it could) there are ways around it using meta injectors to fix this but the bottom line is I have done extensive testing and depending on how the original media is shot or compressed as most times you won’t be-able to get your hands on uncompressed video assets. If you encode using VP6/VP6-S the ratio’s are so similar there isn’t really any difference so your best other is just to use VP6 really. The new Format is called “F4V” and there has been some major changes/advances to the format, allowing even higher resolution video playback at higher data-rates and faster streaming capabilities all in mind of the new update of the release of Flash Player 10 even though this media runs on older Flash player 9,0,115,0 and above, since the release of Flash Player version 9,0,115,0 & above have already hit the 99% penetration mark early 2009 – more here) this just shows how accessible this media type for online use is, here you can see a version Penetration Breakdown per market globally. I have seen some major improvements on playback & FPS lag as well as system recourses utilized – The format F4V has definitely got the best compression ratios and highest quality encoding I have ever seen (there are some know bugs on streaming this media on Windows Server 2003 – Adobe TechNote). This is mainly due to the birth of the new Adobe MIME types – full list here, Adobe has also integrated XMP technology within the release of CS4.
Compression Techniques
Depending on what the desired results are this example is intended for use with Full Screen HD video encoding while using the “Adobe Media Encoder CS4” but can be adapted to any high quality video encoding usage/application. You will need to come to a conclusion whether you want to accommodate for backwards compatibility basically allowing the High Quality assets to be viewable on anything below Flash Player 9,0,115,0 then you will need to use VP6/VP6-S codec’s or you could just build a detection script to do a number of things i.e. Bandwidth/Flash Player detection etc (we have something similar built into the Eyeblaster HD System) then have multiple encoded files ready to be pulled into the Flash depending on the users current Flash Player configuration setup. Now let’s get on to encoding! – These settings won’t affect which media type used “Select Format” from the tabs and select either – FLV (VP6 Codec) F4V (MainConcept H.264 Codec). Once that is done select “Video” tab. You can select the resize check box if the video needs to be re-sized we keep the video resolution to at-least 1920 pixels wide (so this keeps it compatible with high resolution users on 1080p/1920×1200 monitors and even if needn’t be 2560×1600 or above won’t have too much pixilation when having to upscale that video).
Frame Rates we lower to around 15/20 FPS (Frames Per second) but you can tweak these settings while you are testing compression ratios to see what is best – but keep it around that should be fine.
Field Order/Field Type Specifies whether the output file will have progressive frames or interlaced fields, and if the latter, which field will be written first. Progressive is the correct setting for computer display and motion picture film. Choose Upper First or Lower First when exporting video for an interlaced medium, such as NTSC, or PAL.
Profiles That can be used are either – Baseline, Main & High. The Main and High profiles deliver better quality than the Baseline Profile; what’s the catch? The catch is, as you use more advanced encoding techniques, the file becomes more difficult to decompress, and may not play smoothly on older, slower computers. So you could use Baseline for your older VP6-HD exports but it’s fair to say if the user has a fast connection/updated flash players installed the user’s hardware is more likely to be new/faster so that should be fine.
Level Correlates to pre formatted aspect ratio dimension, frame rate & Field order type if you select anything from 4.2-5.1 it’s 1080p compatible.
VBR/CBR Bitrate Mode or Bitrate Encoding Specifies whether the codec achieves a Constant Bitrate (CBR) or Variable Bitrate(VBR) in the exported file. When comparing CBR and VBR files of the same content and file size, you can make the following generalizations: A CBR file may play back more reliably over a wider range of systems, because a fixed data rate is less demanding on a media player and computer processor. However, a VBR file tends to have a higher image quality, because VBR tailors the amount of compression to the image content. VBR, 2 Pass Variable bitrate, with the encoder making two passes through the file, from beginning to end, and then from end to beginning. The second pass prolongs the process, but it ensures greater encoding efficiency, and often a higher quality output. The target/maximum Bitrate I wouldn’t set it below 1400Kbps you will need to tweak this setting to get best result, keep an eye on the “Estimated File Size” found lower middle of the active window- that will give you an indication of the desired file size to quality ratio.
Key Frames When the video is compressed depending on how many Key Frames have been selected the more frequent the better the quality of the footage will be but that will also mean a larger file size. If you choose 30, a video key frame draws every 30 frames. If you choose 15, the quality is higher because a key frame draws ever 15 frames and the pixels in your footage are more accurate to the original. Reduce Noise (scattered pixels in your footage) increases file size. Reduce noise using your video editor, to reduce the video file size. Using more solid colors in your video reduces its file size. You can use the
ALSO SEE
http://3l3373.com/f4v-encoding-streaming/
http://3l3373.com/hd-on-the-web/
MORE INFORMATION
Aspect Ratios and Resolutions – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aspect_Ratios_and_Resolutions.svg
Encoding options for H.264 video – http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashmediaserver/articles/h264_encoding_print.html
Using ADOBE MEDIA ENCODER CS4 – http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AdobeMediaEncoder/4.0/WSCA5A8F18-163A-4176-B5EF-61AAF43367CD.html#WS9318C547-6ABC-485d-979C-A58E12D00A44
New HD campaign i’ve been working on for IGN/JVST just went live this week, built with Eyeblaster HD functionality to control it, also sports the fullscrean skins – a first for the American market running HD content. Live demo of the advert; 
