You have a few choices when it comes to the web video format you want to use. But where does QuickTime fit into the mix…and should you be using it? Here are the answers you need to know…
Video Review of Avid Studio For The iPad
Posted by Dave on Feb 3, 2012
How To Have Your Own URL Shortening Service At No Cost
Posted by Dave on Jan 27, 2012
3 Reasons Why You Should Never Upload Videos To YouTube
Posted by Dave on Jan 13, 2012
The Best Video Cameras of 2011
Posted by Dave on Dec 27, 2011
How To Ditch Your Video Camera’s Tiny LCD Screen
Posted by Dave on Dec 14, 2011
WVU #39 – Review Canon Vixia HF S10 Part 2
Posted by Dave on Jun 8, 2009
How To Make Your Web Videos Play On Both Browsers and Mobile Devices – WVU #104
Posted by Dave on Oct 14, 2010
Video Review of the Canon Rebel T2i – WVU #78
Posted by Dave on Apr 1, 2010
Video Review of Avid Studio – WVU #124
Posted by Dave on Apr 15, 2011
Review of the Kodak Zi8 – WVU #72
Posted by Dave on Feb 12, 2010
How To Create Images From Web Pages – WVU #112
Posted by Dave on Dec 24, 2010
WVU #33 – Video Camera Shootout: Flip Mino HD vs. Canon Vixia HV30
Posted by Dave on Apr 17, 2009
How To Fix Shaky Video Footage – WVU #79
Posted by Dave on Apr 9, 2010
WVU #44 – Using The JW Video Player On Your Web Site
Posted by Dave on Jul 10, 2009
Review of the Kodak Zi8 – WVU #72
Posted by Dave on Feb 12, 2010
Our company is starting a new site and i am doing all the video for it, although i am new to your site i am finding it very helpful so far.
Our hosting company uses flash. i record in hdv1080i60 but i export to h.264 (quicktime) and then upload where it is encoded to flash. my question is this. Is there another format i should be exporting to rather than h.264 since it will be encoded by my host anyway? i do the h.264 to save upload time but i’ll spend that extra time if it improves my video quality.
By the way as a PC/IT guy learning MAC has been an experience. like you said in one of your blogs, i use them both as well.
Thanks
Chuck
Chuck,
I would continue exporting in QuickTime before upload (I’m assuming your on a Mac when doing this). Basically, you want your footage in the highest quality format before converting to Flash. Uncompressed AVI is the best, but the files sizes are way too big…so stick with QuickTime.
By the way, you can simply rename your QuickTime videos to .flv and they’ll play as Flash files (i.e. myvideo.mov to myvideo.flv). Extensions just act as containers with H.264.
H.264 videos on the web require more processor power, but give you the highest quality at the smallest file size.
To get comparable quality in Flash without using H.264, the best codec to use is VP6…which is available in Flix Pro (the makers), Sorenson Squeeze or Adobe Flash Professional/CS4.
By the way, all of the videos on this site are H.264, playing as .MP4 files.
Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. I have completed week one but i wish i could start week 2 now. Although final cut (MAC) is a bit scary because there is just so much to learn (motion, livetype, color)i think that the camera work will be the hardest. I can figure out software and i can learn stuff as i go. I look forward to your classes in the coming weeks. If you have any recommendations for other sites to look at in addition to yours please let me know.
Thanks
Hi Dave,
I’m confused. One of your videos says flash is the most widely used. This seems to suggest using QT. Can you please clarify.
Also–I don’t understand the changing of an extension on the end of a QT from mov to flv…that enables it to then play in a flash player? So…that would mean…compress with QT, change the extension and then use a flash player?
Thank you,
Alec
Flash is the dominant format on the web. Around 98% of people can watch Flash videos without having to download any plugins.
Around 70% of people can watch Quicktime videos without downloading plugins (but that drop of 28% is a huge number in a global sense).
So Flash is the best choice for web video…unless the people who will be watching your videos are all Mac users, then you can safely go with Quicktime.
Quicktime video uses the H.264 codec. Any file that uses H.264 (.mov, .mp4 files) can simply have their extension changed to .flv and the Flash player (version 9+) can play them.
So if you take a Quicktime video produced out of Final Cut, you can change the extension from .mov to .flv and use it as a Flash file on your web site (but your Flash player must support H.264…and older ones do not).