WVU #36 – Making MP4 Videos Play On The Web
You upload your beautiful, high-quality MP4 video to your web site. But then something funny happens. The video takes forever to start playing. Unlike nearly all other videos on the web (which start playing instantly), your MP4 video seems to sit there forever before it plays. So what’s the problem? Well, in this video I tell you what the problem is…and how to fix it instantly.
Episode Notes: Click here for the fast-start software I recommend in the video.
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Hi Dave, I am wondering about the player you are using here? Very cool. Anyway to make it available to Club members?
How do you rate a video? I see this one is 4 1/2 stars.
@steve – go to the homepage (home link on the top right of this page) then just click on the stars above the video thumbnail to rate.
Thanks for suggesting my program Dave. Yes, amazingly the vast majority of Windows editing programs and encoders still do not produce fast starting MP4′s. Nowadays MP4 is really the way to go for great looking web video, especially with Flash players.
Hey Dave
Is it better to have flv files or mp4 files streaming from my site?
I was under the impression that flv is the most widely accepted file format by internet browsers.
Your thoughts?
Gideon
Oh, and is there a chance you could install the “Subscribe To Comments” plugin on this blog? I would like to get notified where there are responses to my questions here.
Or is there another way?
Cheers Dave, you rock!
Gideon
@Gideon – I’ll see what I can do about notification for comments.
In general, it’s better to use FLV (as in non-H.264). That’s because videos encoded with the H.264 codec (most MP4 files) need to grab extra juice from the viewer’s processor.
So in other words, straight FLV will be viewable by the widest audience, without any playback issues.
For viewers with older computers, H.264 can be an issue…especially if you encode the video at a higher bit rate (they’ll experience jerky playback or the audio and video won’t be in synch)…their computers can’t decode the videos fast enough.
Of course the benefit of H.264 is that you get higher quality at a lower bit rate than standard FLV…so you have to find a happy medium.
On this site, I provide high and low quality versions of the same video (viewer’s can click the HD or HQ option in the player). The high quality videos are all encoded with H.264…the low quality videos are regular FLV’s, with a YouTube-like bit rate of around 400.
Hi Dave,
I am wondering whether you can tell me how I can import my flip MinoHD videos into Camtasia 6 to allow me to edit and include as part of Camtasia presentation. I have tried all sorts of things, and camtasia keeps telling me it is unable to render the codec. I am a very basic user of these programs, but am trying to lift my skills.
cheers
Penny
Hello Dave,
I’ve been receiving your Emails for a couple of months and it’s nice to see your output.
I am using very old but good equipment. There are surely others out there that cannot keep up with finding the cash reserves to replace with with the latest and greatest too!
I have a Dual G450 Power PC G4 Mac running both OS9.2 Classic and OS 10.4.11. On OS9 I still run Final Cut Pro 2.
I have heaps of video on the hard drives but the camera, is shot, through a lightning strike. In Brisbane, they quoted A$800 to replace the mother board in the Panasonic NVDX11EN about 5 years ago.
I gave up and switched over to building a website presence. Now i’m back re-inventing myself. The strike blew the firewire port on this (the Mac), machine too.
So, i’m sort of crippled, busting my “whatevers” hoping for it rain buyers of paintings sometime soon.
I produced a one hour documentary DVD between 1999 and 2002. See the “DVD DOCO” page on the website. Some of the material, I am now trying to sell to local resort businesses to put on their websites.
My problem seems to be that I only have a choice between avi and mov. The avi, no matter what I do with it, ends up being too pixelated on YouTube, and the mov ends up taking forever to upload (1500/256) and is jerkey on playback.
I’v been spending hours and hours trying to find best outcomes. I also need to be able to take out samples on my 4GB LaCie solid state harddrive. The mov. though nice and sharp, being 10 times the file size of mp4 will not play back off the LaCie, just jeking to a dead stop, while the mp4 is not really sharp enough to impress prospective buyers of footage.
I’ve been careful to maintain the keyframe rate as an even division of the playback rate e.g., 4/30 or 5/25.
I’ve been careful to maintain the field dimensions as identical in both the “export” mode and the “conversion” mode.
I’m employing “fast start, compressed header” in the “export” mode, (from FCP).
I have not got a clue what to do with the bitrate in the conversion process from mov to mp4.
Can you address this issue? I don’t know anybody who understands anything i’m talking about.
Kind regards,
Tom Draper.
@ThomasDraper – I cover the settings to use for things like this in my paid training:
http://www.webvideouniversity.com
Hi Dave,
Referring back to my difficulties of last October 7, I have since completely overcome the issues without assistance, I am now producing fine standard 3CCD definition results. This I have done, by sending my mini DV tapes off to a professional recording studio where they have been put to DVD-r. I converted them to DV and imported them in to Final Cut Pro 2.0. The result was partly excellent and partly reflected severe interlacing in pan clips. The FCP 2.0. de-interlacing filter only corrected the problem by half. On checking the converter I found it provided 4 de-interlacing filter options. I tried one of the filters out on the TS files and the result on action pan clips showed up as excellent when imported in to Final Cut Pro as DV. The outcome is fantastic as I no longer need to replace the computer, as a Firewire port is irrelevant.
I don’t use the LaCie hard drive now, rather display as flv files on my website: http://www.youngmastersgallery.com/BUY_WEBSITE_VIDEOS.html
I seem to have overcome the strobing problem too! I simply tried all the permutations and combinations of resolution, frame rate, key frames and start options, until I felt the best result was achieved. There are only a few frames in existing sample videos that need to be replaced. I just have to get the original tapes transferred to TS. Of course you would be the best judge if you care to have a look.
I’m keeping my file sizes as small as possible too. I don’t know if people using HD can compress at maximum 10-15 MB per minute and get better quality files, essential for upload and slowest internet connection speeds.
I’m recommending 480 x 320 playback of my letter-boxed clips.
By the way, I know YouTube recommends against letter-boxing. I like the flexibility however!
So, all in all, a great outcome.
Excuse me not taking up your training offer! Other commitments!
Kind regards,
Thomas T. Draper