High-Quality Web Video Encoding

The Wise Choice of Video Formats for the Web

This guide is the result of several test series with different encoders, converters and settings back in 2007. It might be replaced by an updated article soon.

1. Xvid

Xvid is a good choice because of its decent quality at small file sizes. The popularity of Xvid ensures, that most people are able to watch encoded videos without needing to download and install a codec or player first. Xvid is a continuation of Project Mayo (original open source project responsible for the commercial DivX codec) and aims to develop a high quality open-source MPEG-4 codec. The quality of the codec is in most cases slightly better than DivX and unlike DivX, Xvid remains open-source. Furthermore, Xvid is compatible with DivX capable hardware (f.i. DVD players) and software. Unlike Windows Media Video (WMV) this format is available for all major platforms.

2. Apple QuickTime H.264

Apple QuickTime H.264 comes with every QuickTime Player version 7 or higher, available for OS X and Windows. QuickTime is installed on all new Macs. Thus, Qt is the best choice for reaching Mac OS X users with your video content. The shiny H.264 codec, also ratified as part of the MPEG-4 standard, delivers good quality at remarkably low data rates, too. But on Windows PCs QuickTime is rarely installed. Growing numbers of iTunes installations should help little by little but still WMV or the platform independent and open Xvid are much wiser choices for the world beside Apple.

3. Flash Video (Video Services)

Flash Video/FLV as third format your audience can choose from is recommendable. Flash videos can be embedded in websites - as streams, no wait for downloads. Most users will have the Adobe Flash Player already installed, at least in version 6 or 7. While FLVs can't be downloaded easily and the quality is not top-notch, version 8 at least can deliver better visual quality. But offering FLVs on your website is the perfect addendum to high-quality download files. Flash video can also be offered through a video service as YouTube or Veoh - uploaded as f.i. in the Xvid format, their server farms will do the rest (the conversion). You can rely on their technical infrastructure, embed your outsourced footage, and use their social network features.

Xvid Encoding With AutoGK

The fast and easy way to quality Xvid/DivX content: Auto Gordian Knot.

Conversion Settings

Section	Options	Values
Output Size	Target Quality (in percentage)	95
Advanced Options	Fixed Width	480
Advanced Options	Codec	XviD
Advanced Options	Output Audio Type	Auto
Hidden Options	.deint	Force
Hidden Options	.autocrop Tune Parameters	Threshold 0/Force 2,0,0,2
Hidden Options	.colorcorrection	Correct: Accurate
Hidden Options	.detect43	Detect and Force

AutoGK's hidden options can be accessed via Strg+F9. As fixed width you can choose any size you want. 480 px is a good compromise for high quality web videos today. Common alternatives: 320, 640, 240. Autocrop can be disabled when your video footage is clean and no DV or TV source.

H.264 Encoding With QuickTime 7 Pro

Apple Tutorial I'm working on a short guide as well. Please check back soon.

History and Alternatives

When the market share of Real Networks was killed years ago, offering Windows Media Video and QuickTime Streams/Downloads both at the same time became common practice. Little by little also platform independent solutions arose. MPEG-1, DivX, Flash Video (FLV). Flash 6-7 with the H.263 video standard (under the name of Sorenson Spark), Flash 8 and newer with higher quality On2 VP6.

Other Not So Widespread Video Codecs

x264 A promising top-notch but rarely used video codec.
rmvb (RealVideo 10) Good quality with extremely small file sizes.

Other Encoders

SUPER Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer
A GUI to ffmpeg, MEncoder, mplayer, x264, mppenc, ffmpeg2theora & the theora/vorbis RealProducer plugIn.

MediaCoder
MediaCoder is a free audio/video batch transcoder for Windows, which uses various open source audio and video codecs and tools to transcode different audio/video formats and has many extra features.