Sorry to interrupt the stream of awesome videos, I was just curious what compression most people use on their embedded streaming QT files to make them look so good and load so fast. Thanks.

         

vimeo hd has the low-down (whether you want to use their service or not).

         

StaxRip = Virtual Dub + Avi Synth + BeSweet + X.264 + Mp4Box (+ DVD specific tools)

It's like a swiss knife, but not simple to use.

         

i prefer h264, multipass, high quality. Put your bit rate at about 1250 and your keyframes at about 90. Tweak the bit rate and keyframes to your liking until you get the size and quality you like

         

Yeah H264 is really good. Its good quality. But you would have to play around to get it to your liking.

         

Civilian h264 will usually look washed out due to some embedded Apple color-management jive. You can see the difference viewing in Safari vs. firefox. x264 is a freeware alternative that circumvents this, but the output is still just as compatible. It also gives lots of compression options that would probably be really useful if I had a clue what they did.

         

Quicktime movs allways looks washed out on a PC:

www.monostep.org

Apple will never fix this problem. This suxx so much.

         

1. you mixed up the checkmarks in the player of teh DirectDraw example - greyer side should not be checked, blacker side should (right?). otehrwise it should read "When you disable..."
2. wherever you have the greyer black, you also have a greyer white - have you noticed?

i downloaded your test file, saved it to mov, and it plays fine, but then again, i'm not on a pc... can anybody else verify this stuff?

         

I don't think i mixed up the checkmarks. You can also download directly the ".mov" file on the top of the page. (which looks "wahed out")

I get in contact with apple but they do not want to help me. They give me some Mailing List email adress.

And the Apple-Guys talks so much shit about the "washed out" problem on PC.

1. They say i'm to stupid to encode.
2. It's the graphic Card.
3. You have to enable the DirectDraw (but without "direct draw" you can't watch movs in fullscreeen. the PC needs DirectDraw. AND... whats more important... every online Quicktime file will be washed out if the users don''t change their quicktime setting.

I let the "Directdraw" checked. And changed the "mask transparent" settings... and the mov looks fine. so the "direct draw" has nothing to do with it.

AND... i convertet the mov that looks washed out to an mp4 and everything looks find.

So it's not my decodeing skills. The MOV looks fine with VLC Player, too.

It's the quicktime player thats sucks. Apple now ignore my mails.

This proplem is 4, 5 years old. I testet quicktime files with every new quicktime player release. It's not fixed now... and i think Apple will never fix that.

90% of the Computer users maybe use a PC instead of a mac. And every qicktime file will washed out. And sometimes I think I'm the only one that cares about it.

On a Mac everything looks cool. Sometimes on a Mac only the white looks grey but the black is black. (very weird). I tested this on many PC's and MAC's. PC = 99% allways grey (black and white) no matter which graphic card, or how old the PC is. On Macs = everything correct.

It's the same with other codecs like sorensen3, etc. But most people using h264 and the .mov container... for showreels, etc.

I encodet the file with "Quicktime Player Pro". Form an uncompressed quicktime file i rendered with After Effects. I studie film and I know how to make video files.

         

I also posted "this problme" a year ago here on videos.antville.org.

...but without the link to the monostep.org website and everyone says its a decoding problem or an direct draw problem or a graphic card problem.

But no. With this website and a PC everyone can now see that its Apple foult. And they have to fix that shit.

         

just to be clear: checked = enabled (aktiviert); unchecked = disabled. you are saying that it's black when DD is enabled and grey when it's disabled, right? if that is so, then you have the checkmarks inverted. otherwise, you have your words inverted.

also: i presume directdraw is a pc specific thing (no trace of it in mac settings), and: the transparency setting "none (allow dithering)" seems to be the standard. (not sure what to make of that.)

         

checked / aktivated = washed out unchecked / non aktivated = looks good

In the "presets". If you download Quicktime Player the "DirectDraw" button is "checked / aktivated"... and eveything looks "grey". If i unchecked it... everything looks fine.

But. I can leave the "DirectDraw" checked... and instead of that i can also change the transparenz from "dither copy" to "premultiplied white".

And than the video also switched from "washed out" to "fine".

So I don't think it have something to do with the "direct draw setting". Because if i watch an mp4 file on a PC (h264) the video never looks "washed out (grey)" No matter which setting.

So it's a "Quicktime Player" Problem. And not a problem with "Direct Draw". imo.

         

ok, in that case the sentence needs to read "When you disable the DirectDraw acceleration the video will also look fine"

         

The thing is... i don't hate apple or quicktime. But i and other digital artist works on a website and work with quicktime. Because the client want quicktime. and you have to say to the client that it's not your foult when quicktime files looks washed out.

I just take the time to make this little site. Everyone with a PC should check this. And i hope some more people will care about that and mail apple that they should fix this. And apple is wrong tell all the PC users that the direct draw settings is the problem or the latest drivers of the crafic card. No. the Quciktime Player is the problem. And they should fix it.

         

For mac users, some info on the h264 problom... www.macworld.com

         

(I think) It happens because a color profile is "tagged" onto the quicktime file. Profile which is apparently misused by quicktime player (double correction?) and ignored by VLC. And yes, Apple should fix or clarify this.

         

on black being grey in QT on PC (just encountered with a client), here's a their diagnosis/solution: "The problem lies in the default QT settings for PC/Windows. Settings can be changed under Preferences -> Quicktime and then select 'GDI Safemode' on the Advanced tab."