I want to do some recordings on my computer screen which I then want to turn into video podcasts. I'm using snapz pro, but could someone tell me what's the best size I should make the video when I capture off my screen and then what compression settings would you suggest so that the video will look good on an iPod?

Thanks!

Hello,
We tend to stay out of this area as it's fairly objective. It can be confusing but there are plenty of resources out there. We have a bit about iPod videos in our FAQ that you may find helpful. I'm sure some of the other memebers can chime in with their suggestions though! Best of luck to you

I took a look at the FAQ - good info there, but it mostly refers to the settings in Quicktime Pro which were the settings I did use. I'm more interested in the settings within Snapz Pro when you click Save. I used Animation, and that gave me a very poor video quality. I then tried None, but the file size was HUGE and I ran out of hard drive space. Finally I tried Sorenson 3 Video and that seems to have worked. AFter saving out of Snapz Pro using Sorenson Video 3, I then imported the movie into Quicktime and exported it using Movie to iPod. I moved the video to my iPod and it looks okay. I just wanted to see if anyone had suggestions for a better compression out of Snapz Pro than Sorenson 3. Any thoughts out there?

Michael

Just to clarify, Snapz simply hands off the compression to QuickTime. It doesn't compress anything iteself. You have access to all the same codecs as in QuickTime.

If that is so, why don't I see MP3 and AAC as sound compression possibilities? QuickTime knows about them.

Also, when I try to compress video with H. 264, when I set the quality to Best, why is it reported as only Medium?

As it is, in order to get the compression I want, I'm having to import into iMovie and re-export.

Correction...you'll have access to "most" of the items in QT. I am not sure where or how the line is drawn.


This is a cosmetic bug where the text is not matching the setting you choose. It's documented here in the FAQ.

Unfortunately you're doing more harm then good. The settings you are choosing are working. Using iMovie in your workflow means your footage is being converted to digital video, which can have an undesireable effect. Hope this helps

Okay, forget iMovie (just for the sake of argument). The point is that when Snapz Pro X gives me a 9MB movie, I can re-convert it to get an 800KB movie. So there's something wrong somewhere, because Snapz Pro X should have given me that 800KB movie to begin with.

The file size is dependent on what compression you use. I would suggest opening your smaller file in QuickTime, open the info window and see what compression was used. You can then mimic those in the Movie saving settings in Snapz.

There is a narrow range of settings you'll want to aim for to get ipod-usable compressions. You can google them, but if you have the application "Compressor" (which comes with Final Cut Studio), it has settings built in that are very good for this kind of thing. I don't recall the exact bitrate, but you'll be looking at Mpeg-4 and H264 encoding, with a resolution of 320x240 or 640x480. (Or letterboxed stuff within that range.)

Correction to myself.. Looks like the bitrate is 600 kbps* total for your movie and audio, distributed how you want it. (Would probably recommend something like 96 kbps towards your audio and the other 500 to your video) And you can only do 640x480 if you are using mpeg-4. I'd recommend the 320x240 h264 myself, .. smaller file sizes and the ipod only has 320x240 screen anyway.

*kbps != Kbps

Also fyi, key frames in compression can make a big difference in an otherwise identical encode, possibly explaining your problems between Snapz and iMovie. This shouldn't be confused with the animation word "keyframe". The way it works is.. Every X frames, your movie will encode a new frame fresh. Then for the next X-1 frames, the frame will be based off of that previous one using a minimal amount of data that looks for the change from frame to frame. If you set it to do a key frame every frame, a much larger file will be produced. If you set it to a larger number (key frame every 100 frames), the encode size will go down a lot, but your quality will suffer. I'm sure you have seen really bad encodes where during a scene-change it looks like the screen oozes badly and appears to hold data from the previous cut, until it gets to the next keyframe.

Maybe it's not your problem, but its one that comes to mind when people ask about encoding. (I get these questions a lot)

My whole point is that, no, I can't mimic those settings in the Movie saving settings in Snapz Pro X, because it does not give access to the same settings. Some settings don't work. Some settings result in no movie at all. So I have no choice but to use Snapz Pro X to make a big movie (190 MB) and then use some other app to recompress (1 MB). That is my whole point. I'm wishing that Snapz Pro X's QuickTime settings should be more complete and should work better.

Hello,
You should be able to get close. Snapz is lacking some of the same audio codecs, but all the same videos ones should be available. If you do a get info in QuickTime on your movie, you should be able to see those settings used. Hope this helps