Making Movies - Output File Size Problem

[sgspirit]

Here are the options MotionDirector has available for rendering a movie.

When I click on "Produce", I can or have been selecting the following options:

Create a File
Windows AVI (as opposed to DV-AVI)
AVI High Quality (as opposed to low or medium quality)
Xvid MPEG-4 Codec
Key Frame Per - not used
Data Rate - not used
Composition - Video and audio

Codec Settings
Profile @ Level: [email protected] (whatever that means)
Encoding Type: Single Pass (or Twopass - 1st pass, Twopass - 2nd pass)
Target size (kbytes):

Bitrate Calculator
- Target size 665600
- subtitles 0
Container: format: AVI-OpenDML (there are other choices), Overhead (kbytes) 2615
Video:hours 1, minutes 30, seconds 0, frames per second 30.0, size (kbytes) 578610, Average bitrate 877
Audio: Format MP3-CBR (there are other choices), Average bitrate 128

Zones: Frame# 0, Weight/Quality W 1.00, Modifiers

Advanced Options:
Motion search precision: 0-6 levels, VHQ mode 0-4 levels
Use chroma motion, Turbo:-)
Other: Frame drop ratio 0, Maximum I-frame interval 300, cartoon mode
Quantization: Min or Max I, P or B frame quantizer, with numbers
Debug: Performance Optimizations: Automatic, or force MMX, Integer SSE, SSE, SSE2, 3DNow!, 3DNow!2, Number of threads, FourCC used type, Output DebugString debug level etc etc.

Decoder Options
Deblocking Y, or UV
Film Effect

Video/Audio Settings
Video Frames: 30
Video Size: 640x480
Colors: True Color (24 bit)
Audio Format MPEG1 Layer2 Audio
Attributes: 44100Hz, Mono, 64.0Kbps

Choosing Single Pass changes the options.
Target Quantizer 1.00, also slider bar from 1 (maximum quality) to 31 (smallest file)

So far tonight I can't find where you specify the name of the statsfile, and didn't have time tonight to try any productions.

[sgspirit]

Another session with this.

I found I could not get small output files using single pass. The trick to the "Statsfile not found" problem is:
In "Codec Settings" choose Twopass - 1st pass.
Choose a filename, or use the default
When that pass is done, go back to the previous step.
This time, select Twopass - 2nd pass.
At the point where you can insert a filename, insert or browse to select the file from the first pass. This first pass file is the statsfile. "Save" the first pass filename, and proceed with the second pass.

I tried a large number of options, and found the only ones that made any difference were the bitrate and the filesize. A bitrate of 1.812Mbps, or 1812Kbps, gave me results as good as I could get. Any higher setting just resulted in larger files. I zeroed in on this size because that's the camera's spec for 640x480/30fps high quality. I don't know if that makes sense entirely, but it worked.

I also tried various target file sizes. Below 5Mb, the output video was noticably grainier than the best I could get. Above 6.2Mb, I got larger output files with no increase in quality.

Ok, that seems fine. Time to try the output files in the cameras.

I renamed the best output file to CLIP1000.AVI, and loaded it into the correct folders for the two cameras on an SD card. The Digilife DDV-720 simply hang whenever it saw the file. The V1 played the file, but the quality looked bad, the video was sped up, while the sound track was ok. So the sound track was not synched, and it played on after the video completed.

Bummer.