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Question

How to publish lossless to MP4?

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
December 9, 2016
3 replies
2188 views

I would like to publish my Captivate project to MP4 without it compressing everything on export.

- I've disabled all compression and maximized the quality to fullest (I think the highest quality setting the custom preset is still compressed).

- SWF quality vs the MP4 is noticeably sharper and doesn't have image artifacts.

- Adobe Captivate when saving to MP4 has a dialog box title that shows that it first generated a SWF file and then converted it to MP4 (similar 3rd party converters don't work at all or can only detect audio. Adobe Media Encoder doesn't support converting from SWF).

- I've edited the preset XML file to see if I could add my own 1920 x 1080 lossless preset. My changes/additions didn't reflect in the Captivate preset list.

- In an older version of Captivate, I was able to pull out a lossless mp4 from the temp folder when it attempted to publish to YouTube (and converted from SWF to MP4 to upload). In Captivate CC the temp folder MP4 quality looks the same as if I exported on my own.

- I've tried exporting the project to Flash (to try and then export to MP4), but only the background image appears. I think the audio also is exported as mono (even when mono is unchecked).

Help... please.

This topic has been closed for replies.

S

StevePixel

Inspiring

Hi EPCS,

I agree, "The quality is perfect in Captivate preview", but your end product is not the Captivate preview.

The way compression works is the computer reads every 30th or 100th frame of source material, depending on format) these are called "I Frames" and then uses an algorithm to determine what the missing frames would have looked like. (BTW: animation works the exacts same way with Key Frames and Tween Frames) and outputs its result.That is why the files are smaller in size.

That is also why compression algos are different (mp4, flv AVI etc) so if you need to use MP4 for training and want better resolution at that size you require. You need to start with better source footage, hence the 4K recommendation.

Cheers

Steve

EPCSAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi Steve,

I also mentioned 2 end products. The resolution is not the problem (I know that 4K scaled down to 1080 will look better than 1080 captured in 1080.) The (static) recorded slides (source footage) in Captivate are either .png (lossless) or .bmp (uncompressed or lossless) files.

.swf is not an actual video file format. The final product (which Captivate first converts to and then reconverts to mp4 for Youtube uploads and for video publishing (mp4)). looks as good as the original recording.

HTML5, also not a video file format. To me, the HTML5 looks exactly like the .swf. When I unpacked the HTML5, I found high quality .mp4 video files (clips).

Also, the YouTube video upload feature uploads a higher quality mp4 (I noticed that the mp4 it generated in the temp folder was 7 times larger that what I could export myself using the video option (an mp4 that it first converts from .swf.)) than what Captivate exports at the highest quality settings. (It is also possible that YouTube reencodes that uploaded mp4 and more quality loss.)

The 1080 resolution has nothing to do with Adobe compressing the lossless/uncompressed png/bmp -- source footage. The video export feature is hamstrung. You can search the forum, I'm not the only one with this problem.

Thank you.

S

StevePixel

Inspiring

Hi EPCS ,

Interesting., so does your argument hinge on whether Adobe compresses a lossless png in order to make a smaller file size? If so then yes, it does- that is the very definition of compressing a digital file. It does this so that you can have photos (and videos and audio for that matter), without taking forever to download in an e-learning module, but so does every other e learning software on the market. It is not unique to Adobe.

This supports my argument that you need to start with higher resolution images, if you want cleaner final output images in your module. If you were to keep the actual PNGs in your original project, the same size in KBs, it would mean copying 30 images a second, times the length of your course. Hundreds, if not thousands of images, that would look great but never load.

Also for the record, SWF and HTML5 formats are wrappers for the either Flash based or AJAX based code. The codecs you mentioned would be FLV and MP4s.

Cheers

Steve

Paul Wilson CTDP

Community Expert

BTW, You should know that MP4 is not a lossless format. It's very nature is that it is compressed format.

Paul Wilson, CTDP

EPCSAuthor

Participating Frequently

Ooops, you're correct.

I'm trying to have Adobe Captivate export the projects to the highest quality possible and as uncompressed as possible.

Lilybiri

Legend

MP4 is always lossy compression for video as is MP3 for audio and JPG for images.

The goal of Captivate is to create eLearning courses, that can be deployed on any device, need a LMS or a webserver. For most users keeping the file size as low as possible is very important (bandwidth, mobile devices with less power than laptops etc). For SWF output, the video's are converted to FLV with perhaps a better quality than MP4. But someone banned everything Flash from mobile devices, and soon it will also disappear from browsers.

Paul Wilson CTDP

Community Expert

What is the resolution of the project you are attempting to export? If I'm not mistaken, the MP4 export will simply maintain the same project size. When I record my Video Demo tutorials and upload them to YouTube I get full HD quality. I understand that to be because my video demo is a full-screen recording at 1920 x 1080. Check it out if you like:

Here is my latest video demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm3qOekdsZ4

Paul Wilson, CTDP

EPCSAuthor

Participating Frequently

I have no problem with resolution. I recorded in 1080 (my desktop resolution). What you preview in Captivate and what it looks like in MP4 doesn't look good (not horrible, but for what we're paying for CC... really Adobe?)

I just experimented with my old Captivate projects and compared the file size (and the quality visually).
I'm going to post another comment on the details on how to get a BETTER quality MP4, but basically...
What Captivate gives you at max quality when you publish to MP4 is about 1/7 of the file size of what makes it to YouTube (and possible is reencoded) when it convert the SWF to MP4 for YouTube unbeknownst to you.

PS: The older Captivate MP4 and the new MP4 that I pulled from the temp folder from Captivate CC was pretty much the same size. It might be as good as it gets unless someone knows of another trick.

EPCSAuthor

Participating Frequently

HI EPCS.

Paul is correct, MP4 is compressed. You really can't get away from that in e-learning. If you want the best possible resolution, you need to start with the best possible recording resolution in source material, (4k if you can) then render it down a size and quality, you can live with for your project. That is the trade-off. Adobe Media Encoder is great for doing test renders and comparing.

Cheers

Steve

Hi Steve,

- The quality is perfect in Captivate previews, SFW, and HTML5.
- Adobe is purposely giving a poorer quality of MP4 when published as video (MP4) vs straight to YouTube.
- The temp folder MP4 that it coverts from SWF (you/Adobe can't upload SWF to YouTube), in my case, was 7 times larger (file size in MBs) than what I published to video (MP4). Visibly, the file that was 7 times larger looked better and contained less compression artifacts.
- This hamstringing affects all resolutions.

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