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inertiadoug
Participant
July 13, 2009
Answered

Flash video encoding with x264

  • July 13, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 1836 views

I'm going nuts trying to find a definitive answer on video encoding for FMS (RTMP).  All the docs I've found talk about using CBR (constant bitrate encoding).  But all of the tools I've tried either don't support CBR or perform so poorly that it will take months to finish the work I have.

Does anybody know whether VBR is a dealbreaker for streaming Flash videos using FMS?

- I've tried the Adobe Media Encoder included with CS4, but it doesn't  like my source files.

- Sorenson Squeeze 5 does CBR, but it's painfully slow.

- x264 seems to be the winner as far as speed and the quality, but it doesn't support CBR.

- MainConcept's H264 does CBR (I think it's the same codec in Adobe's encoder), but the Pro version is $1,000.  😞

Am I missing something?

Any suggestions would be great!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer GrevePoliti

    Hey again

    Im using Sorenson on a PC Laptop with Duo CPU 2.40 GHZ and 4 GB Ram. Its no where as slow as you describe.

    In my experience you should have a 1:1 relationship in duration when encoding on a decent specced computer. So if the source material is 60 minutes it should take about the same time (perhaps a little shorter/longer) to encode the material to a new format. Special settings as 2-pass VBR or similar might increase the time though.

    I suggest you contact Sorenson and ask if they might have a suggestion.

    Episode Engine is in my oppinion more of a professionel tool - hence the high prices.The performance is about the same as Sorenson on my laptop - but you got even more control of all the different settings. You can download a trial for the Desktop encoder at their site as I recall : http://www.telestream.net/episode/overview.htm

    FFMpeg is actually decent too - but lacking the nice interface of Sorenson.

    1 reply

    G
    GrevePoliti
    Participant
    July 13, 2009

    I usually use Sorenson or Episode Engine. Both are pretty expensive though.

    For Flash Streaming CBR is the best and only choice. VBR is perfect and preferred for progressive download since you often get a much better encoding. But with streaming, consistency is the most important factor - you cant have a stream changing bitrates all the time. Especially if you have informed the users of a minimum bitrate.

    If you want to use VBR  - most times you can set a % for how much the bitrate can increase.

    I
    inertiadougAuthor
    Participant
    July 13, 2009

    Is it normal for Sorenson to be soooooooo slow?  It took about eight hours to encode sixty minutes of footage.  FFMPEG/x264 was able to do the same footage in 50 minutes... but it can only encode using VBR.

    I'm encoding on a brand new iMac; which should be pretty fast.

    If I have to buy Episode Engine, that's fine.  But what's the performance like?

    Thanks for your insight...

    G
    GrevePolitiCorrect answer
    Participant
    July 14, 2009

    Hey again

    Im using Sorenson on a PC Laptop with Duo CPU 2.40 GHZ and 4 GB Ram. Its no where as slow as you describe.

    In my experience you should have a 1:1 relationship in duration when encoding on a decent specced computer. So if the source material is 60 minutes it should take about the same time (perhaps a little shorter/longer) to encode the material to a new format. Special settings as 2-pass VBR or similar might increase the time though.

    I suggest you contact Sorenson and ask if they might have a suggestion.

    Episode Engine is in my oppinion more of a professionel tool - hence the high prices.The performance is about the same as Sorenson on my laptop - but you got even more control of all the different settings. You can download a trial for the Desktop encoder at their site as I recall : http://www.telestream.net/episode/overview.htm

    FFMpeg is actually decent too - but lacking the nice interface of Sorenson.

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