MP4 Video Encoding Parameters

Report · Nov 07, 2018

I've a project that has a ton of video. For years I've never really gotten silky smooth video from AIR apps utilizing StageVideo, or StageWebView, and just lived with it.

These 'moves' are a lot of turns and the 'little bumpiness' is more obvious than usual.

Has anyone found encoding settings for 720p and 1080p that produce smooooth video playback?

I've tried nearly every variation in Adobe Media encoder with no luck. I would be willing to use another encoding package if required.

GTX 1070, so it's not the card.

Thanks

Report · Nov 08, 2018

Are you talking about inside a desktop AIR app? Which version of AIR are you using? Are you playing the video with HTML5 video tags?

Whether it's desktop or mobile, using StageVideo would be better performance than using StageWebView.

Report · Nov 08, 2018

Yes, an Air 31 Windows Desktop Application @ 30fps utlitizing StageVideo, playing video from ApplicationStorageDirectory (system is on a SSD)

Specific Test system is a Dell XPS desktop, i7 gen 6, 64G of ram, Nvidia GTX1070, Windows 10

720p Video is encoded at 30fps, 6->8, 1 pass VBR, Main profile, level 4.1 and plays smoothly in any other application on the system. I mostly review video in Google Chrome. I've tried a bunch of variations on encoding. more bitrate, less biterate. CBR,1,2 pass VBR, Fussed with the profiles and levels. I've tested on other systems as well, including some laptops, including the laptop of the project director for this one which is a new Asus. Always a little 'stutter' going on during playback.

Same videos play smoothly on iOS in an Air 31 app using StageVideo.

I'm not sure what 'video with HTML5 vidoe tags' means. Is that meta that's applied to the file? Is it typcially applied be Adobe Media Encoder CC 2018?

Thanks

Report · Nov 08, 2018

How is the video being played in the web page? If it's the HTML5 video tag way:

<video>: The Video Embed element - HTML: HyperText Markup Language | MDN

I would expect it to use hardware decoding. If it's some other way it may be using software decoding.

Report · Nov 08, 2018

It's not in a web page, it's directly in the AIR app using StageVideo.

Also Render Mode is set to Direct, per the instructions, hummm... maybe I'll try auto or something.

Thanks!

Report · Nov 08, 2018

You had mentioned StageWebView, so I thought you were using StageWebView.

One nice undocumented thing about StageVideo is that it works fine in GPU mode. That could be worth a try.

Report · Nov 08, 2018

I tried that a few years back, didn't do much, but I'll try again if you are recommending it.

How do I load the video quickly? Do I use .loadString with some HTML in it?

Soundthing like this?

Do the controls work, would it give me the standard web broswers controls? This has never worked for me in the past. A code snippet would be ideal

Thanks

Report · Nov 08, 2018

You're giving an HTML example now, which would be StageWebView using the video tag, and not StageVideo.

The way StageVideo is done hasn't changed in the last 8 years, so this article should still help:

Getting started with Stage Video

Report · Nov 08, 2018

Yes, I am using StageVideo. As I've been using it for the past 8 years...

It's NEVER been silky smooth on windows desktop. We are displaying really crisp 3d architectual animations, so the edges stutter sometimes. I know from experience that 'softer' real video seldom looks this way.

i thought you where recommending trying StageWebView. I tried use StageWebView for video a few years back, but that didn't play smoothly either.

StageVideo, from your experience, works better than StageWebView for video playback?

Thanks

Report · Nov 12, 2018

You might consider FFMPEG for compression, which has a lot more granular control than Media Encoder, but is a bit arcane b/c its command line only. I typically fire up a server on DigitalOcean, install FFMPEG, do my compression, and shut the server down. Use the biggest server (most cores) available, since you'll only be using its for an hour or two. Remember to shut it down or you'll see a $500 monthly bill on your CC.

I switched because Media Encoder wasn't giving me all the options I wanted, and because it frees up the local machine I was using for compression.

Use ffprobe for really sweet granular analysis of existing video.

$ ffprobe video.flv

Also like mentioned above, use GPU on both desktop and mobile for smoother playback. Video is almost unworkable with out GPU on IOS in my experience.

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MP4 Video Encoding Parameters