A few boring questions about video download formats.

[BillShipton]

Hi

We are looking at various ways to upgrade the quality of the clips you can download from the Splosh! download stores and wondered if you'd mind answering a few questions. We have some people who say they don't mind if the film is small and not top quality so long as it is quick and easy to download, and we have others wanting top quality, large files and less commonplace formats. So which do you prefer?

1) Does file size matter to you or the time it takes to download?
2) Do you want the very best picture quality or do you prefer something quick and easy even if the quality suffers a bit?
3) Which format works best for you (WMV, Quicktime, AVI, MP4 etc)
4) Do you prefer HD?
5) Which formats do you have easy access to?

Yes, I know, very boring but our next post will feature more pictures of messy women, I promise..

Bill

[the_dunker]

Hi Bill,

1) Being on a 1Mbps connection overall filesize, and therefore the time taken to download, is something I think about as I don't want to be hanging around ages for a video to download.
2) While the best quality is wonderful for photos I find that video can be lower quality, especially as my laptop screen can blur movement slightly.
3) WMV is my preferred format.
4) With my connection speed I'll stick to SD.
5) I have easy access to WMV, Quicktime, MP4. AVI is probably not too much of a problem either.

Hope that helps, or at least gets you on your way.

the_dunker

[wamcat]

1) File size doesn't really matter, I'll set the download going and come back later.
2) I would rather have the best quality possible.
3) WMV works best for me, although I'm happy with AVI formats and MP4; I refuse to install Quicktime
4) Yes, I prefer HD.
5) I can figure out how to play any format.

[TheMagoo]

1. Not an issue... 50Mbps means I can download gigs quite happily. Support for download accelerators would be good though for people with slower or flakier connections. Despite what some sites say they do work.
2. Best quality, no question
3. Anything really, between the KLite codec pack for Windows Media Player (blech...) and VLC Media Player you can play pretty much anything.
4. HD
5. Everything and anything

A twin pack containing HD for the PC and slightly smaller files for my smart phone would be good (if only to save me from having to do the conversion myself).

[alfawam]

Bill,

Here is the vote of the Luxembourg Jury....

1) Does file size matter to you or the time it takes to download? NO, I have a multi-MB broadband
2) Do you want the very best picture quality or do you prefer something quick and easy even if the quality suffers a bit? BEST QUALITY
3) Which format works best for you (WMV, Quicktime, AVI, MP4 etc) MP4 AND WMV (MP4 PREFERRED)
4) Do you prefer HD? YES
5) Which formats do you have easy access to? MP4, WMV, AVI, MPG

Thanks

[Trouso]

Dear Bill,

Here are my even more boring answers:

1) Broadly speaking, no. My connection is not fast (1mb – though, in reality about half that on average!) due to my location, but as there is no restriction, within reason, to the volume I can download, I personally find a wait of between 5 minutes (135mb SD) and 20-30 mins (a 400-600mb HD) quite acceptable. I usually go and do something else (like some work or the washing up!) for a few minutes.
2) For me, good content is always the winner, hands down, so as long as there are no major aberrations within the picture (though I would expect these in the jokes!) I’m quite happy. In my opinion, the current picture quality is more than acceptable, even with the older video downloads from Splosh!
3) I personally have no format preference.
4) Yes, preferred, but with reference to answer 2.
5) Mainly WMV, MP4, AVI, but I have a number of media players installed. These days, there are so many different players available (and mostly free) that even the most obscure format can be played on at least one of them.

Regards,

-Trouso

[snake]

thanks for asking Bill... not boring - it shows that you care about what you're putting out there....
my answers;

1) file size isn't an issue... I'm quite happy to go off and do other things while files download
2) without doubt picture quality is king!
3) any format suits me, even MOV would be fine (you don't need Quicktime)
4) A geniune Splosh! video in HD! Sounds like heaven! Yes please!
5) I use VLC and/or GOM player so any format is fine, they even play Quicktime .MOV format

Looking forward to seeing the next video(s)!

[brick]

1. File size isn't a problem for me.
2. Best picture quality always.
3. I don't really mind as long but the majority of videos I download are .wmv.
4. HD isn't really common enough in sploshing videos for me to "prefer" it. I don't really mind sticjung with a sharp SD picture. If HD and SD were offered alongside each other, with HD at a higher price, I would probably opt for SD.
5. WMV, AVI, MP4 and probably various obscure ones too but those are the main ones.

Hope these answers help.

[Squelch]

Bill...here's my input from a non computer buff:
1. Crap download speed where i live and I haven't got the patience to wait for massive files to download. Current sizes are ok.
2. Quick and easy
3. wmv..don't know anything about the others
4.No feelings either way on HD
5.No idea as long as it plays

[BillShipton]

Thanks for your help so far. I am glad we are not TOO FAR off getting it right. Improving size to 720 x 576 doesn't present too much of a problem though converting it to WMV (we are Mac-based here) means that it is not as good as the .MOV original. Conversion to MP4 seems to retain more quality on our set-up. I appreciate that a lot of you prefer WMV though so we may stick with doing an MP4 and WMV version for a while.

In the future, we will be shooting new material on a camera that can do HD but I am not sure it is worth it. As some have said, good quality SD is fine on a computer (given decent lighting - something I need to teach myself!) but please continue to add to the debate.

What I DON'T want to do is make films that only cyber geeks with fancy downloaded players can see. Splosh! films should be for everyone.

[Big Al]

Bill, if you already have the MOV files, why not upload those instead of MP4? Most people who can play MP4 should be able to play MOV files if they are using something like VLC player, and anyone who can't will probably otherwise have Windows Media Player and can therefore use the WMV format.

[BillShipton]

At the risk of sounding very old (cos I have neither), can you play MOV files on an iPhone or iPod?

Bill