Best video codec for _emailing_ video clips

[2Bdecided]

Hi,

I want to email short video clips to relatives. All are using dial-up modems, so 1-2MB per minute of footage is about the highest bitrate I can use(!)

Given this, what is the best video codec at around 100-200kbps?

An additional factor is that it will be decoded on relatively slow PCs (500MHz, running Win98) as well as some more modern machines. It's OK if only the modern PCs can use deblocking, but I don't want the video to totally fall apart on the older machines.

I've been using an early version of WMV, halving the frame rate and size, and trashing the audio. It's still not great, and I'm still getting complaints that it takes a long time to download! (Slower than 1/10th real time).

Apart from "post them a DVD" and "get broadband" do you have any suggestions? Latest WMV, or something else?

Remember it has to run on Win98 - if they can (auto) install the decoder themselves, so much the better!

Cheers,
David.

P.S. Apologies if this is the wrong forum - it's probably an MPEG-4 question, but all the MPEG-4 forums are codec specific, so I thought I might get a less biased answer here?

[jggimi]

This doesn't answer your specific question, but since you've already discounted the obvious suggestion that you drop video discs in the mail .... Why not provide them with streamable media? e.g.: 28 kbps 15fps 160x120.

You could even consider offering a streaming server from your PC, so that they see and hear it real time, assuming the total bandwidth is acheivable on their modems.

[2Bdecided]

That's an interesting idea, but I was hoping to find something that either looked better than what I'm sending already, or was smaller, or both - i.e. a (slightly) more efficient codec.

Streaming isn't such a good idea, because they often save the clips and watch them over and over again. They even take the laptop and go and show granny! They don't need to connect to the net for this. We're in the UK - you pay for going on-line. Plus (obviously) you tie up the phone line too.

So I guess this is a simple codec question: given the hardware requirements, what is the best video codec at around 200kbps?

Cheers,
David.

[bb]

I'd use DivX or XviD, but at such a low bitrate you have to go for a low resolution. And I'd deinterlace the video (only if the source is interlaced, of course), because this saves some bandwidth as well. Noise reduction is recommended, too (e.g. using Convolution3D through AviSynth).

You may choose WMV9 or RealVideo as well; they are good at low bitrates. They perform about as well as DivX/XviD, I'd say. But encoding takes longer, and there are a few more quirks to cope with, if you ask me.

bb

[snek_one]

for extremely small files i tend to use RealVideo..
it especially does a great job on animation :)

But I'm guessing you're not using it for animation hehehe..
Give the program AutoRV a try, it's the most advanced Real encoder
I have come across and does a great job for me..

AutoRV10 @ Video-Tools.com (http://www.video-tools.com)

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