General Convention Guide for Video Submissions

[Echuir]

I was asked to post a general guide for video submissions.
Here is the Guide we use for AWA. I have been experimenting with other hardware/software but will not post anything till it passes rigourous testing.

MPEG
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 are the preferable formats to submit in, as AWA VAT will convert all other formats to the MPEG-2 format for display. If you are using a Windows PC there is a program called Tsunami MPEG Encoder at TMPGEnc.com that we prefer, it has a 30 day fully functional trial. For other operating systems there are MPEG encoders available. Any conversions we do will be done using Tsunami MPEG using the profiles listed below.

For frame rate you have two main choices. You can choose 23.97 or 24 frames per second, and either you can encode it with 3:2 upon playback or our hardware will automatically do that if you forget. Otherwise please use 29.97 or 30 frames a second. We actually prefer the fraction values for frame rates.

For file resolution, please choose one of the following resolutions, and scale your video up to it: 720x480, 704x480, 640x480, 352x480, 352x240, or 320x240. If your vertical resolution is 480, please encode your videos as interlaced, instead of progressive. If your original source is not one of these resolutions, please choose the smallest one that is larger than your resolution. We would suggest 640x480 only for computer-generated video or video that was captured with square pixels; otherwise use 704x480 over 640x480.

For the bit rate in MPEG-2 files we would suggest setting it to variable bit rate and selecting 16 megabits per second as the maximum. If you want to use two pass VBR, set 2 megabits as the minimum and 8 megabits as the average; otherwise simply use constant quality VBR and leave the quality setting at maximum and the max bit rate at 16 megabits per second. For 320x240 or 352x240 resolutions, you might want to consider MPEG-1. If you use MPEG-1 please either create a VCD spec file (not disc) or set the bit rate to 1.5 megabits per second. It is in your best interest to use the highest bit rate allowed-within reason, of course-since that will increase quality. MPEG-2 will encode a 352x240 file better than MPEG-1 can at the same bit rate, so the choice is yours. We have a lot of hard drive storage space and would rather sacrifice size over quality.

For audio please use layer-II audio at 224 kilobits per second or better, and choose stereo over joint stereo. The higher the bit rate, the better it will sound. Do not use layer-III or mp3, as our hardware cannot decode this. You may also use AC3 codec if you have it.

If you wish to test what your video will look like, please purchase a Hollywood+ MPEG-2 playback card, or a Realmagic X-card(newer model), and attach its TV out to a television. These are inexpensive (currently less than $50 on Ebay) cards that you can use to output MPEG files to a video device and/or a television. The hardware we use at the convention will be based on the same technology as this card (Netstream2000).

If you are unsure on how or what resolution/frame rate/bit rate/audio settings to choose, please submit the original source file and let us do the conversion for you.
AVI
If you are doing your video work on a PC it is very likely that you manipulate AVI files. Thought it is preferable to get MPEG files, we can accept AVI files (though they will be converted internally to MPEG files for display purposes). If you send an AVI file with a high compression CODEC on it, such as MPEG-4, DivX, or Xvid, the resulting MPEG file will not be as high quality as possible. If we can get a CODEC to play your AVI file all should be fine and we can convert based on that. The file has to be readable in VirtualDub, so modifying an AVI file to disrupt "editing" of it will be counter-productive.

Currently we have CODECs for:
• DivX
• Huffyuv
• Xvid
And any other CODECs that come standard with Windows. If you are not sure, please contact us to see if we have the CODEC or make sure that the CODEC may be easily installed onto another machine. The same goes for the audio CODEC. We have not installed any extra audio CODECs, so check with me if you use anything except PCM, MP3, AC3, or Windows Media audio.

The resolutions and frame rates allowable for AVI files are essentially unlimited. We will convert the file to one of the profiles listed in the MPEG section using the same criteria that we suggest. When we resize a video, the choice of maintaining the aspect ratio will be determined on a video-to-video basis.
ASF, WMV, Windows Media
The quality on these can suffer during the conversion process. Do not "lock" the files when they are authored. Try to set the bit rate and settings to maximum.
QuickTime
We have QuickTime Pro 7.0.4 for the PC installed. Use the standard CODECs that are included in both PC and MAC versions. If you are converting the file from a MAC, do not forget to "flatten" the file, otherwise we can not read it. The resolutions and frame rates allowable for QuickTime files are more or less unlimited. We will convert the file to one of the profiles listed in the MPEG section using the same criteria that we suggest. Again, when we resize a video, the choice of maintaining the aspect ratio will be determined on a video-to-video basis. The only non-standard QuickTime CODEC we have is the normal QuickTime DV CODEC.
Flash/Shockwave Animation
Not Accepted.
Real Media Files
Accepted but what we get out is not very friendly to look at and takes a lot of time to convert. Most often I end up rejecting these as they don't convert correctly.