HOW TO: Video Conversion – Wrap Up

Before we close out this series on Video Conversion when using Ensemble Video, I thought it might be a good idea to tell you a little about media inspection tools. Being able to check and inspect the properties of the file really helps us develop the proper encoding recipes, plus it helps use understand why a file will not export properly. The team at Ensemble Video is constantly using tools like MediaInfo (WIN) and Media Inspector (Mac) to gain more insight into the ingredients of video files. I know I’m a BIG fan of Media Inspector.

OK, it is time to close this series out, please know I’m just offering some suggestions based on my experience creating media and working with Ensemble Video. I recognize there are lots of ways to digitize VHS tapes or export media from a Video Editing progrma, my goal was and is to shed some light on some of the most common scenarios.

Final Thoughts

I’ll leave you with 5 tips for optimizing your videos for playback in Ensemble Video:

1. You can increase the video quality by increasing the data rate in any of the single file or ABR encoding recipes I suggested. Keep in mind that when you do this, it will impact your users’ ability to view the video, depending on their available bandwidth. Please do not assume everyone will be viewing on a high-speed Internet connection.
2. The more data in the videos files you create, the more storage you will use.
3. The more videos in an ABR bundle, the more storage you will use, and the more files you (or Ensemble) have to backup.
4. If you increase the data in a video preset to above 3Mbps or use several HD presets, it will consume more of the streaming server’s available bandwidth.
5. What I would suggest doing is testing this out for yourself — good old-fashioned trial-and-error comparison tests will help you determine the best results.

We hope you have enjoyed our our “summer school crash course” on video conversion, brought to you by Scott Nadzan. If you missed anything, go back to the series introduction for links to the other articles. Good luck in your video encoding adventures!