Video Settings

The Video tab controls all the settings related with the quality and characteristics of the video and image encoding.

Changing Video Settings

All the Video settings can be defined inside the Video tab shown below:

The following settings can be defined on this area:

Codec

The codec used to encode video:
- FLV (Flash 7+)
- FLV Lossless (Flash 7+)
- H.264 (Flash 9.5+)

FLV codec is based on H.263 codec and should be used for maximum Flash compatibility. Compatible with Flash Player 7 and over.

FLV Lossless should be used when encoding video with text or other fine detail features which might be rendered unclear with normal lossy video encoding. Lossless video encoding renders every pixel of each frame, at the cost however of creating necessarily bigger files than other video encoding methods. Since every pixel is exactly encoded, many settings such as Bitrate do not apply to this encoding method.

H.264 is a state-of-the-art video codec implemented in the latest update to Flash Player 9.5, which delivers stunning quality at remarkably low data rates. Compatible with Flash Player 7 and over.

Rate Control

The encoding method used to compress video:
- CBR: Constant Bit Rate encoding
- VBR 1-pass: Variable Bit Rate encoding with 1-pass
- VBR 2-pass: Variable Bit Rate encoding with 2-pass
- KQ: Constant Quality encoding

In general CBR encoding will yield a constant bit rate and is more suited to streaming, while VBR will present better quality but with bit rate fluctuations (more complex areas of the video will use more bit rate). CBR will target the Bit Rate set in the Bitrate property, while VBR will use that property as the average of the bit rates to target. KQ encoding uses the same quality for all frames and should be used when quality is the main target - quality for KQ can be set with the Constant Quality (Const. Quality in the interface) property.

Bitrate

The encoding video bit rate in bits per second. For Constant Bit Rate (CBR) encoding method this is the target bit rate, while for Variable Bit Rate encoding (VBR 1-pass and 2-pass) this is the average bit rate. The value is not used for Constant Quality (KQ) encoding.
Please note that the actual encoded video bitrate will be an approximation to this target value. As the approximation requires some time to be effective, small encoding durations (typically below 10 seconds) usually will have difficulty achieving the target bitrate. Also lower values for the Keyframe setting may increase the difficulty in achieving the target value. If this becomes a problem you can:
- lower the Bitrate, and/or
- increase the Keyframe interval, and/or
- increase the encoding duration

Constant Quality

The quality level used in Constant Quality encoding.

Frame Size

The frame size at which the video will be encoded, which must be equal or smaller than the original video frame size.

Frame Rate

The frame rate in frames per second at which the video will be encoded. This value must be lower than the original frame rate of the video.

Keyframe

The number of seconds after which an intra frame is emitted by the encoder. Intra frames are very important because the player can only seek to intra frames, so they should be spaced accordingly to the nature of the encoded video. For example a video which is not intended to allow seeking doesn't require frequent intra frames and can use a lower intra frame period.
This property measures in seconds, thus having the advantage of being frame rate independent.

Motion Detection

The motion detection and estimation method used for video compression. Either an fast, optimal method or a slow but better quality method. In general the optimal method is the best method to use as the slower method is much slower and only slightly better.

Deblocking

Enables a deblocking filter in the video player (at play time), which avoids certain block compression artifacts, providing better perceived image quality.

Smoothing

Enables a smoothing filter in the video player (at play time), which avoids certain block compression artifacts, providing better perceived image quality.

Image Overlay

The absolute location of an image to use as overlay or watermark, displayed over the original video frames. The following image formats are accepted:
- JPEG
- PNG, including transparent and alpha channel images
- GIF
- BMP
The position and transparency of the overlay can be set with the Position and Opacity settings.