N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Hello,
I need some help with the videos i recorded with my N900's camera:
I think the results look pretty good (see e.g. here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Kn2GtbI_4)
and I'd like to share them with friends and family, but not bother the whole world with them (as Youtube would have me do).
Now that's where the problems start: On Youtube, you can either make your videos completely public, or you can share them ONLY with with people who have a Youtube account. However, I don't want the whole world to have acces to my videos, but I don't want to harrass all my friends into signing up with Youtube either. So I was looking for alternatives with more well-differentiated sharing options, but here's the thing:
All the video sharing services I've tried so far - except for "make-it-public-or-keep-it-a-secret"-Youtube - convert my files to flash with some hideous distortions/pixel noise, as you can see here:
http://vimeo.com/10705004 (this is password-protected: "bennsn")
Vimeo support said, these are the best results I could get on their site.
Converting the original files to divx sort of works, but is still far from the original quality.
I was thinking I might somehow reencode my files before uploading them, so they don't get messed up in flash format.

Now, could anyone give me some pointers on how to do that, respectively for a software that is able to?
Any similar experiences?
How do you share your videos?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Ben

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Try mp4cam2avi, http://sourceforge.net/projects/mp4cam2avi/

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Maybe their quality settings stink. Most likely they transcode with a low setting to keep size small.

Maybe you should try converting yourself before uploading so they don't transcode. Try this or similar. Google "To FLV converter".

If all fails, Vimeo, as other sites, support HD video. You could try upscaling the video first, on PC, at a minimal loss of quality, then uploading in 720p.

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Vimeo doesn't let you upload .flv files, easyflv doesn't convert from mp4. Thanks for your hint though, I'll that with a different software and some other video sites! :)

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

It may sound strange, but have you tried sharing it via Ovi?

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Yes, tried that first. Quality sucks like on Vimeo. But, thanks for the tip, maybe they will let me upload .flv...

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Why flv on ovi?

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Your own suggestion?....

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

No, I meant, AFAIK OVI stores and shares in MP4 format, why pre-convert?

The stuff I filmed a few days ago I shared to OVI from phone in MP4, it got uploaded in MP4 and the site embeds MP4.

Check this out, it's not the best video, but it's MP4. That's me adding dye to my HTPC water cooling reservoir under UV light.

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

I don't get it. OVI always plays my videos (that i uploaded in mp4) to me in flv., so they must have been converted,right? How can i avoid that? How to you get ovi to play back the original mp4?
Your video looks pretty good, but there's no panning or fast movement - 'cause those are the things that result for me in distorting "pixellations" after conversion to flv. I'd be curious to know if ohter people get the same distortions with faster pans or movements...

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

You get a FLV?

I get an MP4. Furthermore, attempting a link to the video got me THIS, which yields an MP4.

It is transcoded, but it's rather similar to the original. No movement, true. Running test now.

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

I'm sorry, a 3-minute video is 90 MB and Ovi refuses to allow it via N900 share service. I'll go around it tomorrow, it's 1 AM.

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

The web's player may be a Flash based player, but according to Download Helper plugin for Firefox, I am able to download it in MP4 format.

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Where are you playing back the uploaded videos?N900? have you checked them in your computer? due to the low color support, playing flash videos in the browser in N900 gives you those banding/pixelated results. Even for the HD videos you get those result if you play them in N900 browser. Check the discussion here.

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

No, I actually never tried it on the N900, they look this bad on the 20" screen of my desktop PC...

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Yes, worked for me too. I downloaded the file, it also has as many pixellations as the flash version, still looks bad
Here's a comparison of the .mp4 downlaoded via Firefox Video Download Helper and the original one:

Original:
name 20100502_028.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 7.47 MiB
Duration : 17s 280ms
Overall bit rate : 3 624 Kbps
Performer : Bennypr0fane
Encoded date : UTC 1970-01-03 06:03:00
Tagged date : UTC 1970-01-03 06:03:00
Classification : (empty)
Classification_Reason : 31a7663034198221b6f598c88319a4fa

Video
ID : 2
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : 20
Duration : 17s 275ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 3 504 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 3 894 Kbps
Width : 848 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Stream size : 7.18 MiB (96%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 1970-01-03 06:03:00
Tagged date : UTC 1970-01-03 06:03:00

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 17s 280ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 132.3 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Channel positions : Front: C
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 274 KiB (4%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 1970-01-03 06:03:00
Tagged date : UTC 1970-01-03 06:03:00


And OVI:
name OVI compressed.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 1.88 MiB
Duration : 17s 250ms
Overall bit rate : 916 Kbps

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 17s 250ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 816 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 368 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.116
Stream size : 1.68 MiB (89%)

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 17s 194ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 96.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 199 KiB (10%)

Here's the link.

We're still stuck with Youtube as the only decent solution.... *sigh*

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

I couldn't do it either, it gets transcoded. AFAICT, they all transcode, even in HD, and the web codec used is rate limited. Which makes sense, because if they didn't, the high movement would peak the bandwidth, chopping it up and taking up several other slots in bandwidth.

Rate limiting codecs give up quality in panning and high-action scenes to keep the bit rate down.

I'm afraid that you're either stuck with a HD service from a normal site or, you could post it to a normal site like YouTube and linking the original to a file sharing site, file-based, one that doesn't require membership.

To protect it, you could pack the file with a password. WinRAR (if you own one) is notoriously harder to crack open after encryption relative to free zip.

Large Zipped files with decent passwords is also very hard to knock, as the weakness of Zip lies in non-solid archiving.

Re: N900 Video recording: reencoding my videofiles so they look good on video sharing sites
 

Well it's not like I need top-notch security for my videos, they're not top-secret; I just don't want to show them to every youtube user in the world, but only my friends, family and students, i.e. the people who appear in my clips.

however, I found that some services let you import the stuff you uploaded to youtube, but in the same quality, letting you share Youtube-private videos with your contacts from those services (e.g. multiply, windows live and facebook).

File sharing is also a good option though: No streaming, but downloading is ok, as long as noone needs to register just in order to watch a short clip. E.g. 4shared has pretty decent handling of privacy settings, and a desktop client!