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April 2015: Changing video formats

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    #31
    Originally posted by garionhall View Post
    We agree. Do you have specific feedback on our proposal?
    I like it. It's good to see AW embracing technology and keeping up with the times. I would only suggest 10Mb/s bitrate for the 1080 HD renditions as opposed to 5 as was proposed for that simply because not much less than 10 it's likely pixelation will begin to become appearent, especially when there is motion within the frame. 5 seems like a low figure that I would be afraid wouldn't do the 1080 picture resolution and all the work and resources that went into it justice, IMO.

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      #32
      Originally posted by garionhall View Post
      We will continue using Flash for Playdates for now. What happens on your droid tablet with playdates?
      Actually, I downloaded the paid version of the Puffin browser, and while it hasn't worked well for streaming shoot videos, it works great for Playdates. I used it for the last two, and unlike Flashfox, Puffin was problem-free. So I'm good, thanks,

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        #33
        Hmm.. I did some calculations on filesize (assuming bitrate overal constant, which prolly will be lower a bit)
        I'm pretty sure I won't download a 10Mbit file ever I have seen VOD sites offer it though, don't see myself downloading 3Gb for one scene.

        Here's the expected max filesizes for 20 and 45 minutes of video at various bitrates:
        Click image for larger version

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          #34
          Hey, i am Ugur and I'm video editor and work on the encoding for abbywinters.com

          Thanks for your feedback, its always good to know what customers expect and would like to see on website.

          Past 2 months I was making tests over bitrates and different file formats to make this changes available for all of our customers. We are recording with our Panasonic cameras in 8bits which is the source file and when its get into Editing Program its change to 5bits. So basically all of our masters, highest quality files from past 3 years are in 5bit. I made some tests to see differences between higher bitrates but than there is another problems comes out which is enormous file sizes.

          Deciding bitrates is finding best balance of the file size and quality. After many different encodes, we find out best balance would be 5bit for quality and the file size which is the best quality we have available. Basically we will be sharing the best quality as we can with our current system.

          We also use VBR encoding which allow us to encode more complicated, or motion frames in higher bitrates and simple frames in lower bitrates. It works out very well and we have not experienced any pixelation so far. It is also because of encoding program we use called "Vantage Encoder" is very successful on encoding, and deciding bitrates for frames. It is one of the best Encoding program in the market and world wide leader of it.


          You can see below the bitrates of Worldwide companies used and so far no one goes up to 5 because of all that reasons. I am curious what would you think after you watch couple of 1080 videos, please keep us updated.

          Click image for larger version

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            #35
            Ok, the first HD1080 files are being released now! One of the first was http://www.abbywinters.com/video_mas...noa/video/clip.

            We'll add HD1080 for most of the last 2.5 months, and all new releases from now forwards.

            Over the coming two months, we'll go further and further in our back catalogue, back to around April 2013.
            Attached Files
            Last edited by garionhall; 7 April 2015, 11:41 AM.

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              #36
              720HD version bitrate is 5343
              10080HD bitrate is 5386

              That explains the oddly same filesizes but you probably want to lower the bitrate on the 720HD version ?

              Also I'm not a encoding specialist but mediainfo says profile/level of both files is High@L4.0 didn't you want to use High@4.2 ?

              (and resolution of 720HD video is 1280x720 , no idea where the page gets the extra 4 px from )

              I'll try viewing these on a TV, on my 24" monitor they look about the same.

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                #37
                yup, well spotted, we made a mistake. We'll bring down the HD720 to 3000kbps, which should sort it out.

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                  #38
                  Hi garionhall. Just wanted to say that I have downloaded the noa video in 1080 format and everything was fine, took about 7 minutes, file size is no more bigger than most of the 720 format videos that I have already downloaded in the past, but the best thing is the image now fills all of my 24in monitor, looking forward to more 1080 video's appearing.

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                    #39
                    I don't see much visual difference between 1080p and current 720p. But it seems logical since the 2 formats have the same bitrate.
                    If I understand correctly, the 1080p replaces current 720p (same bitrate) and you will later add a new 720p with lower bitrate.

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Originally posted by Ugur View Post
                      Past 2 months I was making tests over bitrates and different file formats to make this changes available for all of our customers. We are recording with our Panasonic cameras in 8bits which is the source file and when its get into Editing Program its change to 5bits. So basically all of our masters, highest quality files from past 3 years are in 5bit. I made some tests to see differences between higher bitrates but than there is another problems comes out which is enormous file sizes.
                      What is the meaning of "8bits" and "5bit" here? Color depth (Would be odd..)? Is it "8 kbps" and "5 kbps"? Anyway, it sounds like your "master files" have gone through one re-enconding step already, which is not helping quality. Have you tried skipping this step and comparing the the quality of the file currently on the website with direct, one-step encoding from camera to customer format without any intermediate steps? Especially when looking at motion blur, this might make a difference and explain why people are so keen on the files with high bitrate. And what is done with the editing program? Just adding the logo or cranking up saturation and so on?

                      Comment


                        #41
                        Today, we have released some changes in videos.

                        Streaming formats
                        We have upgraded the streaming video player software that has some nice features, but more importantly, by default, streaming videos are MP4 now, (instead of Flash / FLV). This provides us with more options and less files to store and manage), and higher quality streams (now, we are streaming HD720p).

                        For now, users can also switch back to FLV playback, to ensure any unanticpated problems will not affect people directly - they can "fall back" to FLV. We'll keep that for a month or so, once all problems with streaming MP4's are resolved.

                        Downloadable formats
                        We are progressing with the HD1080 rollout. All new scenes have HD1080, and we're adding 1080 a month at a time for the back catalogue. Around the last four months of site updates have 1080 now. We have also added a mid-range "SQ" MP4 for download (whihc is fed as a stream as well).

                        If you experience problems, contact Customer Support, and / or post here.

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                          #42
                          Hi garionhall, very pleased with the HD1080 scenes so far, both new and old, but have just downloaded the 1080 version of the girl girl scene with Rosa M & Yara ( titled "orgy" ), its plays fine until about halfway through when it stops with the message that windows media player is having trouble playing this video, I tried downloading it again but the same problem comes up, I have noticed that the file size listed for the 1080 version is 828.48mb, surely the 1080 scene should be over 1gb in size, can you please look into this as it is one of my favourite videos on your site and I have been waiting for the 1080 version.

                          thanks.

                          Comment


                            #43
                            Good Morning Abby Team,I've just tried to stream the Ed video from this morning without any success.I'd already set my preference to streaming and tried to play it and received a message in red: ''Error loading media:File could not be played''. The quality is set to HQ(my internet connection is quick) and I'm using a Lenovo ThinkPad with Windows 7 and an i5 Processor.Changing the streaming format to FLV didn't help either,just gave the same error message.

                            I find the new video download format 1080p super,even though I have a 1600x900 display,and I for one am glad that the file size isn't so much larger than the 720p size.

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                              #44
                              Additionally,when I click onto a model page and the video ''box'' is there,my chosen download video quality doesn't stay selected as it always has done before(including yesterday).I've logged out and logged in again to see if it makes a difference,but it doesn't.I think there may be a gremlin or two at work.....

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                                #45
                                What's JW Player 6.12.4956(Pro edition)? That appears if I right click on the streaming symbols.I've tried yet again download video quality won't stay selected.

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                                  #46
                                  Is this change partly responsible for no longer being able to play video previews or, in fact, any video unless it's downloaded? Or is this a temporary problem? I like to stream a video before I decide to download it, but haven't been able to do this yesterday or today. Anyone else having this problem?

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                                    #47
                                    laktor: certainly streaming videos should work fine. Can you please be more specific - what you are trying to do, what you expect to happen, what actually happens?

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                                      #48
                                      Originally posted by vollunsinn View Post
                                      What is the meaning of "8bits" and "5bit" here? Color depth (Would be odd..)? Is it "8 kbps" and "5 kbps"? Anyway, it sounds like your "master files" have gone through one re-enconding step already, which is not helping quality. Have you tried skipping this step and comparing the the quality of the file currently on the website with direct, one-step encoding from camera to customer format without any intermediate steps? Especially when looking at motion blur, this might make a difference and explain why people are so keen on the files with high bitrate. And what is done with the editing program? Just adding the logo or cranking up saturation and so on?
                                      Unfortunately at the moment video gets 3 encoding till it gets till customer, we edit videos on Avid and we can not encode all 7 formats directly from Avid at the moment but we are working on this process to make it better(maybe we will edit on different software in the future.

                                      Yes, video are getting color correction on editing; saturation, brightness, contrast and lots of other thing. During shoot we're focused on meaningful sexual encounters between lovers, and our content shows that. We forgo some technical niceties to ensure the emotion and sexiness of the scene is captured, and we see that these scenes do that well. And we try to fix some technical problems like light and colors on post production.

                                      Comment


                                        #49
                                        laktor: please specify information about browser and OS you use to stream video

                                        Comment


                                          #50
                                          Originally posted by havijack View Post
                                          Hi garionhall, very pleased with the HD1080 scenes so far, both new and old, but have just downloaded the 1080 version of the girl girl scene with Rosa M & Yara ( titled "orgy" ), its plays fine until about halfway through when it stops with the message that windows media player is having trouble playing this video, I tried downloading it again but the same problem comes up, I have noticed that the file size listed for the 1080 version is 828.48mb, surely the 1080 scene should be over 1gb in size, can you please look into this as it is one of my favourite videos on your site and I have been waiting for the 1080 version.

                                          thanks.

                                          havijack: Sorry for problem, we have fixed the problem, now you can see the correct 1080 files there. Thanks for reporting us the problem.

                                          Comment


                                            #51
                                            Recently we have released fix which resolves streaming issues in IE family browsers (''Error loading media:File could not be played'').

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                                              #52
                                              Hi Ugur and all the AW staff, although you have fixed the problem with the wrong file size displayed, when I click on the 1080p link it is still only downloading 829mb of the video file and not the full size. Thanks again for your quick response to the problem.

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                                                #53
                                                Yes, it all works fine now. Thank you for the prompt fix.

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                                                  #54
                                                  Hi "havijack", sorry again, webdev try to fix problem.

                                                  Comment


                                                    #55
                                                    Originally posted by philchen View Post
                                                    Additionally,when I click onto a model page and the video ''box'' is there,my chosen download video quality doesn't stay selected as it always has done before(including yesterday).I've logged out and logged in again to see if it makes a difference,but it doesn't.I think there may be a gremlin or two at work.....
                                                    What do you call a 'model page' (example link is good to) ? A model's page doesn't have video links, at least not ones you can download with. A shoot page has video links, but when I tested changing the video quality from HD->HQ and then viewed a streaming-vid and went back to shootpage qualities were nicely set to HQ.

                                                    Then there's also streaming video which comes from a videopage you reach from a shootpage. Need more detail.

                                                    Please specify steps to you take including where you get the unexpected result and what you expect at that point.

                                                    Comment


                                                      #56
                                                      I can not stream videos

                                                      I am using internet explorer version 11.0.9600.17728.

                                                      When I go to the streaming video page all I get is a colored rectangle where the video is supposed to be viewed. It does not show any symbols (i.e.fulll screen, play, etc. I had no issues until you made the software change. I emailed support and got an email back asking for the version of Internet Explorer I was using. I sent it but have not heard back.

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                                                        #57
                                                        Originally posted by landrover1999 View Post
                                                        I am using internet explorer version 11.0.9600.17728.

                                                        When I go to the streaming video page all I get is a colored rectangle where the video is supposed to be viewed. It does not show any symbols (i.e.fulll screen, play, etc. I had no issues until you made the software change. I emailed support and got an email back asking for the version of Internet Explorer I was using. I sent it but have not heard back.
                                                        That is the same version I have, works for me. Do you see the AW Play button in the middle of the rectangle (the others won't show until you play some) ?

                                                        If not, try right-clicking in the rectangle, does that print any text?

                                                        Comment


                                                          #58
                                                          Thanks for the reply Frans.I meant on a shoot page where video links are available we get the LQ,SQ,HQ and HD options.Sometimes,such as with Haven's shoot from 13th April,none of the video quality options are preselected (giving the download file size in MB that can be right clicked to be downloaded).If I choose HD the option and click it no file size appears.I then have to click on it as if I wished to stream it and only then the quality and format options appear and downloading is then possible.I have also noticed that the preferences I set quite a long time ago reset themselves from 1080p to 720p,not a disaster but annoying and without my input.These little problems have occurred since the recent format changes and to have to regularly reset my preferences after several years where no changes were necessary is unusual and shouldn't happen.

                                                          The problems I had with streaming seem to be gone and I find the video quality very good,both streaming in HD and downloading HD-it is a real improvement.I'm sorry I can't provide links-I do it so seldom that I can't remember how to and the FAQ pages don't help,they're not complete.

                                                          Comment


                                                            #59
                                                            Originally posted by philchen View Post
                                                            Thanks for the reply Frans.I meant on a shoot page where video links are available we get the LQ,SQ,HQ and HD options.Sometimes,such as with Haven's shoot from 13th April,none of the video quality options are preselected (giving the download file size in MB that can be right clicked to be downloaded).If I choose HD the option and click it no file size appears.
                                                            Can't reproduce that. Try refreshing the page if it happens again (usually F5 or better control-F5) as it sounds like the page isn't fully loaded either by your browser or cached wrong. What browser do you use?

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                                                              #60
                                                              I use IE11(exactly the same version as landrover1999 above),and up until now without problems.I've logged out,logged in again refreshed the page often though I haven't deleted cookies and refreshed the cache completely.I'll try that but though I'm sure the matter started with the format change,it is possible it's a coincidence in timing.I tend not to change preferences,so to have to change them back at least a dozen times is annoying to say the least.Thanks for the suggestions Frans.

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