Smart Choices
DL.TV
If you know Patrick Norton as one of the hosts of DL.TV, it’s easy to dismiss him as just another pretty face. As "head of podcasts" for Ziff Davis Media, however, he’s charged with producing all video programs released by the company’s consumer group, and distributing them affordably in both live and downloaded formats. This makes him a virtual encyclopedia of codec features, benefits, and real-world foibles.
If you surf over to DL.TV ("For Tech Fans by Tech Fans"), you’ll immediately notice that all shows are offered in six video formats (Flash, MPEG-4, Windows Media, QuickTime H.264 MOV, DivX, and H.264/AVC for video iPods), as well as MP3 for audio-only download. What follows is an overview of the production cycle.
Norton shoots all shows live with three Sony FX1 camcorders mixed via a NewTek TriCaster. The show is available for viewing live only via Windows Media, with a Windows Media Server distributing the video. After the show finishes, DL.TV encodes a Flash 7 stream you can play directly from the site using a Flash Media Server. Or, you can download the video or audio in any of the other listed formats.
Norton encodes all video to a maximum of about 500Kbps, with at least 80–96Kbps devoted to mono audio. Resolution depends upon format, with iPod video produced at 320x240, H.264/AVC at 640x480, and all the rest output at 480x360. Norton uses dual-pass, variable-bit rate encoding when available. MOV files rendered by QuickTime Pro are by far the most time-consuming, he says, requiring four to five hours of encoding per 45-minute show.
Norton reports that 40% of viewers download the iPod-formatted video, which he encodes with iSquint and which he says is faster than QuickTime Pro. Flash is the second most popular format, with 20% of viewers, while 15% watch the Windows Media stream and another 15% download the QuickTime files. The remaining 10% is split between DivX and MPEG–4.
Obviously, user preference drives DL.TV’s codec decision-making, but Norton pegged H.264 as the quality leader, though it’s impractical for those running older computers without the processing power to decode the stream. Interestingly, Norton is closely watching the MPEG-LA licensing group to make sure that his use of MPEG-related codecs accrues no charge, which should be a concern for producers who charge for their videos (DL.TV is supported by advertising, with no charge per stream).
Norton finds that Flash is the easiest for viewers to use, but warns that it’s much more costly to distribute, primarily because you need a Flash Media Server to get benefits like advertising insertion and comprehensive back-end statistics. Norton also finds Flash challenging to work with and advises small-budget shops to check programming and distribution costs before committing to the format.
Norton said that Windows Media was great for Windows users with no "ax to grind," and that DivX is slightly behind the quality of the other codecs at his encoding parameters but great if you can "throw masses of bandwidth at it." According to Norton, RealVideo was never in the picture (har, har) because of its "intrusive player" and the fact that while he’s had requests for video formatted for PSPs, cell phones, and low-res formats, no user has ever requested RealVideo.
While admitting that web distribution eliminates many of the barriers of broadcast TV, Norton warned wannabe video producers to be careful what they wish for, because they just might get it. He’s referring to the bandwidth costs, which he says can be "prohibitive" if you’re moving large amounts of content. His best advice is to shop around for the best price from your ISP or CDN.
He recounted a story of one producer whose video "got viral." Several hundred thousand downloads later, the producer received a bill from his ISP of about $17,000. He advised producers to consider distribution sites like YouTube or blip.tv rather than hosting their own videos, since those sites shoulder these distribution costs and deal with the pain of configuring and maintaining the player.