The end of 960x540 resolution...
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 9:21PM Really excited about tomorrows ScreenCastsOnline show which is all about the amazing Scrivener.
It's an application I've long admired and have used since the original version. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to approach covering the application as it's fairly unique, and to be honest, I really wanted to do it justice.
I finished off the editing yesterday but following a final run through today, I made some slight changes and added some new bits. A final run through and I was happy with the content.
On to the editing and I setup the usual compressor job to spit out the normal files for distribution:
1280x720, 1280x720-OS, 950x540 and 640x360
Why so many versions?
1280x720 - This is the native resolution of the original version of the show and looks superb! Looks fantastic, even when playing full screen.
1280x720-OS - This version is specifically for people watching via Apple TV or Mac on a large screen TV with overscan. If you can't control the overscan on the TV, the menubar will appear off screen, not too good for a screencast. Due to the nature of the encoding, some quality is lost but it's passable.
960x540 - Historically, this was created for those people whose Macs couldn't play the 1280x720 version due to older hardware.
640x360 - Intended for iPods and iPhones up to the 3GS. This is the maximum resolution of these devices. The problem is that it's so small, it's quite difficult to watch a full screencast although some people like to have it on their iPod or iPhone. Quality is not too bad.
So what's the problem?
I was taking a look at the 960x540 version today, whilst checking the Scrivener episode and it looked awful. There's just no comparison with the 1280x720 version. After spending so much time preparing, recording and editing the show, I'd hate to release it looking as it does.
So I'm not going to.
Apple's most recent devices are all capable of playing 1280x720 video files (notably the iPad and the iPhone 4) so as of this week, I'll just be releasing the show in three formats suitable for the following Apple devices:
1280x720 - Macs, iPads, Apple TVs and iPhone 4's
1280x720-OS - Apple TVs (with Overscan)
640x360 - iPods and iPhones up to 3GS
This should make the distribution process easier and make it less confusing for new members. I would imagine the vast majority of viewers now have hardware that would play the 1280x720 version with no problem. The fall back position is that everyone can play the 640x360 version on any device.
If it does cause anyone any issues please let me know!
Reader Comments (7)
Will this mean there are new/different feeds to subscribe to? I currently get SCOnlineHD - 2010 and SCOnline - iPod - 2010.
One step for a man, a giant leap for Screencastonline! :-)
No, the feeds will be the same. I'll post the 1280x720 files to the existing feeds and the 960x540 feeds for the rest of the year. I'll then drop the 960x540 feed at the end of the year.
What's the difference in file size between 1280x720 and 960x540? I was always satisfied with the 960x540 quality on my iPad (16 GB), so I am a little bit worried about file sizes...
Hi Markus, I've adopted a different encoding strategy this week as the file sizes were starting to get out of hand. The new version of the 1280x720 file is a lot smaller.
For comparison, for show SCO0274:
1280x720 file = 287MB
960x540 file = 157MB
For the SCO0275 show:
1280x720 file = 129MB
It's a slightly shorter show but I think you'll agree, that's quite a difference!
Thanks Don, sounds awesome! Can't wait to see today's show.
Hi Don,
Nice to hear that. I still wonder how you manage to get such small files though. Most of the time I end up with 150 mb files for just the iPod versions :-(
I still need to try the new iPad setting in Compressor though.
Regards,
Stefaan