Producing H.264 with the Adobe Media Encoder
- 6-8-2009
- Categorized in: Distributing with Flash, H.264 production
Adobe Media Encoder
Adobe significantly enhanced the Flash Video Encoder in Creative Suite 4. There is now both stand-alone operation and batch encoding capabilities. As before, you can access H.264 encoding by choosing different formats in the Format pop-up menu. When producing for Flash Player, you should always use the FLV|F4V option, which lets you produce both VP6- and H.264-encoded files for Flash Player distribution.
Typically, you'll choose your codec by choosing a preset that uses one format or the other. Alternatively, you can change your codec in the Format tab by choosing FLV for VP6 or F4V for H.264 (see Figure 10).
Figure 10. Choosing to encode via VP6 (FLV option) or H.264 (F4V option)
The easiest way to work with Adobe Media Encoder is to choose a preset that's either the same size or slightly larger than your target resolution. This will ensure that the appropriate profile and level are selected.
All presets accessible through Adobe Premiere Pro default to the Main Profile, rather than High. While any quality difference is likely to be very minor, I generally change this to the High profile before encoding (see Figure 11). Other than this, the only setting that I modify is the Set Key Frame Distance in the Advanced Setting section, which I always enable, and insert 300 for Key Frame Distance. I always use the default values for Audio, changing only the data rate and channels to match my content and encoding targets.
Figure 11. Choosing H.264 encoding parameters in Adobe Media Encoder
confusion about H.264
Flash is at container format, normaly compressed using VP6/spark/H.264
wicki says that MPEG4 AVC/ H.264 is "the same" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264
question; You use H.264 codec for F4V file, what is your reason for this, wouldent MPEG4 AVC give better quality for same bitrate ?, and suported for same versions of flash player.
im using an AVCHD camera, shoot in HD, cut and save as avchd (codec) in MPEG4 AVC file, this quality is much better, on the net, than when i save in flash. i think this is becaurce i keep same format, through the proces.
Best regards
Per Olsen Denmark
Per:
>>Flash is at container format, normaly compressed using VP6/spark/H.264.
Correct.
>>wicki says that MPEG4 AVC/ H.264 is "the same" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264
Correct.
>>question; You use H.264 codec for F4V file, what is your reason for this, wouldent MPEG4 AVC give better quality for same bitrate ?, and suported for same versions of flash player.
They're the same - H.264 is the same as MPEG4 AVC.
>>im using an AVCHD camera, shoot in HD, cut and save as avchd (codec) in MPEG4 AVC file, this quality is much better, on the net, than when i save in flash. i think this is becaurce i keep same format, through the proces.
Not sure what you're asking here, sorry. Please:
- when you say "save as avchd (codec) in MPEG4 AVC file" what are the parameters? (resolution, frame rate, data rate).
- When you say ""i save in flash," again, what are the parameters?
Let me know and maybe I can be more useful.
Jan
Hello Jan.
I want to thank you for all your great infromation and tutorials you host here.
They are great!
Specially this one, you made me clear my mind in a lots of things about h264.
I'm actually encoding a file right now (I use Rhozet Carbon Coder 3 which uses the same h264 enconder as Adobe) Everybit of the guide helped :D
Thanks a lot for that.
You'll see me around here, at least, reading stuff.
Greetings from Argentina
Sincerely,
Cristian.
Wow, thanks for taking the time to write. Carbon Coder is a great tool for H.264, you should get very good results.
I'm glad that you're finding the site useful.
Thanks again.
Jan