Maximum acceptable bitrate for pay clips?

[The Last Laugh]

Hello everyone,

Ever since the first time I considered producing pay clip versions of my videos, one of the issues that's bothered me the most is what bitrate I should use (screen size too). It goes without saying that computer systems vary a lot from person to person, and just because a clip plays just fine on mine doesn't mean it will on all others. Naturally, I want my clips to play well for as many of my customers as possible. But at the same time, I'd like the bitrate to be fairly high so that my clips look good. It's a tough compromise to reach, quality vs playability. My knowledge of computers is too limited to have a good idea what most computers are capable of nowadays. I could really use some advice.

Recently I've been going with a video bitrate of 1200 Kbps for my pay clip, for a total of 1273 Kbps with audio. They play fine on my computer, and no one has told me that they don't work for them. I think they look pretty good. But they're only 480x360. Personally I've no problem with that screen size, but I know many producers offer 640x480. Is it an important issue for customers?

Now, my clips don't look bad when I make them 640x480 at a 1200 Kbps bitrate, but not quite as good as I'd like. Even 1500 Kbps is a bit disappointing to me. I get the feeling I'd have to boost the bitrate in a major way to get a similar level of quality with 640x480 as I do with 480x360, possibly too much for several of my customers (though I may be wrong). Frankly, I think that the simple fact that a clip is reduced to 480x360, as opposed to 640x480, automatically makes it look better, regardless of the actual bitrate. It's like video artifacts and other flaws simply aren't as obvious. The same applies to pictures. They simply look better when they're smaller (but that doesn't mean they're as satisfying).

I personally like the 480x360 clips just fine, but I can't help but wonder if making them 640x480 would affect my sales in a significant way. Would the change be worth it? And if so, what bitrate could I get away with? Like I said, even 1500 Kbps is a tad disappointing to me when making my clips 640x480. How much higher can I go?

It's a bit frustrating to know that in the near future, a 1500 Kbps bitrate will be a joke for pretty much all computers. I can imagine that high resolution clips will be easy to play for most people, and even 640x480 will seem somewhat small. But I have to work in the present.

Anyway, if anyone has any comments or advice, I'd be very grateful. Should I simply go on making my clips the same way (480x360 screen size and 1200 Kbps bitrate), or would pushing for a larger screen size and a significantly higher bitrate benefit my business enough to be worth it? Please keep in mind that most people should be able to play them. I'm also not too keen about offering two different versions of each clip, like some other producers do. It's a good concept, but it's too much time and trouble for my tastes.

 

[Slant]

Can't speak for everyone, but I'm looking forward to the day when HD clips are the norm! Broadband is here and I don't mind waiting for the download (though the longer it takes, the higher the chances of an error, so the site had better allow reasonable reattempts.)

Going forward I think it seems more sensible to offer multiple versions of clips; as you say some other producers do it. It's up to you whether it's a hassle - and the bandwidth costs would be higher, but that can always be pushed onto the customer. The main problem is that sites hosted at e.g. Clips4Sale don't distinguish between different clips and different versions - so browsing the catalogues becomes a pain. If the sites had better interfaces it wouldn't be a problem.

 

[The Last Laugh]

Can't speak for everyone, but I'm looking forward to the day when HD clips are the norm! Broadband is here and I don't mind waiting for the download (though the longer it takes, the higher the chances of an error, so the site had better allow reasonable reattempts.)

I'm not so worried about download time as much as how well people's computers manage to play clips of a certain bitrate. A clip could be short and not too big but still have a really high bitrate. I can imagine that many people would have trouble playing a 2-minute clip that's 3000 kbps, for example, even though the downloading process itself wouldn't take too much time.

Going forward I think it seems more sensible to offer multiple versions of clips; as you say some other producers do it. It's up to you whether it's a hassle - and the bandwidth costs would be higher, but that can always be pushed onto the customer. The main problem is that sites hosted at e.g. Clips4Sale don't distinguish between different clips and different versions - so browsing the catalogues becomes a pain. If the sites had better interfaces it wouldn't be a problem.

Indeed. The latter issue you mention is one of the reasons I'm hesitant to offer multiple versions. I'm afraid it would make my store too cluttered and hard to browse, since each version would be presented as a separate item. I've already started offering clips that are combinations of other clips, like a clip that's the entire video, or maybe half, or that combines all the clips featuring a certain ticklee. So some of my material is already repeated on my store. Offering different screen sizes and/or bitrates would make it even worse. Of course, there's also the problem of converting my entire catalog, which would be a huge project.

By the way, since Clips4Sale.com takes care of bandwidth, it's not a factor I need to worry about.

What I'm doing right now is converting some clips to a 560x420 screen size. Mostly new clips for now. It's still not quite as big as the common 640x480 size, but it's close, and I find that it looks just a tad better (though you have to pay close attention). For these, I've selected a bitrate that a little higher than for my usual 480x360 clips, but still reasonable enough for most people.

I realize this means that my clips aren't any easier to play for people who have really old computers, and that's regrettable. But since computers on average are constantly getting better and faster, I prefer to put the time and effort into making versions that won't be totally outdated in the near future. For instance, I don't know how long low-bitrate 320x240 pay clips will still be worth the trouble. Besides, even though I do worry about some people not being able to play my clips, so far, no one has contacted me to let me know they couldn't play them because their computers couldn't handle them.