Decisions For Media Encoder

Whilst editing, I have been thinking of what media encoder to use for our artefact video. When displaying videos in browsers, there are a number of encoders that can be used. These include:

Windows Media Player
Apple Quicktime
Realplayer
Adobe Flash Player

Depending on which one we use, it will affect the audience no matter what. There are two factors which affect this:

Computer Requirements
Quality of video

Students either have a Windows computer, or an Apple Mac computer. Windows Media Player is already installed on a Windows PC, and Apple Quicktime is already installed on an Apple Mac. If we decide to use Windows Media Player, then Apple Mac viewers will not be able to view the video, unless they download the Apple Mac plugin for Windows Media Player, and vice versa if we use Quicktime for Windows. This narrows down the option to either Realplayer and Adobe Flash Player, as it will not give any advantage to any viewer. Most websites allow you to choose the player you want to view the video in. The BBC used this service, but now due ever increasing use of Adobe Flash Player, they use that instead. Flash Player is simple to download, and I noticed when converting video to flash in the first lecture session, the quality was much better than any other media encoder. Most websites now use Adobe Flash Player for this reason. If the user does not have Adobe Flash Player, a link is provided to download. I think that the user should be given more than one choice when wanting to watch a video, because it should not be forced on the user to just use the default. If the user already has a player installed, then it shall be easier for them.

I conducted some research on this by creating a survey on www.SurveyMonkey.com. The two questions I asked 13 people were:

What do you use? A Windows PC or a Mac?
AND
What do you prefer to use when streaming media? - The options being, WMP, Quicktime, Realplayer and Flash.

The results for the first question ended up being 12 people using Windows PC's, and 1 person using a Mac. This doesn't determine every single student as I only asked 13 people, but it proves that certainly more people use Windows rather than Mac's, and maybe because Windows has always been the most popular. This study was not biased in any way and I did not know what computer's any of the users used.

The results for the second question ended up being 7 people using Windows Media Player, 1 person using Quicktime, and 4 people using Adobe Flash Player. These answers matched the first question, as the Apple Mac user probably would have chosen Quicktime, as it is already installed on the Mac's. Most of the Windows users would have chosen WMP, and the rest of the users chose Flash, because they had it downloaded on their computers. This proves that more people prefer using Windows Media Player, as it seems the default and common player. However, I was impressed that people chose Flash Player. I think as websites move from using Windows Media Player or Quicktime to Flash Player, then more people will prefer this. If people can see just how much difference in quality Flash Player produces, then I think they would certainly rather use that.

Regards to our video, in my opinion, Adobe Flash Player should be used, as the quality is much better. If users do not have the player, there will be a link for them to download it easily. It also means that our player is not biased towards Windows or Mac viewers, as it is not a default player. It is a popular choice, and so we shall stick with it. To get the flash player to work, we will need to install an FLV player on our server so the flash video can be played, but this will be simple to download. I think for our video, other media encoder links should be included, just incase users don't want to download Flash Player. I shall suggest these to the members in my group.