The 300K Test: Earth, Wind & Fire Click images to see examples
Sorenson 2 Basic	Sorenson 2 VBR	Sorenson 3 Basic
Sorenson 2 Basic	Sorenson 2 VBR	Sorenson 3 Basic
Sorenson 2 Basic	Sorenson 2 VBR	Sorenson 3 Basic

But how much better is SV3?

I took some time this week to encode some footage supplied by our friends at Art Beats from their Digital Film Library to find out. I selected three clips for this test, each for their unique qualities that can make compression and streaming difficult.

From the Reel Fire 2 collection, I used the brushfire ignition clip (RF202). This clip offers many hurdles for encoding, including fast motion, detail and huge areas of contrast, all of which which can make video compression a nightmare.

Because not everyone needs to compress video that has these specifications, I compressed a cloud fly through from the Cloud Fly-Thrus 2 collection (CF217). While this video clip does have some drastic motion, that is typical in many streams today, it also has subtle color and tonal variations that can be lost when a video is compressed for the Web.

For the final clip of this test, I wanted something that combined both of these, so I chose a canyon fly over from the Aerial Landscapes collection (AL110A).

Incidentally, if you would like to view each of these in their pre-Digital WebCast forms, visit www.artbeats.com and use the reference numbers above to access the clips.

The Test
Because I only have access to Sorenson Video 3 Standard, the only compression option available is the Basic compression option. I previously have been using the Sorenson Video 2 Professional Edition, and the two have very different variables, which can be set in Cleaner 5. To try and make the tests come out as close to one another as possible, I used the secret DMN TV compression settings that were used in the latest edition of DMN TV (www.dmntv.com), which happens to be compressed at 15 FPS at 240 x 180.

I also want to make it clear that these tests are being done with the Standard version of Sorenson Video 3. Results should be quite a bit different when using the Professional Edition.

I compressed these files three times; Sorenson Video 3 Basic, Sorenson Video 2 Professional Edition with Basic settings and Sorenson Video 2 in VBR.

The first round of tests were done at 300 kbps which is a speed designed for viewers on a DSL or Cable modem. At this rate, all of the video looks pretty good, with only slight variations in the canyon and clouds example. The biggest differences can be seen in the fire example. As far as over all quality goes, Sorenson Video 2 Basic comes out on top in this example. While it is slightly "fuzzier" than the other two, it maintains the frame rate and contrast over the others. Sorenson Video 2 VBR doesn't really come out well in this series, and while Sorenson Video 3 Basic maintains the best detail; for some reason the compression falls apart in the last moments of the video. (I reran the compression several times with the same results.) I should also point out that no keyframes were set in these examples, which would have improved the quality of each of these clips.

The big difference that can be seen in these examples is in file size:

Stephen Schleicher is the producer of DMNTV, Digital Animators and Digital WebCast and is the host of the Digital WebCast forum at the World Wide User Groups. He has taught at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, and at the American InterContinental University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he also ran his own animation company, Thunderhead Productions. Stephen also freelanced in the Atlanta area as a producer/editor for five years working on everything from training videos to live shows.