Stage6

DivX, the codec people, have launched Stage6, a content community for videophiles to showcase their work. The playback quality is quite good, even at full screen and the price is certainly right. I have uploaded some clips at: http://stage6.divx.com/OceanView_video_productions/videos . Have a look and please let me know what you think. Constructive criticism, as always, is appreciated.

David I watched a couple of your videos and I really liked them. You have a really steady hand and the colour balance is nice. That's a big tiger shark to be feeding by hand!

I'm very interested in this Stage6 that I hadn't heard of before. I like the fact it retains your original file parameters, unlike Google Video etc., so it's possible to post really high quality encodes there. Ideal for selling videos to viewers with big bandwidth although when I clicked the "get paid" link it gave me "page not found" (story of my life).

The downside is long download times for some users and the fact that viewers may not want to install the DivX codec to play back the videos.

How did you set up your channel? I joined and I have a profile but I can't find any link to create a new channel.

Hello Nick,

The "Get Paid" link page not found error is the story of my life as a videographer as well. Perhaps one day! When I first registered with Stage6 I also puzzled about how to set up a channel because I could not find the link and then one day there it was right below the "Get Paid" link. I don't think my eyes were deceiving me before. Perhaps there is a screening period before they allow you to create your own channel. I also experienced a little difficulty uploading some files so they may also be having some teething problems. I agree that maintaining the file parameters is going to allow us to load some high quality stuff. Ultimately it would be nice to have a dedicated underwater channel with sub-channels for each of the contributors.

And yes that is a big shark to be feeding by hand, but the divemasters treat them all like pets. They each have names, particular idiosyncracies and have almost been trained as to appropriate behaviour around divers. Although it was my first "shark dive" the initial feelings of intrepidation were almost immediately supplanted by a sense of awe. It is the only time that I have used an entire 60 minute tape on two dives. Highly recommended.

Yes folks, go and watch David's Shark Feeding Video, it's really cool.

David what program did you use to make the Dvix files with?

Dr Dvix?

Ah, I need to go and hang out there for a while and tell ppl who cool their vids are. Fair enough:

Hello Nick,

in order to access the "create channel" option, you need to gain some Karma points, which are being collected while being active in commenting and viewing videos.

Thank you,

Jive

DivX Tech Support

Was experimenting last night with making high quality DivX vids for uploading to Stage6 for those viewers who want to see a higher quality encode than elsewhere. Even upgraded my old DivX 5 pro codec to DivX 6. They can be encoded from Vegas or Virtualdub but I think it has trouble including the audio that way. I ended up using Dr DivX. I'm thinking for a 4:3 video that 640x480 is about right with 2048kbps bitrate. Big file but very nice. The one-click DivX Converter program keeps the full PAL resolution but the bitrate is a bit low for a really nice job on underwater stuff.

Nick, I remember the old Dr Divx could be frameserved out of Prem Pro and Dr Divx gave you many more options than the new drag and drop encoder now. The new one could not.

I'll make a 640/480 @ 2mbps file and see how it looks and see if it can take m2t files.

Here is a 640/480 @ 2mbps CBR I just did from a m2t file I ran through Dr Divx.

Looks Okay.

DIVX DEMO CLIP 4 MEGS

Yeah looks nice that Wags.

Dr DivX still has a scarey number of options under the advanced tab. More than I'll ever need unless I do a phd in video encoding. Conversely the converter program is too simple.

David, if you click "get paid" what do you get?

I get a "Page not Found" error message. That may be caused by moving all my clips to the OceanView channel which does not have a get paid button and now there are no clips on my login page which does have a get paid button. The "Get Paid" feature requires further investigation. At present I am just using the site as a means to share video with people who are at a distance. And yes, Paul, I used Dr. DivX for the encoding.

Yesterday my Quad core machine died so while it's being fixed I decided to write up an illustrated guide, How to prepare high definition Xvid video from Sony Vegas. Much of it will also apply to other NLEs like Premiere Pro.

Quite a lot of people have asked me for my method so I hope this is useful.

Please let me know if any of it is inaccurate or if you have suggestions for improving the workflow.

Anyone have any pointers on making divX files on a Mac? I haven't looked at uploading to Stage6 at all yet, so if I'm being lazy then please just give me a kick up the arse!

Cheers, Simon

Simon,

It's super easy, export a QT movie from Final Cut, and then just drop that into DivX converter, pick the res. On the HD Extreme quality a 5 min segment comes out at about 180M, but if you drop the quality to home theatre, and change to about 640x360 it comes down to about 40 meg.

Have a look at some of my vids for example.

High Res

640x360

Hope that helps

Jon