So the current big market shift, when it comes to media, is “think smaller”. In a world where televisions are getting bigger and more affordable, this almost seems like a backward way of thinking. But with all the iPods, PSP’s, Cell Phones, and other portable media that can play mP3’s and movies, many marketing companies are trying to get their media to play and look good on all these tiny devices. It’s become a bit problematic to shrink video and make it look good and be small in file size.
Sorenson Squeeze is considered the top of the line industry standard software for getting the best compression of video in both quality and final file size. Using the Sorenson Squeeze Power Pack, you can not only compress files down to smaller sizes, but also change the file type. Meaning, if you have a full resolution uncompressed .avi, and you want to convert is to flash or streaming wmv to stream on your website, Sorenson Squeeze can convert that avi to flash and compress the video to a smaller more web-friendly size yet keep much of the original quality. Sorenson Squeeze also has some minor video effects such as brightness and contrast to allow you to tweak your video before compression to ensure the best viewable quality for your website. So, as amazing as this all sounds, how easy is it to use?
Ease of Use
I’m not a fan on manuals, tutorials, or help menus. Yes, they’re a great resource for people with no friends. But it’s so much easier just to ask a person, and get a quick concise accurate answer. I was completely amazed and relieved that upon opening up Sorenson Squeeze everything I needed was easy to find and very logically placed within the program window.
To import a video file into Sorenson Squeeze, you click on the big button in the top left that says looks like a strip of film and says “Import File”. If you don’t already have a video file captured, you simply plug in your camera and click on the big icon that looks like a camera and says “Capture Video”. Filters are provided that can be dragged and dropped on the video. Your video can be cropped quite easily by sliding the red dotted lines that surround your video. The Desired Format to convert you video into, can be selected in the “Format & Compression Settings” window. Each Format has a picture icon that helps identify the file type easily and has a drop down menu to further customize your final output video. When you’ve tweaked your video the way you want it, simply click the “Squeeze it” button in the lower right hand of the window, and it will do the rest.
Why Squeeze?
Squeeze is considered the industry standard for compression of video for streaming on the internet. Many other software programs even include a light version of the Sorenson Squeeze codec as an option when compressing video, simply because they know Sorenson has been the leader for years in compressing video with the best end result quality. It’s easy to use, very simple, and lets you convert all sorts of file types. This will allow you to bridge the gap between you and all your customers, no matter what brand of computer or operating system they are using, and get your videos to you clients.
Summary
The price is higher than many people want to spend, but not unreasonable. But, bang for buck, it still has an amazing price for what you get. If you plan on streaming videos on the internet and want the best quality with the smallest file size, your only logical choice is to get Sorenson Squeeze. If you want to save some money, get the “Flash only” Sorenson Squeeze for Flash version. It’s about half the price of the top of the line version. If you want to be able to convert into all sorts of formats, go for the Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite. Or save money and get both the Flash Version and The Compression Suite and buy the Sorenson Squeeze Power Pack.
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