Are You a Compressionist? By The Producer webmaster@sobegirl.com Video compression is an ugly thing. We must take this beautiful, data rich video stream and squish it down so that it fits into the pipe. The pipe, which we call the Internet. That bandwidth constricted tube that gets forced into almost every home. Like the umbilical cord people can hardly live without today and thank God. And when you are sending video down this pipe you want to compress that data as much as you can so that your bandwidth costs do not leave you high and dry. High as in about 2-3 dollars a gig and dry if you use more than you expected that you would. Compression is closer to an art than simply a task and those who really know the trade are few and far in between. It is not my intention to make you a compression expert right here but my hope is for you to understand why proper compression is important to the Adult Webmaster. It is the electronic equivalent of making a sausage. We are taking a bunch of data and squishing it into a tube whether it is a copper pipe or piece of fiber optics. It is a lose-lose situation. No matter what we do, quality is reduced. However, compression need not be a bad thing, as you will see. Unfortunately, as we stumble through our Internet infancy and limited bandwidth, all video tossed about the Web must undergo some sort of compression. I am sure you have seen Internet video with blocky pixilated playback. The compression employed on these videos was not done correctly and this is what we are trying to avoid. The quantity and quality of compression can have significant effects on how your video plays back, on your membership retention rate, and your bottom line. We are talking about a lot of digital data here, as video is probably the most bandwidth consuming applications we deal with on a day-to-day basis. No matter what type of compression you are contemplating it probably will get messy. What exactly is compression? The results of which are that porno video you watch on the Internet but the complete answer is much more complicated than that. It involves a processor or, in the case of SoBeGirl, several processors. Working overtime -over clocked, creating a lot of heat, crunching a lot of data. Performing mathematical calculations at speeds, which are incomprehensible for most human beings. In essence, video compression is a logical extension of the same principle that makes the animated GIF work. Animated GIF are small in size because they are a paletted image. In other words, the colors that make up the entire GIF are kept within the file header. If in consecutive frames, pixels have identical colors, then that color information is saved only once. Internet video works in a similar fashion. If any file information is the same for two frames, then why save that information twice? Every pixel in every frame of an Internet video has color information. If any pixel is the same from one frame to the next than there is no need to store the color information twice. In its simplest form this is what compression does. Without compression, the information describing each separate pixel must be stored, transmitted and translated into the picture raster separately. Most compression schemes look for repetitive patterns in the data instead of describing them in discrete steps. Then, they attempt to express them in condensed mathematical shorthand. SoBeGirl does not claim to be the expert in shooting video that will compress well, but we are getting better all the time. Just take a look at some of my first videos and you will see that these videos did not compress very well. You can see compression anomalies or artifacts due to backgrounds that were too busy in color or quick panning of the camera. Both these situations cause the background to change significantly in color from one frame to the next leaving the compression algorithms gasping for air. If you are shooting video for the Web like we are then your ability to judge how well a scene will compress becomes important. Because if you are an Adult Webmaster serving video to subscribers you want crystal clear video at small file sizes. As video continues it’s migration from the TV to the Web, we more than ever will be making our livings off of the pleasant effects of video compression. And of course, as compression gets more and more important in the delivery of video content, there will be a growing trend of companies specializing in this field. The video compressionist is an individual who either understands how to deliver the largest amount of content in the smallest stream of data, or understands the best type of compression to employ in order to get the best looking video playback on a particular system. SoBeGirl has been compressing video since 1998. I became a compressionist at a time when pictures were king and “bandwidth was too expensive”. Times have changed rather quickly and today Adult Video Pay sites are among the biggest money-makers out there. Why not visit SoBeGirl today? See what happens when you film the Webs hottest amateurs and then employ the finest compression techniques to that video. Thank you Ynot-Masters for allowing me to contribute to your great resource site. Peace and God bless America! SoBeGirl.com is the Webs leading content provider for Amateur Adult Video. SoBeGirl is young fresh first time on video amateurs that you can use on your pay sites. You want a plug-in? Check out the SoBeGirl Plug-In at www.sobecams.com/demo. Why do Adult Webmsters choose SoBeGirl? Because we make them money.