Your Clipstream™ Video Premiere Plug-in comes with pre-set settings files. Once Settings files have been installed and/or created, it is very easy to create Clipstream™ Video movies. All you need to do is the following:

It is advisable to print out the Clipstream™ Video Technical Guide document for easy reference while encoding. In the case that the preset settings are not preferable, the Clipstream™ Video Plug-in settings can be manually configured to adjust to the exact desired specifications. Please follow the recommendations below for more detailed information on how the settings interact.

Adjusting Plug-in Settings

There are many factors to consider when selecting custom settings or deciding to load one of the pre-set Clipstream™ Video Premiere Plug-in settings. The ability to play a movie smoothly may need to be compromised to allow playback across a variety of connections. Uploading and testing may need to be performed more than once in order to arrive at an acceptable video for various connection speeds.

Step-by-step:

• Try to match the ratio of the source frame size to keep the same aspect. Keep in mind that the larger the size, the poorer the quality will have to be.
• 4:3 aspect is consistent with standard television size / 16:9 aspect is common for films.
• For larger frame dimensions, the quality and frame rate will need to be lowered for a quality stream.
• To avoid blocky artifacts in your *.vcs file, be sure to keep the dimensions divisible by eight; even if it doesn't exactly match the source file's aspect ratio.
• Frame sizes will vary depending on the application. The chart below is only a general guideline for reasonable frame sizes at different connection speeds:
  

Now, in the same Video Settings section, look at the Frame rate

• For faster frame rates, the frame size and quality will need to be lowered for a quality stream. High frame rates can affect CPU usage and reduce playback quality on slower computers. We recommend a maximum frame rate of 10 fps.
  
• To select a frame rate that is not included in Premiere's default settings, go to Video Settings, click 'Configure' and select the desired setting in Frame Rate Adjustment. The specified frame rate can be altered by selecting every second, third, etc. frame. Example; to get a frame rate of 7.5fps, select 15fps and then Every Second Frame in Frame Rate Adjustment.
• Playback quality is occasionally smoother if the encoded file matches a fraction of the source frame rate. For example, encode a 24FPS file at 12fps, 8fps, 6fps, or 3fps for best results. This is not essential.
  
• Guidelines for reasonable frame rates for different connection speeds:

Quality

• The plug-in will attempt to meet the Quality setting that you select for the specified Data Rate. If the Quality setting cannot be met, the plug-in will lower the setting automatically by as much as one third. (the quality will generally fluctuate between your selected setting and one third of that; minimum 5)
• Setting the quality below 20 is not recommended but try to target a reasonable Quality setting with the dimensions, frame rate and data rate in mind.
• If the selected quality is too high for the Data Rate to meet, the plug-in will be forced to skip frames
• Here is a general guideline for setting the quality:
  

Data Rate

• The Data Rate is selected with the viewers' anticipated connection speed (bit rate) in mind.
• To figure out the Data Rate:
  -select a pre-set settings file
  - use this formula: Bit rate minus audio data rate divided by 8 equals data rate. Therefore, Data Rate and Audio Data Rate should coincide with each other (example: for a 56k (real speed ~40kbps) sample, if the audio data rate has been set at 16, the data rate should be set to 4)
• Check here for a Clipstream File Size Calculator. The file size has a direct relationship to the Data Rate.
• The following chart is a guide for data rates at different speeds:
  

7 Now go to Audio in the General Settings pull-down menu.