December 7, 2021 What is the best video format for me?

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What is the best video format for me?

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Where to find the videos

Our videos are linked from Shoot pages (where all the media from one shoot appears). Note that Models also have their own pages (that list all the Shoots they appear in), but no videos are linked from Model pages.

Logged in subscribers, and customers who have bought a scene via PPS see a Shoot page like this:

shoot page explanation

ABOVE: the Shoot Page for one of Juliana’s shoots. The page is organised into a series of panels.

(1) Is a short streaming video preview (30 to 45 seconds) of what happens in this scene.

(2) Is for the main set of Still images, this links to a gallery page of thumbnails to see all the images from the main part of this shoot.

(3) Is for the Dressing Room set of images, a voyeuristic look at the model getting dressed.

(4) Links to the Video page for this scene, with all the video options (download, stream, video quality selection). See below for more details on this.

(5) Links to Juliana’s Model page, to see all the shoots Juliana appears in.

Selecting how to watch videos

There are two ways we make our videos available, (1) Streaming, and (2) Download. Each has several quality settings, from low to HD1080 to 4k.

ABOVE: The video clip page for a scene with Carolina S. (1) Streaming playback interface. (2) Video download interface.

ABOVE: The video clip page for a scene with Carolina S. (1) Streaming playback interface. (2) Video download interface.

In a nutshell, we recommend:

  • (1) above: If you want a quick fix, reasonable to very good quality, and nothing saved on your computer: Stream videos (like on YouTube). Quality may not be as good as download, depending on your internet connection quality.
  • (2) above: If you want high quality, and want to keep our videos for a long time: download HD videos in MP4 format (you may need to install the excellent and free VLC media player)

Streaming video

All our videos are available in a streaming format.

streaming video player

ABOVE: The streaming video player interface for a scene with Carolina S. (1) The current play position. Click and drag to advance through the video. (2) The total length of the video. (3) Set the quality of streaming; this screenshot is in HD. (4) Set the volume level. (5) Make the video full-screen.

Streaming videos works for everyone using a modern browser (like YouTube):

  • Ideal for: privacy, instant fix, preview-before-download
  • Works on all modern browsers
  • For the techies: Streaming videos are in the MP4 / H264 format, streamed via a HTML5 player
  • These videos come in several qualities, Low, Medium, High, HD and 4k
  • If you have a slower internet connection, try the lower qualities
  • You can “scrub” – click anywhere in the timeline, to start watching from there instantly
  • High quality is a bit below DVD-quality; HD is 1080i
  • HD and 4k streaming may not work if your internet connection is low-bandwidth
  • You can make the video full-screen while you’re watching it
  • It can be useful to scrub through the Low quality version to see if you’re going to like this video, before downloading the HD / 4k version

Video download

All our videos are available as a download, in several formats.

video download options

ABOVE: The video download interface. (1) In this example, the HD (High Definition, best) quality is selected, which we only provide in the MP4 format. (2) This file is 2.3 gigabytes to download – very large! (3) The resolution of this file is 1920 x 1080 pixels. Perfect for a big TV! (4) The bit-rate is 10981Kbps, meaning the quality of the video is very high.

video download options SQ

ABOVE: Another view of the video download interface. (1) In this example, the SQ (Standard Quality) quality is selected, which we provide two format for. (2) Link to download the WMV format (more details below). (3) Link to download the MP4 format (more details below).

MP4: Works on all modern computers, smaller files, excellent quality, downloadable

The h.264/MP4 format (Wikipedia page for technical info):

  • Ideal for: people who prefer higher image quality, people with a computer bought in the last four years
  • MP4 videos have excellent “bang for your buck” (small file size, for high quality)
  • Works natively on Apple Mac computers running OSX, and iOS (iPad, iPhone) devices
  • Some older MS Windows (XP, Vista, Win98) computers may require download of the excellent VLC software (safe, easy, quick and secure). Windows 7, 8 and 10 should “just work”, but we still recommend using VLC Media player.
  • Some older Mac computers may require VLC to play back the files smoothly
  • We recommend HD or 4k MP4 videos as the best for viewing abbywinters.com content
  • MP4 videos require a reasonably modern (powerful) computer to play back
  • Slower or older computers may see jerky / stuttering playback: try playing back a lower quality MP4
  • Image quality is good to excellent

For the nerds: We stream the same file as is available for downloading. Yay for MP4!

WMV: Works for older Windows systems, download only (discontinued for all new releases from Jan 1, 2020)

WMV, Windows Media format:

  • Ideal for: people with older (5+ years) MS Windows computers
  • These are only provided at medium dimensions
  • “Standard”, average quality
  • WMV won’t work easily on Apple Mac computers
  • Generally not recommended, as the quality is lower and file size is larger.