Compressing with Super©

Using the program

If you have not already downloaded it go to this page to learn about the fun of getting Super©. Luckily the program is less fuss to use than to download!

We are only dealing with uploads to YouTube. Nor are we considering HD (high definition) video.

If you allowed the installation process to make a desktop icon double-click on that. Otherwise use the start menu to fire it up or if you are a real nuts-and-bolts type use Internet Explorer to find the file down in C:\Program Files\eRightSoft\SUPER\SUPER.exe and open that. Whichever approach you take Super© takes a moment or two to start. That gives you time to take a deep breath ... because when it does the window that appears seems daunting.
DON'T PANIC!

This panel offers lots of choices but each option is clearly shown, it stores your choices and after the first time you use them it will all seem much less daunting.
By the way you should always use the most up-to-date version of the program. Yours may be later than this one.
Basics

Life isn't simple. Nor are video files. Each file consists of:

a wrapper (identified for example as AVI, MP4, MOV and so on)
a type of compression (identified by the name of the codec - coder/decoder - which did the job)
a sound element (e.g. AAC, WAV) with various criteria like mono/stereo, frequency of sampling and channel.
A video element with various criteria like frame size, aspect, number of frames-per-second.

Luckily we only need make the settings once and Super© will remember them for future use.
The full Super panel.

Select the Output Container

Here we choose the type of wrapper.

Clicking the triangle at the right of the "Select the Output Container" box and an enormous list of options appears. (We have shown only the first part of it here.) Some later ones include special formats for iPod and iPhones, Nintendo DS and so on.

Since this guide is not an instruction manual for Super© in general we will ignore other choices and simply say click on "mp4" to select that.

Manufacturers often use "mp4" loosely. The official description is in ISO/IEC 14496-14:2003. It is a wrapper which can contain digital audio and digital video streams, but also still images, subtitles and other data.

Part of the wrapper choice drop-down on Super.

If your eyes are sharp you may notice that when you choose a wrapper format the other options on the panel change slightly. Changes also happen in the drop-down selections you make next. Super© tries to help by offering choices appropriate to the chosen wrapper.

Select the Output Video Codec

Here we choose the type of compression to apply.

Clicking the triangle at the right of the "Select the Output Video Codec" box and a list of viable options is presented.

Many items on the list seem tempting, but for our purpose choose "H.264/AVC".

The H.264/AVC standard was agreed in 2003. It offers good video quality at substantially lower bit rates than previous standards (e.g. half or less the bit rate of MPEG-2, H.263, or MPEG-4 Part 2).

The drop-down list of codec options in Super for mp4 files.

Select the Output Audio Codec

Here we choose the type of audio to use.

Clicking the triangle at the right of the "Select the Output Audio Codec" box and a list of viable options is presented. For our purposes choose "AAC LC."

AAC=Advanced Audio Coding and LC=Low Complexity.

The drop-down list of relevant audio choices in Super.

Internal Encoders

The next row down the main panel shows which of its built-in encoders Super© will use to prepare the output file. For our purpose we can ignore it.

The "Direct Show Decode" provides an option to use the coding tools provided with Windows Media Player. These can be faster than the other options, but results are variable and not guaranteed on Windows 98 or Windows ME systems.

Video Qualities

The next row lets us specify the size, shape and quality of the video output. We will take each part of it in turn:

We can safely ignore the first choices. Leave these boxes unticked.
Disable Video is an option for those who want to extract only the soundtrack from a movie.
Stream Copy does not change the input video and may be used by people who want to keep the same video format but change the sound format.
First part of the Super video choices.

Video Scale lets us choose the size of output picture. At first we cannot see the size we want which is 640:480 for standard aspect films or 480:270 for widescreen films on YouTube.
Click the box beside the word "More" and another list appears which includes sizes we want. A second click in the box puts a tick in it and offers custom aspect ratios. If that happens by accident just click again on the tick and it vanishes.
The Super video image size choices.

Aspect lets you specify the shape of the image. This should default to the ratio specified in the Video Scale. If it does not you can click in the circle beside the appropriate aspect ratio. Super's aspect ratio choice.

Frames-per-second lets us choose the speed at which the video runs. Click in the circle beside "29.97" so that it is chosen. The "More" option allows custom rates to be entered. Generally you should choose the same frame rate as your original video. Some of the rates offered were used when people tried to watch video on dial-up connections and some flicker was accepted in order to keep file sizes small. The choice of frame speeds in Super.

Bitrates Here we choose how much information can be packed into the output file. Clicking the triangle at the right of the box presents a list of speeds. For our purpose aim for close to 2Kb (2000 bytes). This is fine for YouTube. Try this value and if the output file is more than YouTube's 2Gb limit, try again with a lower Bitrate.
The figure is usually a compromise which works well for video on the web.
The selection of Super bit rates.

Options
You can tick and untick various options here. We suggest you tick "Top Quality" and untick all the rest.
Even if your video soundtrack is at the usual 48,000KHz YouTube recommend using 44,100Hz so leavethat box alone.
Other video options in Super.

Audio Qualities

The options in the next panel are less daunting.

We can safely ignore the first choices. Leave these boxes unticked. Disable Audio is an option for those who want to extract only the video from a movie.

Sampling Frequency - YouTube recommend 44.1KHz = 44100Hz.

Channels - click in an empty circle of you want to select it. 1 is mono, 2 is stereo and 6 is for 5.1 surround sound. We suggest 2.

Bitrate - we find 64 Kilobytes per second sounds fine for most movies. For work where the sound is specially important, such as a music video, you could raise this. There is no point going higher than your original video. If you are not sure check what is on your original - here's how.

DVD Language - not relevant if you are uploading files shot on your camcorder. DVDs have provision for soundtracks in different languages, commentaries and so on. Each of those is numbered so you could choose (say) the French language track.

Output

This shows a summary of what you have chosen. Clicking on the chevrons on the right shows a little more. Note that right-clicking allows you to see a menu of actions. One of those is "Output File Saving Management" - which lets you navigate to the folder where you want to store the results of your processing.

Input

You drag-and-drop onto this panel the file or files you want to compress. An alternative is to right-click and from the menu which appears choose "Add Multimedia Files" - which lets you navigate to where your original file is stored on your computer.

After processing the size of the output file will appear on the right of this panel.

Playback etc

The buttons at the foot of the screen begin with:

Encode (Active Files) - active files are those with a tick beside their name in the Input panel. This button starts the encoding process. Processing can take some time, but you will see a report on progress just above the Input Panel.

Player Options - lets you adjust brightness, contrast and so on.

After encoding the Play The Last Rendered File button uses the built-in player to show you what the output looks like.

An ERROR has occurred. Click to read more... lights up if something goes wrong. Clicking it brings up a report which may reveal what went wrong. Common problems are settings which are not compatible with the original file.

Cancel All - er ... cancels all processing!

Checking Your Original File

When you have dragged-and-dropped or used the right-click menu to add your input file/s in the Input Panel ... double-click on a filename and a panel will open showing a great deal of information about the file including the bitrate at which the video and the audio were encoded. If this does not give you enough information (!) click the box at the top of this display marked "Click here to display advanced analysis".

This information can be helpful when choosing your output settings. There is no point setting higher output standards than the original actually contains.