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EncodingVideo

Page history last edited by Anonymous 4 yrs ago

  1. Introduction to video compression
  2. Codecs
    1. AVI
    2. Quick Time
    3. Windows Media
    4. Real Media
    5. MPEG
  3. Software
    1. OS X platform
    2. Windows platform

Introduction to video compression

When video is transmitted via the web, it is compressed (encoded) to make it smaller in file size. This compression allows video files that run at 22MB/s to be transmitted at rates as low as 56kbps. That's around 4,000 fold! Encoding is accomplished with algorithms referred to as codecs (compression-decompression). Some familiar codecs are produced by companies such as Real, Microsoft and Apple.

 

From: http://www.videolan.org/doc/vls-user-guide/en/ch01.html#id288561

 

A codec is a compression algorithm, used to reduce the size of a stream. There are audio codecs and video codecs. MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Vorbis, DivX, ... are codecs

A container format contains one or several streams already encoded by codecs. Very often, there is an audio stream and a video one. AVI, Ogg, MOV, ASF, ... are container formats. The streams contained can be encoded using different codecs.

MPEG is also a container format, sometimes refered to as MPEG System. There are several types of MPEG: ES, PS, and TS. When you play an MPEG video from a DVD, for instance, the MPEG stream is actually composed of several streams (called Elementary Streams, ES): there is one stream for video, one for audio, another for subtitles, and so on. These different streams are mixed together into a single Program Stream (PS). So, the .VOB files you can find in a DVD are actually MPEG-PS files. But this PS format is not adapted for streaming video through a network or by satellite, for instance. So, another format called Transport Stream (TS) was designed for streaming MPEG videos through such channels.

 

Codecs

AVI

  • 3ivx
  • Avid AVI 2.02
  • Cinepak
  • DivX 3.11
  • DivX 4.12
  • DivX 5.0.2
  • DV
  • Huffyuv
  • Indeo 3.2
  • Indeo 4.4
  • Indeo 5.10
  • Microsoft MPEG-4 v1
  • Microsoft MPEG-4 v2
  • Microsoft RLE
  • Microsoft Video 1
  • None (Uncompressed, Full Frames)
  • XviD

 

Quick Time

  • 3ivx
  • Animation
  • Blackmagic 10-bit
  • Blackmagic 8-bit
  • Cinepak
  • Component Video
  • DV
  • Graphics
  • H.261
  • H.263
  • H.264
  • Motion-JPEG
  • MPEG-4 Video
  • None
  • PNG
  • Sorenson Video
  • Sorenson Video 3
  • Video

 

Windows Media

  • Microsoft MPEG-4 v3
  • Windows Media 7
  • Windows Media 8
  • Windows Media 9

 

Real Media

  • Real Video 10

- Please add more to this list

 

MPEG

  • MPEG-1
  • MPEG-2
  • MPEG-4

 

Link to page of alternative player builds: http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/finalbuilds.htm

 

Software

OS X platform

Broadcaster

Cleaner

  • Made by Discreet, encodes to Real, Windows Media, Quick Time (no future releases planned)

Compression Master

  • Made by Popwire, encodes to Real, Windows Media, Quick Time, Flash

Compressor

  • Made by Apple, ties into DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut

QuickTime Pro

  • Allows you to capture (as of version 7) and transcode to any QuickTime supported format

Real Producer

  • Encodes to Real Video (live and on-demand)

Squeeze

  • Sorenson project, encodes to Real, Windows Media, Quick Time, Flash

VLC

  • Open Source project supports multiple formats

 

Windows platform

Agility Anystream

  • Encodes to Real, Windows Media, Quick Time, Flash

Encoder

  • Windows Media only (live and on-demand)

Procoder

  • Encodes to Real, Windows Media, Quick Time, Flash

Real Producer

  • Encodes to Real Video (live and on-demand)

Squeeze

  • Encodes to Real, Windows Media, Quick Time, Flash

VLC

  • Open Source project supports multiple formats

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