Video codec Boon or Bane

1
Video codecBoon or Bane

• By
• Syed Kaleem
• Producer
• EMMRC
• Univeristy of Mysore

2
Introduction
3
Cinepak is one of the older and popular codec for
delivering video for multimedia applications. It
is a software-only codec, not requiring hardware
for compression or decompression, although some
hardware implementations do exist. Cinepak takes
much longer time to compress the video than it
does to decompress and display it, taking minutes
to compress a single frame in extreme cases.
4
The Intel indeo is curently available as pure
software codec. It is asymmetric, but compression
typically is faster than with Cinepak. Indeo
maintains a sharper, more color correct, image
with low motion video, but still loses to Cinepak
on video with high motion content. Both the codec
companies are continuously refining and
constantly upgrading for supremacy in the market.
5
Motion JPEG, or M-JPEG, is a video adaptation of
the JPEG standard for still photos. It simply
treats a video stream as a series of still
photos, compressing each individually, with no
interframe compression. Because it uses no
interframe compression, it is ideal for editing
6
H.261 was primarily used in older
videoconferencing and videotelephony products
over ISDN telephone lines. H.261, developed by
the ITU-T, was the first practical digital video
compression standard. Essentially all subsequent
standard video codec designs like mpeg 1 are
based on it. H.261 supported only Progressive
scan video.
7
H.263 almost similar to H261 is also used
primarily for videoconferencing, videotelephony,
and internet video. H.263 represented a
significant step forward in standardized
compression capability for progressive scan
video. Especially at low bit rates, it could
provide a substantial improvement in the bit rate
needed to reach a given level of fidelity.
8
MPEG-1 used for video CDs, and also sometimes for
online video. The quality is roughly comparable
to that of VHS. If the source video quality is
good and the bit rate is high enough, VCD can
look better than VHS, and to get a fully
compliant VCD file, bit rates higher than 1150
kbits/s and resolutions higher than 352 x 288
should not be used.
9
MPEG-2 similar to H.262 used on DVD and in
another form for SVCD and used in most digital
video broadcasting and cable distribution
systems. When used on a standard DVD, it offers
good picture quality and supports widescreen.
When used on SVCD, it is not as good but is
certainly better than VCD. Unfortunately, SVCD
will only fit around 40 minutes of video on a CD,
whereas VCD can fit an hour.
10
H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC is a digital video
codec with high rate of high data compression.
Jointly created by two companies are almost
identical. The aim of H.264/AVC project was to
create a standard that would provide good video
quality at bit rates that are considerably lower
than the previous standards like MPEG-2, H.263,
or MPEG-4 Part 2.
11
DivX, XviD and 3ivX Video codec packages
essentially using MPEG-4 video codec, with the
.avi, and .mp4 file container formats has
become popular due to its ability to compress
long video segments into small sizes while
maintaining high visual quality.
12
Sorenson is a codec that is popularly used by
Apple's quick time, basically the tweaked and
improved version of H.264. Many of the QuickTime
Movie trailers found on the web use this codec.
Sorebson is the newest version of Macromedia
flash, a special version called Sorenson Spark,
most of the media centres are using this codec
for econtent development.
13
Theora developed by the Xiph.org foundation, is a
open source video codec targeted at competing
with MPEG-4 video and similar lower-bitrate video
compression schemes.
14
WMV is Microsofts family of video codec designs
that includs WMV 7, WMV 8, and WMV 9. It can do
anything from low resolution video for dial up
internet users to HDTV. Files can be burnt to CD
and DVD or output to any number of devices. It is
also useful for Media Centre PCs.
15
- a software called GSpot is the answer. Gspot is
easily available from www.headbands.com. GSpot
looks initially a little complex to handle but is
one of the best available software to identify
the codec that you need to play your video file.
16
Video Inspector, a software that analyzes most
containers and gives direct download links for
missing codecs, but if you are aware of the
codec but do not have one installed on your
system then you can visit www.hotcodecs.com and
download it. You will find every codec available
under the sun on this website.