nofilmschool » codec

Will the Google-Supported WebM Open-Source V9 Video Codec Surpass H.265?

Micah Van Hove — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:41:02 +0000

Let the next-gen online video compression wars begin. H.265, the codec that was approved earlier this year as an ITU-T standard and claims to be 50% more efficient than its predecessor H.264, now looks to have some competition in the Google-partnered WebM open-source V9 format, a step up from the highly adopted V8. Read on to watch some side by side comparisons and find out what this codec might do for you. (more…)

Opening Up 4K: Sony Expands Consumer 4K Market Compatibility with XAVC S

Dave Kendricken — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:24:36 +0000

Sony’s tight cluster of NAB 2013 4K-centric announcements featured some of the most affordably priced UHD TVs yet seen all the way over to the external recorder-enabled 4K shooting capabilities of its FS700. The latter announcement also made it clear that Sony is looking to put a wide variety of encoding and format options into the hands of shooters — and beyond, potentially. Aside from external and third-party recording expansion, Sony is opening up its efficient 4K XAVC codec — native to the F5 family — to the consumer as well as the prosumer. Read on for some details regarding these new ‘lite’ encoding/wrapper options, dubbed XAVC S. (more…)

At a Loss with Video Compression? Here Are Some Encoding Basics and Artifact Removal Tutorials

Dave Kendricken — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 05:04:47 +0000

While H.265 has been approved as the next-gen lossy delivery codec, we’re still watching a vast amount of video in H.264. In fact, even when H.265 sooner or later takes its place, videomakers will still be dealing with many of the same basic compression principles at work. Knowing all the variables of a delivery encoding job can help optimize bit efficiency, ensure the highest possible quality of media, and reduce the visibility of artifacting such as banding. Read on for a look at what drives the quality-to-compression ratio of your lossy-encoded delivery video, and how you can even ‘trick’ it in some cases. (more…)

H.265 is Now Officially Approved, is 4K Streaming and Broadcast Just Around the Corner?

Dave Kendricken — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:25:25 +0000

Technology’s progression sometimes moves with consistent momentum, and sometime comes in spurts. For instance, processors of mobile devices regularly decrease in size and price with relation to power — while, at the same time, the speed of your internet connection may not change much at all for several years, and make a great leap whenever it does. Both of these tendencies of advancement seem to inform High Efficiency Video Coding, A.K.A. H.265 — the successor to that other codec with which we’re all quite familiar (H.264). Improving efficiency by around double, H.265 aims to set the standard for the next decade in video streaming and encoding — and it’s going to ease mobile data congestion and likely make 4K a reality much sooner than many would have anticipated. (more…)

The Future of Encoding is Almost Here: HEVC (H.265) is Coming to 1 Billion Devices

Dave Kendricken — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:35:31 +0000

The advancements in lossy video encoding have been both consistent and amazing. H.264 (or AVC), that much maligned DSLR de-facto codec, sought to yield improved quality over its predecessors such as MPEG-2, all the while using half the bitrate, or lower, than such earlier codecs. Now, High Efficiency Video Coding or HEVC — likely to earn the alternate title H.265 — seeks to do the same compared to H.264, once more halving the bit rates necessary for equivalent, or even higher, quality. As it turns out, the tech world is already saturated with devices set to support HEVC playback. (more…)

Panasonic GH2 Hacked Further, Now Records to Advanced 176Mbit Codec

Ryan Koo — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:47:42 +0000

The Panasonic GH2, arguably the most aliasing-free, highest-resolution hybrid camera out there (pictured here with the $500 ReWo GH2 cage), natively records to a 24Mbit Long GOP codec. “Long GOP” means that redundant information is retained across moving frames, which is a very efficient way of compressing video, but can also leave behind compression artifacts. In addition to the original hacked firmware by Vitaliy Kiselev, a new hacker named Driftwood has managed to drastically increase the bitrate of the GH2, in addition to switching the codec to a 176Mbit intraframe codec, which could offer even better image quality with less artifacting. (more…)