Anybody using: Lagarith Lossless Video Codec?

Grazie wrote on 1/12/2009, 3:24 AM
After much research and assistance from Rory here on Pi, I am now researching the pitfalls of adding this CODEC - as suggested by "Alan" at Pi, to my system. Any problems you can think of? Will I get CODEC Wars?

Grazie

Comments

ingvarai wrote on 1/12/2009, 4:43 AM
I have used it. From my initial test renderings, the file size seems to be twice the size compared with Cineform. I am an amateur in this field, so I currently cannot find anything to complain about :-)
It does show up in Vegas 8.1 as an AVI compression option, which gives it a plus mark here ;-)
blink3times wrote on 1/12/2009, 4:59 AM
Eugenia did a fairly detailed study comparing various lossless codecs... Lagarith was not the best.

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/09/15/intermediate-codecs-the-face-off/
jrazz wrote on 1/12/2009, 5:11 AM
Graham,

I use it with Cinegobs Keyer and found it to work well for that. I have had no stability issues stemming from that codec and it serves my purpose.

j razz
Grazie wrote on 1/12/2009, 7:33 AM
Thanks Guys!

Grazie
John_Cline wrote on 1/12/2009, 10:11 AM
I use Lagarith all the time, it is absolutely lossless like HuffYUV, but Lagarith makes smaller files. All the other codecs Eugenia tested were lossy. If maintaining visual quality is paramount, Lagarith is best. Of course, this is at the expense of filesize. Lagarith is also available in 32bit and 64bit versions.
[r]Evolution wrote on 1/12/2009, 12:47 PM
Lagarith <-- looks like it's FREE.
Cineform <-- looks like it's NOT FREE.

Is this true?
John_Cline wrote on 1/12/2009, 1:17 PM
Lagarith is indeed completely free.

An older version of the Cineform codec is included in Vegas, it will freely encode/decode video at resolution up to 1440x1080. The resulting files can be read by programs other than Vegas, but only Vegas is able to write Cineform files.

Cineform NEO Scene is now available for $129 which will encode/decode up to 1920x1080 and the latest Cineform codec will be available in Vegas and all other programs which support VFW-compatible codecs. This includes programs like After Effects and Virtual Dub. The codec included in NEO Scene is many versions newer than the one that is included for free with Vegas.

Lagarith is completely lossless. Cineform is a fractal-based codec, which is "visually lossless" but it is not actually a lossless codec. Very minor image degradation will occur on multiple passes. This does not happen using Lagarith.
Laurence wrote on 1/12/2009, 1:24 PM
If you are looking at Lagarith, you probably need Cineform. No it's not lossless, but for the most part that is just theoretical. Multiple generations of Cineform look great. I see no loss whatsoever. For all practical purposes you can use it like it was lossless. Why use Cineform instead of Lagarith? Because the file sizes are so much smaller and because it previews so much better in Vegas. As far as the cost of Cineform, with the new Neo Scene, you'll save the price in hard discs in just a couple of projects.
Grazie wrote on 1/12/2009, 1:32 PM
Laurence, I am using it for an ALPHA channel back into VEgas from Particle Illusion. Uncomp 980mbs - Lagarith 23mbs. Previewing looks amazing.

Grazie
Laurence wrote on 1/12/2009, 1:37 PM
Yeah, you need Lagarith then.
GregFlowers wrote on 1/12/2009, 7:01 PM
Lagarith's website states that Lagarith can take advantage of multiple processors, while Huffy UV cannot. So on dual or quad core systems Lagarith may perform better than Huffy UV. Eugenia's system used a Pentium4 at 3.06 Ghz with Hyperthreading, so Lagarith may have been less advantagous.