Codec question

dpearce wrote on 8/9/2001, 2:51 PM

I have a "what is the best codec question", but with some unusual requirements.

I'm going to be developing some medium length original videos of high quality, to some friends of mine overseas. These clips must be playable using Windows Media Player 7.0. Whatever codec I settle on must be either included with WMP or be something I can distribute freely. The encoder codec needs to work with Vegas Video.

I will not be going to tape.

I'm actually willing to spend a little money as long as the quality is very good and the decoder codec is free.

Suggestions?

Comments

SonyNateM wrote on 8/9/2001, 3:07 PM

You have quite a few decent codecs available in Vegas to choose from (in no particular order):

1) Windows Media - highly compressed, though uneditable. Can be played with Windows Media Player (still kind of flaky in it's Mac implementation)

2) MPEG-1 - highly compressed, can be edited, though quality loss will result, wide variance in bitrates - Can be played by WMP on PC's and Quicktime on Macs

3) RealMedia - highly compressed, uneditable. Can be played with RealPlayer (free download www.real.com) on both PC's and Macs

4) Quicktime - Great variance in compression/quality, editable. Can be played on PC's and Macs with Quicktime Player (free download quicktime.apple.com)

Of course, you could use AVI's compressed with the Indeo or Cinepak codecs as well, which should also play fine on both OS's. Give a try to a few and see what you like. Hope this helps.

dpearce wrote on 8/9/2001, 3:17 PM

Thank you for the information. BTW: Non-editable is OK for my purposes. I will be distributing the end-user files only.

My real problem is the people I will be sending these files to have NO Internet access. (Yes, they are really remote.) I have problems before with VV renders requiring a codec download from a web site before thee video will play.

Hence my need to include the decode codec on the CD. Unless I'm absolutely sure it come native with the player.

I'm playing around with the MPEG-4 codecs available from Digital Digest. I like the compression rates I'm seeing and the video quality is quite good. For some reason the bitrate can't be set, but other than than it looks good.

RobSoul wrote on 8/9/2001, 3:59 PM

You may consider exporting your files as full-rez .avi and then using a third-party app like Media Cleaner Pro to do the conversion for you. This would give you a lot more options.

Rob

Cheesehole wrote on 8/10/2001, 3:54 AM

Windows Media 8 is excellent but doesn't meet your requirements for being built into Vegas.

Windows Media 7 is a good compromise if you are set on rendering directly from Vegas.

I recommend including the Windows Media 6.4 player with the WM7.1 standalone codec installer on your CD. This will take care of the problem of needing to be connected to the net. Both the player and the codec pack are free from Microsoft. The 6.4 player is already built in to Win2k so if your friends are running that they'll only need to install the Codec Pack. 6.4 player is more compatible than the 7.1 player and is a lighter load on the system.

The codec pack comes with the Windows Media Encoder 7.1 Tools.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/technologies/resource.asp

dpearce wrote on 8/10/2001, 9:09 AM

Thanks cheesehole, I have looked at WM7 more than a few times and it does seem to fit the bill for me.

Does any one happen to know when WM8 will be supported directly in VV?

I have resisted an external encoder simply because it's one more step in the process (encode to AVI in VV, encode again in ???).

Thanks again.

dpearce wrote on 8/10/2001, 9:17 AM

Cheesehole, I just discovered a post here that I have verified. If you install the latest Windows Media Encoder (7.1), you get the WM8 codecs available in VV!

I'm testing them now...

SonyEPM wrote on 8/16/2001, 10:46 AM

You might consider MPEG1 if you are delivering on CD to a diverse audience. Pretty much any version of Media Player or QT player (both Mac and Win) will read that format.

Kirk wrote on 8/29/2001, 5:39 PM

What's the feedback? How'd the test go with the WM8 codecs?