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VP3, Open Source Video at 200kbs
Honest Man
noted that intel is hyping VP3 as the first low bitrate open source video codec. 200kbs for VHS quality video sounds good to me, especially when I can apt-get it. But is DivX already to entrenched in this niche?
So quick, apt-get it before it gets banned!
A low-bandwidth codec might have more success than DiVX (which, while lighter than mpeg-2, is still 800 meg for 90-100 minutes at decent quality).
Their press release says "open source", but what exactly backs that up??? If you follow the download link you get to something called "VP3 for Windows". Hmmmm.... seems binary-only (no source), and only for Windows, and it costs $395!
Am I missing something here????
Where, pray tell, is the link to download the source?
With DivX, if you want to copy your video collection, your hard drive is likely too small, plus you need special equipment to record. The alternatives are open as the linked article demonstrates. Via KazaA (or Gnutella, or whatever), Video files (even a 22 minute Simpsons episode) take a long time to download via cable modem, and is not realistic for the majority of people who use dial-up connections.
Don't get me wrong, DivX ;) is great, just as MP3 is. All I'm saying is that the differences are big enough to prevent DivX from being entrenched at this stage of the game.
501 Not Implemented
200kbit/sec for video? so what. double that if you want VHS quality sound along with it!
MP3 finally has a video counterpart - a file-compression algorithm that makes it possible to send large multimedia files over the Internet on demand. VP3 is the first open-source video codec to truly support VHS-quality video at bandwidths as low as 200 kbps.
isn't MP3 a patented, non-free algorithm? isn't that why Ogg Vorbis exists? so the only reason Intel is comparing VP3 to MP3 is marketing crap, right?
either that, or they are hoping people will compress millions of DVDs into VP3 and set up giant file-swapping services, that would be a video counterpart to MP3.
in other news, are there any side-by-side comparisons of VP3 and DivX? and how does Ogg Tarkin fit into all of this, now that there is an 'open source' codec?
-sam
burn the computers. go back to the abacus.
For the most part, isn't DiVX illegal, in that it is based on Microsoft Intellectual Property... Namely, their proposal to MPEG-4, which was not accepted? Isn't the DiVX 3.11 codec, just a hack of the MS Codec? I believe 3.11 is just the older version of the Codec that allowed encoding to non .ASF formats or something like that.
;) ? In addition, its hard to defend DiVX in a court battle. I mean, how many teleconferencing apps do you know run DiVX? I'm sure Intel will be able to show that the main purpose of this codec has nothing to do with pirating movies, even though it could be a good use of it ;)
This new Codec developed by intel, is open, so there is no immediate legal issues pertaining to its use, unlike DiVX. Also, this may open the doors to commercialization. I mean... How many vendors do you think would want to release something called DiVX
I think it would have better market value knowing it was a codec developed by a real company, not a hack of someone else's work.
Besides, isn't the bitrate of DiVX like 910 kb/sec in most applications? I think 200kb/sec for the same quality is awesome.
Key difference being: WMA supposedly offers better/equal quality to MP3 at a lower bitrate, but nobody wants to be sucked into a proprietary format. Likewise Windows Media8 supposedly offers DVD quality video at like 500 kb/sec, but again, who wants to be sucked into a proprietary format? This new codec from Intel on the other hand is open.
Just my two bits...
You can improve the code, as long as your improved codec's datastream can still be decoded by a cvs co unmodified decoder.
This is smart, and contrary to what you believe you can improve the encoder without breaking compatibility with the decoder. The datastream format is what cannot change.
With all the talk lately about various Codecs (divx, sorenson, and now VP3, as well as the "mpeg-4" stuff we've heard about (that may or may not be a codec :) )), I've been wondering...
...has anyone put together a good test suite to compare the various codecs at various bit rates? I'm thinking something that'd have some fixed-images (test patterns), some high- and medium-intensity moving images, lots of colors, simple and complex sounds, etc. Then put that file through all the various systems, at various rates, and compare the quality somehow...
Not that it'll really make much difference to me, as an end-user, since I'll just watch whatever someone has already encoded, but I'd be curious to see something a little more substantial and quantitative than just "sorenson's cool" sort of postings...
When they can beat DiVX, I'll be impressed.
Two months ago I was compressing near-VHS quality at just over 250 kbps with DiVX. Could have gone down to 200 kbps if I had the time to tweak it a little more.
Now, if VP3 can do the tweaking for me, and is faster, then I'll be impressed.
There was some discussion on the developer lists about getting them to allow us to release an OGG video stream using their codec. Right now, they're supposedly looking at re-working their license to make it where something like that might happen.
Otherwise, the best you can do with the current license is make a VP3 player/stream codec for Linux (Which wouldn't be a bad thing- I've seen the technology in action with RealPlayer 8 on Linux, playing some unbelievable streams from news.com.).
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Interesting... I assume you mean it's the standard for final output on projects? You don't edit in DivX, do you?
Will you also archive your projects in DivX? If so, I'm glad I didn't attend U of South FL. I prefer my demo reel to be on something other people can look at easily, such as one of the established tape formats, not some unknown codec inappropriate for broadcast and not available on most desktops.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
Here is what I have so far : http://tv.cheema.com/vcr/ Its in early stages of development and you may find some problems here and there. I plan to release the source under GPL once I get my employer's approval.
Warning : The system above is on a slow uplink so some pages may load slowly. At some point I will start using mod_gzip.
OK, so the source code is available. That's a start. But it's not truly free. It's encumbered by patents and other restrictions.
So, given a code base for reference (ala reverse engineering), all we need is for somebody outside of the US, where software patents don't apply, to develop a GPL replacement written from the ground up, but which is unofficially 100% compatible with the VP3 format. Ideally, it may even be possible to work around their patents somehow, which would free content producers from having to pay royalty fees (as with MP3).
Of course, that's assuming that VP3 is really a format worth emulating compared to the patent-free video codec the Ogg Vorbis people are working on. But hey, even they may be able to gain some insight from looking at the VP3 code.
http://www.on2.com/quicktime/trailers/
Rather than watching the movies in a tiny window embedded in a web page, visit this page, download them, and watch them in their own player as large as you want. Personally, I'm very impressed.
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