Well, on my Core i7/Core 2 Duo systems, running a variety of decodeds (ffdshow, MPC's internal decoder, and CoreAVC), and in fact every system I have used, that is the case.
If you want to check this, get the Blu-Ray source for Defiance, and I can send you an x264 encode of the first few minutes of the film - lower bitrate, but much higher CPU usage because of the settings used. In that case, the encode was also 4.1 but it used much more aggressive (higher quality) settings.
No, those aren't the only differences. For one, you are limited in the number of reference frames you can use at a given resolution at 4.1. For example, at full 1920x1200 I don't think you can use more than 4 or 5 reference frames at 4.1, but I've seen 5.1 encodes that use 16 reference frames for animated films that achieve very high compression ratios while maintaining transparency.
4.1's maximum maximum allowed bitrate is not the constraint. Doom9 or Wikipedia can provide much more detailed information about the differnces between levels, but I know from HDBits that the # of reference frames is one of the big differences.
You're on Windows 7 so you're using VirtualPC 2010 which supports XP Mode. MS removed Hyper-V, so now VirtualPC has no support for Linux/Unix based-OS's. If you were on XP, you would have VirtualPC 2007 which can be used to install Linux. I know Ubuntu 8.10 worked on VirtualPC 2007. So, you have to specify which version you're using.
As for VMWare server. I installed 2.0.2 on Windows 7 x64 without issue. Did it complain about unsigned drivers during the install process, or simply fail to work? The install seemingly went fine here. I see two new VMWare network adapaters, which presumably required the installation of a driver.
I noticed the quality of HDTV increased dramatically when going from Comcast Cable to Verizon FiOS. Also, FiOS has pretty much every network show on demand for free, with limited commercials.
Yes, it IS possible to get higher picture quality out of a lower bitrate, but not with all else equal. For example, you can get higher quality with CPU-intensive settings using H.264 5.1 Profile than you can with H.264 4.1 (what Blu-Ray's/HD DVDs use), at the same bitrate. You're giving up CPU cycles in decoding for lower video size. This is why x264 can produce near-transparent encodes of Blu-Ray movies at about half the size. x264 uses much more demanding settings.
x264 at 20 Mbit which high-quality settings is far more demanding than a 40 Mbit H.264 stream from a Blu-Ray.
Let me describe how it works in Windows 7 as my request may not be clear. From my reading on the topic, I simply don't think it's possible from the GUI.
Windows Explorer has a "Homegroup" and a "Network" tab which is automatically populated with available networked machines. When I resume my laptop from standby, within about 5 seconds I see "Jason (Jason-Laptop) pop up in the Homegroup and Network section.
In addition, I can aggregate folders with the same type of data into a single "Library". For example I have a Television and a Movie library on my desktop. The former contains 3 folders spanning 3 hard drives while the latter contains 2 folders spanning 2 hard drives. Rather than showing as Television1, Television2, Television3, Windows 7 merely shows the single library. If you drag a file to the library, it copies to the default directory (specified when you create the library). I doubt this is supported in any OS other than Win 7.
Go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items and drag your shares into the Login Items.
The problem with this solution is that the Windows system is not on 24/7. It's on perhaps 12 hours a day. So, when the OS X machine logs on, and can't connect, it spits out numerous error messages annoying said Mac user. This resulted in me quickly disabling that option.
Would the result be different using the/etc/fstab method?
Does anyone actually use Quicktime for video playback in Windows? The first thing I do after installing iTunes is to disable the Quicktime plugin in Firefox. The WMP plugin is far superior in functionality and is less annoying, to boot.
But there is also the issue that you must actually mount a Windows share. This requires manually mounting the share each time you want to use it, or doing so when the machine turns on. The problem with the latter solution is that it wont' work if the shares aren't available 24/7 as it will lead to numerous errors about being unable to mount the shares.
I don't really understand why OS X and Linux treat shares this way. In Windows, you can access shares simply through a desktop shortcut, or by "\\hostname\share" or "\\IP address\share\". In addition, all computers which have enabled file & print sharing automatically show up on the network.
Homegroup makes the process even easier as it automatically displays any member of the homegroup, allows sharing of libraries rather than simply folders, and allows remote searching of the host's index - allowing for instant searches including full-text search of documents.
Is there any way to access a Windows share without mounting the share? Alternatively, can a shortcut be added to the desktop to mount the share, rather than the "Go > Connect to Server --> Mount share" method. I honestly can't see my roommate doing this manually.
When I "Right Click, Get Info, Open With, Change All" it changes the icon of the individual file to a VLC icon, and will in fact play with VLC. However, it doesn't change the default program or icon for any other AVIs.
That's why I believe the problem is the one I posted above.
"Just to be absolutely clear, you are doing 'Right Click, Get Info, Open With, Change All'?"
Yes, that's precisely what I did.
And, yes - I expected it to open with whatever program I specified - just as Explorer will do in Windows or Nautilus in Ubuntu. My comments resulted from my surprise that I was unable to set AVIs to open with VLC despite my numerous attempts.
And I apologize that I wasn't very clear. I was pretty limited time-wise and didn't remember the exact wording or process. However, I know I did "right click, get info, open with, change all" since that's pretty much the same way it works in Windows - and the same way I set MKVs to play in VLC earlier - on the same machine.
But I think another Slashdot reader has posted the solution:
"I believe you're running into a "feature" that's causing some confusion. If you manually change a document's open with application it segregates itself from the pool of documents that change when you hit "change all" on other documents. In case it's 12:30 and I'm not making sense I'll give an example...
You have a.tif, b.tif, and c.tif. The default program for opening.tif files is Preview and all three files in question are opening with the default. You change a.tif to open with Photoshop. You then change b.tif to open with Firefox and hit the "change all" button. You'd then be left with b and c.tif opening in Firefox, and a.tif opening in Photoshop because you changed it manually from the default. At some point in the future hitting change all on a.tif will both return it to the default pool along with b and c and change the default.tif program to whatever a.tif is set to at that moment.
I think for one reason or another these avi files think they're all out of the pool. You can change the files already on your drive to use the default quickly by using the Find command to find all files ending in.avi on the computer, then hitting select all and then command-option-i to bring up the inspector. Then change them to open with the program of your choice and hit change all.
Hope this helps, works, makes sense, and wasn't too wordy (I don't know how well you know your way around the MacOS so I explained a bit more than usual)."
I admitted I didn't know much about the OS. I don't use OS X. I was just helping my roommate. I should have done more research but I didn't have the time. I had to give her back her laptop.
However, changing a file association should not be that much of a fight. I did the same exact thing for MKV and it worked perfectly, but for some reason, AVI doesn't want to change its association.
"So, basically, you're mad that it won't play your pirated movies out of the box? I've got karma to burn, so time to feed the trolls."
No, I'm mad that it chooses to use Quicktime as the default program when it is incapable of playing something as simple as an AVI file with Xvid/MP3 content. Windows 7 and Ubuntu 8.10/9.10 do so out of the box, so I don't think I"m asking too much. If Quicktime doesn't work out of the box, don't make it DEFAULT.
In fact, I rarely every use the default. I always tinker. On Windows 7 x64, I use MPC-HC with the latest ffdshow build for H.264 as well as lanczos to upscale DVDs and 720p video. I also use MPC-HC's hardware acceleration on my Intel GMA chip on my laptop. So, it's not like I even care about things working out of the box.
BUT I do expect to easily be able to set the default application used to open a given filetype. I changed the file assocation for MKV with no issue; but it just wouldn't work with AVI.
And why does it matter whether I was playing pirated or legal video content? Is it OK for Quicktime not to play my plain vanilla AVIs because of their source?
Anyway, how do you know the source? For all you know, I encode my own high definition videos from Blu-Ray and DVD sources. In fact, I have done so. Maybe you assumed I didn't because you misunderstood pretty much all of my comments and thought I was an ignorant dumbass that.
Look, I don't use OS X. I was just helping setup a roommate's computer. I said it was an aside. My only point was that in Windows, what I wanted to accomplish would have been easy. Same deal with Ubuntu.
I can't even understand how you could conceivably do this? Where does Virtualbox give you an option to format your host hard drive? It allows you to delete virtual disks - and only then after a warning. WTF did you do?
And in other places - like areas around D.C. and NY - have FTTH in which you can get a 25/15 or 35/20 connection for $65/mo with no bandwidth limit. At that rate, I can download a DVD in 25 minutes and an average sized Blu-Ray encode in under an hour. Then again, I only download at private trackers, where it easy to download at over 100 Mbit/sec due to all the seed boxes. Obviously, it'll take a lot longer on a public tracker.
On my pedestrian 12/2 (24/5 with Speedboost) Comcast connection, I can download an HD TV show in 12.5 minutes, and a 720p movie in under an hour. I don't consider that so bad - easier than going to Blockbuster.
I know perfectly well that Matroska is a container, not a format. If my language was ambiguous, I apologize. I mentioned that pretty much all HD videos and the higher-quality SD videos use the MKV container because it supports audio formats easily such as AC3, DTS, and FLAC which AVI and MP4 can't easily do. In addition, is it even possible to embed soft subtitles in an AVI file? I've only seen separate SRT files. I know the Matroska format supports the inclusion of SRT subs.
As for the part about Quicktime not supporting H.264 encoded from a Blu-Ray, you again misunderstood me. Here is what I said:
"- Can't play H.264 above Baseline. That means you can't play H.264 from a Blu-Ray/HD DVD or any (decent) x264 encodes. Pretty much limits you to iTunes downloads"
I said that Quicktime can't play H.264 video from a Blu-Ray/HD DVD - not that it can't play the disk itself. Blu-Ray supports 3 formats - MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264 (AVC). H.264 video in both the Blu-Ray and HD DVD format is encoded at "High Profile" - to be more technical Level 4.1. Quicktime only supports videos encoded at Baseline - or more techically, Level 3.1. You can strip out the H.264 video, convert it from the m2ts to a a Quicktime-complaint MP4 container file and it still will not work in Quicktime because of the lack of High Profile support. So, pretty much everything you said about my comments was irrelevant.
And to be technical, Blu-Ray is just an optical disk format. It can be used for movies, audio, or just to store data files.
I did that for MKV files and it worked fine. Notice how I didn't complain about MKV?
I did the same exact procedure for AVI's and Quicktime just won't give up control. I also tried doing it through the Quicktime settings. MKV's are fine - they open automatically in VLC. My experience with Windows and Linux allowed me to do that without issue. It seems the problem is that it's simply not respecting the setting.
I actually went to the Xvid site. There is no Xvid binary for the Mac. Rather, they direct you to the Divx codec.
" The XviD codec isn't yet available for the Mac, so to play XviD videos on your Mac you first need to install QuickTime and the DivX codec. Then you need to download and install the delegate component available for your Mac OS version:
Mac OS X
XviD codec for Mac OS X (5KB) Mac
XviD codec for Mac OS 8/9 (3KB)"
I'm pretty sure I did try the "apply to all files of this type". I just couldn't remember the exact language used. I tried it several times with different files, and it seemed to only apply to the individual file selected despite the option's language that suggested a universal application.
I will have to look at the computer again. We had just gotten new cable internet service to replace the shit ADSL connection from AT&T and I was setting up my roommate's computers to connect to the network (WPA2 w/ 64 char randomly generated HEX key) as well as setting up file sharing across the network so they could access HDTV and Blu-Ray movies streamed from my desktop connected to a gigabit switch.
After setting up network connectivity, and figuring out how to mount a Windows share at bootup in OS X, and then fighting with Quicktime to get AVI playback to work right, I pretty much gave up since my roommate was going to bed and needed her laptop back. I don't normally use OS X and can't play around with it in a VM, so my only experience is when I troubleshoot OS X user's issues (usually network-related).
I am therefore admittedly lacking in OS X knowledge. Thanks for the info again. I'll have a look at it.
Slashdot Mirror
These are the Reference frame limits in Level 4.1
Resolution | no. ref
-----------|---------
1280x544 | 12
1280x720 | 9
1920x800 | 5
1920x816 | 5
1920x1080 | 4
If none of the resolutions above match your source, use the following equation to work it out for yourself:
8388608
__________________
(width x height)
However, I've seen Level 5.1 encodes with 16 ref frames at full 1920x1200.
Well, on my Core i7/Core 2 Duo systems, running a variety of decodeds (ffdshow, MPC's internal decoder, and CoreAVC), and in fact every system I have used, that is the case.
If you want to check this, get the Blu-Ray source for Defiance, and I can send you an x264 encode of the first few minutes of the film - lower bitrate, but much higher CPU usage because of the settings used. In that case, the encode was also 4.1 but it used much more aggressive (higher quality) settings.
No, those aren't the only differences. For one, you are limited in the number of reference frames you can use at a given resolution at 4.1. For example, at full 1920x1200 I don't think you can use more than 4 or 5 reference frames at 4.1, but I've seen 5.1 encodes that use 16 reference frames for animated films that achieve very high compression ratios while maintaining transparency.
4.1's maximum maximum allowed bitrate is not the constraint. Doom9 or Wikipedia can provide much more detailed information about the differnces between levels, but I know from HDBits that the # of reference frames is one of the big differences.
You're on Windows 7 so you're using VirtualPC 2010 which supports XP Mode. MS removed Hyper-V, so now VirtualPC has no support for Linux/Unix based-OS's. If you were on XP, you would have VirtualPC 2007 which can be used to install Linux. I know Ubuntu 8.10 worked on VirtualPC 2007. So, you have to specify which version you're using.
As for VMWare server. I installed 2.0.2 on Windows 7 x64 without issue. Did it complain about unsigned drivers during the install process, or simply fail to work? The install seemingly went fine here. I see two new VMWare network adapaters, which presumably required the installation of a driver.
I noticed the quality of HDTV increased dramatically when going from Comcast Cable to Verizon FiOS. Also, FiOS has pretty much every network show on demand for free, with limited commercials.
Yes, it IS possible to get higher picture quality out of a lower bitrate, but not with all else equal. For example, you can get higher quality with CPU-intensive settings using H.264 5.1 Profile than you can with H.264 4.1 (what Blu-Ray's/HD DVDs use), at the same bitrate. You're giving up CPU cycles in decoding for lower video size. This is why x264 can produce near-transparent encodes of Blu-Ray movies at about half the size. x264 uses much more demanding settings.
x264 at 20 Mbit which high-quality settings is far more demanding than a 40 Mbit H.264 stream from a Blu-Ray.
Great, I'll try that then!
Let me describe how it works in Windows 7 as my request may not be clear. From my reading on the topic, I simply don't think it's possible from the GUI.
Windows Explorer has a "Homegroup" and a "Network" tab which is automatically populated with available networked machines. When I resume my laptop from standby, within about 5 seconds I see "Jason (Jason-Laptop) pop up in the Homegroup and Network section.
See an example below:
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/322/homegroup.png
In addition, I can aggregate folders with the same type of data into a single "Library". For example I have a Television and a Movie library on my desktop. The former contains 3 folders spanning 3 hard drives while the latter contains 2 folders spanning 2 hard drives. Rather than showing as Television1, Television2, Television3, Windows 7 merely shows the single library. If you drag a file to the library, it copies to the default directory (specified when you create the library). I doubt this is supported in any OS other than Win 7.
I did the latter:
Mount your shares the usual way.
Go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items and drag your shares into the Login Items.
The problem with this solution is that the Windows system is not on 24/7. It's on perhaps 12 hours a day. So, when the OS X machine logs on, and can't connect, it spits out numerous error messages annoying said Mac user. This resulted in me quickly disabling that option.
Would the result be different using the /etc/fstab method?
Does anyone actually use Quicktime for video playback in Windows? The first thing I do after installing iTunes is to disable the Quicktime plugin in Firefox. The WMP plugin is far superior in functionality and is less annoying, to boot.
Yeah, it was weird.
But there is also the issue that you must actually mount a Windows share. This requires manually mounting the share each time you want to use it, or doing so when the machine turns on. The problem with the latter solution is that it wont' work if the shares aren't available 24/7 as it will lead to numerous errors about being unable to mount the shares.
I don't really understand why OS X and Linux treat shares this way. In Windows, you can access shares simply through a desktop shortcut, or by "\\hostname\share" or "\\IP address\share\". In addition, all computers which have enabled file & print sharing automatically show up on the network.
Homegroup makes the process even easier as it automatically displays any member of the homegroup, allows sharing of libraries rather than simply folders, and allows remote searching of the host's index - allowing for instant searches including full-text search of documents.
Is there any way to access a Windows share without mounting the share? Alternatively, can a shortcut be added to the desktop to mount the share, rather than the "Go > Connect to Server --> Mount share" method. I honestly can't see my roommate doing this manually.
When I "Right Click, Get Info, Open With, Change All" it changes the icon of the individual file to a VLC icon, and will in fact play with VLC. However, it doesn't change the default program or icon for any other AVIs.
That's why I believe the problem is the one I posted above.
"Just to be absolutely clear, you are doing 'Right Click, Get Info, Open With, Change All'?"
Yes, that's precisely what I did.
And, yes - I expected it to open with whatever program I specified - just as Explorer will do in Windows or Nautilus in Ubuntu. My comments resulted from my surprise that I was unable to set AVIs to open with VLC despite my numerous attempts.
And I apologize that I wasn't very clear. I was pretty limited time-wise and didn't remember the exact wording or process. However, I know I did "right click, get info, open with, change all" since that's pretty much the same way it works in Windows - and the same way I set MKVs to play in VLC earlier - on the same machine.
But I think another Slashdot reader has posted the solution:
"I believe you're running into a "feature" that's causing some confusion. If you manually change a document's open with application it segregates itself from the pool of documents that change when you hit "change all" on other documents. In case it's 12:30 and I'm not making sense I'll give an example...
You have a.tif, b.tif, and c.tif. The default program for opening .tif files is Preview and all three files in question are opening with the default. You change a.tif to open with Photoshop. You then change b.tif to open with Firefox and hit the "change all" button. You'd then be left with b and c.tif opening in Firefox, and a.tif opening in Photoshop because you changed it manually from the default. At some point in the future hitting change all on a.tif will both return it to the default pool along with b and c and change the default .tif program to whatever a.tif is set to at that moment.
I think for one reason or another these avi files think they're all out of the pool. You can change the files already on your drive to use the default quickly by using the Find command to find all files ending in .avi on the computer, then hitting select all and then command-option-i to bring up the inspector. Then change them to open with the program of your choice and hit change all.
Hope this helps, works, makes sense, and wasn't too wordy (I don't know how well you know your way around the MacOS so I explained a bit more than usual)."
Thanks. That actually makes a lot of sense. I'll try it on her laptop tomorrow.
I did that. It didn't have the intended affect. I did the same with MKV files and it worked as intended. Any explanation?
I admitted I didn't know much about the OS. I don't use OS X. I was just helping my roommate. I should have done more research but I didn't have the time. I had to give her back her laptop.
However, changing a file association should not be that much of a fight. I did the same exact thing for MKV and it worked perfectly, but for some reason, AVI doesn't want to change its association.
"So, basically, you're mad that it won't play your pirated movies out of the box? I've got karma to burn, so time to feed the trolls."
No, I'm mad that it chooses to use Quicktime as the default program when it is incapable of playing something as simple as an AVI file with Xvid/MP3 content. Windows 7 and Ubuntu 8.10/9.10 do so out of the box, so I don't think I"m asking too much. If Quicktime doesn't work out of the box, don't make it DEFAULT.
In fact, I rarely every use the default. I always tinker. On Windows 7 x64, I use MPC-HC with the latest ffdshow build for H.264 as well as lanczos to upscale DVDs and 720p video. I also use MPC-HC's hardware acceleration on my Intel GMA chip on my laptop. So, it's not like I even care about things working out of the box.
BUT I do expect to easily be able to set the default application used to open a given filetype. I changed the file assocation for MKV with no issue; but it just wouldn't work with AVI.
And why does it matter whether I was playing pirated or legal video content? Is it OK for Quicktime not to play my plain vanilla AVIs because of their source?
Anyway, how do you know the source? For all you know, I encode my own high definition videos from Blu-Ray and DVD sources. In fact, I have done so. Maybe you assumed I didn't because you misunderstood pretty much all of my comments and thought I was an ignorant dumbass that.
Look, I don't use OS X. I was just helping setup a roommate's computer. I said it was an aside. My only point was that in Windows, what I wanted to accomplish would have been easy. Same deal with Ubuntu.
I can't even understand how you could conceivably do this? Where does Virtualbox give you an option to format your host hard drive? It allows you to delete virtual disks - and only then after a warning. WTF did you do?
Just to clarify, I'm referring to two different connections in two different locations. I have 25/15 in D.C. and 12/2 in New Haven.
And in other places - like areas around D.C. and NY - have FTTH in which you can get a 25/15 or 35/20 connection for $65/mo with no bandwidth limit. At that rate, I can download a DVD in 25 minutes and an average sized Blu-Ray encode in under an hour. Then again, I only download at private trackers, where it easy to download at over 100 Mbit/sec due to all the seed boxes. Obviously, it'll take a lot longer on a public tracker.
On my pedestrian 12/2 (24/5 with Speedboost) Comcast connection, I can download an HD TV show in 12.5 minutes, and a 720p movie in under an hour. I don't consider that so bad - easier than going to Blockbuster.
I think you misunderstood a lot of what I said.
I know perfectly well that Matroska is a container, not a format. If my language was ambiguous, I apologize. I mentioned that pretty much all HD videos and the higher-quality SD videos use the MKV container because it supports audio formats easily such as AC3, DTS, and FLAC which AVI and MP4 can't easily do. In addition, is it even possible to embed soft subtitles in an AVI file? I've only seen separate SRT files. I know the Matroska format supports the inclusion of SRT subs.
As for the part about Quicktime not supporting H.264 encoded from a Blu-Ray, you again misunderstood me. Here is what I said:
"- Can't play H.264 above Baseline. That means you can't play H.264 from a Blu-Ray/HD DVD or any (decent) x264 encodes. Pretty much limits you to iTunes downloads"
I said that Quicktime can't play H.264 video from a Blu-Ray/HD DVD - not that it can't play the disk itself. Blu-Ray supports 3 formats - MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264 (AVC). H.264 video in both the Blu-Ray and HD DVD format is encoded at "High Profile" - to be more technical Level 4.1. Quicktime only supports videos encoded at Baseline - or more techically, Level 3.1. You can strip out the H.264 video, convert it from the m2ts to a a Quicktime-complaint MP4 container file and it still will not work in Quicktime because of the lack of High Profile support. So, pretty much everything you said about my comments was irrelevant.
And to be technical, Blu-Ray is just an optical disk format. It can be used for movies, audio, or just to store data files.
I did that for MKV files and it worked fine. Notice how I didn't complain about MKV?
I did the same exact procedure for AVI's and Quicktime just won't give up control. I also tried doing it through the Quicktime settings. MKV's are fine - they open automatically in VLC. My experience with Windows and Linux allowed me to do that without issue. It seems the problem is that it's simply not respecting the setting.
I actually went to the Xvid site. There is no Xvid binary for the Mac. Rather, they direct you to the Divx codec.
" The XviD codec isn't yet available for the Mac, so to play XviD videos on your Mac you first need to install QuickTime and the DivX codec. Then you need to download and install the delegate component available for your Mac OS version:
Mac OS X
XviD codec for Mac OS X (5KB)
Mac
XviD codec for Mac OS 8/9 (3KB)"
http://www.xvidmovies.com/mac/
I'm pretty sure I did try the "apply to all files of this type". I just couldn't remember the exact language used. I tried it several times with different files, and it seemed to only apply to the individual file selected despite the option's language that suggested a universal application.
I will have to look at the computer again. We had just gotten new cable internet service to replace the shit ADSL connection from AT&T and I was setting up my roommate's computers to connect to the network (WPA2 w/ 64 char randomly generated HEX key) as well as setting up file sharing across the network so they could access HDTV and Blu-Ray movies streamed from my desktop connected to a gigabit switch.
After setting up network connectivity, and figuring out how to mount a Windows share at bootup in OS X, and then fighting with Quicktime to get AVI playback to work right, I pretty much gave up since my roommate was going to bed and needed her laptop back. I don't normally use OS X and can't play around with it in a VM, so my only experience is when I troubleshoot OS X user's issues (usually network-related).
I am therefore admittedly lacking in OS X knowledge. Thanks for the info again. I'll have a look at it.
Thanks. I'm not a Mac user. I did do some google searching for codecs but didn't come across that. I'll try it.