Better Video Codec...

Not long ago, I discovered a new video codec that is far superior than the outdated ones people seem to be using for their films on this site. It is called the VP6.2 and it was created by On2 Technologies. There is a free VFW (Video For Windows) version of it at:

www.on2.com

This codec can be used on third party applications such as Virtualdub and Adobe Premiere. I have personally tested this codec and it compresses far better than Windows Media or DivX. Without going into great detail (that would take far too long) the VP6.2 has to be especially efficient at high resolutions (640x480 and larger).


I do not work for On2 Technologies, nor do I know how much longer they intend to keep this codec free.

 

We dont use Windows Media or Divx, for the most part. Worth checking out, though. The other On2 codecs don't work on my comp, though.

 

Most fanfilms around here use the Sorenson3 codec because it can be watched with the standard Quicktime player and it is compatible to both PC and Mac. Sure there are codecs with better compression and smaller filesizes but many users tend to have problems viewing these files. Also look at all the trailers on the net. Most are compressed using the Sorenson codec to reach the majority of people.

 

According to the document that comes with the download, the VP6.2 is supposedly compatible with Windows 98, 2000, NT, ME, and XP.

Too bad that it can't be used for DVDs, it is far more efficient than MPEG-2

The only disadvantage other than compatibility issues is that it takes forever when set to the best compression quality. It is not very effective for real-time video capture. Well, not on my computer anyway, but then of course I'm running on 8 megs of video memory.

 

Well, they SAY it's compatible.. Real-world trials have shown that very few people have any success watching On2-encoded video, even after they've updated to the latest-greatest version of the codec.

As mentioned above, Sorensen isn't used for it's compression capabilities (which can actually be quite good if you know what you're about), but for the fact that it's literally the only true universal video codec that can be played in any Quicktime player anywhere.

 

"Most fanfilms around here use the Sorenson3 codec because it can be watched with the standard Quicktime player and it is compatible to both PC and Mac."

I know that the new codec is not for everyone, and I'm not saying that the Sorenson3 should be abandoned, but the VP6.2 is definately a good alternative to WMV.

When it comes to the Sorenson3 codec, it delivers good quality, but seems to be lacking in efficiency. Also, sometimes it doesn't run very well at the high resolutions. Is there a newer version that is more effective?

 

On second thought, I guess using a newer Sorenson codec would be problematic as well...

Either way, thank you for your time.

 

I completely agree that the Sorenson codec can´t deliver the same quality and filesizes as other codecs (WMV, DIVX or the new On2). When encoding for presentations or just for home use these other codecs are much better than Sorenson but for the web there´s (yet) no better codec than Sor3. But that won´t be forever.

 

yah, but not everyone uses quicktime. and a problem with WMV is that i cant seem to grab anything above 320 by 240!!!

 

The quality and the compression of Windows Media is fantastic. However, the streaming/playback technology really suck. Because of that, many prefer QuickTime.

I?m surprised no one use standard MPEG-4 video and AAC audio to compress their movie. To my knownledge, these are the best codecs... for QuickTime at least.

BTW, the reason why On2 is not popular is because the soundtrack is often out of sync and because you must pay royalties (or something similar).