HD (in Apple) questions

[Heath McKnight]

Hi,

I'm asking this on behalf of those of us who don't know (including me):

1. Is Pixlet an HD encoder?

2. Is mpeg-4 an HD encoder?

3. Is there an HD encoder available for free for Apple?

4. Is there a Windows Media 9 encoder for Apple?

Thanks,

heath

[Frederic Lumiere]

Heath,

HD is a term used to define motion video at higher resolution than ED (Enhanced Definition i.e. 720 X 480). The lowest resolution that still qualifies as HD, as you know is 720p (1280 X 720). Therefore, any codec that can encode footage at this resolution can be qualified as 'HD Codec'.

Even DV, beleive it or not, can be encoded at 1280 X 720. So far, using QuickTime 6 and above, i haven't found a codec that doesn't encode at HD resolution. The important question I think, isn't: can the codec support this resolution? But rather can it replay 720p realtime?

Now this, as well, is a tricky question, because it all depends on your system and possibly additional hardware.

I'll attempt to answer your question more specifically using my system config as an example.

I use a DP1.42 GHz G4 with 2 GIG. RAM

I cannot play Pixlet (720p) realtime

I cannot play mpeg-4 (720p) realtime

I can play DC-30 4:2:2 Lossless (720p) realtime and it is free.

I don't think there is a Windows Media 9 encoder for Apple out there.

Heath, I didn't mean to sound like a s.... a... but I feel it is important to define what we mean by HD Codec. With sufficient hardware, one can play uncompressed 720p realtime, essentially just using Quicktime.

I just completed a commercial shot with the HD10U and edited with DC30. It was rather painless and free (DC30). It was, however, a 30 sec spot so space requirement was pretty low. Even After Effects rendered DC30 uncompressed, which is a fantastic and safe way to go (lossless always warms my heart).

Frederic

[Heath McKnight]

No problem...I asked a very basic set of questions, mostly just to get answers for everyone. THANKS!

Now, where do we get DC-30?

heath

[Paul St. Denis]

DC 30 is available at
http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/dc30xact.html
As mentioned in the following thread
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=17601
I have NOT been able to encode in HD resolution using Quicktime's MPEG 2 component or Compressor, they seem only to allow for PAL or NTSC resolution.
The only way that I have been able to get a HD MPEG2 program stream is to convert a HD MPEG4 to MPEG2 using VLC
Interestingly you can also convert to transport stream using the same program, but although the stream is playable in VLC and recognized by virtualDVHS the camera says it can't decode the audio or video.

Discreet's Cleaner (formally Terran's Cleaner, formally Media 100's Cleaner) can encode into Windows Media format (not Windows Media version 9 however). Version 5 was great, 6 is widely known to be buggy. v5 does not play in OSX.

VLC also can compress using the WMV codec but I am not sure how that works.

[Les Dit]

For people who want to distribute their work to the Apple platform, it would be very interesting to see what level of CPU is needed to play a WM9 720p movie, at 5 to 6 Mbits/sec.
I find this rate to look pretty good, there is only minimal artifacts.
You can fit close to 2 hours on a 4.3 DVD with it. And it supports 5.1 sound too.
The dc30 and other more primitive codecs are great for editing, of playback from a harddrive, but we want to send a movie out sometimes, right?
Can someone try playing the "Step into Liquid" trailer, 720p 5.5Mbps from the following site, they have many samples there.
http://windowsmedia.com/9series/DemoCenter/VideoQuality.asp?page=6&lookup=VideoQuality

I have scanned about 20 16mm films for an organization, and they use WM9 to distribute them. My company wrote a custom player that does seamless playlist playback and 128bit encryption, with multi language subtitles. They are loving the playback quality. They use 6Mbps, and it looks better than the original 16mm projected version!
On a PC, a 2.5Ghz box can play 5Mbps. Pretty soon all PC's that are sold will be HD capable!
-Les

[Jeff Donald]

I can't get it to work on a Mac, Les. The download ends in an .exe extension and I can't find anything to convert it or play it. If you can post a link to a Mac compatible format, I'd be happy to try for you.

[Les Dit]

Ahh, they made them .exe self extraction zips.
It may be possible to open the .exe with a ZIP type program.
That should work.
I don't know why they did that, zipping a WM file does not make it any smaller.
If you can't extract it, I can email you a clip of a few seconds for you to try playing.

I thought all the mac guys have 'virtual PC ' to run the occasional windows app?

Let me know,

-Les



<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : I can't get it to work on a Mac, Les. The download ends in an .exe extension and I can't find anything to convert it or play it. If you can post a link to a Mac compatible format, I'd be happy to try for you. -->>>

[Jeff Donald]

Thanks Les, I got it figured out. My virus program was thinking it was a virus and not letting Stuffit unzip it. I got it unzipped and I can try it on some different Macs tonight.

[Chris Sorensen]

I get a very erratic slideshow on a iMac G4 800mhz with 768 MB RAM. Doesn't play smoothly at all.

[Les Dit]

I think it needs a bit more CPU. I wonder if it's multithreaded on the Mac?

[Maury McEvoy]

<<<-- Can someone try playing the "Step into Liquid" trailer, 720p 5.5Mbps from the following site, they have many samples there.
http://windowsmedia.com/9series/DemoCenter/VideoQuality.asp?page=6&lookup=VideoQuality -->>>

It plays smoothly, and looks good, on my G5 DP 2GH with 1GB of RAM.

[Jeff Donald]

It plays with just a slight bit of jumping on my dual processor 450MHz with 1.5gb of ram. I'll take it to school and try it on some faster Macs. I suspect a dual 800MHz will be minimum.

It stalls on the iMac 800 because it doesn't have the AltiVec processor (if I remember correctly).

[Chris Sorensen]

No, the LCD iMacs all have the PowerPC G4 chips with Altivec.