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Invisible wrote:
> But how on earth do you get an answer
> to something like "what's the most popular Z?"
http://google.com/search?q=what+is+the+most+popular+codec
> Just the other day I was trying to figure out the relative speed of
> various CPU arithmetic operations, and I couldn't find anything useful
> with Google (as evidenced by my asking here).
That's the sort of thing where you need to know what the answer looks
like in order to find it, methinks. If you don't know the term used for
spec sheets, you're going to get too many odd hits on relative speeds of
CPUs.
> So yeah, there's a pretty huge sea of questions that I couldn't get
> Google to answer. It's not an Oracle, it's just a search engine.
That searches answers, not questions. Keep that in mind. :-)
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
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Invisible wrote:
> Now here's the thing. Google is very good at answering "what is X?" and
> to some extent "how do I do Y?". But how on earth do you get an answer
> to something like "what's the most popular Z?" Google can't tell you
> that. Only *people* can tell you that.
Google searches the WWW. Finding things *people* put there.
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On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:07:17 +0000, Invisible wrote:
> Now here's the thing. Google is very good at answering "what is X?" and
> to some extent "how do I do Y?". But how on earth do you get an answer
> to something like "what's the most popular Z?" Google can't tell you
> that. Only *people* can tell you that.
Try putting "popular video encoders" in the Google search box. The links
that come up (just on a quick overview) don't say "this is the most
popular", but they do give some useful pointers.
> So yeah, there's a pretty huge sea of questions that I couldn't get
> Google to answer. It's not an Oracle, it's just a search engine.
Yes, and if you learn how to speak the language the search engine knows,
it is a very powerful tool for learning stuff.
With the search terms suggested above (without the quotes), the fifth hit
is a Wikipedia article on Video Codecs; item 3 in the TOC on that page is
"Common used standards and codecs" and gives a good overview of each of
the most popular codecs out there.
For example:
"MPEG-1 Part 2: Used for Video CDs, and also sometimes for online video.
If the source video quality is good and the bitrate is high enough, VCD
can look slightly better than VHS. To exceed VHS quality, a higher
resolution would be necessary. However, to get a fully compliant VCD
file, bitrates higher than 1150 kbit/s and resolutions higher than 352 x
288 should not be used. When it comes to compatibility, VCD has the
highest compatibility of any digital video/audio system. Very few DVD
players do not support VCD, but they all inherently support the MPEG-1
codec. Almost every computer in the world can also play videos using this
codec. In terms of technical design, the most significant enhancements in
MPEG-1 relative to H.261 were half-pel and bi-predictive motion
compensation support. MPEG-1 supports only progressive scan video."
Now, knowing what VHS video looks like, that gives a good idea as to what
sort of quality to expect out of it.
Jim
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On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:07:17 +0000, Invisible wrote:
> Just the other day I was trying to figure out the relative speed of
> various CPU arithmetic operations, and I couldn't find anything useful
> with Google (as evidenced by my asking here).
Search with "cpu speed arithmetic" - hit numbers 4&6 seem like they might
be relevant.
Jim
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Jim Henderson wrote:
> Now, knowing what VHS video looks like, that gives a good idea as to what
> sort of quality to expect out of it.
Yeah. Just so folks understand, MPEG1 was designed to be delivered over
a T1 speed link, which is the same speed as a 1x CD drive. You can't
really expect too much out of 24 voice channels or one high-quality
uncompressed audio stream if you're trying to deliver video. :)
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
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On Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:19:40 -0700, Darren New wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Now, knowing what VHS video looks like, that gives a good idea as to
>> what sort of quality to expect out of it.
>
> Yeah. Just so folks understand, MPEG1 was designed to be delivered over
> a T1 speed link, which is the same speed as a 1x CD drive. You can't
> really expect too much out of 24 voice channels or one high-quality
> uncompressed audio stream if you're trying to deliver video. :)
Yup. :-)
Jim
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Darren New wrote:
> Yeah. Just so folks understand, MPEG1 was designed to be delivered over
> a T1 speed link, which is the same speed as a 1x CD drive. You can't
> really expect too much out of 24 voice channels or one high-quality
> uncompressed audio stream if you're trying to deliver video. :)
Really? That's interesting; I was under the impression that you can use
MPEG1 at any arbitrary bitrate.
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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>> Since apparently every other user on the planet doesn't have any of these
>> problems, apparently I'm just too stupid to work it out...
>
> Or you haven't read tutorials that they have
Or used one of the many GUIs for the command-line encoders that provide a
wide variety of configuration presets.
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scott wrote:
>>> Since apparently every other user on the planet doesn't have any of
>>> these problems, apparently I'm just too stupid to work it out...
>>
>> Or you haven't read tutorials that they have
>
> Or used one of the many GUIs for the command-line encoders that provide
> a wide variety of configuration presets.
The tool I was using *had* a GUI. With 50,000 options on it. None of
which appeared to affect image quality. (E.g., increasing the bitrate or
the "quality" settings made little to no difference.)
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> The tool I was using *had* a GUI. With 50,000 options on it. None of which
> appeared to affect image quality. (E.g., increasing the bitrate or the
> "quality" settings made little to no difference.)
Try XVid4PSP, it's free and so far I have never even needed to change any
advanced settings. It has presets with names for each format. If you
choose the format as plain AVI, under video encoding you can choose options
like "FFV1 Lossless" or "xVid HQ Ultra" or "x264 HQ Ultra" etc. Under
format you can also choose MP4 Mpeg1 Mpeg2 etc, it really is quite easy to
use.
It also accepts a huge range of input formats, including VOB if the "open
file" dialog box is anything to go by.
And of course if you feel like tinkering (I have never needed to), you can
go and edit the details of each preset.
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