2004 Codec Requirements

[SteveC116]

If you have read the guide for this years animation competition you will see that they have specifically said no to DivX:

Acceptable Codecs: DV-NTSC and Cinepak. Do not use DiVX or any other non-standard Codec

Am I the only one out there who finds this to make no sense? Cinepak? Cinipak was developed to play small movies on the 386 and 030 systems from a single speed CD-ROM drive. Cinepak is a good choice if you want your movie to play on a wide range of systems - but I fail to see why it is chosen over codecs like XviD and DivX.

Am I wrong in remembering that people were allowed to use DivX last year? Last year Lev was the one in charge of converting the rendered targas into the appropriate movie file so I'm not sure - but I believe that we used the DivX codec.

Also, as some of you may remember, our animation experience at the competition was horrible. The VHS made with 116's animation looked similar to that Pokemon episode which caused seizures in Japan. If this is because of the DivX codec, I don't see why we should be penalized because the person in charge of the tape can't convert these movie files correctly.

- - - - - - - - -

Or maybe I'm totally off. If somebody could respond who understands codecs better than I do that would be appreciated. What exactly is this DV-NTSC format? Is it any good? Am I not giving cinepak enough credit?

Basically what I'm asking is: what codec do you all recommend we should use to, ignoring file sizes, create a high quality animation?

[matt111]

yea this seems unneccesary. my view is if it plays, let it in. our animation experience was even worse. with 3 days till it had to be mailed, we left our mentor to burn the CDs and ship it. well we get to st. louis and then we discover we arent on the judging sheet. ends up he sent 2 discs, one was corrupt, and the other was blank...and the judging was bad, with lots of crowd noise and stuff

[Kyle Fenton]

Just encoded it into DV-NTSC 25. You definitely have the space for it on a CD. DV produces the best quality video. It is even better quality than a DVD (MPEG-2). It makes no sense to use an MPEG-4 variant for something that is so short.

[LBK Rules]

Can you use uncompressed, sice it is no codec?

[SteveC116]

So DV-NTSC is basically the same thing that DVDs are encoded in? If thats the case then I think that this really isnt an issue. If it fits on the CD and the quality is great, then I have no quams using it instead of DivX.

[Steven Carmain]

I think half the problem with Divx is the advertisement in the right corner. FIRST would have a hard time releasing versions of "Commercials" because of licensing agreements with Divx.

I also think that MPEG-4 codecs are fine for the animations. I change MPEG-4 to DVD format a lot and the movies are still fine.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by SteveC116

Or maybe I'm totally off. If somebody could respond who understands codecs better than I do that would be appreciated. What exactly is this DV-NTSC format? Is it any good? Am I not giving cinepak enough credit?

Steve -

DV/NTSC is literally "Digital Video / National Television Standards Committee." It is the format used in high-end consumer digital video cameras and recorders. It is a higher-end, high-quality compression and encoding method (particularly in comparison with older encoding standards such as Cinepak or MPEG-2). I think you will not have any problems with it (certainly none like last year), and will like it.

-dave

[Greg]

Originally Posted by Steven Carmain

I think half the problem with Divx is the advertisement in the right corner. FIRST would have a hard time releasing versions of "Commercials" because of licensing agreements with Divx.

I am not sure about this one First of all, the logo is easy to get rid of (its just 1 checkbox in the config). And FIRST could decomress the video if they wanted to use it in an ad or something.

[SteveC116]

Steve -

DV/NTSC is literally "Digital Video / National Television Standards Committee." It is the format used in high-end consumer digital video cameras and recorders. It is a higher-end, high-quality compression and encoding method (particularly in comparison with older encoding standards such as Cinepak or MPEG-2). I think you will not have any problems with it (certainly none like last year), and will like it.

-dave

Thanks Dave! Why is cinepak even mentioned then? It is pretty outdated isn't it?

And congratulations on Mars! I think I read in the Post that a bunch of Nasa engineers are going to Europe to party - is this true?

[thegrug]

DivX & Xvid=MPEG-4 modified in some way
Video CD & Super VCD=MPEG-2
DVD=MPEG-1
DV-NTSC=Digital video codec originally used for digital video captures
Cinepak=extremely outdated

I prefer MPEG-4(but not DivX or Xvid) personally. Cinepak shouldn't even be used anymore because of it's sub-MPEG quality.

[Trashed20]

Originally Posted by thegrug

DivX & Xvid=MPEG-4 modified in some way
Video CD & Super VCD=MPEG-2
DVD=MPEG-1
DV-NTSC=Digital video codec originally used for digital video captures
Cinepak=extremely outdated

I prefer MPEG-4(but not DivX or Xvid) personally. Cinepak shouldn't even be used anymore because of it's sub-MPEG quality.

actually, DVD is mpeg-2 and vcds are mpeg-1.

[dragonpaulz]

I am a big fan of divx. I encode most of my video files in it accept when intended for the web. Divx is good quality and great on compression. Plus divx is so widely used that FIRST should consider it a standard coded. This stinks.

[SteveC116]

Yeah. What got me was that they said DivX wasn't a standard codec.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by SteveC116

Yeah. What got me was that they said DivX wasn't a standard codec.

DivX is not a standard codec in that 90% of computer users have never heard of it and don't have it. It's sad but true that if Windows Media Player can't play it out of the box, it isn't a standard codec.

[djcapelis]

If only everything could play as much as mplayer...

too bad most of the codec support has to be illegal and all...