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How does a video codec work?

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11–20 of 53 posts

Re: How does a video codec work?

#11

One thing that I wish more folks did with DSP/media tech was to start with concepts instead of diving into details first. Like, "how does a video codec work?" should start with: what is the problem? (reducing the bits per second required for a video stream, since it's big) and how? (don't send superfluous detail, since it's either redundant or imperceptible). Than dive into the details of how color is represented, ho…

Well DSP theory can make many engineering students eye's glaze over. Video compression theory could be explained to a fairly bright middle schooler.

Re: How does a video codec work?

#15
As much as I like Apple it seems like they are in the back pocket of big media when it comes to this topic. AFAICT Apple only supports h.264 and h.265 meaning 1.3 billion iOS devices have browsers that can't access open standards for video.

Yet one more reason why Apple should be required to allow alternate browser engines IMO. Some will claim it's a battery issue but Apple has the resources to add hardware support for other codecs and I'm only guessing could already handle it just fine with their current "Bionic" chips. I'm not sure what other executes can be dreamt up. I'm sure they'll follow in the comments below.

Re: How does a video codec work?

#16

As much as I like Apple it seems like they are in the back pocket of big media when it comes to this topic. AFAICT Apple only supports h.264 and h.265 meaning 1.3 billion iOS devices have browsers that can't access open standards for video. Yet one more reason why Apple should be required to allow alternate browser engines IMO. Some will claim it's a battery issue but Apple has the resources to add hardware support f…

It sounds like you don't like Apple at all

Re: How does a video codec work?

#17

As much as I like Apple it seems like they are in the back pocket of big media when it comes to this topic. AFAICT Apple only supports h.264 and h.265 meaning 1.3 billion iOS devices have browsers that can't access open standards for video. Yet one more reason why Apple should be required to allow alternate browser engines IMO. Some will claim it's a battery issue but Apple has the resources to add hardware support f…

It sounds like you don't like Apple at all

Irrespective of love or hate, support for open video standards would be better for everyone.

Re: How does a video codec work?

#18

As much as I like Apple it seems like they are in the back pocket of big media when it comes to this topic. AFAICT Apple only supports h.264 and h.265 meaning 1.3 billion iOS devices have browsers that can't access open standards for video. Yet one more reason why Apple should be required to allow alternate browser engines IMO. Some will claim it's a battery issue but Apple has the resources to add hardware support f…

Not sure what you mean, a stock iPhone plays a VP8 webrtc stream with no issues?

Re: How does a video codec work?

#19

As much as I like Apple it seems like they are in the back pocket of big media when it comes to this topic. AFAICT Apple only supports h.264 and h.265 meaning 1.3 billion iOS devices have browsers that can't access open standards for video. Yet one more reason why Apple should be required to allow alternate browser engines IMO. Some will claim it's a battery issue but Apple has the resources to add hardware support f…

Not sure what you mean, a stock iPhone plays a VP8 webrtc stream with no issues?

The question is if there is a hardware based decoder supporting this. With a software decoder it will play just fine but it will consume a lot of resources, eventually draining the battery.

Re: How does a video codec work?

#20
post #3

Good. Want more people to understand how compression works. Things like motion estimation, encoding the differences in frames, all that stuff is magic to the uninitiated. :) But this stuff is absolutely worth learning and every engineer should show interest :)

Why is it worth learning? I have a long list of stuff that I want to learn but codecs don't seem useful enough to be included there.
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