How does a video codec work?

Post by mdtusz » Sat, Nov 23, 2019, 3:36 PM UTC

willis936 wrote: post #27

tus88 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

How so? I took 3-4 DSP classes in university and none of them seemed particularly earth shattering. I think statistics and mathematic notation are a lot harder for students to work with. That said, information theory, which I would not consider a DSP course, was the hardest class I took. It requires mathematician’s math. None of that easy engineering math.

Post by varvar » Sat, Nov 23, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

mdtusz wrote: post #31

willis936 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? I took 3-4 DSP classes in university and none of them seemed particularly earth shattering. I think statistics and mathematic notation are a lot harder for students to work with. That said, information theory, which I would not consider a DSP course, was the hardest class I took. It requires mathematician’s math. None of that easy engineering math.

> easy engineering math I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of engineers suddenly cried out in outrage and were suddenly offended.

Post by danbmil99 » Sat, Nov 23, 2019, 6:28 PM UTC

cwingrav wrote: post #24

greggman2 wrote: post #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 f…

Apple has made a lot of practical pushes on this topic and was heavily engaged in the HTML5 standard codec debate. Wiki has a good writeup of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video#Supported_video_an... . If I remember, they were basically arguing against Google as it favored codecs that put costs on consumers, not the servers? Anyone remember this? I think video patents have pretty much patented all the basic…

Post by danbmil99 » Sat, Nov 23, 2019, 6:35 PM UTC

CharlesW wrote: post #34

Bnshsysjab wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Apple does support (and contribute to) open video standards.

Post by rasz » Sat, Nov 23, 2019, 8:07 PM UTC

hamilyon2 wrote: post #21

I wish there was an article on how hardware decoding works. Detailed but approachable. I guess reading source code of drivers and popular open-source video players will give me an idea, but it is too much work. Does anyone have a technical article highlighting differences between hardware decoders and important details.