I discovered DivX by myself, thank you very much don't know about Sean, though. I actually had DivX for a while but only the most recent version of the codec is good enough to compete with the best codec I was using, and that was Mainconcept's H.264 v2. (maybe they'll come out with a v.3? I hope)
Sean- I may very well be through with MC H.264 v2 if Divx 6.2.5 proves itself worthy when I encode the 2006 Campbell's vids. :agree: it has to be BETTER as well, similar doesn't quite cut it...if not, then I'm sticking with H.264.
The order of the top codecs I used to encode skating videos for the past four years (all of these were the best available to me at the time):
Quicktime Movie .mov (Worlds 2002 and fall 2002 events), Quicktime MPEG-4 .mp4 (2003- Worlds 2005), MainConcept H.264 v.1 .mpg (Marshall's Spring event 2005-Skate Canada 2005), MainConcept H.264 v.2 .mpg (Skate Canada 2005 - Worlds 2006), and likely DivX Codec 6.x.x - Widescreen Format (fall 2006- whenever a better codec comes out).
I found the biggest leap to be switching from .mp4 to the first version of H.264 (Worlds 2005 was the last competition I used .mp4, Marshall's Spring event 2005 a month later was my "test event" for H264). I remember H264 simply BLEW ME AWAY when I encoded my first video in it. It was LEAPS better than what I was using before. Now, of course when I look back at footage encoded in it, it looks grainy and "out-of-date" compared to H.264 v2 and Divx 6, but boy, that was the turning point right there. Not only that, but encoding time was cut significantly...I could probably encode as many as 4 or 5 H264 vids in the time it took for my old mac to encode ONE mp4 file. (Sean, this also contributed to me switching back to PC- I could not use this hot new codec with my old Mac, nor with a new one.)
During the time I used H.264 (both versions) I used other codecs (i.e. Windows Media) to encode some of the more unknown skaters (i.e. skaters I didn't really care about much) but saved the best codec for the top skaters. This was strictly a filesize issue- I simply did NOT have the space to encode all the skaters in H264 so I had to "discriminate". The exceptions to this were the Olympics where I encoded ALL footage in top-quality H.264 v2, and the US Nationals and Worlds entirely in H.264 v2 (with varying bitrates depending on skater). Also, I encoded all fluff events in H264 format (to take advantage of the superior ABC broadcast picture).
Normally when I find a new codec I designate a "test event" where I sort of test out the codec to see if it's suitable for "prime time"- and it's always a fluff event like Marshall's or Campbell's. (the only exception was H.264 v2, which I started using immediately since it was so much better than the old H.264 codec and used the same software). I've been testing Divx 6 WS out on various vids but won't know for sure until I can capture and encode the upcoming Campbell's event in it whether it's suitable for archiving.
Sean- I may very well be through with MC H.264 v2 if Divx 6.2.5 proves itself worthy when I encode the 2006 Campbell's vids. :agree: it has to be BETTER as well, similar doesn't quite cut it...if not, then I'm sticking with H.264.
The order of the top codecs I used to encode skating videos for the past four years (all of these were the best available to me at the time):
Quicktime Movie .mov (Worlds 2002 and fall 2002 events), Quicktime MPEG-4 .mp4 (2003- Worlds 2005), MainConcept H.264 v.1 .mpg (Marshall's Spring event 2005-Skate Canada 2005), MainConcept H.264 v.2 .mpg (Skate Canada 2005 - Worlds 2006), and likely DivX Codec 6.x.x - Widescreen Format (fall 2006- whenever a better codec comes out).
I found the biggest leap to be switching from .mp4 to the first version of H.264 (Worlds 2005 was the last competition I used .mp4, Marshall's Spring event 2005 a month later was my "test event" for H264). I remember H264 simply BLEW ME AWAY when I encoded my first video in it. It was LEAPS better than what I was using before. Now, of course when I look back at footage encoded in it, it looks grainy and "out-of-date" compared to H.264 v2 and Divx 6, but boy, that was the turning point right there. Not only that, but encoding time was cut significantly...I could probably encode as many as 4 or 5 H264 vids in the time it took for my old mac to encode ONE mp4 file. (Sean, this also contributed to me switching back to PC- I could not use this hot new codec with my old Mac, nor with a new one.)
During the time I used H.264 (both versions) I used other codecs (i.e. Windows Media) to encode some of the more unknown skaters (i.e. skaters I didn't really care about much) but saved the best codec for the top skaters. This was strictly a filesize issue- I simply did NOT have the space to encode all the skaters in H264 so I had to "discriminate". The exceptions to this were the Olympics where I encoded ALL footage in top-quality H.264 v2, and the US Nationals and Worlds entirely in H.264 v2 (with varying bitrates depending on skater). Also, I encoded all fluff events in H264 format (to take advantage of the superior ABC broadcast picture).
Normally when I find a new codec I designate a "test event" where I sort of test out the codec to see if it's suitable for "prime time"- and it's always a fluff event like Marshall's or Campbell's. (the only exception was H.264 v2, which I started using immediately since it was so much better than the old H.264 codec and used the same software). I've been testing Divx 6 WS out on various vids but won't know for sure until I can capture and encode the upcoming Campbell's event in it whether it's suitable for archiving.
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