Google’s(On2) VP8 and the video future
May/100
Google has made “public” and “open-source”, “patent-free” and “royalty-free” their recently acquired with the purchase of On2 video codec VP8. It’s an amazing step for the world of digital video. This step obviously was coordinated with other companies like Adobe, which ensured support for the new codec in further versions of Flash and Sorenson that presented an encoder ready to work with the new codec. They have also provided patches for the hugely popular transcoding programs ffmpeg and mencoder that
This is big news and consequences for web video may be really profound. It’s an amazing amount of events for a single month and they did in in a single day. Well done Google!
HD compromises – “near HD” – “HD Lite”
Aug/091
High definition video imposes huge requirements on bandwidth for the video data stream. The requirements are so high that many enthusiasts consider the bandwidth in the BluRay(40mbps) and HD-DVD(28mbps) to be inadequate to get a “decent fidelity” HD video playback. Well this is formally true … in some cases. In practice we’ve lived with the low standard definition(SD) content for more than two generations now. If the technology still struggles with single consumer solutions, what do we do with HD video on the web then? Besides the raw bandwidth there are other solutions improving the odds in our favor a bit.
HD web video
Jul/094
High definition video or HD video as it is known, is digital video with higher resolution than the previous standards (i.e. SD video and DVD). This high resolution is achieved through new video file formats, which allow new codecs, certain performance optimizations (like deblocking) and a lot higher bandwidth(bitrate).
HD resolutions are noted with the number of lines and if it is progressive or interlaced stream. Thus 540p for instance means – resolution 960 x 540 pixels (assuming 16:9 aspect ratio) and progressive stream. Note that interlaced streams are primarily available for compliance with older standards like DVD.
Progressive download – streaming?
Jul/090
Http streaming or as it is better known – progressive download, which has been developed as a marketing term by Macromedia as the “poor man’s streaming solution” for their Flash platform. Progressive download is available from Flash 7 onwards and in essence means a “play-as-you-download” method, that works with standard http web servers. The concept is not invented by Macromedia though, as it has existed for some time with the development of streamable file formats.
Progressive download streaming is achieved by downloading a file “progressively” i.e. from the start onwards up to the end and playing it. FlashVideo(FLV) is a streamable file format as the packets of video data are defined in a “row”(or queue) and can be interpreted one by one, without a need to read all the packets to the end first. As a result progressive streaming provides a similar experience to true media server streaming, but without the need of a media server.
Flash Video
Jul/091
FlashVideo(FLV) is the video format that Macromedia created for their FlashPlayer rich media browser plugin. Due to the fact that FlashPlayer plugin (now owned by Adobe) has a web presence in excess of 97%. It is safe to say that about every computer that connects to the internet can play video in FlashVideo format.
The file format of .FLV files is by design based on the h.263 standard. The newer FlashPlayer(9.0.0.29 or above) supports h.264/mp4 files which may have extension .flv(.f4v).
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Jul/093
A content delivery network or CDN is a computer network specialized for delivery of specific type of content. This type of networks specialize in content replication on targeted or global basis.
A content delivery network consists of points of access which allow certain content to be served to end users. The main benefit from such a network is the ability to serve a large number of users simultaneously and possibly on a global scale. A CDN can provide the means to deliver content to a huge number of users while maintaining reasonable cost of scaling. A CDN s total bandwidth capacity can go way beyond a single backbone connection that a DC would have.
If you need to deliver a large “amount” of content to a large number of users a using a CDN is the only way to do it. Microsoft for instance uses about a dozen of CDN’s for hire to deliver content to end users.
Video Sharing
Jul/092
Video sharing is a service that provides the ability to show your video on the web for the general audience or a targeted one on your website. Video sharing services are free(for the content owner/publisher), as opposed to video hosting services. In a sense video sharing is a synonym for “free video hosting“. It is usually personal or viral content and often intended as a community. As opposed to generic file sharing, video sharing is about the actual content and not it’s carrier(the files). This is achieved through a process called video streaming. The primary intent for video sharing services is personal use. Video sharing services are a great resource for viral marketing initiatives in order to create brand awareness.
For a more detailed explanation on the differences between video sharing services and video hosting services read Video Sharing vs. Video Hosting.