Google's Video Vending Machine - MPEG-4
 

I may be the last video producer on the planet to have become aware of the Google video initiative, but now that I am I'm puzzled by their format of choice, namely MPEG-4 with MP3 audio. I've paid lip service to the standard but not much more and earlier went searching through my apps and plug ins to see what I had that would make their favourite file. My Canopus Procoder Express offers Divx Pro with MP3 audio, under the CD Video selections. I tried a segment of a current project, at the low setting, and got something like 856 kbps video and 128 kbps audio, both at or exceeding Google's preferred data rates. The resulting file claims to be an avi, but plays in Windows Media Player with a Divx Pro bug in the lower right corner. The one minute forty second clip is about 11 MB in size. Does anyone know whether it is in fact an MPEG-4 stream? Also, what other options are there for encoding to MPEG-4/MP3?

David Hurdon

AVI is simply a container, like QuickTime .mov, that can hold video using any number of codecs. So yes, I would think that it is an MPEG-4 file (of the DivX variety, obviously).

As for encoding an MPEG-4 video with MP3 audio, why don't you give SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer) a try? I've never used it myself, but it looks like it might do want you want. It's freeware, so you won't lose anything if it doesn't work out for you.

Get it here: http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=SUPER_1

david, that's a smart observation... i have never found any commonly available software that'll encode mpeg4/mp3 together.

we talked about this problem out here awhile back... i think that the reason that google is using those formats is because of licensing issues... both of those codecs have lousy to marginal at best quality.

and no, i don't think that divx is fully legal mpeg4.

Hi Dan. I made the same guess about why they made that choice - licensing, and although I don't know much about MPEG-4 I have a hazy recollection that it makes room for interactive and other content, as well as content protection of some sort. I'll have to read up on it.

Christopher, thanks for the link. I will follow it up later today. I'm pretty sure that DivX is a variant of the standard, like MS's version, which if I recall correctly is where DivX got its start (?).

David Hurdon

Yes, DivX began as a hacked version of the Microsoft MPEG-4 part 2 codec. However, starting with version 4.0 of DivX the codec was redeveloped from scratch by reverse engineering the Microsoft MPEG-4 codec, and development has continued from there.