H264 Demo
 

For what it's worth I have posted an example of a short clip compressed with the H264 codec via quicktime conversion through FCPHD with the QT7. You will need QT7 to play it.

This was shot 16:9 24p on Canon XL2. 11.2MB. Data rate was limited to 1200 kB and original size is 720x405.

The neat thing is how fast the picture scales and the quality over all. Download link is:

www.arbourmedia.com/media/H264test.mov

I was amazed how your H.264 sample was both Hi-quality and relatively small file size. I can't wait till Windows users have access to Quicktime 7 to play this stuff. [That's probably why no one has commented so far.]

I was inspired enough to test a few clips myself from video shot with my PDX-10 right out of iMovie to Quicktime Movie H.264.

Very impressive!(though I could use a faster Mac to encode DV to H.264).
I have never before been able to encode a file as clear and be size-manageable in terms of file size. Everyone says Sorenson encoder etc. but for an enthusiast like myself, H.264 is a winner and all you need is Quicktime 7 pro.

Actually, Cleaner XL's output using the Apple mp4 encoder of last year is better (quality and size) than Sorenson 3 IMO.

Windows users can play H.264 using VLC.

This is awesome! It's great to see real world video online using the new Quicktime 7 Pro.

I've got to wait until Final Cut Studio is released later this month, but until then it's nice to see stuff.

Great quality clip that streamed to me in about 3 seconds.

Well here goes-- a 1.4 meg Quicktime H.264 file encoded from iMovie directly.
It is a short 21 second clip, 360x202 pixels, 24fps high quality...
http://homepage.mac.com/johnchu/julia.mov

My niece being held by my sister.

This guy did a compare of DiVX and H.264:
http://homepage.mac.com/gsf/divxvsh264.png

from http://xlr8yourmac.com/
'The top file is a DivX file created by Forty-Two VX Plus, set to 700 Megs target size (final output at 678) 512 pixels wide (for doubling to watch on a 1024 screen, like an iBook 12") with 2 pass encoding

The bottom file is a H.264 file created by handbrake set to 700 Megs target size (final output at 671) 512 pixels wide with 2 pass encoding.

one word : wow
I mean - its not even a contest. The clarity and quality of H.264 is just beyond what even i expected, now that i get to work with it every day.

i do a lot of travel as a video engineer, so i like to take my movies with me on my Powerbook 12"... the sad part is that i'm going to have to go back and re-compress all my movies now... at least my G5 at home will be happily cranking on stuff for me during the day.
-don '

I just exported my first peice with h.264 and wow i was so amazed. But it didn't come out 16:9, so i am trying using the size that u used, 720x405, hopefully that works... Funny thing is, i didn't pay to upgrade to QT7 Pro, i just downloaded the upgrade that pops up on my computer automatically and it still showed up in the FCP4 export settings and worked fine! I love it!

Yeah. I thought the Pro License ONLY affected what the QT player itself could do. $30 is such a rip off in that light! Especially after paying $129 for Tiger!!!

I also noticed that downloading QT7 gives you access to the H264 codec in FCP even if you haven't upgraded to the Pro version of QT.

I found, however, that after I upgraded to QT7 Pro the compression times from FCP were much shorter, or seemed to be.

Forgive me for my ignorance, as I'm just entering the web compressing game, but what audio codec is best for use in conjunction with H.264?


---------------------------
edit: nvm... I figured it out :P

I was looking at the raw footage straight out of my PDX-10 the other night on a direct view 30" 16:9 Samsung CRT HDTV[properly calibrated] and was thinking to myself how great DV can look.

Too bad so much gets lost when a DVD is created from this footage after it is all compressed.

The question is this:

Short of getting a miniDV deck to use as a regular television playback commponent--- will H.264 allow really HIGH quality encoding/maxiumum bit rate/so I can view highest possible quality versions of the finished video on a new HD-DVD playeer or perhaps even on regular 4.7 gig DVD?
[I read the ioDATA is coming out with a h.264 capable DVD player also]

That is, with the huge storage space on these new HD discs...can one make their own ultra "superbit" versions of videos that is almost indistinguishable from the original raw DV footage?

And superior to regular old MPEG-2 DVDs?

You won't be able to play it on a TV. DVDs only support MPEG-2, so you'll have to wait for one of the new players. You can, as I understand it, author HD-DVDs on DVDSP4 that you can play back on Macs, but that won't help you get it to your TV.

Question is, how are you encoding your DVD's? I just recently got a Mac with a Superdrive, but haven't used it yet. For the past few years I've been using a standalone Sony RDR-GX7 DVD recorder. Most of the time it is very hard to tell the DVD from the original tape, and I'm using a Samsung 22" 16:9 LCD to edit and Panasonic 37" Plasma screen too.

The exception is when it's bad (noisy) footage to start with, then the compression plays tricks with you. But I only burn DVD's at the highest quality mode, 1 hour per disk.

From everything I've read, many of the software encoders are pretty poor. Do a search, people have recommended specific software on both the Mac and PC to do a better job of MPEG-2 encoding. Or look for a DVD recorder with firewire input, they're getting pretty reasonable these days.