info on codecs history/background/popularity/technical info/etc.

[Quote] #1

21 Sep 2005 08:49 pm

sureshs

Guest

Hi,

I’m doing a research project on internet codecs. I need to find out on usage of famous video codecs such as divx and famous audio codecs such as aac. Can you give me pointers to where I can find such info?

I need to know about which ones are famous, background on each, tools to play at home with them, what do users want... At the end, I would need to do a powerpoint presentation in front of my class on internet codecs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Suresh

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[Quote] #2

21 Sep 2005 10:09 pm

anonymous

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Joined: 20 Nov 2004
Posts: 1,269

I don’t know much about audio codecs, so this is for video codecs only.

First page I always recommend looking at when doing research is wikipedia - it’s a good way to immerse yourself in the topic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_codec

I did a list of commonly used codecs here
http://www.moviecodec.com/topics/7964p1.html
This was early summer and things have changed since then. DivX 6 came out, and QuickTime 7 too (with H.264). DivX 6 and 5 are comparable (almost identical really), but H.264 may be taking ground away from Sorenson 3. And so far VC-1 seems in limbo.

As an introduction, I’d recommend reading John McGowan’s AVI Overview (which is VERY old ~circa 1996)
http://www.jmcgowan.com/avicodecs.html#Codec
It should give you an idea into what was originally sought out of codecs.

This is another old page (1998 this time). Actually it’s a mirror, because the original site (codeccentral.com) doesn’t exist anymore. It’s what I always envisioned a codec comparison page should be like.
http://www.etsimo.uniovi.es/hypgraph/video/codecs/Default.htm

Now, I just recently discovered this A-MAZING site about codecs, but it may be a bit advanced
http://www.multimedia.cx

Down here are some links to private individuals' codec comparisons
http://graphics.csail.mit.edu/~tbuehler/video/codecs/
http://hcs.harvard.edu/~tabanger/sorenson/ (tiny I know)

For “ultramodern” codec comparisons, I recommend checking out the following articles
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1544886,00.asp
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/codecs-104-1.htm

Probably the best site (IMHO) at the moment on technical information is doom9, though it could be a bit hard to find what you’re looking for. fourcc.org is also an important page for reference. Finally you should check out Microsoft’s introduction to codecs, which puts things in layman’s terms (with heavy emphasis on their own products though) http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/codecs.aspx

Last edited 18 Jul 2007 09:49 am by anonymous

[Quote] #3

04 Oct 2005 02:41 pm

sureshs

Guest

Hi,

I need to find out the usage and popularity of codecs by internet users. things like what percentage of market uses DivX, etc. How popular is each codec.
Here are some popular ones i gathered so far from forums...

Audio:
AAC (apple of course)
Ogg (linux)
ATRAC3 (Sony, PSP)
LPCM (DLNA standard)

Video
MPEG4 / H.264 (apple again and the new broadcast standard)
Divx
AVC (Sony, Japan, inc))

DRM
OMG (open magic gate from Sony- for PSP, Walkman, Connect)
OMA (cell phone formats)

[Quote] #4

04 Oct 2005 04:04 pm

anonymous

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Joined: 20 Nov 2004
Posts: 1,269

When you originally made this post I thought you already knew some basics about codecs, but from your reply above, it’s clear I was mistakened.
You got a lot of the companies incorrect; you got your containers and codecs and standards mixed up.

I’m not even sure where to start or what you want to know. If you want stats on the popularity of codecs, based on a sample, I’d suggest looking at KC Software’s compilation (they’re the makers of videoinspector). http://kcsofts.dyndns.org/codecsdb

[Quote] #5

06 Oct 2005 08:10 pm

sureshs

Guest

Some questions about general codec users out there....

- do you rip movies or download/share to obtain? about how many ripping vs downloads per month?

- what program is popular for downloading/ sharing movies?

- how do you organize your movies on the PC (ie. genre, thumbnails, etc).. which are famous ones

- divx changes all the time... how often does it change. how often do you pickup changes in your collection? what do you do with old files when new one is out?

- anything else relevant to user experience..

thanks! this will help in my learning.. once i compile everything, i’ll put a link up so you can all view it.

thanks
suresh

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