Choosing the Right Codec - A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression - page 182

edit the template. In terms of scalability, Squeeze and Cleaner are maxed out at the high
end of desktop usage, while Popwire Compression Master and Flip Factory by Telestream
extend into enterprise-level workflow systems.

8.7 Examples of Coded Video to Check Out Online

At the Apple Computer Web site, there is a large collection of trailers that are examples of
achievable coding quality. The quality of the Apple trailers owes more to the skill and ded-
ication of the people compressing the content than it does to the codecs themselves. As the
trailer collection expands, it has become a series of snapshots of the coding techniques
being used.
Right now, we are in a state of transition in the provision of video content online. In
the fullness of time, online movie trailers (whoever they are provided by) will probably be
encoded in the H.264 format. You may not notice this change because the quality of cod-
ing is already very high and will remain that way. What you might notice is that the trail-
ers download in only a third of the time that you are used to when the H.264 codec is used.
Of course, this cannot happen until everyone has upgraded his or her player to cope with
the new codec. Even that can happen automatically if the player checks for a new version
to download.
Searching Google yields many more collections of trailers and other interesting com-
pressed video. Some of the results you will find are indexes to trailers rather than places
where the trailers are served directly.
Probably the best-quality example I have downloaded from the Internet in recent times
was the 2-1/2 minute-long high-definition trailer for The Matrix—Reloaded . This was available
in a file that was 91.5 MB in size. The picture was 1000 540 pixels and used millions of col-

ors. The codec for this trailer was Sorenson 3 running at 24 fps. The bit rate for this was 4.8
Mbps, which is within the bounds of normal TV-broadcast capacity. This demonstrates that a
larger image, progressively scanned, can be delivered efficiently if you are prepared to use a
different codec. The quality of video encoded in this way is stunning and is way beyond what
is possible with any currently transmitted TV format. Even stepping through one frame at a
time reveals that there are virtually no visible artifacts as a result of the compression. This is in
the realm of what we can expect to become commonplace with HDTV services.

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Apple movie trailers: http://www.apple.com/trailers/
Internet Movie Database (IMDb): http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Trailers/
Jo Blo's movie trailer index: http://www.joblo.com/movietrailers2A.htm
Manga trailers: http://www.manga.com/trailers/
Cinemas Online: http://www.cinemas-online.co.uk/index.phtml
Go Movie Trailers: http://www.gomovietrailers.com/
DivX Digest: http://www.divx-digest.com/
Cinema Eye: http://www.cinemaeye.com/
Sci-Fi movie page: http://www.scifimoviepage.com/
Matrix trailer.http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/