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Google is working to make 4K video less of a data hog
Ultra HD 4K video is still in its infancy, but there's no doubt the format will become increasingly popular in the next year or two. Huge players like YouTube and Netflix already support it, but delivering such high bandwidth video content remains a challenge. Google's trying to do its part to solve that problem by developing a more efficient video compression codec called VP10. The new codec has been in the works for nearly a year, but the company gave some details about how effective it can be over the VP9 format it'll eventually replace. In an interview with CNET, Google product manager James Bankoski said that VP9 uses half the bandwidth needed to deliver the same quality video as the popular H.264 format -- and with VP10, the company is trying to cut it in half again.
Microsoft mocks Google, likens WebM to failed Esperanto language
If you fancy yourself a codec nerd then you'll love a tongue-in-cheek piece penned by Tim Sneath, Senior Director of Windows and Web Evangelism at Microsoft. Sneath, posing as the President of the United States of Google, calls for Esperanto (aka, WebM) to replace English (aka, H.264) in order to foster global peace and understanding. Though English plays an important role in speech today, as our goal is to enable open innovation, its further use as a form of communication in this country will be prohibited and our resources directed towards languages that are untainted by real-world usage. Brilliantly played following Google's announcement to drop H.264 from Chrome. Esperanto, as you might recall, was the universal second language designed in 1887 to facilitate international communication. Something that never quite worked out judging by the preponderance of English spoken by humans everywhere except Parisian cafes and taxi cabs.
Google will drop H.264 support from Chrome, herd the masses towards WebM and Theora
We knew Google was rather fond of its WebM video standard, but we never expected a move like this: the company says it will drop support for the rival H.264 codec in its HTML5 video tag, and is justifying the move in the name of open standards somehow. Considering that H.264 is presently one of (if not the) most widely supported format out there, it sounds a little like Google shooting itself in the foot with a .357 round -- especially considering the MPEG-LA just made H.264 royalty-free as long as it's freely distributed just a few months ago. If that's the case, Chrome users will have to download a H.264 plug-in to play most web video that's not bundled up in Flash... which isn't exactly an open format itself. Or hey, perhaps everyone will magically switch to Chrome, video providers will kowtow, unicorns will gaily prance, and WebM will dominate from now on.
Microsoft releases H.264 video plug-in for Windows 7 Firefox users
We're assuming it would still prefer you use Internet Explorer for all your web browsing needs, but Microsoft is now lending something of a helping hand to Windows 7 users that insist on using Firefox for one reason or another. It's just released a plug-in that gets around Firefox's current limitations in handling H.264-encoded videos on HTML5 pages by taking advantage of the H.264 support built into Windows 7. On a more technical level, that means the plug-in parses HTML5 pages and replaces the Video tags with a call to the Windows Media Player plug-in, which then allows the content to be played right in the browser. Sound like just what you've been waiting for? Hit up the link below to download the add-on and try it yourself.
Intel CE4200 ups its set-top game with 3D support and H.264 HD encoding
We're sitting here at Intel's IDF 2010 day two keynote, and the company just announced its evolution of the Atom CE series for set-top boxes. The aptly-titled the CE4200 (formerly codenamed "Groveland") is an evolution of the CE4100, based on 45nm Atom architecture and now capable of H.264 video encoding. Four partners have been announced, including Samsung, ADB, Sagemcom, and Technicolor. Of course, CE4100 is really just starting to take hold, and given it was announced at last year's IDF, we're not holding our breath on seeing these in the immediate future. %Gallery-102187%
Hauppauge HD PVR now available for order
We've seen it announced, delayed and pictured -- now the time to place your order has finally come. The highly-anticipated Hauppauge HD PVR -- which sports a hardware H.264 encoder, component video inputs, NTSC / PAL / SECAM support and loads more for HD junkies to love -- is finally available to order. You heard right, for $249 you can drop this puppy in your shopping cart and await its presence in your humble abode. Shipping times, however, could be another matter entirely.[Thanks, JAW IV]
Image Gallery: YouTube on Apple TV
Now that YouTube has arrived on the Apple TV, an image gallery of all the new features seems only fitting. Apple has done quite a nice job with the debut of this custom YouTube UI, and it is surprisingly feature-packed. In terms of video quality, I can comfortably say that most videos that started out in a decent quality to begin with (TV show clips, CG videos from design students, etc.) look *worlds* better in YouTube on the Apple TV (re-encoded to H.264 from the original, mind you; Apple thankfully doesn't put up with the dreadful quality of Flash video) than YouTube online. If you can't get to an Apple TV to take a ride for yourself, check out our YouTube on Apple TV image gallery to get a decent idea of what's in store for this clever new Apple TV feature.%Gallery-4117%
YouTube on Apple TV to use H.264
I thought it was a little odd that the Apple press release concerning the YouTube addition to Apple TV stated that it would take weeks for all YouTube content to be made available on the Apple TV. iLounge got to the bottom of this slightly odd situation (or so it seemed without explanation). They spoke with Apple Vice President of Worldwide Mac Hardware Marketing David Moody who explained the delay. It would seem that all YouTube's videos are in the process of being converted to H.264, a codec that Apple TV supports. All new videos will be converted to H.264 as they are uploaded, but it will take some time to convert the back catalog.
Xbox 360 gets new 1080p HD video codecs
Ah, nothing like the smell of fresh codecs in the morning. Hidden inside the list of new features to be bundled with the spring dashboard update is a handful of new video codecs that will be supported by the Xbox 360. The new codecs are H.264 and MPEG-4 Part 2. What does all this mean? Honesly, we have no idea. Lucky for us, our similarly bewildered kin at Joystiq found an answer. According to the video wiz kids at Red Kawa, "This puts Microsoft at the head of the pack in the Apple TV vs PS3 vs Xbox 360 video battle royale." The 360 will be able to display 1080p H.264 Level 4.1 and H.264 High Profile. This bests Apple TV which is maxed at 720p H.264 Level 3.1 and H.264 Main Profile. As for the PS3, it supports 1080p H.264 but only at H.264 Main Profile. Take that ... probably!One important note, this does not mean that the Xbox 360 will finally support DivX or Xvid. All your torrenting fantasies will have to wait. Still, this will add some more decent HD video capability to the Xbox 360, and that's always a good thing.[Via Joystiq. Thanks to the video junkies that sent this in.]
Capture audio and anything on screen as a movie with iShowU
iShowU is a versatile utility from shinywhitebox for recording video captures of your display (including any audio). Users have quite a bit of control over what exactly is recorded and how, including specifying a capture size and format, as well as 'mouse capture' and 'follow mouse' modes of recording. Check out iShowU's features page for the full rundown.While iShowU is in its 1.x beta mode, it's free, as the dev has "no intention of releasing a half baked product that works only on Thursdays, and then, only if you are holding the mouse juuust right." Once it goes commercial, shinywhitebox is aiming for a $40-$80 price point, so why not grab a demo before they hit the big leagues?
Easy iPod/PSP movies with Instant Handbrake
When it comes to turning a DVD into a movie file, Handbrake's name is hailed far and wide for its ease of use, speed and overall quality. Recently, Handbrake's developer took these praised aspects and raised the bar by releasing Instant Handbrake (beta), a one-stop, brain-dead-easy app for converting a DVD to iPod/PSP-compatible video.By default it's set to crop the video when necessary (4:3 for iPod, 16:9 for PSP), depending on which device you specify, but you can elect to maintain the video in its original size. Video formats are MPEG-4 or H.264 for the iPod, and MPEG-4 for the PSP.Like its big brother, Instant Handbrake is free and available here.
iSquint 1.4.1 with 'MPEG-in-.mov' goodness
iSquint, the fantastic little iPod video converter that we've mentioned before, has been updated to version 1.4.1 with a big new feature: handling QuickTime files that contain MPEG video that most other players/encoders will balk at. Various other code tweaks have brought some big speed improvements and fixes for issues with 10.3.9.iSquint is surprisingly still donationware and available from iSquint.org.
