H.264 (AVC)

If you're a current Encoding.com customer, utilizing our API to create content, try adding this to the mix:

You're create a URL that can be accessed via any browser with the correct, optimized version served up whether its a mobile, ipad or browser. 

Have more questions about Vid.ly? Perhaps...what's it all mean? Look no further: http://m.vid.ly/user/

Encoding.com supports a host of file formats within the .avi and .wmv containers. Read on to learn more about our H264 to WMV conversion platform and check out our up to the minute list of supported file formats.

H.264, short for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, is a standard for video compression and is poised to become the next standard for format of convergence in the digital video industry now supported by Google / YouTube, Adobe, and Apple iTunes. It contains a number of features that enable it to compress video much more effectively than previous standards, and provides more flexibility for applications across a wide variety of network environments from low bit-rate Internet streaming to HDTV broadcast and Digital Cinema applications with nearly lossless coding.

Windows Media Video, or WMV, is Microsoft’s family of video codecs including WMV 7, WMV 8, and WMV 9. It can handle anything from low resolution video for dial-up Internet users to HDTV. The latest generation of WMV, based on the WMV 9 codec, has been standardized and approved as a new and more open codec known as VC-1. While all versions of WMV support variable bit rate, average bit rate, and constant bit rate, WMV 9 introduced several important features including native support for interlaced video, non-square pixels, and frame interpolation.

Encoding.com: Online H264 to WMV Converter

Through our web uploader, it is easy to access and use our online H264 to WMV file converter. You can push individual files directly to our encoding platform from your local disk, FTP, S3 or Rackspace location. Alternately, you can select a watch folder on your FTP, S3 or Rackspace location to be polled at the time interval of your choice to encode files. Select “Encoding Options” and select “Add Task.” Use the pulldown menu to select WMV. That’s it! Free plans are available – sign up now!

Encoding.com supports a host of file formats within many video containers. Read on to learn more about our H264 encoder and check out our up to the minute list of supported file formats.

H264 Converter

Through our web uploader, our online H264 converter is easy to use. You can push individual files directly to our encoding platform from your local disk, FTP, S3 or Rackspace location. Alternately, you can select a watch folder on your FTP, S3 or Rackspace location to be polled at the time interval of your choice to encode files. Select “Encoding Options” and select “Add Task.” Use the pulldown menu to select the appropriate container and H264 codec of choice. That’s it! You’re ready to use Encoding.com’s platform to compress your videos.

A Simple Online H264 Encoding Solution

H.264, short for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, is a standard for video compression and is poised to become the next standard for format of convergence in the digital video industry now supported by Google / YouTube, Adobe, and Apple iTunes. It contains a number of features that enable it to compress video much more effectively than previous standards, and provides more flexibility for applications across a wide variety of network environments from low bit-rate Internet streaming to HDTV broadcast and Digital Cinema applications with nearly lossless coding. H264 encoding is simple with Encoding.com. Try one of our free plans today!

H.264, short for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, is a standard for video compression and is poised to become the next standard for format of convergence in the digital video industry now supported by Google / YouTube, Adobe, and Apple iTunes.  It contains a number of features that enable it to compress video much more effectively than previous standards, and provides more flexibility for applications across a wide variety of network environments from low bit-rate Internet streaming to HDTV broadcast and Digital Cinema applications with nearly lossless coding.

Easily Convert H264 to AVI at Encoding.com

H.264, short for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, is a standard for video compression and is poised to become the next standard for format of convergence in the digital video industry now supported by Google / YouTube, Adobe, and Apple iTunes.  It contains a number of features that enable it to compress video much more effectively than previous standards, and provides more flexibility for applications across a wide variety of network environments from low bit-rate Internet streaming to HDTV broadcast and Digital Cinema applications with nearly lossless coding.

Audio Video Interleave, known as AVI, is a multimedia container format created by Microsoft in 1992.  AVI files contain both audio and video data and support synchronous audio-with-video playback.   An AVI container can support virtually any compression scheme including Full Frame (uncompressed), Intel Real Time (Indeo), Cinepak, Motion JPEG, Real Video, MPEG-4 and others. 

Easily Convert H264 to MPEG at Encoding.com

Encoding.com supports a host of file formats within the H264 and .mpeg containers. Check out our up to the minute support list for what’s available: http://www.encoding.com/formatsupport/#h264 Through our web uploader, you can push individual files directly to our encoding platform from your local disk, FTP, S3 or Rackspace location. Alternately, you can select a watch folder on your FTP, S3 or Rackspace location to be polled at the time interval of your choice to encode files. Select ‘Encoding Options’ and select ‘Add Task.’ Use the pulldown menu to select the mpeg flavor of your choice. That’s it! You’re ready to use Encoding.com’s platform to compress your videos. H.264, short for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, is a standard for video compression and is poised to become the next standard for format of convergence in the digital video industry now supported by Google / YouTube, Adobe, and Apple iTunes. It contains a number of features that enable it to compress video much more effectively than previous standards, and provides more flexibility for applications across a wide variety of network environments from low bit-rate Internet streaming to HDTV broadcast and Digital Cinema applications with nearly lossless coding. Audio Video Interleave, known as AVI, is a multimedia container format created by Microsoft in 1992. AVI files contain both audio and video data and support synchronous audio-with-video playback. An AVI container can support virtually any compression scheme including Full Frame (uncompressed), Intel Real Time (Indeo), Cinepak, Motion JPEG, Real Video, MPEG-4 and others.

<format>
    <output>mp4</output>
    <size>320x240</size>
    <bitrate>256k</bitrate>
    <audio_bitrate>64k</audio_bitrate>
    <audio_channels_number>2</audio_channels_number>
    <keep_aspect_ratio>yes</keep_aspect_ratio>
    <video_codec>mpeg4</video_codec>
    <profile>main</profile>
    <VCodecParameters>no</VCodecParameters>
    <audio_codec>libfaac</audio_codec>
    <two_pass>no</two_pass>
    <cbr>no</cbr>
    <deinterlacing>no</deinterlacing>
    <keyframe>300</keyframe>
    <audio_volume>100</audio_volume>
    <file_extension>mp4</file_extension>
    <hint>no</hint>
  </format>

<format>    
<output>mpeg2</output>
    <size>320x240</size>
    <bitrate>256k</bitrate>
    <audio_bitrate>256k</audio_bitrate>
    <audio_sample_rate>44100</audio_sample_rate>
    <audio_channels_number>2</audio_channels_number>
    <keep_aspect_ratio>yes</keep_aspect_ratio>
    <video_codec>mpeg2video</video_codec>
    <profile>baseline</profile>
    <VCodecParameters>no</VCodecParameters>
    <audio_codec>mp2</audio_codec>
    <two_pass>no</two_pass>
    <cbr>no</cbr>
    <deinterlacing>no</deinterlacing>
    <keyframe>15</keyframe>
    <audio_volume>100</audio_volume>
    <file_extension>mpg</file_extension>
    <bframes>2</bframes>
    <gop>cgop</gop>
 </format>

Since users often will be uploading a wide variety of videos, I generally like to break them down into two types:

Static/Low Action - stable tripod shots, very little background movement, actors standing still 
Active/High Action - panning/jerky camera, lots of action, sports-like movement

A good starting point is to choose a variable bitrate setting equal to the width of the video. So, for example: 640x480 SD at 640 kilobits per sec (kbps), or 1280x720 HD at 1280 kbps. Higher action video may require a slightly higher bitrate to prevent blocking artifacts.

Noise Reduction

Applying some noise reduction is useful to save bits for high detail regions, but be careful not to overdo it. I've seen video samples where whole areas of ocean and grassy fields disappear to achieve a lower bitrate. This of course, falls under artistic preference, but generally I'd rather see a smaller framesize and more detail. At low bitrates, it is increasing important to improve the quality of noisy video sources, such as film containing lots of grain or video shot in low light. The 3D noise reduction in ffmpeg allows control over both luma and chroma values for fine-tuning your output image quality.

	<noise_reduction>4:3:6</noise_reduction> 

luma_spatial – Spatial Luma Strength. Allowed values: [0,255]
chroma_spatial – Spatial Chroma Strength. Allowed values: [0,255]
luma_temp – Temporal Luma Strength. Allowed values: [0,255]

General recommended starting value is 4:3:6. [luma_spatial:chroma_spatial:luma_temp] Noise reduction is also available via our web interface as the High Quality 3D Denoiser option.

Single Pass vs. Two Pass

For most purposes 2-pass encoding achieves very good results. It's a tradeoff of diminishing returns, 2-pass gaining perhaps 10% quality bit-for-bit but doubling the encoding time. Do not lower qcomp, CBR is horrible on quality. I'd experiment with values floating between 0.60 and 0.80 if you want more VBR. if qcomp = 1.00 then quantizer is constant for second pass. Real variable bitrate with constant quality. if qcomp = 0.00 then bitrate is constant for second pass. Real constant bitrate with variable quality.

<two_pass>yes</two_pass>

I'd recommend having two sample videos, tell your users to choose Low or High Action content setting, experiment a bit with your B-frames then define two "baseline" settings for each bitrate. For web video it's best to narrow your targets to four different bitrates at most, especially if you are going to be processing thousands of users uploading. Most folks have a slow (up to 240kbits), good (~700kbits), or fast (2mbits and higher) connection. I'd say H.264 over 2mbits is generally overkill for website content. For general purposes, I'd recommend 2-pass and we push a 10 second keyframe interval (300 frames) which may not be appropriate for "high-action" source video.

For more detail on H.264 controls for scenecut thresholds, B-frames, and more, please refer to:

Advanced H.264 Guide http://sites.google.com/site/linuxencoding/x264-ffmpeg-mapping

H.264 parameters for our API http://www.encoding.com/help/article/advanced_configuration_options_for_the_libx264_video_codec

An excellent collection of HD videos at 2mbits/sec can be found at http://californiaisaplace.com/cali/ 

16x16 Macroblocks

H.264/AVC does a much more efficient job when the horizontal and vertical framesize dimensions are multiples of 16. Good examples include:

SD (4:3) aspect ratios: 320x240, 432x320, 480x360, 544x400, 640x480, 768x576
HD (16:9) aspect ratios: 432x240, 576x320, 640x360, 720x400, 848x480, 1024x576, 1280x720, 1920x1080

In 4:2:0 H.264/AVC coding, each block contains 4 luminance samples (Y), 1 blue sample (Cb), and 1 red sample (Cr). Modern video decoding chips (GPUs) are optimized for playback of 16x16 macroblocking.

Keyframes and GOPs

Low action scenes generally handle more bidirectional (B-frames) better since they don't have to track interframe motion as aggressively. Higher action content will require more keyframes (I-frames) to keep the picture from breaking apart. Longer GOPs with more B-frames also require more buffering by the playback GPU to recursively track the motion for each macroblock. Fortunately, x264 offers very good scene detection, which is why for most applications, we set keyframes to 300.

H.264/AVC sample for modern mobiles (30 fps with a 10 second GOP)

	<framerate>30</framerate>
	<keyframe>300</keyframe>

For older computers, and early generations of iPod and Blackberry phones, the chips might not have enough processing power and memory to successfully buffer longer GOPs. Keep your bitrates low, try lower framerates, and shorter GOPs.

H.264/AVC sample for older mobiles (15 fps with a 4 second GOP)

	<framerate>15</framerate>
	<keyframe>60</keyframe>

More information about GOPs available on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_pictures

Turbo Mode

NOTE: For bigger or longer HD encoding jobs, turbo mode is absolutely recommended since you will see speed gains in the neighborhood of 3x faster vs. normal mode. Please be aware turbo is running on more powerful encoders, so it costs an extra $1 per gigabyte.

<turbo>yes</turbo>

H.264 is a standard for video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC for Advanced Video Coding. H.264/AVC experienced widespread adoption within a few years of the completion of the standard and is used widely among advanced video applications including the Blue Ray Disc, Apple's Itunes Video Store, Apple TV, Quicktime, and iPod, iPhone video. In December 2007 Adobe released Flash Player 9 Update 3 v 9.0.115 which supports H.264 video and HE-AAC audio playback. Please see Adobe's resource for an overview of their support of H.264: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flash_Player:9:Update:H.264 As of June 2008 Flash 9.0.115 player is installed in 83.3% of browsers in the US/Canada. Please see Adaobe's resource for tracking Flash Player Version Penetration over time and across geographic markets. http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html H.264 codec variant is called 'libx264' in our system and available for the following formats: fl9, mp4, ipod, iphone, appletv, psp, 3gp

It is possible to specify multiple flag2 and partitions params, as below. Please make sure there are no spaces within the elements.

<format> <output>mp4 </output> <video_codec>libx264 </video_codec> <video_codec_parameters> <flag2>+bpyramid+wpred+mixed_refs+dct8x8-fastpskip</flag2> <partitions >+parti8x8+parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8</partitions> </video_codec_parameters> </format>

Please be aware that this is a high profile function that will not be supported in devices that require main profile.

H.264, short for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, is a standard for video compression and is poised to become the next standard for format of convergence in the digital video industry now supported by Google / YouTube, Adobe, and Apple iTunes. It contains a number of features that enable it to compress video much more effectively than previous standards, and provides more flexibility for applications across a wide variety of network environments from low bit-rate Internet streaming to HDTV broadcast and Digital Cinema applications with nearly lossless coding.