

Justin.tv goes High Def - kvogt
http://blog.justin.tv/2008/11/justintv-goes-high-def.html

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ardit33
"Im pleased to announce that today Justin.tv officially supports DVD quality
broadcasting using the h264 video codec - and it even works on a Mac!"

DVD quality, not HI-DEF (720p) But I guess DVD quality on the internet is Hi-
Def when you compare to youtube quality.

~~~
kvogt
You can broadcast in 720p resolution, but most users choose not to since the
player is only 320x240 (unless you go to full screen mode).

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jonknee
Maybe I'm missing something, but the suggested HD examples still look like
shit.

~~~
abstractbill
Looks like /officecam has a bad usb cable. We'll fix it soon.

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nickb
Out of curiosity, what's the average percentage increase in bandwidth required
to stream a H.264 stream over the Sorenson/On2? Anyone know?

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DarkShikari
Increase? Why would a better format use more bitrate for the same quality?

Generally, H.264 is 2-3x (or more) better than FLV1/Sorenson H.263, and 1.5-2x
better than VP6, but it depends on the encoder and the bitrate. In general,
the lower the bitrate, the greater the advantage of H.264. Note the encoders
vary dramatically: Apple's, for example, is so bad I would be completely
unsurprised if VP6 won out in a comparison.

Fortunately, basically everyone doing H.264-in-Flash is using x264.
Unfortunately, not all of them have a clue what they're doing...

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nickb
_Increase? Why would a better format use more bitrate for the same quality?_

HD is not of the same quality.

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DarkShikari
Sure, but HD doesn't imply H.264, nor does H.264 imply HD; the choice of
resolution and the choice of video format are completely orthogonal.

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nickb
Pretty much every video site out there (from YouTube down) are encoding HD
videos at higher resolution. For example, YouTube's SD video is 320x240 and
their HD is at 448x336. What you're suggesting is technically true but not
really based in reality.

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DarkShikari
What you said isn't true either--and I can confirm it, because two weekends
ago I met with the guy who wrote the Youtube video encoder ;)

Youtube has no "HD video"; the "High Quality" mode just sends you to the H.264
video, which isn't there for the primary purpose of being "Higher Quality"--
its in iPhone-compatible Baseline Profile, for the purpose of being compatible
for mobile devices, in particular phones and such that they intend to provide
support for. If Google was really aiming at "higher quality" they would have
chosen full-on High Profile H.264, but they intentionally chose Baseline for
mobile compatibility. Apparently storage was at enough of a premium that they
explicitly chose not to have two formats available, and just chose the most
compatible option.

The resolution chosen for the H.264 encoder is different _because its meant to
be targeted at the iPhone_. Again, the "higher quality" mode is a secondary
feature; the real purpose is to target mobile devices.

Edit: Also, reading your post, what you said makes no sense--"they're encoding
HD videos at higher resolution", well, obviously, that's what HD means. Are
you sure you didn't mean to say "they're encoding H.264 videos at higher
resolution"?

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nickb
_what you said makes no sense_

Everything I said is absolutely correct. It's just that you are misconstruing
what I said. Go check YouTube resolutions and then tell me they're not
correct. You're the one making spurious connections between television HD and
what YouTube calls HD, not me.

Again, re-read what I said and not what you think I said.

1) YouTube's SD video is 320x240

2) YouTube's HD video is 448x336

3) Their HD uses MORE bandwidth

The fact that they use it for iPhone and who knows hat (G1 maybe) is
completely inconsequential since you can play almost any YT video in HD by
appending a variable to the end.

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DarkShikari
_2) YouTube's HD video is 448x336_

"HD" is not an arbitrary term that means "higher resolution than what we had
before". Unless perhaps you're in marketing.

If you told anyone on the Youtube team that their "&fmt=18" was "HD", they
would probably laugh you out of the room.

