Why MP4 Format?

[TheJadeArcAngel]

Okay , question --- I edit w/ Final Cut Pro HD 4.5

When I go to export I can encode it with the H.264 but its a .MOV file which people seem to dislike.

If i save it an an AVI then I only have DV options therefore the file is well over 100 MB

Suggestion?

[Zero1]

As people have quite correctly stated, H.264 is what MPEG call the standard. H.264 is 500+ page standard that carefully details the more technical aspects of H.264; specifically it says what syntax a compliant bitstream should contain. The good thing about this is that different companies can refer to the H.264 standard and produce software and hardware that is spec compliant. That means if you have a spec compliant H.264 video, it will be playable on anyone's software or hardware providing they have followed the specification, and that there are no other limitations with regard to processing power (eg you can have spec compliant H.264 on a mobile phone but it's very low complexity compared to most AMVs, and incredibly low compared to HDTV).

Let's take this real world example.
I use an encoder called x264, which you should all be familliar with. This is what the authors have called it, just like how the other authors called their codec XviD (the standard XviD adheres to is MPEG-4 ASP). Now x264 is spec compliant, that means all things being equal, I can encode a video with x264, and it can be decoded/played back with any spec compliant decoder.

Examples of spec compliant decoders are libavcodec (a library which is used in FFMPEG and FFDShow), CoreAVC and Nero Showtime. Although they have different names, they are all H.264 decoders.

Now on the other side of it, as well as x264, Nero have their own encoder too in Nero Recode. Nero Recode is also H.264 compliant, so it's just as fair to call Nero Recode a H.264 encoder as it is with x264.

The quality can differ between codecs, the specification doesn't define how your encoder has to encode the video, just how the final bitstream and syntax must be. This can allow for very complex, slow high quality encoders, or a very simple real time encoder. The features and quality could vary vastly, but providing they follow the spec, you will be able to play either encode on a spec complaint decoder such as the ones I mentioned before.

So this is pretty good huh? If companies follow the specification, it means you can use whatever encoder you want to create H.264 video, and it will be decodable by any H.264 compliant decoder. That gives your average user a choice, it also means that these videos can be played on other Operating Systems such as Mac OS or Linux.

So as you can see, technically it would be incorrect to label your video as an x264 version, because it's really a H.264 video which can be decoded by any H.264 decoder. Similarly a lot of people use LAME for MP3 encoding; it's not a LAME file, it's still MP3. LAME is just the name of the software; it's the type of file which is most important.

Now on to DivX and XviD. Ever notice how you can play XviD encodes using a DivX decoder and DivX with the XviD decoder? It's not magic and it's not really to do with the codecs or their names. You see DivX and XviD both create encodes to the MPEG-4 ASP standard. This means I can decode it in any MPEG-4 ASP capable player. Even my mobile phone can play XviD (MPEG-4 ASP) encodes, and you can't even install codecs, you are stuck with a crappy built in real player.

So to sum it up:
MPEG-4 ASP = Name of a video coding standard (sort of like a guideline)
H.264 = Again, this is the successor to MPEG-4 ASP, much more efficient and much more detail specification to ensure better interoperability.
XviD/DivX = Name of encoders from different parties; they both create videos according to the MPEG-4 ASP specification, bar the exception that it should be stored in MP4 and not AVI
x264/Nero Recode = Again, names of encoders. Like DivX/XviD, the quality can vary between them, but the resulting video is still spec compliant and can be played using compliant decoders.

[Scintilla]

Okay , question --- I edit w/ Final Cut Pro HD 4.5

When I go to export I can encode it with the H.264 but its a .MOV file which people seem to dislike.

If i save it an an AVI then I only have DV options therefore the file is well over 100 MB

Suggestion?

Export it as a DV AVI, then use another program to compress this large master file.

Remember, the file you export from your video editing program does not have to be the same as the file you distribute online (and usually shouldn't be).

[Rurounikeitaro]

I didn't research it so I don't know

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=62723
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96059

Thank you, heavy machine gun.

Let me rephrase this: I didn't and DID NOT INTEND TO research it.

stuff

On the contrary to your statement i don't see why people think of *.mp4 as a problem... If you can't play it, it's just one download and install, and then you can play as many *.mp4 as you like on various players... So howcome its always "painful to open" when it's just clicking like any other media file?

My fault, I forgot to say that installing certain codecs many times causes my Adobe Premiere to malfunction as in not show video. The same with my Vegas. One program could be messed up, none, or even both. And if I don't pay attention to my installations, I'll spend hours trying to get both programs back working and end up looking for a different new codec "tiresome"

h264 is the best codec for things right now and it can be played in wmp when using ffdshow.

Why is it the best codec and I been had ffd and mp4's don't play in my wmp 11.

It also seperates the noobs from the inovative adopters

*Deletes Ikasu*, lol, just playing. I hate inovating but I'll try.

*Looks at other replies....*

Thanks Scintilla for directly answering the question. Very helpful indeed. Zero also for giving me the background info on mp4s and wmp. Alot of reading though. I'll listen to Bauzi and Willen and try that codec and let ya'll know how it goes.

[Kariudo]

it is the "best" right now because of the [relatively] small output files with very high video quality. (as dicussed earlier)

to play .mp4 files, get CCCP (which comes with the latest build of FFDshow and media player classic). Be sure to uninstall any other FFDshow you might have first

just played my beta encoded with x.264 on WMP11 just fine
premiere pro 1.5 still works (as I had to uninstall/reinstall CCCP and a few other things to get my meGUI to work so I could encode said beta)

[trythil]

I didn't research it so I don't know

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=62723
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96059

Thank you, heavy machine gun.

Let me rephrase this: I didn't and DID NOT INTEND TO research it.

Well, at least you're straightforward about your laziness. Most people aren't.

My fault, I forgot to say that installing certain codecs many times causes my Adobe Premiere to malfunction as in not show video. The same with my Vegas. One program could be messed up, none, or even both. And if I don't pay attention to my installations, I'll spend hours trying to get both programs back working and end up looking for a different new codec "tiresome"

You may want to scan your system for old codecs that may be conflicting with new installations; such conflicts often are the cause of weird system behaviors. The CCCP Insurgent is a tool designed to assist with that.

Why is it the best codec and I been had ffd and mp4's don't play in my wmp 11.

In video, it usually achieves better perceptual quality at a given bitrate than other widely available video codecs. If quality is what matters most to you, then it's probably the best available codec.

(On the other hand, if stuff like processor usage matters more to you, then you're going to want to look elsewhere.)

FFDShow by itself is not sufficient to read videos in an MP4 container; you also need a piece of software called a splitter. Haali's Media Splitter is popular, and is distributed in the CCCP for easy installation.

[BauziOLD]

Why is it the best codec and I been had ffd and mp4's don't play in my wmp 11.

Right so here is a example:

The mp4 version is 720x576 and it is only 29.9MB in filesize with a length of 3 minutes and there are things in it that makes the life of codecs harder.
There is also a version with 720x540 in XviD with a size of 64MB at the same (or nearly the same) quality.

It´s just incredible what h.264 can do with good generated footage. I used here footage from my DVDs.