MKV

[RCBH928]

I did download a "video file" the other day that was in HD and it was like 2.5hrs in length. What attracted my attention is that it was only like 650mb in size encoded in .MKV . I have seen other "video files" shorter in length and in SD with size like 1.2GB encoded in .avi .

I KNOW that encoding quality would differ from a file to another, but my question is , IS MKV compression rate is THAT good? It can compress 2.5hrs of HD into a 650mb file? Or am I missing something here? if its true, thats good news since MKV is free source

[MrPopo]

AVI and MKV are containers, not codecs. MKV is a much more versitile container, as it allows for many more codecs and supports features such as chapters and soft subtitles. Notable, MKV supports many codecs which have a better rate of compression than the codecs supported by AVI.

[RCBH928]

so what do you think that codec used to compress 2.5hr HD video into a 650mb?
.H264? or something else? is there a way to know the codec for a file?

[Zing]

Virtually all MKV files will be encoded in h.264 format for the video, with audio in MP3 or AC3 format.

H.264 is that good. You will often find high definition files in huge sizes, but that is just the encoder (the person, not the software) being overly liberal with the quality settings, or preferring encoding speed over quality. You can find full Bluray rips in one or two CD size that look just as great. I hate seeing 5-8GB video files. What a waste. A 1.5GB rip is fine.

[Xeogred]

That wasn't entirely true a few years back, but yeah H.264 has been the standard for a few years now pretty much. Just about all anime thesedays go with mkv and sometimes mp4, you rarely still see avi's.

[Pulsar_t]

[quote="kingmohd84"is there a way to know the codec for a file?[/quote]

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/media_info.htm

As for H.264, movie pirates use the x264 standard. It yields impressive results over lower bitrates, but it also consumes many CPU cycles when compressing the original footage. AAC has replaced MP3 and Ogg for years now.

[RCBH928]

excuse my ignorance, are h264 and x264 two different things? or similar naming Like Divx and Xvid?

Its very amazing what can h264 can do...damn, HD in a file size that is usually smaller than an SD image...woooh! I got really confused when I saw all those 5-8GB rips, multiple times the size but same quality...720p .

Since this came up, will Xvid die? and do people still use Divx? looks to me like it went the way of the RealPlayer

[Pulsar_t]

excuse my ignorance, are h264 and x264 two different things? or similar naming Like Divx and Xvid?

x264 is the open implementation of MPEG4 AVC aka H.264. It's perfectly compatible with the MPEG standard.

I got really confused when I saw all those 5-8GB rips, multiple times the size but same quality...720p .

The higher the bitrate and compression complexity, the better the final frame retains some of the finer details of the original source, like grain and even dust specks if it's an old transfer.

Since this came up, will Xvid die? and do people still use Divx? looks to me like it went the way of the RealPlayer

Of course, but since many people still have standard DVD players with MPEG4 playback the "scene" will still be brimming with Xvid releases for years to come.

[Zing]

I was initially very disheartened when the high resolution Divx fell out of favour with the release groups. The quality was slightly lower and the file sizes were bigger, but the CPU requirements for decoding were much lower. I used to use a Pentium 3 1Ghz for viewing files, but h.264 needed a 2Ghz P4 for 720p and couldn't do 1080p at that speed.

Now, with hardware acceleration for h.264, it doesn't matter much.

[Xeogred]

Yeah it's funny how intensive video has become, I definitely couldn't do HD on my laptop, which was a core 2 duo and not terrible but pretty dated already I guess.