codec posts

HTML5 YouTube viewer: close, but not quite there

by Jay Hathaway Nov 8th 2009

Everyone knows Flash is a massive resource hog, especially on Mac or Linux. If you're sick of totally bogging down your system whenever you want to watch a YouTube video, the new video specifications in HTML5 might be the answer. By using HTML and plugging into the Mp4 streams on YouTube, the folks at NeoSmart have created an HTML5 YouTube Viewer. It doesn't quite work perfectly, and not every browser is ready for it, but it's nice proof-of-concept to try out.

The Download Squad team had mixed results watching videos with this viewer. Firefox was a bust - NeoSmart says it's because of proprietary codec issues - but some other browsers worked. I got working video (extremely smooth working video, actually) on both Chrome and Safari for Mac, but no audio. Meanwhile, on the Windows side, fellow Download Squad bloggers report that the HTML5 viewer works well in Chrome 4 in XP, and Chrome 3 on Windows 7.

Meanwhile,YouTube seems to be running its own HTML5 tests, including some examples of new in-browser 3D rendering features. Sounds like this could finally be the end of reliance on Flash ... once your browser supports it, or once YouTube starts supporting OGG Theora, Firefox and Chrome's video format of choice for HTML5.

Tags: codec, html5, neosmart, video, youtube

Filed under: Audio, Internet, VoIP

Skype to let competitors license speech codec for free

by Brad Linder Mar 3rd 2009

Voice over IP company Skype is known for a couple things. One of them is annoying the #@&! out of telephone companies by offering cheap or free voice and video calls over the internet. But another thing that Skype does well is offer users the ability to communicate across long distances with excellent sound quality (assuming you've got an excellent microphone plugged into your computer).

That's because typically telephones only transfers audio signals in a limited frequency range (from around 400Hz to 3.4kHz.. Skype, on the other hand, uses technology that can transmit audio up to 12kHz, which is higher than most of the frequencies in the human voice. In other words, if you're using decent audio equipment you'll sound like you're in the same room.

The problem is it takes internet bandwidth to deliver that kind of voice quality. Skype uses a codec in Skype 4 for Windows called SILK to deliver high quality audio even over low bandwidth internet connections. And now Skype is making that codec available for other companies to use, with no royalties.

According to the company, SILK users 50% less bandwidth than other codecs. It can be scaled in real-time to adjust to network conditions. So what's in it for Skype? The company wants its codec to be adopted as a standard that could be used in applications, electronic devices, and even phones.

Tags: codec, silk, skype, voip

Filed under: Video, Windows

DivX 7 adds support for HD H.264 videos

by Brad Linder Jan 12th 2009

DivX 7, the latest version of the popular video format, is out. DivX 7 includes support HD H.264 videos in the MKV file format. It also supports AAC audio.

The company has also created a new DivX Plus certification program, which means that hardware products like DVD players and other set top boxes or portable media players that bear the DivX Plus label will be able to handle DivX 7 playback.

If all you want is the DivX codec which allows you to watch videos, you can download the latest version for free. The $20 DivX 7 Pro pack also includes tools for encoding DivX movies.

Tags: codec, divx, divx-7, h.264, mkg

Filed under: Audio, Utilities, Video, Windows, Linux, Open Source

WinFF: Cross-platform graphical front end for FFmpeg

by Brad Linder Jun 5th 2008

FFmpeg is a powerful utility for converting practically any audio or video file to another codec. Want to compress your WAV audio to MP3, OGG, or WMA? FFmpeg can handle it. Want to convert your Windows Media Video to MPEG? No problem. But FFmpeg is a command line utility, which can make it a bit cumbersome if you don't know the ins and outs.

There are several graphical front ends for FFmpeg for Windows or Linux. But WinFF is a graphical user interface for FFmpeg that works on Windows and Linux. There's also a Free Pascal/Lazarus Source file available if you want to try compiling WinFF to run on OS X, Windows CE, or another operating system.

Note that while the Windows version supports pretty much any codec you could want, you may have to update the version of FFmpeg on your Ubuntu/Debian, or Red Hat/Fedora Linux system before WinFF can handle proprietary codecs like MP3.

[via Tombuntu]

Tags: codec, conversion, winff

Filed under: Audio, Utilities, Video, Macintosh, Freeware

MediaInfo Mac: multimedia information tool for Mac OS X

by Todd Ritter Feb 6th 2008

MediaInfo Mac is a Mac utility for displaying information about audio and video files. Similar to GSpot for Windows, MediaInfo can provide codec information, bit rate, resolution, frame rate, and aspect ratio.

The program displays a URL to the codec used (in case you don't have a capable player), and you can export all of the information to a text file.

If you open a file in VLC and press Apple+I ("Get Info"), you can get similar (though limited) functionality by clicking the "Advanced Information" tab.

[Via Apple Downloads]

Tags: audio, codec, encoding, media, multimedia, video

Filed under: Security, Video, Macintosh

Mac trojan masquerading as codec

by Christina Warren Nov 6th 2007

Late last week, Intego Security released a press release detailing a new Trojan web variant, aimed at Mac users. A Trojan, known as OSX.RSPlug.A (or OSX/Puper), is installed on the system by the user, under the guise that it is a video codec, required for playing a free video file.

The installer, under the clever name MacCodec, requires administrative access to install (meaning the user has to not only specifically agree to download the file, he/she has to enter in the admin password before it will install), and instead of installing a codec, it runs a script that creates a scheduled task that changes the DNS server, in an attempt to redirect users to malicious phishing sites. Unsurprisingly, this Trojan seems to be almost exclusively targeting porn sites that offer those always-hard-to-resist "Download Sample Now" or "Free movie clip" downloads.

Like clockwork, the pandering , the hysteria and the schadenfreude has already hit the web. Many of these articles fail to adequately underscore a few points that, we at Download Squad, think are pretty important for users to consider:

Tags: codec, mac, quicktime, trojan, virus

Filed under: Utilities, Video, News, Windows, Macintosh, Commercial, Freeware

Divx Pro 6 bundle available free

by Ryan Carter Jun 7th 2007

For a limited time only...no not used cars, not poorly designed cleaning products, it's the Divx Pro bundle available free for the downloading. The bundle includes the Divx Pro Codec 6.6.1, Divx Content Uploader, Divx Converter 6.2.1 6.(MPEG2/DVD), Divx Player 6.4.3, and Divx Web Player.

Unfortunately, this Divx bundle is not ready for Microsoft Windows Vista (pout), despite the obligatory courtesy update-check on Divx's website. Everyone not running Windows Vista, feel free to download either the XP version or Mac Version and thumb your nose at anyone using Vista.

It is conceivable that the Divx programmers are hacking away at Vista logo requirements to make it ready for Microsoft's latest as we speak, but that is unconfirmed as of this writing.

Enjoy the free bundle, and note that the basic version (usually free) edition of this package contains a free 15-day trial of the converter, but today you get the full version of it with this limited time Pro bundle download from Divx.

Thanks George for the tip.

Tags: bundle, codec, divx, download, free, pro, video

Filed under: Utilities, Video, Open Source

Gspot video info and codec finder

by Ryan Carter Sep 6th 2006

Despite the risque title, Gspot is an awesome little app. For a while, I was sick of video files I would find and then try to play on my PC, so much so, that my chagrin was overloaded. If you have a video file that only plays audio, or won't play at all, Gspot will tell you what type of file, what codec you need, and whether you have it currently installed or not. It lists just about every other video file detail you can imagine including meta-data, bit-rate, fps, video dimensions, even the codec or test it thinks will fix your playing problem. Most of the time, you can just go download a codec and the file will play. It is very nearly brilliant (I can hear the Guinness guys in the back of my head, Brilliant!), and takes the frustration out of trying to get the bleeping thing to play.

Tags: codec, help, video

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