A practical guide to video and audio compression: from sprockets and rasters to macroblocks

801 Pages·2005·10.177 MB·English

by  Cliff Wootton

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A Practical Guide to Video and
Audio Compression
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This book is dedicated to my
friend Bernard Fisk.
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A Practical Guide to Video and
Audio Compression
From Sprockets and Rasters to Macroblocks
Cliff Wootton
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON (cid:127) HEIDELBERG (cid:127) LONDON
NEW YORK (cid:127) OXFORD (cid:127) PARIS (cid:127) SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO (cid:127) SINGAPORE (cid:127) SYDNEY (cid:127) TOKYO
Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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Acquisition Editor: Joanne Tracy/Angelina Ward
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Cover Design: Eric DeCicco
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Table of Contents
Preface, ix
Acknowledgments, xi
Chapter 1. Introduction to Video Compression, 1
Chapter 2. Why Video Compression Is Needed, 15
Chapter 3. What Are We Trying to Compress? 35
Chapter 4. Film, 43
Chapter 5. Video, 77
Chapter 6. Digital Image Formats, 115
Chapter 7. Matters Concerning Audio, 147
Chapter 8. Choosing the Right Codec, 171
Chapter 9. How Encoders Work, 187
Chapter 10. The MPEG-1 Codec, 195
Chapter 11. The MPEG-2 Codec, 217
Chapter 12. The MPEG-4 Part 2 Codec, 227
Chapter 13. The H.264 Codec, 237
Chapter 14. Encoded Output Delivered as a Bit Stream, 251
Chapter 15. Live Encoding, 265
Chapter 16. Files and Storage Formats, 277
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vi Contents
Chapter 17. Tape Formats, 301
Chapter 18. Commercial Issues, Digital Rights Management, and Licensing, 307
Chapter 19. Network Delivery Mechanisms, 333
Chapter 20. Streaming, 345
Chapter 21. Players and Platforms, 363
Chapter 22. Windows Media, 373
Chapter 23. QuickTime, 383
Chapter 24. Real Networks, 397
Chapter 25. Other Player Alternatives, 407
Chapter 26. Putting Video on the Web, 415
Chapter 27. Digital Television, 427
Chapter 28. Digital Video on the Move, 439
Chapter 29. Building Your Encoding Hardware, 445
Chapter 30. Setting Up Your Encoding Software, 483
Chapter 31. Preparing to Encode Your Video, 521
Chapter 32. Ingesting Your Source Content, 529
Chapter 33. Temporal Preprocessing, 537
Chapter 34. Spatial Preprocessing, 549
Chapter 35. Color Correction, 567
Chapter 36. Cutting Out the Noise, 581
Chapter 37. Preparing the Audio for Encoding, 599
Chapter 38. Encoding—Go for It!, 611
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Contents vii
Chapter 39. Where Shall We Go Next? 619
Appendix A Problem Solver, 639
Appendix B Hardware Suppliers, 645
Appendix C Software Suppliers, 651
Appendix D Film Stock Sizes, 657
Appendix E Video Raster Sizes, 659
Appendix F MPEG-2 Profiles and Levels, 661
Appendix G MPEG-4 Profiles and Levels, 665
Appendix H ISMAProfiles, 677
Appendix I File Types, 681
Appendix J Source-Video Formats, 693
Appendix K Source-Audio Formats, 695
Appendix L Formats Versus Players, 699
Appendix M Connectors, 703
Appendix N Important Standards and Professional Associations, 717
Glossary, 719
Bibliography, 743
Webliography, 745
Index, 765
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Preface
The last few years have been an extraordinary time for the digital video industry. Not long
before the turn of the millennium, digital video editing systems were expensive capital
items of equipment that only major broadcasters and production companies could afford.
To think that now the same capability is available in a laptop that you can buy off the shelf
and it comes with the software for something in the region of $1200 is amazing. This is a
capability we have dreamed about having on our desktops for 15 years. The price of the
hardware and software needed to run an entire TV broadcast service is now within the
reach of any organization or individual who cares to get involved.
Recall the boom in publishing that happened when the Apple LaserWriter was
launched with Adobe PostScript contained inside and those early page composition pro-
grams enhanced what we were able to do with Word version 1 or MacWrite. We are now
at that place with digital media and while some people will create an unattractive mess
with these powerful tools, they will also enjoy themselves immensely and learn a lot at the
same time. Eventually, a few skilled people will emerge from the pack and this is where
the next generation of new talent will come from to drive the TV and film industry for-
ward over the next couple of decades.
When Joanne Tracey asked me to prepare a proposal for this book I realized (as had
most authors I have spoken to) that I didn’t know as much about the topic I was about to
write on as I thought I did. So this book has been a journey of exploration and discovery
for me, just as I hope it will be for you. And yet, we also don’t realize how much we do
already know, and I hope you will find yourself nodding and making a mental comment
to yourself saying “Yes—I knew that” as you read on.
We excel through the efforts of those around us in our day-to-day interactions with
them. I have been particularly lucky to enjoy a few truly inspirational years with a group
of like-minded people at the BBC. We all shared the same inquisitive approach into how
interactive TV news could work. Now that we have all gone our separate ways I miss
those “water cooler moments” when we came up with amazingly ambitious ideas. Some
of those ideas live on in the things we engineered and rolled out. Others are yet to develop
into a tangible form. But they will, as we adopt and implement the new MPEG-4, 7, and
21 technologies.
We are still at a very exciting time in the digital video industry. The H.264 codec is
achieving enormous potential and there is much yet to do in order to make it as success-
ful as it could be. Looking beyond that is the possibility of creating HDTV services and
interactive multimedia experiences that we could only dream about until now.
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