Streaming Learning Center

OK, being somewhat of a jerk here with the headline, but I've been pretty public in my thoughts that it's time to transition from VP6 to H.264. Still, if you're not ready for that move, perhaps you might want to rethink your current VP6 encoding para...

Just a quick note about Sorenson Squeeze 6. I was testing for an upcoming review in my Affordable HD column for Millimeter Magazine and encountered a very serious bug relating to producing in VP6 format. Specifically, in my tests, Squeeze 6 couldn't come anywhere close to my target data rates. For example, when I encoded a file at 500 kbps, the lowest data rate that I could achieve was about 3 mbps. This basically makes the program unusable for most VP6 production.

I pinged Sorenson, who reported that the bug had creeped into a late stage release candidate and just hadn't been caught, but should be resolved with a maintenance release in the next couple of weeks. Otherwise, in my preliminary testing, I saw no other major issues. The review will appear on the Millimeter web site early next week.

In the short term,  if you're buying Squeeze 6 for most VP6 encoding operations, you should wait until the bug is fixed. I'm sure I'll get a patch as soon as it's available and I'll test and confirm when the problem is resolved.

Though overshadowed by H.264 in the news, On2’s VP6 is still the most widely used streaming codec in the world today. In this short article, you’ll learn what you need to know to produce video using the On2 VP6 codec, including the relevant configuration options and the cost of producing VP6 video.

One of the lingering rumors about H.264 is that you need a beast of a computer to play it back. Is this a reality or part of an insidious Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt campaign inspired by H.264 detractors and competitors. Well, read the article and find out!

This article details the encoding parameters used by ESPN to produce the VP6 encoded files for the standard Flash Player offered on www.espn.com.

See the video of the presentation given at StreamingMediaEast 2008 in New York City. The session compared the video quality of the big three codecs: VP6, H.264, and Windows Media, and included a comparison of the primary H.264 codecs including Apple, Sorenson, Main Concept, and Dicas.

This workshop focuses on comparing the quality, playback environment, and feature sets of the big three codecs (VP6, H.264, and Windows Media), including a comparison of the primary H.264 codecs including Apple, Main Concept, Telestream, and others. Attendees will also get an introduction to universal encoding parameters, like variable and constant bitrate encoding and I, B, and P frames, and then learn the technical requirements for producing files with each codec. During the final hour, the workshop will analyze which sub-$1,000 encoding tools do the best (and worst) jobs with each format.