H.264 production

Content in this category discusses how to produce H.264 video.

H.264 Encoding Parameters of the Rich and Famous

Whenever I speak in public about streaming production, I try to back up my recommendations with file parameters gathered from prominent media and corporate sites. Here are some file statistics gathered for a series of sessions that I taught this spri...

H264 Production Seminar

Download the PDF handout for the H.264 Production seminar that I taught at StreamingMedia East. Here's the agenda.

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If you're encoding in QuickTime/Compressor, you gotta checkout x264

So, I was doing some consulting work for a client who's currently encoding with the x264 codec. Part of the work involved benchmarking their current quality against other encoding tools I have around the office, so I downloaded the x264 QuickTime Cod...

H.264 Main or High Profile? Use High says Ben Waggonner

Interesting line of questions on the Advanced Streaming List recently. One producer shared that he was encoding using the following parameters: 768kbps512x288H.264 Main Profile Level 3.1 Microsoft's Ben Waggoner, author of Compression for Great Vide...

H.264 Licensing and the X.264 codec

Ever since MPEG-LA announced their policy of not charging royalties for H.264 video distributed free over the Internet, I've been getting a bunch of emails, so I thought I would share them. I'm not inviting more emails on this topic, by they way, unl...

Interview with MPEG-LA's CEO re: H.264 Royalties

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I just got off the phone with MPEG LA President and CEO Larry Horn regarding MPEG-LA’s announcement that the AVC Patent Portfolio License will continue not to charge royalties for free Internet video through December 31, 2016. Click through to the main article to read the Q&A.

MPEG-LA H.264 Royalty Policy for Free Internet Video - FREE!

MPEG LA’s AVC License Will Continue Not to Charge Royalties for Internet Video that is Free to End Users

(DENVER, CO, US – 2 February 2010) – MPEG LA announced today that its AVC Patent Portfolio License will continue not to charge royalties for Internet Video that is free to end users (known as Internet Broadcast AVC Video) during the next License term from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2016. Products and services other than Internet Broadcast AVC Video continue to be royalty-bearing, and royalties to apply during the next term will be announced before the end of 2010.

I'll attempt to speak with someone at MPEG-LA to understand their decision, and discuss its parameters, and will post when I have something.

YouTube does 1080p with H.264

On November 12, YouTube announced that "1080p HD Is Coming to YouTube." In this article, I'll describe the type of file you should upload to trigger 1080p encoding, analyze the 1080p files created by YouTube and detail the other files created by YouTube in addition to the 1080p file. Click over to the full article to read on.

Time to switch from VP6 to H.264? Yes, but .. mind the royalties

Got this question today via email: Found your article in Streaming Media (http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=10969) particularly useful, and wondered if you had any updates on .flv vs H.264 penetration and usage.  We're considering going 1...

Presentation at Streaming Media West

Just finished a presentation on producing H.264 at Streaming Media West - here's the final PDF from the presentation for attendees who wanted to download it.

Here's the class description - Encoding H.264 Video for Streaming and Progressive Download

This seminar focuses on producing H.264 video for streaming or progressive download. It will start with a deep look at key H.264 encoding parameters like B-frames, profiles, and levels, and how to customize encoding parameters for distributing via QuickTime and Flash. After detailing how to operate the H.264-related encoding parameters in tools from Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Sorenson, and Telestream, it will then provide a brief overview of the respective quality output of these tools. You'll learn how your encoding tool compares in terms of quality and configurability, as well as how to configure your encoding tool for maximum H.264 quality.