Any info on Pixlet?
I read a short blurb on a new codec on Apple.com
"Pixlet is the first studio-grade codec for filmmakers. Pixlet provides 20-25:1 compression, allowing a 75MB/sec series of frames to be delivered in a 3MB/sec movie, similar to DV data rates. Or a series of frames that are over 6GB in size can be contained within a 250MB movie. Pixlet lets high-end digital film frames play in real time with any Panther Mac, without investing in costly, proprietary playback hardware."
Sounds really great! anyone have more info on it?
"Pixlet is the first studio-grade codec for filmmakers. Pixlet provides 20-25:1 compression, allowing a 75MB/sec series of frames to be delivered in a 3MB/sec movie, similar to DV data rates. Or a series of frames that are over 6GB in size can be contained within a 250MB movie. Pixlet lets high-end digital film frames play in real time with any Panther Mac, without investing in costly, proprietary playback hardware."
Sounds really great! anyone have more info on it?
Comments
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenT...1&m=1770938175
if you've ever downloaded a movie you'd know that a 1gb mpg movie is pretty good quality...well with pixlet wouldn't that be only 50mb? (@ 20:1)
iTMS = iTunes Media Store...music and movies?
Originally posted by ast3r3x
can somone explain the feasibility of this for me...
if you've ever downloaded a movie you'd know that a 1gb mpg movie is pretty good quality...well with pixlet wouldn't that be only 50mb? (@ 20:1)
iTMS = iTunes Media Store...music and movies?
Pixlet would make a nice Output option for Final Cut Pro. I don't think of it as a Downloadable Format but rather a format for Distributing on Hard Media.
One thing that Jobs mentioned is that it provides HD quality but the Decoder doesn't require alot of horsepower and that's a good thing. WM9 HD requires like a 2.4Ghz P4 and above to playback.
the real question is...is it 20-25:1 from HD...what is it from mpg? cuz 1gb mpg movie is good, i doubt pixlet could compress mpg as much as HD
Originally posted by ast3r3x
can somone explain the feasibility of this for me...
if you've ever downloaded a movie you'd know that a 1gb mpg movie is pretty good quality...well with pixlet wouldn't that be only 50mb? (@ 20:1)
iTMS = iTunes Media Store...music and movies?
Nah. Pixlet isn't made for anything web-related, or user-related, for that matter. It's meant as an aid for HDTV production.
It looks very cool.
Originally posted by ast3r3x
what does it matter what its meant for...isn't what it CAN be used for more important?
MPEG-1 CAN be used for streaming video off the web. Whether you want to do that is another question.
What I meant to say by my post - and I think that was quite clear - is that you would NOT want to use Pixlet as a streaming format.
Originally posted by Chucker
MPEG-1 CAN be used for streaming video off the web. Whether you want to do that is another question.
What I meant to say by my post - and I think that was quite clear - is that you would NOT want to use Pixlet as a streaming format.
but could you explain why? (i'm not purposly trying to be dificult)
good compress scheme/quality = good streaming format no?
1. Pixlet is optimized for HDTV sizes, so basically way beyond what you could stream over broadband internet anyway (with today's compression technology). 1920x1200 (I believe they call it "p1920" or so in HD biz?), for instance.
2. Pixlet uses JPEG2000's Wavelet techniques (hence the name: "Pixar Wavelet") so that there is hardly any sort of artefacts. This is important because:
3. The quality must be so close to the original uncompressed data that you can publish it on HD-DVD, HDTV, etc. without it looking low-quality.
On the web, you would use medium or low quality for to be able to reach acceptable datarates (in the few hundred kilobits per second range).
You wouldn't stream a video DVD over the web, would you? It has multiple thousands of kilobits per second. Now imagine that a HD-DVD has a lot more (no, I do not have exact figures).
Does that answer it?
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenT...1&m=1770938175
Originally posted by ast3r3x
can somone explain the feasibility of this for me...
if you've ever downloaded a movie you'd know that a 1gb mpg movie is pretty good quality...well with pixlet wouldn't that be only 50mb? (@ 20:1)
Well, first off, your calculations are assuming that you can compress already compressed data at 20:1. The ratios that compressions schemes are given are always based on starting with uncompressed data. So for D1 NTSC, which is 720x486, an uncompressed frame of video is about 1MB... so 30MB/sec is uncompressed D1 NTSC. Now apply a 20:1 ratio to that, and that is what pixlet would do.
1. Pixlet is optimized for HDTV sizes, so basically way beyond what you could stream over broadband internet anyway (with today's compression technology). 1920x1200 (I believe they call it "p1920" or so in HD biz?), for instance.
HDTV is in two flavours currently
720p - 1280x720
1080i - 1920x1080
The "p" and "i" stand for progressive and interlaced, respectively. Apple's Cinema HD display runs at 1920x1200, and this is roughly 16:10. All computer based widescreen displays are 16:10 as opposed to the 16:9 format that HDTV is. Also note that most feature films are not 16:9, rather in a format called CineScope, which is roughly 2.76:1. This is why even on a 16:9 television, you get black bars at the top and bottom of films. Some DVDs are in an anamorphic widescreen, which causes the film to take on a 16:9 ratio... but you lose some of the image that way.
Mebbe Apple might be interested in pushing this codec into pro and consumer camera recording schemes, if there is some advantage over MPEG2? iDunno.
In any case, pros will need even stronger compression scheme ere long. Plans for UltraHDTV are already in the works, I don't imagine this will be for anything other than Professional CINEMATOGRAPHY (not even video) for years to come, but I'm sure studios will be interested in the, wait for it... 4000x2000 (2:1 widescreen) format that ought to go well past 35mm film.