Microsoft BreakThrough? Windows Media 8

[Jerry Jones]

Wow. New. Windows Media 8. Near DVD quality:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/compare/video.asp

[dZeus]

I've tried it:

I played the 750kbps stream, (and set the directshow video filter slider to maximum beforehand of course).

There are still lots of compression artifacts. One of the worst scenes is the one when the woman enters the house.... incredible amounts of artifacts there.

I don't really see how much better than the beta of MS MPEG-4 that was used for DivX ;-) this version is (I assume this is MPEG-4 too). In fact, I think it may be even worse. I am eager to see the results for 1000kpbs streams, for comparison to DivX ;-)

Right now I think that MPEG-4 encoders with variable bitrate keyframes (the M4C method of encoding) give much better results than this 'new' codec. (I wonder how many codecs it takes before MS MPEG-4 is out of beta).

[Dr Mordrid]

I also noted a LOT of artifacts in the face and suit of the guy talking to her at the gas station.

They still have a long ways to go....

Dr. Mordrid


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[Randy Simons]

Is it me, or is the "DivX-bug" (no hardware acceleration when the horizontal resolution of the movie isn't dividable by 32) still there? I can't get it to use a hardware overlay. Results: can't play full-screen smoothly.

[dZeus]

well.. they've released the encoding util beta.

MS think command line is 'da thing'? Or didn't they have enough time to complete a GUI for this util? well... this stupid piece of $&#*^ doesn't even accept .avi files frameserved by DVD2AVI + VFAPIConf.... it says "Unsupported Pixel Format", while it does list YV12 and YUY2 as supported (tried both).... so this thing is useless!!!

I am waiting for 3ivX to be released any moment now... I know that will do much better than WM8, starting with the fact that it is a real CODEC for use in .avi files, and not some stupid non-standard file format.

[MADg400DnoMAX]

V8 support ONLY UNCOMPRESSED *.AVI with:
IYUV (I420); YV12; YUY2; UYVY; YVYU; YVU9;
RGB (8-32bit) pixel formats.
(In any other cases V8 says "Unsupported Pixel Format")

But M$ say that compressed files supported ONLY if ICM decompressor installed.

About "Lite":
Lite hmmmm... like microSOFT

Enjoy with other compressors until V8 in BETA1, BETA2,... RC1, RC2......

[MADg400DnoMAX]

Codec V8 has "Lite" version.
For "compare" Clips in web page M$ uses
not "Lite" Codec.

[dZeus]

and what exactly are the differences between the 'light' version and the 'full' version? Don't you think that the quality of the encoded material will be the same? Or did MS cripple the quality of the lite version?

BTW, I encoded a 720x480 clip... guess what... no overlay... GRRRR

[Jerry Jones]

Has enough time gone by to get some
final verdicts?

Windows Media 8: Good? Bad? Mediocre?

[miker]

I think MS are just playing version number catch-up with RealVideo so that MS does not give the impression of being out of date.

MPEG always prevails in the long run, and MPEG4 ISO has been finalised. Roll on MPEG7, etc...

[dZeus]

WM8 is MPEG-4 isn't it?

However, somehow I doubt that MS will comply with ISO specifications for their MPEG-4 implementation... I wonder why that is????

[Anatoly Neverov]

I don't know what happens, but I can't watch any clip from that panopticon. My Mediaplayer shows only black screen and I hear the sound. I tried all of them. I have Marvel g400 TV, 16bits color. Any idea? Billy's tricks? Or a worldwide plot against me still continues?

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Anatoly Neverov
Minsk, Belarus

[sweeper]

I got a feeling that the 400 kBps clips gave less annoying artifacts, if any, while the near DVD files had a better resolution, but lots of artifacts.

[This message has been edited by sweeper (edited 24 December 2000).]