Hi guys, I've been working on this infographic for a little while. It's goal is to simplify some codecs for beginner Final Cut Pro users. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Lots of good helpful information, but from a design perspective, it is too big, cluttered, and difficult to navigate. Try reducing the size of some of the graphics and icons and laying out the text with a bit more structure.
The following might of help explaining the difference between H.264 and other MPEG-4 codecs and editing codecs like ProRes, especially the Long-GOP feature, which should be helpful in understanding why MPEG-4 compressed video is so small compared to the same video using an editing codec.
Video Compression
Why It Matters & How To Make The Most Of It
which includes the following sections:
Anyway, thanks for putting that thing together, I thought about doing something similar, but my design capacities with graphics are quite lacking.
Just reduce the font size a bit, thus make it look less cluttered, and maybe change the font, has the "4" in "H.264" looks strange (sorry, no other word for it currently available).
1. I'd remove "MPEG-2" as a smartphone-friendly format. In fact, iOS and, IIRC, WP7 doesn't support it at all "out of the box" - as was the case with pre-10.7 OS X versions, Windows XP etc.
I think only the most free mobile operating systems like Symbian have built-in support for it.
2. I'd also add a quick remark on "remuxing" between containers so that people don't automatically use HandBrake for tasks where a simple remuxing would be way faster and of best quality.
Thanks, that's a very good read. I referenced it on the Infographic Blog Post here: http://connerpro.com/video-codecs-containers-simplified-with-infographic/ I decreased the font size, which I think helped alot.
Agreed. Smaller icons and sort of in the format of a "reference sheet" or even white paper would be cool...someone did a similar thing like a year ago in this section and actually continued to work on it...I had the PDF but Id have to dig for it now...anyways it was really good but needed some finishing touches as well...anyone know what Im talking about?Lots of good helpful information, but from a design perspective, it is too big, cluttered, and difficult to navigate. Try reducing the size of some of the graphics and icons and laying out the text with a bit more structure.
+10! You always have solid suggestions and I was actually going to mention pretty much all you covered. Allot of this stuff I find myself trying to teach over and over but loosing track of the 8 different PDF's Ive created from online articles that explain the tech well...I figure with one big PDF explaining all this in a rather simple way life will be easier! hahaThe following might of help explaining the difference between H.264 and other MPEG-4 codecs and editing codecs like ProRes, especially the Long-GOP feature, which should be helpful in understanding why MPEG-4 compressed video is so small compared to the same video using an editing codec.
Video Compression
Why It Matters & How To Make The Most Of It
which includes the following sections:
Anyway, thanks for putting that thing together, I thought about doing something similar, but my design capacities with graphics are quite lacking.
Just reduce the font size a bit, thus make it look less cluttered, and maybe change the font, has the "4" in "H.264" looks strange (sorry, no other word for it currently available).
Agreed. Smaller icons and sort of in the format of a "reference sheet" or even white paper would be cool...someone did a similar thing like a year ago in this section and actually continued to work on it...I had the PDF but Id have to dig for it now...anyways it was really good but needed some finishing touches as well...anyone know what Im talking about?
Also add MKV and the various Audio formats used for both Blu-ray and Apple products/online distribution (i.e. Dolby TrueHD, DTS, AAC, Dolby Digital AC-3, etc.) I'm pretty well informed on how the DTS codecs run with their extensions for 6.1 ES, Master Audio, 7.1, etc...I made up a chart once that Id be willing to scan and let you use for the good of the community if your interested.
+10! You always have solid suggestions and I was actually going to mention pretty much all you covered. Allot of this stuff I find myself trying to teach over and over but loosing track of the 8 different PDF's Ive created from online articles that explain the tech well...I figure with one big PDF explaining all this in a rather simple way life will be easier! haha
What is the goal of this? Where do you want to put it and why? I can't see a purpose for it. It is a very long picture. If it were a text (homepage), you could see it as a reference, but then it's not extensive enough. It kind of looks like a poster you could put up somewhere (classroom...), but the format is very weird to print out. So if you don't mind me asking: What are you planning to do with it?
That being said: I think the idea of making a good and up to date comprehension of codecs and containers is brilliant! It comes up very often in this forum and it not known very widely. I just think the format you chose might not be ideal.
I myself was thinking about making an animated video about exactly this subject, and maybe that would be interesting for you, too? I mean, people who are interested in this sort of thing are very likely to enjoy watching video, too. And it would in my opinion be the better format to bring across your point. What do you think?
Good idea. I've seen a number of these tall information graphics on the web the past few months. They are easily viewable on a variety of devices, and do a good job of giving a basic overview of a topic. I think that there are a few improvements you could make though. Change the pictures to icons, make the main headings larger, and everything else smaller. Also make it more detailed. Google image search information graphic for examples. Or seeing as it looks like your trying to promote your business, you could look at buying a template or getting one made?
http://lava360.com/useful-and-informative-infographics-poster-designs/
The link does not work and it just jumps to your homepage.
This is more of a minor thing, but instead of saying "other stuff" I think "metadata" would more appropriate and metadata can include things like data/time stamp, timecode, frame rate, camera information, etc.,. Also, and I just noticed this, an encoder won't necessarily reduce the file size of a video. You can use an encoder that applies compression to a file to make it smaller but not all encoders apply compression.
This is more of a minor thing, but instead of saying "other stuff" I think "metadata" would more appropriate and metadata can include things like data/time stamp, timecode, frame rate, camera information, etc.,. Also, and I just noticed this, an encoder won't necessarily reduce the file size of a video. You can use an encoder that applies compression to a file to make it smaller but not all encoders apply compression.
To the OP, I hope you don't feel like we are pestering you but I feel like this is a better way to get the correct info by having a bunch of knowledgeable fire off...we have a pretty small but smart video group over here (right guys? !!)
Also the DTS vs Dolby debate about which offers better sound is too much for a chart like this...I would go with something like "uses less compression". I would insist on adding DTS-HD codecs as well as stating that both AIFF and WAV are PCM audio formats to offer comparison better. Optionally you could add DTS-ES and Dolby Surround EX (aka Dolby Digital EX) which is basically the same format with a discrete or matrixed extra 7th channel (a small footnote or whatever under each codec would fit nicely).
Good point. Timecode, frame rate, camera info would be cool. A quick suggestion might be like:
24p: Traditional film frame rate used for the vast majority of movies today
25p: Standard TV frame rate in PAL land
30p: Standard TV frame rate in NTSC land
48p: less common but upcoming high motion frame rate for digital cinema.
50p: High motion frame rate in PAL land
60p: High motion frame rate in NTSC land (sports, football, etc.)
Frame rates could easily be a separate graphic all of its own once you get into things like fractional frame rates (29.97 vs 30.00), PsF and the various ways 24p can be embedded in an 60i video stream.
MPEG2 is a common codec for shooting as well...
XDcam HD, EX and Canon MXF are all MPEG2, as are all the files out of Nanoflashes.
As with H264, the beauty of format is that it's scalable from a low bit rate to a high bitrate.
You may want to start with a problem statement. Otherwise the reader will think that bored engineers are just messing with us by creating all these different technologies. For example, one statement could explain how uncompressed HD video is (something around) 100GB per hour. That is - like flip cards - if each frame was 1920x1080 by 8-bits deep, and you showed 24 of them per second, ...well transporting this pile of bits around is unworkable.
(Actual file size seems hard to find, but the file would be really big, and unstoreable on removeable media, or untransmittable by current networks.)
BTW, Avatar itself wasn't shot at 48p. It's Avatar 2 and 3 that will be shot at 48p.
I don't think the goal of simplifying something things for beginner users is being met anymore with how much information there is. At the very least I think the graphic should be broken up into a number of smaller graphics by topic or the format changed into poster dimensions. Right now it feels more like a scroll than anything else.
James Cameron said either 48 or 60...I hope 48 IMO I hate 60fps regardless if the shutter is all the way open, 180º or 45º.BTW, Avatar itself wasn't shot at 48p. It's Avatar 2 and 3 that will be shot at 48p.
Any last tips before I publish? Thanks.