Is Pixlet destined for next-gen DVD?

[Sol]

Included in Panther will be QuickTime's latest codec, Pixlet, which is supposed to be used for off-line high-definition video. With this technology, video files that are 1920 wide by 1080 high will require only 3 MB per second. This in itself is impressive to say the least.

Recently SONY showed off its new Blue-Ray laser disks which will in one form or another replace the DVD format that we are all familiar with. While modern DVDs can hold 4.7 GB of data on a single layer, the blue-ray disks will hold 27 GB.

Here is the interesting part. A two and a half hours long Pixlet video at 3 MB/s would use 27 GB. It is as if Pixlet was tailor-made to fit an average-length film in one of those discs and have room to spare. Was this intentional on Apple's part? You can bet on it.

There are big plans being hatched for Pixlet inside the Apple. If it all goes according to plan, Apple's technology will be at the core of an emerging format: high definition video discs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1829241.stm
http://www.apple.com.au/macosx/

 

[nuckinfutz]

No Pixlet will be intended to edit in Hidefinition. No interframe compression allows for accurate "scrubbing" and other necessary editing.

The standards for HD-DVD codecwise are already set. We're just waiting for a Delivery Medium.

BluRay at 27GB is not enough. Toshiba and others are working on Optical Tech that supports 50GB.

The HiDef industry would prefer a Red Laser Tech for backwards compatibility but Blue Laser offers more storage today.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by nuckinfutz
No Pixlet will be intended to edit in Hidefinition. No interframe compression allows for accurate "scrubbing" and other necessary editing.

The standards for HD-DVD codecwise are already set. We're just waiting for a Delivery Medium.

BluRay at 27GB is not enough. Toshiba and others are working on Optical Tech that supports 50GB.

The HiDef industry would prefer a Red Laser Tech for backwards compatibility but Blue Laser offers more storage today.

Which codec did they go with? It wasn't Windows Media 9 was it?


Lethal

 

[Makosuke]

Yet more belief that Pixlet is some sort of end-all high quality format. Although I don't know what goes on in the depths of Apple, I really don't see any indication that Pixlet is or will be anything but a compression format targeted at pros working with very high quality, very high resolution video for editing.

There's very little point to having a consumer video format without frame-to-frame compression (which is Pixlet's strong point); although it allows very smooth movement in both directions at variable speeds, it wastes a huge amount of space (or processing power, depending on which trade-off you make) since 99% of the time consumer video is played forward at a constant rate.

Why would you go out of your way to use a frame-only compression scheme when you could fit several times that amount of data on the exact same disc using interframe compression?

For reference, here's a site that gives details on all five of the proposed real HD-DVD formats (yes, there are five of them--I just desperately hope they'll get things worked out before going to market so people who aren't either rich or stupid won't have to wait till things sort themselves out):

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.13

I'm not saying it isn't possible that Apple might do more with Pixlet, but being that they already have MPEG4 working just fine, which IS designed for consumer video (probably uses much less processor power than Pixlet, and provides the option of more compression, since it uses interframe compression and highly flexible bitrates), and MPEG4 is a standard (where Pixlet is proprietary), it seems like it'd be downright stupid of them to try and do so.

Don't forget that video pros in both TV and film like Apple, and that's a market Apple is aggressively targeting (FCP, Shake, etc), and that's EXACTLY the sort of people Pixlet is aimed at.

 

[Makosuke]

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
Which codec did they go with? It wasn't Windows Media 9 was it?

No; for those who don't want to check the above link, the potential formats use either MPEG-2 (same as current-gen DVD), H.264 (part of the MPEG4 spec), or one of a couple of new codecs developed by various non-MS companies.

 

[FattyMembrane]

from the looks of it, some of the companies behind this are trying to go for disks that can hold more data, but will give the same (or slightly better) resolution. i'd rather have a high quality 2hr movie than a low quality 2 hour movie and 11 hours of extra features.

DVHS is already at HD-TV resolution, but it's expensive, and its VHS. i hope these guys wise up and start incorporating variable resolutions into these standards.

 

[Makosuke]

Originally posted by FattyMembrane
from the looks of it, some of the companies behind this are trying to go for disks that can hold more data, but will give the same (or slightly better) resolution. i'd rather have a high quality 2hr movie than a low quality 2 hour movie and 11 hours of extra features.

Where were you getting that? At least everything I've read doesn't imply that HD-DVDs are for anything but High Definition content, which is the only high-def choice, and significantly better than current DVDs (ranging from somewhat better to way the heck better, depending on which HDTV standard the disc uses).

What slight quality increase claim were you seeing, other than mentions that high-density DVDs could hold a lot more standard definition video if you wanted? (Which might be a useful optional feature, for things that are long but already standard definition, like an older TV series.)

 

[yamabushi]

Everyone knows that the film industry is very worried about digital copies of movies. Increasing the data size of the movie helps to prevent this. Increasing the quality of the picture is a great way to beef up the amount of data required. However, since a copy can simply be reduced in quality to save size, they have to really go overboard on file size as well as add in all kinds of extra ways of making it difficult to make copies. Personally I doubt that their efforts will be very effective regardless of what they do.

 

[blueflame]

Pixlet & itvs

does anyone see something like a quicktime store, where pixlet is used to download your own movies, and burn them to dvd, seems possible to me
I can juse imagine, by 10.4 we have a movie store, where you download 200 meg movies. all apples compueters would have superdrive standard
this woudl be awesome

 

[Sol]

Re: Pixlet & itvs

Originally posted by blueflame
does anyone see something like a quicktime store, where pixlet is used to download your own movies, and burn them to dvd...

If Apple started selling movie downloads they would most likely use the MP4 format. Pixlet-encoded movies would be too big for downloads.

 

[yamabushi]

Re: Pixlet & itvs

Originally posted by blueflame
does anyone see something like a quicktime store, where pixlet is used to download your own movies, and burn them to dvd, seems possible to me
I can juse imagine, by 10.4 we have a movie store, where you download 200 meg movies. all apples compueters would have superdrive standard
this woudl be awesome

This might not be their intent, but it is an excellent idea. For those that have the bandwidth to make it feasible, this would be really cool. Hey Apple! We got a great idea over here.