There are many tools for creating and transcoding files to open, patent free standards. Here are a few of recommendations for different situations:
HandBrake was created to convert DVD discs into smaller video files suitable for viewing and sharing on the Internet. This is called DVD ripping. HandBrake is popular and available on many different operating systems. There are now more features including transcoding, which means changing one type for video file into another. This is very useful for video makers wanting to make their video projects small enough to fit on a CD or share online. You can also create video files with subtitles burned into them or specialised mkv files (matroska format) which can contain more than one subtitle file at one time allowing viewers to select their language in their video playing application. It can be used for converting a DVD to a video file with the option to include multiple subtitles in different languages.
Screen casting software lets you record what is happening on the screen of your computer as a video file. This can be used together with an audio narration to create useful video guides. Windows has at least two good open source options; Cam Studio and Webinaria. They allow you to record audio from your microphone or choose another sound source. You can select the whole screen or just part of it to be recorded. Record My Desktop offers the same functionality in Linux and you can record screencasts in Quick Time player on Mac.
If you want to try the process using an online service instead of local software, then you can try screenr.com or screen-o-matic which allow you to do this for free. They host the video you create and you can also download it for offline use.
H.264 is also known as “MPEG-4 part 10,” a.k.a. “MPEG-4 AVC,” a.k.a. “MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding.” H.264 was also developed by the MPEG group and standardized in 2003. It aims to provide a single codec for low-bandwidth, low-CPU devices (cell phones); high-bandwidth, high-CPU devices (modern desktop computers); and everything in between. To accomplish this, the H.264 standard is split into “profiles,” which each define a set of optional features that trade complexity for file size. Higher profiles use more optional features, offer better visual quality at smaller file sizes, take longer to encode, and require more CPU power to decode in real-time.
To give you a rough idea of the range of profiles, Apple’s iPhone supports Baseline profile, the AppleTV set-top box supports Baseline and Main profiles, and Adobe Flash on a desktop PC supports Baseline, Main, and High profiles. YouTube now uses H.264 to encode high-definition videos, playable through Adobe Flash; YouTube also provides H.264-encoded video to mobile devices, including Apple’s iPhone and phones running Google’s Android mobile operating system. Also, H.264 is one of the video codecs mandated by the Blu-Ray specification; Blu-Ray discs that use it generally use the High profile.
Most non-PC devices that play H.264 video (including iPhones and standalone Blu-Ray players) actually do the decoding on a dedicated chip, since their main CPUs are nowhere near powerful enough to decode the video in real-time. These days, even low-end desktop graphics cards support decoding H.264 in hardware. There are competing H.264 encoders, including the open source x264 library. The H.264 standard is patent-encumbered; licensing is brokered through the MPEG LA group. H.264 video can be embedded in most popular container formats, including MP4 (used primarily by Apple’s iTunes Store) and MKV (used primarily by non-commercial video enthusiasts).
Theora evolved from the VP3 codec and has subsequently been developed by the Xiph.org Foundation. Theora is a royalty-free codec and is not encumbered by any known patents other than the original VP3 patents, which have been licensed royalty-free. Although the standard has been “frozen” since 2004, the Theora project (which includes an open source reference encoder and decoder) only released version 1.0 in November 2008 and version 1.1 in September 2009.
Theora video can be embedded in any container format, although it is most often seen in an Ogg container. All major Linux distributions support Theora out-of-the-box, and Mozilla Firefox 3.5 includes native support for Theora video in an Ogg container. And by “native”, I mean “available on all platforms without platform-specific plugins.” You can also play Theora video on Windows or on Mac OS X after installing Xiph.org’s open source decoder software.
VP8 is another video codec from On2, the same company that originally developed VP3 (later Theora). Technically, it produces output on par with H.264 High Profile, while maintaining a low decoding complexity on par with H.264 Baseline.
VP8 is a royalty-free, modern codec and is not encumbered by any known patents.
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