CinePak codec

[rhsmith]

I posted a message last week about encoding video for playback on laptops and received some great feedback!

As a followup I was thinking back to the exciting days of 1995 when Win95 came out (hoohoo) and I discovered the avi files on the disk. They were encoded with Cinepak and played back on a DX4-100 ok so I tried it on the limp biscuit laptops in our office (p5-133) and got good playback at 352x240 and 15fps.

My question is this: are there any downsides to using Cinepak? The image isn't as clear as Indeo 5 but with I5 the playback on one of the aforementioned wanker laptops is measured in seconds per frame.

Thanks,

Richard

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BH6/300a@450/128MB
Maxtor 17.2GB/
GXP 10GB/Fireball KA on
FastTrack66/Marvel G200/
MX300

[Grigory]

Hi,
Once we tried to make presentations with PC screen captured in a movie.
The first decision was to use Cinepak codec.

We found two major drawbacks:
1. Much longer encoding time in comparison with Indeo codec.
2. Cinepak uses 16 bit color depth, so on the areas of nearly the same color you see color steps spots.

Indeo 5 quality was definitely better for us, even for lower than cinepak data rates.

If your movie looks acceptable for your task - use Cinepak codec. There are no other drawbacks.

Grigory

[rhsmith]

Thanks Grigory!

I agree with your assessment of Cinepaks limitations. I hope I get the chance to show the corporate money people the difference between an IV5 and a Cinepak video. Probably won't make a difference to them though.

Regards,

Richard