February 16, 2011

Encoding WebM: a first pass [+ 2nd pass for HEVC-H.265]

Update: codec development has moved on with HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), a new version of WebM to compete, and other schemes.  


For details on the new AdobeWebM plug-in -- and more -- see WebM and HEVC in Premiere and After Effects at PVC.

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Original post:

Whatever your views on h.264, there may be a call to encode to WebM since pay per or subscription video using h.264 will eventually require a license fee if you ship many units over 12 minutes. The official WebM Project has a list of tools that encode to the WebM container, but here are some additional highlights:

  • SUPER now installs spyware and must be avoided in 2013 (OpenCandy in the guise of browser toolbar, even if you choose not to install it).  ***WAS: the Windows freeware GUI frontend, seems to have implemented the FFMEG patch. Super is quirky but packed with features and easy to use, though you may wonder why it wants to call home surreptitiously.
  • The rest of the GUIs for FFMPEG are bound to follow. If you must have command line control, see Encoding WebM Video with ffmpeg Dive Into HTML5 by Mark Pilgram.

    2 comments:

    AK2 said...

    Do you know anywhere to get a plugins for After Effect to export to WebM/OGG format? At the moment HTML5 video is solving problem with Flash and leaving us in the wonderland of new formats.

    Bas van den Biggelaar said...

    I just found another tool to make conversions which is pretty reasonable. It's called "Hewbo Video Converter". However, I'm still really looking for a way to render to webm straight from After Effects CS5 rather than having to use another program. Also a problem I'm having is that the colours change slightly in the converted footage, so white in the original turns out greyish in the converted file...