[svlug] standard: sharing video with other OS

[Florin Andrei]

I'm looking for a way to share standard definition video content, 
640x480, 30p or 24p, with Windows and Mac users.

On Linux, anyone who has VLC, xine, mplayer, etc. should be able to play 
a variety of formats. Most ditributions provide at least one good 
player, and in many cases the browser is preconfigured to invoke the 
player with the appropriate media types.

But Windows and Mac are a bit more restrictive. So I'm looking for the 
one format to rule them all. Here are the requirements:

Able to handle standard-def video.
No hacks allowed. The file format must be correct according to whatever 
standards are relevant. I'm looking to you, ffmpeg.
The file must play with no additional software required, on any fresh 
instance, fully updated, of XP, Vista, Mac 10, and the more popular 
Linux distros.
The quality of the video and audio tracks should be "good". It's not 
necessary to rise to the level of a very good DVD transfer (Cars, LOTR), 
but if the average user says it's OK, then it's OK. YouTube quality is 
not acceptable. (note: yeah I know, in most cases, quality is a function 
of bitrate).

At this moment, I'm thinking along the lines of "ffmpeg -vcodec mpeg4" 
which should be supported on many platforms, but I'm not entirely sure.

I don't want Flash. The user must be able to download and view the file 
locally. I know some Flash players provide that feature. I'm way too 
lazy to install a Flash player. Just indulge me.

So I need to define:
- the type of the video track (some kind of MPEG4?)
- the type of the audio track (AC3? or whatever is compatible with the 
video and the encapsulation)
- the type of the encapsulation (AVI?)

I guess I should do some tests myself, and very likely I will, but 
meanwhile I was wondering if there's any kind of consensus on this topic.

-- 
Florin Andrei

http://florin.myip.org/