Advanced video coding on Linux

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Use H.264 to create high-quality, low-bitrate digital video with currently available tools on Linux. The impact of H.264 on the world of digital video compression is growing. Companies such as Apple are already switching wholeheartedly to it. As part of the MPEG-4 standard (part 10), H.264 is now a part of both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray specifications for high-definition DVD. And for good reason—H.264 can encode video using very low bitrates while maintaining an incredibly high perceived quality. Of particular interest are the low-bitrate possibilities this video codec provides. Luckily for those who run Linux, the H.264 codec (also known as the Advanced Video Codec, or AVC) has a successful and effective open-source implementation known as x264. In fact, the x264 Project won the Doom9 2005 codec comparison test (see the on-line Resources). x264 continues to make progress and improvements, and it remains an active project. So let's take advantage of what it offers us: an extremely high-quality AVC encoding tool that can be used right away for DVD and home movie backups, to create video clips for streaming over the Web or simply for experimenting with the latest video encoding technology. The balance of this article focuses on the basic steps involved in creating standard .mp4 files that contain H.264 video coupled with AAC audio (Advanced Audio Codec, also an MPEG standard). The vagaries and subtle corners of hard-core video encoding are beyond the scope of this discussion. But hopefully, this introduction will encourage you to explore the topic further. Because both AVC and AAC are now MPEG standards, it stands to reason that many tools (commercial and otherwise) are already available that support it. For example, Apple's QuickTime natively supports the video files we will be creating. And, MPlayer, the well-known and successful open-source media player, also supports .mp4 playback.