I posted a version of this on the confocal listserv in January 2008. See http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?
S1=confocal
Most of the contents of this file were made while I worked at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and City of Hope National Medical
On January 23, 2008 (20080123W in my date style) I added a worksheet tab from Michal Opas. I also added this intro. My bott
Some people would add a copyright notice to the contents (or at least the contents they authored). My take on it: data is not co
George McNamara, Ph.D.
University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
Image Core
Miami, FL 33010
gmcnamara@med.miami.edu
geomcnamara@earthlink.net
305-243-8436 office
http://home.earthlink.net/~pubspectra/
http://home.earthlink.net/~geomcnamara/
http://www.sylvester.org/health_pro/shared_resources/index.asp (see Analytical Imaging Core Facility)
Summary (see later worksheets for additional codec's that did not produce a file):
filename filesize Score (sum)
VP61 Advanced Profile 1,582,592 1
VP62 Heightened Sharpness 1,584,640 1
VP60 Simple Profile 1,612,288 1
DivX MPEG-4 Fast-Motion 2,459,648 5
DivX MPEG-4 Low-Motion 4,312,064 4
Microsoft MPEG-4 V2 6,698,496 2
Intel Indeo video R3.2 20,154,880 6
Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 28,512,768 2
Cinepak 35,144,192 2
Intel Indeo Video 4.5 38,092,800 2
Microsoft Video 1 65,801,728 3
QuickTime 225,830,571 4
uncompressed 363,842,048 2
average score (of 24 codecs) 50,512,800 3.16
standard deviation 88,101,414 2.13
median 13,934,080 2
maximum possible score (high is bad) 12
edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal for the posting
City of Hope National Medical Center.
also added this intro. My bottom line is I usually save uncompressed videos using MetaMorph or ImageJ.
. My take on it: data is not copyrightable.
Video quality
(0=good,
B&W Title Text 1=slightly
readability pixelated,
(0=good, 2=strongly
1=acceptable, pixelated;
0 filename filesize 2=bad) 3=blurry)
1 Cinepak 35,144,192 1 1
2 Intel Indeo video R3.2 20,154,880 1 2
4 Microsoft Video 1 65,801,728 1 2
8 Ligos Indeo Video 5.11 37,864,448 1 1
9 Microsoft MPEG-4 V2 6,698,496 1 0
10 Microsoft MPEG-4 V1 6,865,920 1 0
12 PICVideo MJPEG Codec 16,908,288 1 3
13 blank (no name) Codec 181,941,248 1 2
15 uncompressed 363,842,048 0 2
16 Ligos Indeo XP Video 5.2 37,864,448 0 0
17 XviD MPEG-4 2,207,744 0 0
18 DivX MPEG-4 Low-Motion 4,312,064 1 1
19 DivX MPEG-4 Fast-Motion 2,459,648 1 2
20 3ivx D4 4.5.1 Pro Video Codec 3,172,352 0 2
21 Huffyuv v2.1.1 - CESSP Patch 147,447,808 0 2
22 Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 28,512,768 0 1
23 Intel I.263 Video Driver 2.55.01 13,934,080 0 2
24 Intel Indeo Video 4.5 38,092,800 0 1
25 VP60 Simple Profile 1,612,288 0 1
26 VP61 Advanced Profile 1,582,592 0 1
27 VP62 Heightened Sharpness 1,584,640 0 1
28 VP31 Compressor 7,894,528 1 3
29 Microsoft Windows Media Video 6,865,920 1 1
30 DivX 6.0 codec 4,224,512 0 1
Qtime QuickTime 225,830,571
Videos examined in Windows Media Player 9, zoom 200%
3 Microsoft RLE 0
5 Microsoft H.263 0
6 Microsoft H.261 0
7 Intel 4.2.0 Video 2.50 0
11 Citrix Scalable Video Codec 0
14 Toshiba YUV Codec 0
31 DivX 6.0 YV12 codec 0
Brand marks
Color text (0=absent;
readability Color text 1=present
(0=good, color (0=good, some frames;
1=acceptable, 1=acceptable, 2=present all
2=bad) 2=bad) frames) Score (sum)
0 0 0 2
2 1 0 6
0 0 0 3
1 1 0 4
0 1 0 2
0 1 0 2
2 1 2 9
0 0 1 4
0 0 0 2
0 1 0 1
0 0 1 1
0 1 1 4
0 1 1 5
0 0 0 2
0 0 0 2
0 1 0 2
2 1 0 5
0 1 0 2
0 0 0 1
0 0 0 1
0 0 0 1
2 2 0 8
0 1 0 3
0 1 1 3
comment
title text off-white, slightly blurry.
strongly pixelated
pixelated
title text off-white
title text off-white; title text oddly pixelated
title text slightly pixelated
Brand marks overlay over all frames. Slightly pixelat
Pixelated.
slightly pixelated
title text slightly pixelated
Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of
Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of
Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of
title text slightly pixelated
Pixelated.
title text slightly pixelated. Colors (k, d) partly washe
ghosting around cells and color letters. Colors (k, d
Colors (k, d) partly washed out.
title text slightly pixelated
title text slightly pixelated
title text slightly pixelated
Blurry text, blurry images.
title text slightly pixelated
Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top o
jitters
failed (codec not installed?)
failed (codec not installed?)
failed (codec not installed?)
failed (codec not installed?)
failed (codec not installed?)
failed (codec not installed?)
failed (codec not installed?)
filename date time
01 Cinepak 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 09:39a
02 Intel Indeo video R3_2 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 09:41a
04 Microsoft Video 1 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 09:43a
08 Ligos Indeo Video 5_11 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 10:16a
09 Microsoft MPEG-4 V2 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 10:18a
10 Microsoft MPEG-4 V1 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 10:19a
12 PICVideo MJPEG Codec 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 10:21a
13 blank Codec 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 12:22p
15 uncompressed 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 09:29a
16 Ligos Indeo XP Video 5_2 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 01:46p
17 XviD MPEG-4 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 01:48p
18 DivX MPEG-4 Low-Motion 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 01:49p
19 DivX MPEG-4 Fast-Motion 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 01:51p
20 3ivx D4 4_5_1 Pro Video Codec 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 01:54p
21 Huffyuv v2_1_1 - CESSP Patch 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 01:55p
22 Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 01:57p
23 Intel I_263 Video Driver 2_55_01 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 01:58p
24 Intel Indeo Video 4_5 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 02:01p
25 VP60 Simple Profile 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 02:03p
26 VP61 Advanced Profile 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 02:05p
27 VP62 Heightened Sharpness 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 02:08p
28 VP31 Compresser 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 02:10p
29 Microsoft Windows Media Video 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 02:11p
30 DivX 6_0 codec 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 02:13p
QTime 20050804H Blood VTLF QTime - BAD JITTERS.mov 8/4/2005 09:23a
03 Microsoft RLE 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 09:42a
05 Microsoft H_263 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 10:13a
06 Microsoft H_261 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 10:14a
07 Intel 4_2_0 Video 2_50 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 10:15a
11 Citrix Scalable Video Codec 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 10:20a
14 Toshiba YUV Codec 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 12:25p
31 DivX 6_0 YV12 codec 20050804H Blood VTLF.AVI 8/4/2005 02:13p
B&W Title
Score Text Video Color text Color text
filename filesize (sum) readability quality readability color
Cinepak 35,144,192 2 1 1 0 0
Intel Indeo video R3.2 20,154,880 6 1 2 2 1
Microsoft Video 1 65,801,728 3 1 2 0 0
Ligos Indeo Video 5.11 37,864,448 4 1 1 1 1
Microsoft MPEG-4 V2 6,698,496 2 1 0 0 1
Microsoft MPEG-4 V1 6,865,920 2 1 0 0 1
PICVideo MJPEG Codec 16,908,288 9 1 3 2 1
blank (no name) Codec 181,941,248 4 1 2 0 0
uncompressed 363,842,048 2 0 2 0 0
Ligos Indeo XP Video 5.2 37,864,448 1 0 0 0 1
XviD MPEG-4 2,207,744 1 0 0 0 0
DivX MPEG-4 Low-Motion 4,312,064 4 1 1 0 1
DivX MPEG-4 Fast-Motion 2,459,648 5 1 2 0 1
3ivx D4 4.5.1 Pro Video Codec 3,172,352 2 0 2 0 0
Huffyuv v2.1.1 - CESSP Patch 147,447,808 2 0 2 0 0
Microsoft Windows Media Vide 28,512,768 2 0 1 0 1
Intel I.263 Video Driver 2.55.01 13,934,080 5 0 2 2 1
Intel Indeo Video 4.5 38,092,800 2 0 1 0 1
VP60 Simple Profile 1,612,288 1 0 1 0 0
VP61 Advanced Profile 1,582,592 1 0 1 0 0
VP62 Heightened Sharpness 1,584,640 1 0 1 0 0
VP31 Compressor 7,894,528 8 1 3 2 2
Microsoft Windows Media Vide 6,865,920 3 1 1 0 1
DivX 6.0 codec 4,224,512 3 0 1 0 1
QuickTime 225,830,571 4 0 4 0 0
(0=good,
1=slightly
pixelated,
2=strongl
(0=good, y (0=good, (0=good,
1=accept pixelated; 1=accept 1=accept
able, 3=blurry; able, able,
Scoring 2=bad) 4=jitters) 2=bad) 2=bad)
Videos examined in Microsoft Windows Media Player 9.00.00.3250, zoom 200%, except for Quicktime movie viewed with App
Codecs listed in MetaMorph but failed to produce a video.
Microsoft RLE
Microsoft H.263
Microsoft H.261
Intel 4.2.0 Video 2.50
Citrix Scalable Video Codec
Toshiba YUV Codec
DivX 6.0 YV12 codec
Brand marks comment
0 title text off-white, slightly blurry.
0 strongly pixelated
0 pixelated
0 title text off-white
0 title text off-white; title text oddly pixelated
0 title text slightly pixelated
2 Brand marks overlay over all frames. Slightly pixelated.
1 Pixelated.
0 slightly pixelated
0 title text slightly pixelated
1 Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of scale bar). title text slightly pixelated
1 Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of scale bar). title text slightly pixelated
1 Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of scale bar). title text slightly pixelated
0 title text slightly pixelated
0 Pixelated.
0 title text slightly pixelated. Colors (k, d) partly washed out.
0 ghosting around cells and color letters. Colors (k, d) washed out.
0 Colors (k, d) partly washed out.
0 title text slightly pixelated
0 title text slightly pixelated
0 title text slightly pixelated
0 Blurry text, blurry images.
0 title text slightly pixelated
1 Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of scale bar). Slightly pixelated.
0 jitters mar playback.
(0=absent;
1=present
some
frames;
2=present all
frames)
me movie viewed with Apple Quicktime Player 6.5.2.
B&W Title
Score Text Video Color text
filename filesize (sum) readability quality readability
VP61 Advanced Profile 1,582,592 1 0 1 0
VP62 Heightened Sharpness 1,584,640 1 0 1 0
VP60 Simple Profile 1,612,288 1 0 1 0
XviD MPEG-4 2,207,744 1 0 0 0
DivX MPEG-4 Fast-Motion 2,459,648 5 1 2 0
3ivx D4 4.5.1 Pro Video Codec 3,172,352 2 0 2 0
DivX 6.0 codec 4,224,512 3 0 1 0
DivX MPEG-4 Low-Motion 4,312,064 4 1 1 0
Microsoft MPEG-4 V2 6,698,496 2 1 0 0
Microsoft MPEG-4 V1 6,865,920 2 1 0 0
Microsoft Windows Media Video 6,865,920 3 1 1 0
VP31 Compressor 7,894,528 8 1 3 2
Intel I.263 Video Driver 2.55.01 13,934,080 5 0 2 2
PICVideo MJPEG Codec 16,908,288 9 1 3 2
Intel Indeo video R3.2 20,154,880 6 1 2 2
Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 28,512,768 2 0 1 0
Cinepak 35,144,192 2 1 1 0
Ligos Indeo Video 5.11 37,864,448 4 1 1 1
Ligos Indeo XP Video 5.2 37,864,448 1 0 0 0
Intel Indeo Video 4.5 38,092,800 2 0 1 0
Microsoft Video 1 65,801,728 3 1 2 0
Huffyuv v2.1.1 - CESSP Patch 147,447,808 2 0 2 0
blank (no name) Codec 181,941,248 4 1 2 0
QuickTime 225,830,571 4 0 4 0
uncompressed 363,842,048 2 0 2 0
average score 50,512,800 3.2 0.5 1.4 0.4
standard deviation 88,101,414 2.1 0.5 1.0 0.8
median 13,934,080 2.0 0.0 1.0 0.0
(0=good,
1=slightly
pixelated,
2=strongl
(0=good, y (0=good,
1=accept pixelated; 1=accept
able, 3=blurry; able,
Scoring 2=bad) 4=jitters) 2=bad)
Codecs listed in MetaMorph 6.3r2 that failed to produce a video.
Microsoft RLE
Microsoft H.263
Microsoft H.261
Intel 4.2.0 Video 2.50
Citrix Scalable Video Codec
Toshiba YUV Codec
DivX 6.0 YV12 codec
Videos examined in Microsoft Windows Media Player 9.00.00.3250, zoom 200%, except for Quicktime movie viewed with App
Data in MetaMorph 6.3r2
MetaMorph STK (image stack) file) 363,801,600 2 1 2 0
MetaMorph STK (image stack) file) 1,455,206,400 2 1 2 0
Video Codec downloads
Siggraph Codec Central http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/video/codecs/Default.h
FourCC codecs list (Four-Character Codes
to identify video streams) http://www.fourcc.org/codecs.php
Microsoft's FourCC for video compression http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/fourcc.mspx
Microsoft DirectX 9.0c end-user runtime http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a9b6820-bfbb-479
Microsoft Codec installation packages http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx
DivX codec http://www.divx.com/divx/
Codec-Download (archive) http://www.codec-download.com/
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack http://www.codecguide.com/download_mega.htm
Ligos Indeo codec family http://www.ligos.com/indeo.htm
3ivx D4 4.5 http://www.3ivx.com/
XviD codec http://www.xvidmovies.com/codec/
HuffYUV http://neuron2.net/www.math.berkeley.edu/benrg/huffyuv.html
Apple Quicktime http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
Color text
color Brand marks comment
0 0 title text slightly pixelated (blue grunge at bottom on a 320x239 dataset, ok with 320x240 pixel data).
0 0 title text slightly pixelated (blue grunge at bottom on a 320x239 dataset).
0 0 title text slightly pixelated
0 1 Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of scale bar). title text slightly pixelated
1 1 Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of scale bar). title text slightly pixelated
0 0 Brand marks. title text slightly pixelated
1 1 Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of scale bar). Slightly pixelated.
1 1 Brand marks overlay over some early frames (on top of scale bar). title text slightly pixelated
1 0 title text off-white; title text oddly pixelated
1 0 title text slightly pixelated
1 0 title text slightly pixelated
2 0 Blurry text, blurry images.
1 0 ghosting around cells and color letters. Colors (k, d) washed out.
1 2 Brand marks overlay over all frames. Slightly pixelated.
1 0 strongly pixelated
1 0 title text slightly pixelated. Colors (k, d) partly washed out.
0 0 title text off-white, slightly blurry.
1 0 title text off-white
1 0 title text slightly pixelated
1 0 Colors (k, d) partly washed out.
0 0 pixelated
0 0 Pixelated.
0 1 Pixelated.
0 0 jitters mar playback.
0 0 slightly pixelated
0.6 0.3
0.6 0.5
1.0 0.0
(0=absent;
1=present
(0=good, some
1=accept frames;
able, 2=present all
2=bad) frames)
me movie viewed with Apple Quicktime Player 6.5.2.
0 0 Stack viewed at 200% zoom in image window.
0 0 Stack zoomed to 200% (interpolate when duplicating with zoom feature on).
aph/video/codecs/Default.htm
milyID=0a9b6820-bfbb-4799-9908-d418cdeac197&displaylang=en
mat/codecdownload.aspx
t, ok with 320x240 pixel data).
e text slightly pixelated
e text slightly pixelated
ghtly pixelated.
e text slightly pixelated
From Michal Opas 20080123W video codecs
MO Notes
All high compression (% in the Table below) codecs give poor quality.
Codec % Comments
WMV 0.5 Very JPEGy
Cinapak 9 Pixelated, patchy colour
DivX 6.6.1 0.5 JPEGy - might not have a codec
Huffyuv 2.1.1 40 Excellent - might not have a codec
Very good: slow - at least 3x slower
Indeo video 5.1 9 than Xvid
Intel Indeo 3.2 10.5 Patchy colour
Intel Indeo 4.5 10 OK: painfully slow
Intel IYUV 50 Excellent
Lagarith 30 Excellent - might not have a codec
MS MPEG-4 v1 1.8 JPEGy
MS MPEG-4 v2 1.8 JPEGy
MS Video 1 37 Badly pixelated
~JPEGy: not bad for this
compression! - might not have a
Xvid MPEG-4 2.3 codec
Looks ~OK: there are problems with
Avi2MPEG2 16.5 sound conversion
Use Lagartith when quality is concerned* but always have codec handy. If space is a problem use Indeo Video. Other
*Check file size before conversion/compression. E.g., many camera movies come slightly compressed and using e.g.,
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:07:37 -0500
To: George McNamara <geomcnamara@EARTHLINK.NET>
From: Michal Opas <m.opas@utoronto.ca>
Subject: video codecs
Hi George,
If it is not too much of trouble, I'd appreciate having your Excel file on codecs. I attached a Word file with my (puny
Thank you in advance!
Michal
Dr. Michal Opas
Professor
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology
University of Toronto
1 King's College Circle
Medical Sciences Building, room 6326
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A8 Canada
°°°°°°°°°°°°°
phone: (416) 978-8947 (laboratory)
(416) 971-2140 (office)
fax: (416) 978-5959
email: m.opas@utoronto.ca
homepage: http://www.utoronto.ca/mocell
em use Indeo Video. Other than that use Intel IYUV when space is not an issue. When space is really tight use Xvid but always
compressed and using e.g., Lagarith makes the file size bigger but it shall not improve quality. So output file should be of simila
a Word file with my (puny in comparison) comments.
ht use Xvid but always have codec handy. And there is always Windows WMV format although it looks like crap.
file should be of similar or smaller size than the input file.
like crap.
