pouët.net

in my opinion the purpose of a video-kkapture of a demo is to show it to people who can not watch the executeable version. but it has occurred to me now several times that my small notebook is too weak to play the video correctly. (uk-allstars demo was the latest example)
the demos themselves should be free to use whatever hardware power they need but videos on the other hand should target low end machines i think.

so i ask everyone preparing videos of their or others' demos to choose a reasonable bitrate and a codec that is not so cpu hungry. i'll be grateful :)

what cp said

CP wants youtube. There is nothing wrong with good quality videos.

nope youtube is really shitty quality.
i want ~100mb xvid/mp3 videos for ~4 minute demos. if you think that youtube is as good as that have your eyes/ears checked.

what cp and tomæs said. (in other words it's best to provide lo (divx) and hi (mpeg4) quality versions of the same video).

I've been able to play most vid caps on a old 600 MHz machine, but only through onboard video, a pci video card kills video play back [guessing because of pci-bus speed]. I haven't used the machine in a while, but I'll go check to see what video codecs work on it and which don't.

cp, i absolutely agree - i have the same problem when i'm travelling and want to watch some demos with my 500mhz 64mbram laptop.

I can't play 1080i video on my pc, but 720p usually runs ok.

I agree too.
Btw the only demovid I wasn't able to watch is the debris one (both hi & lo version).
Centrino 1.5GHz here.

I was always under the impression that videos are for people with shitty graphics cards, but reasonable cpu and some bandwidth to spare. If your graphics card is shit AND your cpu, it's probably time to upgrade. :)

And yes, youtube is crud (mono-sound/crappy res). I wish more people would know about stage6.

Don't think you'll get much sympathy there... ;)

art thou harde ware not harde enough?

Videos are not just for people with old or crappy hardware, it's also for people who are using a different operating system.

and a streaming version if you distribute it through http, kthnx

Well, my old Sempron 3000+ couldn't handle 1080 too, but then again, it's a bit crappy CPU for todays standards anyway.

It's also funny, like AMD and nVidia have their HW acceleration of WMV and lately x264. Still, even with that HW "acceleration" VLC plays them with much less CPU resources.....

So it also depends on the player.

i second cp

Videos are there so you can spread your work to a wider audience. It should target hardware which is in the low and mid end of the spectrum.

Not necessarily the absolute vintage stuff though, we can make aalib versions for those ;)

it makes sense to provide different video versions for different kinds of users.
me, i want my demovideos with crack.

I prefer high quality videos. CPU power is not the problem, it's the platform dependence. Kb's debris capture just looks fine on a Mac with 30" cinema display. And you can always re-encode hq videos to lower resolutions and simpler codecs if you want to play them on your PSP or something.

First it was ps2.0, ati vs. nvidia, ps3.0, yes or no video and now this?

I'm pretty much inclined to admit I find this a whine-fest on your part. Any form of video capture is a privilege and not a goddamn Bob-given right.

I suggest you take the time to re-encode it yourself rather than telling people to tailor a video to your hardware situation.

or rather not watch the demo at all.

Watching demos is not a right.

i was not demanding anything. i just guessed that people with strong computers never even thought about the cpu usage of the video when its played.

But complaining about them sure is!


True, and you were putting it mildly to say the least. But this will most likely snowball to the point were I can't wait for the first thumbdown because of the codec somebody used for a capture.