pctechguide.com

M-JPEG

JPEG is a well-known standard for compressing stills. Unlike MPEG, M-JPEG compresses and stores every frame rather than only the differences between one frame and the next. Thus it requires more space than MPEG, but it is more efficient when rapid scene changes are involved, and easier to edit. It is capable of a variety of compression ratios, typically between 2:1 and 12:1. At 5:1 or lower, its deemed broadcast quality. Higher than that, up to about 12:1, is more than acceptable for semi-professional or consumer purposes.

The M-JPEG codec works best when contained in microcode on a video capture card chip. When implemented in hardware in this way the PC’s main processor is left free to concentrate on other tasks, such as maintaining the required hard disk data transfer rates. The algorithm can also be worked into a software codec, which allows video to be seamlessly edited in applications such as Adobe Premiere.

Despite its role as the workhorse of the digital video universe, the future is looking uncertain for M-JPEG. The new DV format has spread like wildfire through the professional and mid-range video market. It’s totally digital, offers better picture quality than analogue-to-digital conversion can ever hope to achieve and has industry heavyweights Sony and Panasonic behind it. More importantly, it’s custom-designed to bring real-time, high-quality video editing to the desktop PC.

Filed Under: Digital Video

Latest Articles

ATX form factor

The Intel Advanced/ML motherboard, launched in 1996, was designed to solve issues of space and airflow that the Pentium II and AGP graphics cards had caused the preceding LPX form factor. As the first major innovation in form factors in years, it marked the beginning of a new era in … [Read More...]

Dynamic Range Scanners

Dynamic range is somewhat similar to bit-depth in that it measures how wide a range of tones the scanner can record. It is a function of the scanner's analogue-to-digital converter - along with the purity of the … [Read More...]

PC Speed Maximizer Review

PROS: As a stand alone registry cleaner, PC Speed Maximizer is easy to you and gives accurate registry repairs that can be counted on. CONS: PC Speed Maximizer is easy to use and results are easily viewed and read. Auto-start features makes this program easy to run for all levels of computer … [Read More...]

Guides

Recent Posts

AMD K6-3

In February 1999 AMD announced that it had begun volume shipments of the 400MHz AMD K6-III processor, codenamed … [Read More...]