Help! x264 for Mac [Archive]

lipeter888

16th March 2007, 22:25

In my project, I need to install a better code in my office Mac machine. Is there any body know if there is a mac edition of x264 code?

akupenguin

16th March 2007, 22:49

x264cli compiles just fine on a mac, as do the mencoder and ffmpeg frontends. If you want something graphical... those exist too but I don't know which ones are good.

cacepi

17th March 2007, 03:45

If you want something graphical... those exist too but I don't know which ones are good.

x264Encoder (http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/) is a great frontend; it's currently synced to v624. There's also a QuickTime component based on libavcodec that replaces QuickTime's crappy H.264 support. Highly recommended.

giandrea

17th March 2007, 16:36

x264Encoder (http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/) is a great frontend; it's currently synced to v624. There's also a QuickTime component based on libavcodec that replaces QuickTime's crappy H.264 support. Highly recommended.

That is perian (http://perian.org/), but you will have to compile the last SVN to get High Profile x264 decoding...

lipeter888

17th March 2007, 17:41

Thanks a lot for all the help.

Because I am a new mac user, I really have no idea what I can do.

My boss told me just use quicktime broadcast program, which produce the .mov files. I have noticed there are a list of codes that I can choose from. I just want to add x264 to this list so I can record by this code.

Or, anyone know a good software in mac system that can record high quality video from camera? Budget is not a problem.

cacepi

17th March 2007, 19:10

That is perian (http://perian.org/), but you will have to compile the last SVN to get High Profile x264 decoding...No, I'm talking about avc1Decoder (http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/), which is on the same page as x264Encoder. Perian only works with H.264 in an avi container (at least is only does for me), and H.264 in avi is just plain evil.

giandrea

18th March 2007, 03:44

No, I'm talking about avc1Decoder (http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/), which is on the same page as x264Encoder. Perian only works with H.264 in an avi container (at least is only does for me), and H.264 in avi is just plain evil.

For me it works well for H264 in MKV and MP4 too. But you have to use an SVN build.

Blue_MiSfit

18th March 2007, 07:15

giandrea

18th March 2007, 12:34

I don't think that you can use the x264 QuickTime Component for RealTime video encoding. I once tried to do exactly this job with QuickTime broadcaster and the XviD QuickTime Component, and it crashed every time. I think that you should use Apple's MPEG4 or Apple's H264 and a high bitrate. That worked for me.

lipeter888

18th March 2007, 22:28

So you want to record video from a camera. Ok - two questions

1) what kind of camera, and how is it connected?
2) what is this video going to be used for?

Thanks for all of your help.

I am using the Cannon digital camera connected to mac book through IEE1394 port. The camera is treated as a capture device.

I know a lot of software in PC, but in mac, I don't know any software that allow me to record video with free code choose.

Blue_MiSfit

19th March 2007, 02:07

You didn't answer the second question :)

I get the first part, that you have a Cannon DV camera connected through FireWire.

If you just want to record video the simple way, use iMovie to capture through FireWire.

QuickTime broadcaster will also work.

The next question is - what codec to use?

Well, the camera will compress whatever it records to the DV format using its hardware codec. Unless you have a very good reason to do otherwise, it's probably best just to capture as a QuickTime Apple DV MOV. If you want to compress this DV using h.264 (to save space), then you can do that AFTER you capture / edit (if necessary). The Apple H.264 codec is pretty bad, but it does work. If you want to use x264, then any one of several GUIs will use x264 (I think ffmpegX will do this, it's a very nice app).

Hopefully that will help.

The big question is: Are you trying to capture to MOV files so that you can edit or encode, and then do something, OR are you trying to capture, encode on the fly, and possibly stream on the internet?

~MiSfit

lipeter888

19th March 2007, 09:15

You didn't answer the second question :)
The big question is: Are you trying to capture to MOV files so that you can edit or encode, and then do something, OR are you trying to capture, encode on the fly, and possibly stream on the internet?

~MiSfit

Many thanks again.

You did give me a lot of help.

To answer the question above: I want EITHER

(1) Like you said, just to capture as a QuickTime Apple DV MOV files (Now I realized there is no reason to compress it) and then encode to RM format by realproducer in another PC system, (the streaming server in our company requires either real or wmv)

OR (2) capture, encode on the fly, and stream on the internet (this would be better as I can broadcast content on live, but we have to establish another MOV streaming server, which is currently difficult)

I don't know much of the software availibility in mac system. If Realproducer (like I always use in PC) is available in mac, then I can simply use it for realtime capture, encode on the fly, and stream on the internet, which would be ideal.

crashray

23rd March 2007, 17:06

You could also install the Port x264 (http://x264.darwinports.com/) by MacPorts (http://www.macports.org/)

x264 20061005, multimedia/x264
http://www.videolan.org/x264.html

x264 is a free library for encoding H264/AVC video streams. The code is written by Laurent Aimar, Eric Petit(OS X), Min Chen (vfw/nasm), Justin Clay(vfw), Måns Rullgård and Loren Merritt from scratch. It is released under the terms of the GPL license.

Build Dependencies: subversion
Platforms: darwin
Maintainers: nomaintainer@macports.org