Dirac 1.0.2 released

[Kurtnoise]

The release tar-ball can be downloaded from
http://diracvideo.org/download/dirac-research/
OR
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dirac/


Dirac Compression System
-------------------------

Dirac is a video compression system that provides general-purpose video compression and decompression tools comparable with state-of-the-art systems. Dirac is a format and compression technology, not a specific codec. The most important part of the Dirac project is the specification which can be found at http://diracvideo.org/specifications.


Dirac Project
-------------
The initial implementation of Dirac at resulted in a research implementation which is referred to as the Dirac codebase. It is now called dirac-research. It is a reference implementation and also a codebase for future algorithmic developments. Dirac 1.0.0 is the release of this codebase.

Dirac website
-------------
Information about Dirac and the associated projects can be found at http://diracvideo.org

What's new in this release
--------------------------
Several alpha and beta releases have preceded this release. The changes in 1.0.0 release are:

- Compliance with Dirac Bytestream specification 2.2.2
- Adaptive GOP structure
- Improved motion estimation.
- Improved pre-filtering.
- Major code refactor of encoder classes.
- Added conversion utility for horizontal 3/4 filtering.
- DirectShow Filter released to be able to play back Dirac v2.2.2 files raw bytestreams and Dirac wrapped in AVI in Windows Media Player.


Dirac content creation and playback
-----------------------------------
Information on the end-user applications that support Dirac can be found at
http://diracvideo.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page#End_user_applications_that_support_Dirac_video

[Anatasia]

so who gonna compile Direct Show filter for Schroedinger.http://www.diracvideo.org/git?p=direct-schro.git;a=summary

[bratao]

A long time that no one had made a Dirac vs Others comparations.
:scared:

[Leeloo Minaï]

Is there any encoder tool for Dirac codec ?

[Kurtnoise]

so who gonna compile Direct Show filter for Schroedinger.http://www.diracvideo.org/git?p=direct-schro.git;a=summary
DShow filters are already available on SF. Maybe you mean schroedinger and dirac libs ?

Is there any encoder tool for Dirac codec ?
FFmpeg is quite good for this.



I'll try to upload something for you...

[Anatasia]

DShow filters are already available on SF. Maybe you mean schroedinger and dirac libs ?


No,I mean that directshow filter also include the encoder and decoder parts but only the source.But I don't know how to use MinGW to compile that on Win32.
I only use OggConvert to encode To dirac format in Linux

[clsid]

There are two versions of the DirectShow filter. The regular Dirac one and a Schroedinger one. I assume that they are compatible with each other? Does anyone know which one of the two has the best performance?

Edit: Schrodinger seems to be the fast implementation

[Anatasia]

I think the Schroedinger has CUDA support so it has advantage right now.

[Kurtnoise]

Dirac CLI (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=misc/&file=Dirac-1.0.0_mmx.zip) to encode streams.
Dirac package (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=misc/&file=DiracDec-1.0.exe) to play drc files through any dshow players.
LibSchroedinger package (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=misc/&file=Schroedinger-1.0.5.exe) to play drc files through any dshow players.


Note 1: I'll post a FFmpeg build later.
Note 2: read the install file.
Note 3: no CUDA support in my build.

[Sharktooth]

time to integrate dirac in megui?

[Delerue]

Weird. New VLC build doesn't play as promised. Dirac Dshow Filter register, but MPC can't play it (tried with 2 videos from Dirac SourceForge). LibSchroedinger Dshow Filter can't even register. So, in other words, for me Dirac doesn't work at all. :mad:

[Selur]

any hints what settings (ignoring speed and lossless) would potentially give the best quality for a specific datarate?

[Kurtnoise]

time to integrate dirac in megui?
it's too early imo...

Weird. New VLC build doesn't play as promised. Dirac Dshow Filter register, but MPC can't play it (tried with 2 videos from Dirac SourceForge). LibSchroedinger Dshow Filter can't even register. So, in other words, for me Dirac doesn't work at all.
SF provides only raw files (RGB). You need to transcode them. btw, I updated my libschroedinger package...liboil library was missing. So, registration should be ok now. Playback is fine for me in MPC_HC except that I cannot seek through the file.

I also uploaded a FFmpeg build (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=misc/&file=ffmpeg-dirac_r15366.7z) to play with it and to have avisynth support for inputs. Default settings are not bad I'd say but it's slow (6 fps on my Q9450) with a simple Crop & Resize...:p


any hints what settings (ignoring speed and lossless) would potentially give the best quality for a specific datarate?
According to the doc, the best user cases are presets defined in the cli...

[Selur]

it's too early imo...
totally agree,...

According to the doc, the best user cases are presets defined in the cli...
thanks for the info :)

Cu Selur

[lucassp]

what kind of input can be used for the encoder?

[Kurtnoise]

yuv or anything that's supported by FFmpeg if you use my build (even avs scripts) instead of the cli...

[Anatasia]

Dirac CLI (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=misc/&file=Dirac-1.0.0_mmx.zip) to encode streams.
Dirac package (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=misc/&file=DiracDecoder-1.0.0.zip) to play drc files through any dshow players.
LibSchroedinger package (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=misc/&file=LibSchroedinger-1.0.0.zip) to play drc files through any dshow players.


Note 1: I'll post a FFmpeg build later.
Note 2: read the install file.
Note 3: no CUDA support in my build.
Can you aslo compile Direct Show filter for Schroedinger (http://www.diracvideo.org/git?p=direct-schro.git;a=summary) I think it includes both the encoder and decoder.Though I think it need to update the liboil and the schrodinger library cause it used the old version of win32-devel file.

Also there's a plugin for Quicktime QuickTime plugin based on Schroedinger (http://www.diracvideo.org/git?p=schro-qt.git;a=summary)

[Kurtnoise]

Can you aslo compile Direct Show filter for Schroedinger (http://www.diracvideo.org/git?p=direct-schro.git;a=summary) I think it includes both the encoder and decoder.Though I think it need to update the liboil and the schrodinger library cause it used the old version of win32-devel file.
Dirac and Schroedinger libraries produce compatible bitstreams. However the compression performance of the Schroedinger library is not on par with the Dirac library as yet.
http://diracvideo.org/wiki/index.php/Schroedinger_and_FFmpeg#Creating_raw_Dirac_bitstreams

Also there's a plugin for Quicktime QuickTime plugin based on Schroedinger (http://www.diracvideo.org/git?p=schro-qt.git;a=summary)
no, thank you...

[bratao]

Kurtnoise13,
You said that ou have encoded a video.
Please post some screenshots of video to us. And the Bitrate used.

Thanks

[Tagert]

ooh, new codec :)

[Kurtnoise]

You said that ou have encoded a video.
Please post some screenshots of video to us. And the Bitrate used.


source:
http://pix.nofrag.com/7/2/f/82c0039e40903b4702d3166bff4f3.png (http://pix.nofrag.com/7/2/f/82c0039e40903b4702d3166bff4f3.html)

x264 rev979 (default settings @ 1152kbps) :
http://pix.nofrag.com/9/6/f/7b15037a9969c983791359948edf0.png (http://pix.nofrag.com/9/6/f/7b15037a9969c983791359948edf0.html)

dirac 1.0 (default settings @1152kbps) :
http://pix.nofrag.com/5/6/0/5e2be7bea799f5071d87750213f0e.png (http://pix.nofrag.com/5/6/0/5e2be7bea799f5071d87750213f0e.html)

[DigitAl56K]

Congratulations to the Dirac Project on the 1.0 release :)

[Dark Shikari]

...Its rather unfair to use x264 on the default settings (which are awful)--let alone what you appear to be doing, which is encoding progressive content as interlaced :rolleyes:

[bratao]

Kurtnoise13,
Thanks a lot !!!
But the two samples looks too washed for this bitrate.

BTW, the Dirac is the base encoder, so this is highly unoptimized, is like compare x264 to JM Reference H.264/AVC encoder.

[cacepi]

Also there's a plugin for Quicktime QuickTime plugin based on Schroedinger (http://www.diracvideo.org/git?p=schro-qt.git;a=summary)
It's Mac only (which doesn't bother me) and the encoding options the GUI exposes are very skeletal at the moment (which does bother me). x264Encoder it is not, but it's a start.

If anyone wants a build (remember, Mac only) PM me.

[Kurtnoise]

Its rather unfair to use x264 on the default settings (which are awful)--let alone what you appear to be doing, which is encoding progressive content as interlaced :rolleyes:
I know and you're completely right...:) but it was intentional. My goal was to see what the codecs can produce with default settings, not to find the best trade off.

The first thing when I test an audio or a video codec is to check what it produces with its default settings. Maybe it's not the correct way. In this case, I'm deeply sorry. I know that x264 can give much more better than this. Maybe you have an explanation why I got such poor result at this bitrate ?

To be honest, I got decent results around 2500kbps for my eyes for this scene. Besides, I've better results with some other sources. Don't get me wrong here...:p I never used and I won't use default settings for x264.

All in all, it seems that dirac doesn't respect target bitrate for 2 passes encoding. And I got some strange chroma shift with Big Buck Bunny as source (maybe it's the decoder fault)...

[Dark Shikari]

I know and you're completely right...:) but it was intentional. My goal was to see what the codecs can produce with default settings, not to find the best trade off.Interlaced mode isn't default.

[Kurtnoise]

allright, I found the culprit. It's CoreAVC...shit.

I updated the picture.

[paehl]

The Windows binary version here

http://www.paehl.com/open_source/?Convert_Tools:DIRAC_1.0

[CruNcher]

thx paehl
it doesn't look bad for the start :)

[Leeloo Minaï]

Thanks for these first binaries, but i have two questions :
- what are the good extension and container for Dirac videos ?
- is there any chance to get a VFW codec for use with VirtualDub ?

I also am unable to register DirectShow splitters (official and Schroedinger version) : all .AX libraries i tried up to now, codecs or others, always registered without updating PATHs or doing some black magic... :devil:

[Anatasia]

That's why I've asked about a compiled Schrodinger DS filter.I think it can encode to dirac format in Virtualdub.The easiest way that I've known to encode it is using OggConvert which use OGV format.

[Kurtnoise]

what are the good extension and container for Dirac videos ?
for raw streams : drc
for containers : OGG, TS, AVI

is there any chance to get a VFW codec for use with VirtualDub ?
nope...

I also am unable to register DirectShow splitters (official and Schroedinger version) : all .AX libraries i tried up to now, codecs or others, always registered without updating PATHs or doing some black magic... :devil:
I've made installers :
>> http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=misc/&file=DiracDec-1.0.exe
>> http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=misc/&file=Schroedinger-1.0.5.exe

[Kurtnoise]

That's why I've asked about a compiled Schrodinger DS filter.I think it can encode to dirac format in Virtualdub.
No such tool exists afaik...

[littleD]

What's wrong with my system. Why me?
Tried previous dsh filters and also newest dirac.ax from sf cannot register manually. Tried even installers that kurtnoise13 was kind to provide. Still nothing. Using haali media splitter, bbb100.ts (dirac) do not play. Internal splitter in MPC HC do not make it better..

[Kurtnoise]

only VLC and FFplay/Mplayer are able to play ts files containing dirac streams for the moment on windows...

what kind of error did you have during registration ?

[RadicalEd]

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/20/1726252

According to their website, 'Dirac is an advanced royalty-free video compression format designed for a wide range of uses, from delivering low-resolution web content to broadcasting HD and beyond, to near-lossless studio editing.' Now a stable version of the dirac-research codebase, Dirac 1.0.0, has been released (http://diracvideo.org/). The BBC have already successfully used the new codec during the Beijing Olympics and are looking to push it to more general use throughout the organisation. The latest version of VLC (the recently released 0.9.2) has support for Dirac using the Schroedinger library.

The story's relatively new, so get in there and throw in your opinions, Slashdotters!

[cacepi]

If anyone wants a build (remember, Mac only) PM me.
A few asked, so here it is: SchroQT.component.zip (http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=890942be42954312dd017c93098b2419) (filesend.net)

It's Universal, but as I no long have my G5 I can't test on PPC. Built from Schroedinger 1.0.5, liboil 0.3.15 and latest git SchroQT.

[littleD]

Looks like dirac splitter finally install with no problem thx to the installers kurtnoise13 provided.


what kind of error did you have during registration ?

That was because i was trying register without diracdecoder.dll (?) i didnt compile (even didnt know how:) ). That was missing module error.

..only VLC and FFplay/Mplayer are able to play ts files containing dirac streams for the moment on windows...

Heh, so what are those DSH filters for, then?

[CruNcher]

source:
http://pix.nofrag.com/7/2/f/82c0039e40903b4702d3166bff4f3.png (http://pix.nofrag.com/7/2/f/82c0039e40903b4702d3166bff4f3.html)

x264 rev979 (default settings @ 1152kbps) :
http://pix.nofrag.com/9/6/f/7b15037a9969c983791359948edf0.png (http://pix.nofrag.com/9/6/f/7b15037a9969c983791359948edf0.html)

dirac 1.0 (default settings @1152kbps) :
http://pix.nofrag.com/5/6/0/5e2be7bea799f5071d87750213f0e.png (http://pix.nofrag.com/5/6/0/5e2be7bea799f5071d87750213f0e.html)

Kurtnoise13 are those both CBR encodes ? else it wouldn't be fair (just comparing RC's here) everyone should be aware Dirac has no ABR/VBR yet it's only plain CBR

[Kurtnoise]

so what are those DSH filters for, then?
to play back raw streams (drc files) or AVI containing raw streams...


are those both CBR encodes ?
yes, both are CBR...Here is the command lines I used:
FFmpeg -i input.avs -vcodec libdirac -b 1152000 output.drc
FFmpeg -i input.avs -vcodec libx264 -b 1152000 output.drc

everyone should be aware Dirac has no ABR/VBR yet it's only plain CBR
depends on the tool you use...;) There is a quality mode, so I assume that's VBR. About ABR: if you use FFmpeg, you can tweak tunings and use all video switches you want from this tool. So, a 2passes encoding is possible in this case.

[Dark Shikari]

yes, both are CBR...Here is the command lines I used:
FFmpeg -i input.avs -vcodec libdirac -b 1152000 output.drc
FFmpeg -i input.avs -vcodec libx264 -b 1152000 output.drcDoesn't look like CBR to me.

[Kurtnoise]

ABR, then ? :D

something like that :
FFmpeg -i input.avs -vcodec libdirac -b 1152000 -minrate 1152000 -maxrate 1152000 -bufsize 1000k output.drc
does it look like CBR ?

[guada2]

Kurtnoise13,

It is possible a GUI..
Thanks.

[Kurtnoise]

not from me.

[bratao]

Well, into my tests. The dirac at
>ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 -b 1500000 -vcodec libdirac -strict -2 dirac_output.drc
Won by far the
>ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 -b 1500000 -minrate 1500000 -maxrate 1500000 -bufsize 183k output.mp4

[Dark Shikari]

Well, into my tests. The dirac at
>ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 -b 1500000 -vcodec libdirac -strict -2 dirac_output.drc
Won by far the
>ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 -b 1500000 -minrate 1500000 -maxrate 1500000 -bufsize 183k output.mp4Well obviously, how do you expect x264 to do anything at such absurd restrictions? 183k VBV bufsize?! Are you insane?

Its not fair to have a test where you use totally different VBV restrictions for each of the encoders--you're not passing any at all to Dirac, nor are you verifying that Dirac's stream abides by the same restrictions you've passed to x264.

Surprise surprise, when you massively cripple x264 but don't cripple Dirac at all, Dirac looks better! Last I heard a Ford Focus can out-race a Ferrari if you lock the latter to first gear, too.

[nm]

Apparently he was comparing to ffmpeg4 (MPEG-4 ASP) instead of x264. Not that your remark wouldn't apply to that case too...

[Dark Shikari]

Apparently he was comparing to ffmpeg4 (MPEG-4 ASP) instead of x264. Not that your remark wouldn't apply to that case too...Oh wow, you're right, he's not even using x264. I suspect this is even more unfair then, as libavcodec's VBV code is considerably inferior to x264's.

[Kurtnoise]

1.0.2 has been released...

This a a minor release complying with the latest Dirac
Bytestream Specification 2.2.3.

-Improved compression performance for small picture sizes.
-Improved compression performance at low bit-rates.
-Included macros to check the API version.
-Improved motion estimation.
-New 422 <-> 420 conversion utilities for interlaced video.
-New functionality added to encoder API. The programmer's
guide has been modified accordingly.
-Fixed bugs in handling DC subband.
-DirectShow filter released to be able to play back Dirac
raw bytestreams or Dirac muxed in AVI in Windows Media
Player and MPlayer Classic.
-Released the source and win32 binary of ffmpeg2dirac, a
utility that can transcode any multimedia format that can
be decoded by FFmpeg into Dirac video and Vorbis audio (if
audio exists) muxed in Ogg.
-Note that new patches for MPlayer and FFmpeg will no
longer be released because Dirac support via Dirac and
Schroedinger libraries is available in FFmpeg.


https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=102564