Posted by Jan Panteltje on 10/18/07 10:39

On a sunny day (Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:38:17 GMT) it happened "Neil Smith [MVP
Digital Media]" <neil@nospam.com> wrote in
<kp0dh35h0koo9efna3codgavphkomvr96v@4ax.com>:

>On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:34:31 GMT, Jan Panteltje
><pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>On a sunny day (Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:40:25 GMT) it happened "Neil Smith [MVP
>>Digital Media]" <neil@nospam.com> wrote in
>><d8mch3t026sp8lkjsacnhrs8m8egcu19ji@4ax.com>:
>>
>>>On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:49:32 -0700, "ÑÏÍû" <bobby_yan@msn.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>If there's any, please list some. Thx.
>>>
>>>
>>>Your question doesn't make sense.
>>>
>>>A codec is a small portion of program code designed to encode or
>>>decode specific video formats. A codec in isolation is no use, it has
>>>to be combined with a player or encoding application.
>>
>>Thisis not correct.
>>A 'codec' is short for [en]coder-decoder.
>
>
>I know what it stands for, thankyou. I was trying to frame the
>response in a simplified way the confused OP could understand.
>
>
>>Both the [en]coder and the decoder can take a simple file in some specified format as input,
>>and produce some format as output.
>
>Yes, but they expose "interfaces" to do that. You don't pipe content
>directly to a codec, you send it via a uniform handler such as a
>player or ffmpeg

Basically a encoder encodes from some format to an other.
Sure it is possible to pipe to a encoder (codec) if you do it in the rigth format.
You seem to be thinking purely memory oriented, and sure the interface can be that way,
libmpeg3 for example, and then you need something to put the data in the memory.
But in what form the codec accepts data (and outputs data) is irrelevant,
as it will STILL be a codec, even if it inputs data from reading orange peals.



>>For example, ffmpeg, that I mentioned, will so something like this:
>> cat mymovie.yuv | ffmpeg -f yuv4mpegpipe -i - -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 800 -g 300 -bf 2 -y mymovie.avi
>
>
>Yes ? And you're not piping it directly to the "mpeg4 codec" are you -
>you're piping the raw data frames to ffmpeg, which encapsulates them
>and provides the uniform programmatic hook to the interface which the
>codec exposes.


Sure, but to help the OP, he likely wants to make a .mov file, likely
from some other format, THIS is the way.

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