[Dorian Gray]

This is a bit of an eye-opener.

An Australian company called Vividas has created a streaming video solution based on Java that will absolutely blow your socks off. Full-screen streaming video at 440 (!) or 740 kbps, with no need to install any software. I have no idea how it works (maybe someone can fill me in on that) but it's very impressive. Quality isn't quite DVD but it's way, way better than QuickTime Sorenson Video 3 at the same bitrate, probably close to H.264 though with a different character. And the video starts instantly and plays full screen, with a TV-like responsiveness and lack of glitches. Deeply immersive and perhaps something we'll be seeing a lot more of in the near future?

Because it relies on Java it works like a charm on Macs, which is nice for us. It does have very high CPU usage, but my 1.2 GHz iBook G4 can manage it (just about) so I'm sure most Macs would do fine.

Here are a few examples which really show off the power of this technology. While playing the video you can press the spacebar to show a timeline (which allows scrubbing) and Escape to quit.

http://www.haveyoueverbeeninlove.com.au - Hilarious viral marketing video!

http://www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com/tvc/index.html - Australian ad that was famously almost banned on UK daytime TV last month because of the words "bloody hell". Don't click on the QuickTime version of course.

http://www.sovereignhill.com.au - Scroll down and click on "Strike Gold At Sovereign Hill"

Makes Google Video look a bit crap, doesn't it?!

[Brad]

Very interesting. This one has managed to slip under my radar.

FWIW, the "medium" quality of that first one plays flawlessly on my 6-year-old dual 500 G4. The "high" quality starts dropping frames, though. The quality is very good considering that it is handled by the JVM, but it's not amazing next to QuickTime and the like.

Still, I'm impressed so far. I'll have to investigate this Vividas thing.

[Dorian Gray]

Well the Vividas video is far better than the QuickTime download for the "Where the bloody hell are you?" ad (I played the QuickTime version full screen for comparison), but it's true they've used Sorenson Video 3 and mangled the encoding. The QuickTime is also at 525 kbps.

H.264 would have the edge, but not by a huge amount, I think. All three of the videos I linked to have lots of motion, camera cuts and specular highlights, so it's really tough stuff to handle at a low bitrate.

Wikipedia has almost nothing on the technology being used by Vividas. Google divulges this press release from On2 from last year, indicating that Vividas is actually using the On2 VP7 codec. That would go a long way towards explaining how such a tiny company could have come up with a delivery mechanism offering high video quality.

Is there something I'm not getting here? Why isn't this mainstream? It's far better than Flash, both in function (full screen) and video quality (VP7 versus VP6).

[atomicbartbeans]

Wow... the automatic full-screen thing really surprised me, coming from something you navigate to in a browser.

Cue Google buyout in 3, 2, 1...

[Ebby]

I must say, for a full screen java app, that ran pretty nice on my 400Mhz Pismo. Not full frame-rate of course, but watchable.

[gsxrboy]

Hi quality brought the fan on my pb 1.5 but it played perfectly. Impressive bit of technology.. Comon Ozzies comon

[chucker]

Decent technology. Same codec as in Skype 2.0, better codec than in FLV (Flash Video).

Sadly, they stopped releasing QuickTime components for their codecs.

[ssdd108]

Very nice indeed. It's not as good as a downloaded quicktime but it's amazing for streaming video. Makes me wonder why youtube and Google video are so crappy. Here's another link found on the codec maker's site:

Da Vinci Code Trailer

[chucker]

Originally Posted by ssdd108 Makes me wonder why youtube and Google video are so crappy.

Because the both use FLV, which is VP6, not VP7.

[BarracksSi]

Subscribed so that I can remember to view it when I get back home...

[ast3r3x]

Agreed, not as good as H.264 high def from apple, but it starts playing much faster, and is good enough quality to watch and not complain about pixillation.

Color me impressed.

[Ominx]

For some reason I can't get any of the videos to work. I may be overlooking something. I am on a MBP and have tried them in Safari, Camino, Shiira, and Firefox in both Universal mode and Rosetta. I'm not sure why I can't get them to play, all I get is a blank screen or a message that says the player isn't finished loading...is it because my java plugins aren't universal? My java version is listed as Java 1.4.2_09. Should I install J2SE 5.0 Release 1?

[chucker]

Maybe the player uses JNI, in which case you're fucked.

[Windowsrookie]

well, you know what happens when you buy the revision 1's. limited software support.

[bostongeek]

I was quite impressed with the technology when Universal Studios used Vividas to show the first 9-minutes of Serenity before it was released in theaters.

[SonOfSylvanus]

Indeed impressive.

[atomicbartbeans]

I hate to give this the bump, but I just found an awesome depository of these videos...

http://www.vividas.com/au/streaming/

Some of them are near-DVD quality... at times, you don't even notice the compression.

[Windowsrookie]

I don't think thats DVD quality, notice how nobody ever talks?

[julesstoop]

Originally Posted by Ominx For some reason I can't get any of the videos to work. I may be overlooking something. I am on a MBP and have tried them in Safari, Camino, Shiira, and Firefox in both Universal mode and Rosetta. I'm not sure why I can't get them to play, all I get is a blank screen or a message that says the player isn't finished loading...is it because my java plugins aren't universal? My java version is listed as Java 1.4.2_09. Should I install J2SE 5.0 Release 1?

Same problem here. Is probably an Intel Mac thingy, as the Apple support page suggests. Bummer!