The tech team here at Revision3 is constantly making small changes to the code underlying the website, and occasionally tweaking the video encoding parameters in an effort to make our show files smaller, or better-looking, or both. Most of the time, these changes are invisible to the naked eye (unless you know what to look for). Starting with today’s Tekzilla, though, there is a change to the High Definition file format that you might actually notice if you look closely. Technical explanation follows!
Ever since Revision3 started releasing Pixel Perfect in HD back in September 2006, we’ve released our HD content in Apple’s QuickTime format. QuickTime’s MOV container was the easiest way for us to provide High Definition video compressed in the H.264 codec, which provides the best-looking video at the relatively low bitrates needed to control bandwidth costs and reduce your download times. From now on, though, we are using the MP4 container to hold our H.264 video. The MP4 container (or, “MPEG-4 part 14″) is actually based on the QuickTime MOV container, but has the blessing of the ISO (International Standards Organization), and much wider device support.
What does this mean for you, the viewer? Well, if you’re already a happy viewer of our QuickTime format files, you should be able to continue viewing happily - the main difference you might notice the filenames end with “.mp4″ instead of “.mov”. If you have a player or device that supports MP4 files, but not QuickTime - like, say a Sony PS3 or an Xbox 360, you can now start watching Revision3 in High Def!
