VC-1

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VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard initially developed by Microsoft. It
was released on April 3, 2006 by SMPTE. It is now a supported standard for HD DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and
Windows Media Video 9.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Format
• 2 Microsoft codec implementations
o 2.1 WMV3
o 2.2 WMVA
o 2.3 WVC1
• 3 Profiles
• 4 Bit rates and resolutions
• 5 Other implementations
• 6 Encoding software
• 7 See also
• 8 References

• 9 External links

[edit] Format

VC-1 is an evolution of the conventional DCT-based video codec design also found in H.261, H.263,
MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 Part 2. It is widely characterized as an alternative to the latest ITU-T and
MPEG video codec standard known as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. VC-1 contains coding tools for interlaced
video sequences as well as progressive encoding. The main goal of VC-1 development and standardization
is to support the compression of interlaced content without first converting it to progressive, making it more
attractive to broadcast and video industry professionals.

Although widely considered to be Microsoft’s product, there are actually 15 companies in the VC-1 patent
pool (as of August 17, 2006). As an SMPTE standard, VC-1 is open to implementation by anyone, although
implementers are hypothetically required to pay licensing fees to the MPEG LA, LLC licensing body or
directly to its members, who claim to hold essential patents on the format (since it is a non-exclusive
licensing body).[1]

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc have adopted VC-1 as a mandatory video standard, meaning their video
playback devices will be capable of decoding and playing video-content compressed using VC-1. Windows
Vista partially supports HD DVD playback by including the VC-1 decoder and some related components
needed for playback of VC-1 encoded HD DVD movies.[2]

Microsoft has designated VC-1 as the Xbox 360 video game console’s official video codec, and game
developers may use VC-1 for full motion video included with games. By means of an October 31, 2006
update, people can now play all formats of Windows Media Video on the Xbox 360 from a disc, USB
storage device, or streaming from their PC via Windows Media Connect/Windows Media Player 11. This
allows anyone to play VC-1 encoded files on the console.

The FFmpeg project includes a free VC-1 decoder.[3]

[edit] Microsoft codec implementations

The VC-1 codec specification has so far been implemented by Microsoft in the form of 3 codecs, each
identified with a unique FourCC code.[citation needed]

[edit] WMV3

Simple and Main Profiles of VC-1 remained completely faithful to the existing WMV3 implementation,
making WMV3 bitstreams fully VC-1 compliant. The WMV3 codec was designed to primarily support
progressive encoding for computer displays. An interlaced encoding mode was implemented, but quickly
became deprecated when Microsoft started implementing WMV Advanced Profile. Whereas WMV3
progressive encoding was implemented in the YUV 4:2:0 color space, the deprecated interlaced mode was
implemented in the less common YUV 4:1:1 color space.

The Windows Media Video 9 (WMV3) codec implements the Simple and Main modes of the VC-1 codec
standard, providing high-quality video for streaming and downloading. "It provides support for a wide
range of bit rates, from high-definition content at one-half to one-third the bit rate of MPEG-2, to low-bit-
rate Internet video delivered over a dial-up modem. This codec also supports professional-quality
downloadable video with two-pass and variable bit rate (VBR) encoding. Windows Media Video 9 is
already supported by a wide variety of players and devices."[citation needed]

A number of high definition movies and videos have been released commercially in a format dubbed WMV
HD. These titles are encoded with WMV3 Main Profile @ High Level (MP@HL).

[edit] WMVA

WMVA was the original implementation of WMV Advanced Profile prior to the acceptance of the VC-1
draft by SMPTE. The codec was distributed with Windows Media Player 10 and Windows Media Format
SDK 9.5 install packages. There are slight bitstream differences between WMVA and WVC1, so
consequently WMVA is handled by a different DirectShow decoder than WVC1. Some 3rd party hardware
and software decoders only decode WMVA based content. As of 2006, WMVA is considered a deprecated
codec because it is not fully VC-1 compliant.

[edit] WVC1

WVC1, also known as Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile, implements a more recent and fully
compliant Advanced Profile of the VC-1 codec standard. It offers support for interlaced content and is
transport independent. With the previous version of the Windows Media Video 9 Series codec, users could
deliver progressive content at data rates as low as one-third that of the MPEG-2 codec and still get
equivalent or comparable quality to MPEG-2. The Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile codec also
offers this same improvement in encoding efficiency with interlaced contents. A decoder for WVC1 is
included in Windows Media Player 11, which is bundled with Windows Vista and is available as a
download for Windows XP.

[edit] Profiles
 Simple Main Advanced
Baseline intra frame compression Yes Yes Yes
Variable-sized transform Yes Yes Yes
16-bit transform Yes Yes Yes
Overlapped transform Yes Yes Yes
4 motion vector per macroblock Yes Yes Yes
¼ pixel luminance motion compensation Yes Yes Yes
¼ pixel chrominance motion compensation No Yes Yes
Start codes No Yes Yes
Extended motion vectors No Yes Yes
Loop filter No Yes Yes
Dynamic resolution change No Yes Yes
Adaptive macroblock quantisation No Yes Yes
B frames No Yes Yes
Intensity compensation No Yes Yes
Range adjustment No Yes Yes
Field and frame coding modes No No Yes
GOP Layer No No Yes
Display metadata No No Yes
Simple Main Advanced

[edit] Bit rates and resolutions

Profile Level Maximum Bit Rate Resolutions by Framerate

Low 96 kbit/s 176 x 144 / 15 (QCIF)
Simple 240 x 176 / 30
Medium 384 kbit/s
352 x 288 / 15 (CIF)
Low 2 Mbit/s 320 x 240 / 24 (QVGA)
720 x 480 / 30 (480p)
Main Medium 10 Mbit/s
720 x 576 / 25 (576p)
High 20 Mbit/s 1920 x 1080 / 30 (1080p)
L0 2 Mbit/s 352 x 288 / 30 (CIF)
720 x 480 / 30 (NTSC-SD)
L1 10 Mbit/s
720 x 576 / 25 (PAL-SD)
720 x 480 / 60 (480p)
L2 20 Mbit/s
1280 x 720 / 30 (720p)
Advanced
1920 x 1080 / 24 (1080p)
L3 45 Mbit/s 1920 x 1080 / 30 (1080i)
1280 x 720 / 60 (720p)
1920 x 1080 / 60 (1080p)
L4 135 Mbit/s
2048 x 1536 / 24

[edit] Other implementations

Due to its origins in Microsoft's WMV9 codec, the most popular implementations of VC-1 encoders have
so far been done by Microsoft, though 3rd party implementations exist, too. Sonic Cinevision PSE, a
professional VC-1 encoding tool used predominantly in HD DVD and Blu-ray encoding, is a commercial
version of Microsoft's PEP (Parallel Encoder) encoding tool and VC-1 Analyzer tool. Microsoft owns the
code development whereas Sonic Solutions owns the sales and distribution. Microsoft also provides a
separate VC-1 Encoder SDK which allows any company or software developer to integrate VC-1 encoding
into their applications. Non-Microsoft VC-1 implementations (based entirely on the SMPTE specifications)
have been done by Tandberg Television and MainConcept.

[edit] Encoding software

Windows Media Encoder 9 Series encodes VC-1 compliant video files, including WVC1 FourCC media.
Windows Media Format 11 Runtime or Windows Media Player 11 must be installed on the computer to
ensure full VC-1 compliance across all 3 profiles (Simple, Main and Advanced). If either of these are
installed, Windows Movie Maker can also save VC-1 compliant videos, as can any other application built
on the Windows Media Format SDK or Windows Media Codec DMOs. A Windows Media Encoder Studio
Edition was initially announced for professional encoding but later cancelled by Microsoft. Microsoft
Expression Encoder which is part of Expression Media and Expression Studio is aimed at encoding VC-1
(WMV9) video for Silverlight streaming experiences.

[edit] See also

• Comparison of H.264 and VC-1

[edit] References

1. ^ "MPEG LA, LLC. Press Release". Retrieved on August 17, 2006.

2. ^ "VC-1 Technical Overview". Microsoft Corporation (2006). Retrieved on October 5, 2006.
3. ^ "VC-1 - Google Summer of Code". Retrieved on 2007-03-21.

[edit] External links

• "VC-1 Profiles and Levels". VC-1. Retrieved on December 12, 2005.

• "Microsoft WMV Codec Implementations". VC-1. Retrieved on February 28, 2006.
• VC-1 reference software analysis at the MultimediaWiki
• RFC 4425 – IETF RTP Payload Format for Video Codec 1
 [hide]
v•d•e
Multimedia compression formats

MJPEG · Motion JPEG

2000 · MPEG-1 · MPEG-2 ·
ISO/IEC
MPEG-4 ASP · MPEG-
4/AVC

Video H.120 · H.261 · H.262 ·

ITU-T
compressio H.263 · H.264
n
AMV · AVS · Bink · Dirac ·
Indeo · Pixlet · RealVideo ·
Others RTVideo · SheerVideo ·
Smacker · Snow · Theora ·
VC-1 · VP6 · VP7 · WMV

MPEG-1 Layer III (MP3) ·

ISO/IEC MPEG-1 Layer II · MPEG-1
Layer I · AAC · HE-AAC

G.711 · G.722 · G.722.1 ·

G.722.2 · G.723 · G.723.1 ·
ITU-T
G.726 · G.728 · G.729 ·
Audio
G.729.1 · G.729a
compressio
n
AC3 · AMR · Apple Lossless ·
ATRAC · FLAC · iLBC ·
Monkey's Audio · μ-law ·
Others Musepack · Nellymoser ·
OptimFROG · RealAudio ·
RTAudio · SHN · Siren · Speex ·
Vorbis · WavPack · WMA · TAK

JPEG · JPEG 2000 ·

lossless JPEG ·
ISO/IEC/ITU-T
JBIG · JBIG2 · PNG
Image · WBMP
compressio
n BMP · GIF · ICER ·
ILBM · PCX · PGF ·
Others
TGA · TIFF · JPEG
XR / HD Photo

3GP · ASF · AVI · Bink ·

DMF · DPX · FLV ·
Matroska · MP4 · MXF ·
General
Media NUT · Ogg · Ogg Media ·
containers QuickTime · RealMedia ·
Smacker · RIFF · VOB

Audio only AIFF · AU · WAV