Filed under: Software, Video, Odds and ends
The BBC is so hip!
TUAW reader Matthew alerted us to the fact that the BBC is getting ready to launch their new Motion Gallery... a massive archive of video clips four times the size of the industry standard, utilizing the new QuickTime H.264 video codec. Not only that, but the footage will be contain a rich body of metadata searchable via Spotlight.The website says "we will be able to deliver mouth-watering 720x486 (NTSC) or 720x579 (PAL) previews with stunning video quality at low data rates, which means crisp, clear video in much smaller files. Our goal is to not only deliver remarkable previews, but to make certain that our footage fully integrates with your digital pre-production workflow — perhaps in ways you never imagined."
You can register for the BBC Motion Gallery here.
Please let this be a new trend that catches on like wildfire across the globe.
[Thanks, Matthew!]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
chris McDowell said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I hope it starts to catch on with those WMV loving losers. I hate WMV's Windows Media Player for mac is horrible and the quality looks horendious (I almost guarentee that is spelt wrong) WMVHD I hope dies and fades away. Everyone encode in H264. Viva H264.
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JamesZ said 11:51PM on 12-13-2005
That is really cool and all, but... H.264 plays like crapola on my 1.25ghz powerbook with 1.25Gb RAM. Granted it does play WAY better than any WMV formated media, which will not play most of the time anyway.
I can only imagine what users with more humane hardware experience.
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oliver said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I'm running a G3 iMac with 450mhz. I have managed to play a few H.264 files with no problems, but usually the video is extremely stuttery. In order to watch the CNBC piece on apple.com I had to downgrade to QT6
But i still like H.264... i just need a new mac i guess.
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Callum said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Me again, and my 900Mhz, G3 (i know), 512MB Tiger-ed up, H.264 runs dandy over here. BBC's gallery is AMAZING - check out the Tokyo stuff...
Anyway, H.264 runs great, and full screens fine too, a cool trick to show off expose / macs being better than anything:
open three high def .Movs and a DVD, a few Safari pages and iTunes. Then Holding Shift press your hotlinks to expose and minimise and expose again, and throw in the dashboard - shift key makes it sloooooow motion, and you can watch the video running during minimisation - blew my XPee friends away.
- "Woah, if I didn't have so many trojans XP could do that easy". Yeah, right.
HD Video rocks, even on G3.
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oliver said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
i went to sign up for the bbc clips, but there was something about which currency you would like to pay in.. that put me right off!
are there any clips for free?
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Callum said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
all clips are free to watch / download but say "Motion Gallery" in a watermark across the middle. But if your not using the movies in broadcasting (as they're intended) It seems to be free to browse - All Day Long!
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PhillC said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
As Callum said, registration and viewing the preview clips is free. If you want an unwatermarked and/or higher resolution version then there is a cost involved. This is just like other stock footage archives such as Getty or Corbis.
You might also be interested the QT 7 HD previews Motion Gallery has already produced on the Apple website -
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/hdgallery/bbcmotiongalleryreel.html
It's almost 100MB to download, but 100% worth it! Some very cool footage.
The BBC is also working on a project called Creative Archive that will allow people to watch old BBC shows, amongst other things. However, I doubt very much whether this footage will be in QT. More likely WMV with DRM.
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