[Matroska-devel] Redcode and other wavelet codecs -> dynamic resolution

[Mauro Bieg]

Hey guys,

I was wondering whether you have any plans on adopting support for the Redcode codec (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Digital_Cinema_Camera_Company#Compression_and_workflow). 

Because Redcode is a wavelet codec, the files contain actually several lower resolution versions of the video which the codec each in turn uses to build the next higher resolution version. That means that if you have a 4K file, you can easily extract 2K, 1K or even .5K footage directly from it, without having to decode the full 4K data and then scale it down. For QuickTime-based and other programs that don't have native support for this feature, you can create QuickTime reference movies. These are small files that don't contain any actual video data but just pointers to the right places in the original video file. So, for example in Final Cut Pro, you can import the QuickTime reference files that only have pointers to the parts of the 4K file that contain the lower resolution version. This way you can work on speedy low resolution video without having to sample it down first.

This is an extremely cool feature. It would be great if the Matroska container could provide information about these different resolution versions in a video file that uses a wavelet codec. Like exporting the video with only one of several different language audio tracks, one could choose to export only a low-res version of the video. For example to burn it on DVD or to copy it on a video iPod/iPhone.

I realize that this may be difficult to implement, just a suggestion. But it would really set apart the Matroska container from the others once more.

cheers
Mauro
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