[x264-devel] x264 codec

[Jason Garrett-Glaser]

On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 2:38 AM, Alan Harris <alan at resoft.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Sorry, I was hoping to be able to download ready to use binary codecs
> rather than the source code. The references on the VideoLan site are
> "Unofficial builds for Windows are available from Jarod
> <http://x264.nl/> or Sharktooth
> <http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=89979>." However, these are the
> command line program to convert formats rather than just the codec. I
> hope I am not just being stupid here! Every other site appears to have
> the same download.
>
> I am aware of the GPL licence, and have no intention of infringing it. I
> am doing some experimentation work with the OpenSceneGraph project which
> is LGPL, producing a video generator, which obviously needs a codec. I
> have Xvid working, but reviews I have seen say that x264 is a lot better
> and would like to try it.

Huh?  The commandline program *is* x264.  You can also link to the
library, libx264, by including x264.h, which is how one uses it in a
program (other than the option of directly calling it as an
executable, of course).  Its exactly the same with xvid: xvid is
available as libxvid, or as xvid_encraw, a commandline encoder that
takes YV12 and Avisynth input (same as x264).

Now, if by "codec" you mean "Video for Windows encoder," x264 does not
and will never support that.  Video for Windows, dating from the early
days of Windows 3.1, is not a sane encoding solution for this century,
and we are not going to try to include the dozens of workarounds
necessary to support such an ancient API that doesn't even work
properly with H.264 to begin with.

If you're looking for a DirectShow encoder, there's (on Doom9) a
patched version of the x264 executable to allow DirectShow input
without using Avisynth, which you might find potentially useful.

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