Category Archives: Open Source Multimedia

News regarding open source multimedia projects.

General Palettized Animation Codec

Originally, I was building this hypothetical video codec around old 8-bit NES videos. However, my Old Skool gaming colleague, Trixter, suggested that I think more generally and design the codec around video output from 1st and 2st generation gaming consoles. For reference, these generations are defined as:

  • 1st-generation: Atari 2600/5200/7800, Intellivision, Colecovision, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, etc. 1976-1988
  • 2nd-generation: Sega Genesis/CD/32X, Super NES, TurboGrafx-16, Neo Geo. 1989-1993

Writing about this codec idea is so much fun because I get to use colorful video game screenshots. For example:

U.N. Squadron

U.N. Squadron, Super Nintendo 		Golden Axe

Golden Axe, Sega Genesis

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Linspire/Microsoft Binary Codec API & Nullsoft Specs

I updated my main multimedia.cx site tonight. First, I finally added a link to the formal Nullsoft Video (NSV) specs that Nullsoft/AOL saw fit to release. I am ecstatic to not have to worry about maintaining my NSV format document any longer.

Next, I have carefully documented the binary API that Linspire’s version of FFmpeg uses to interface to the licensed WMV2, WMV3, and WMA3 binary modules distributed with Linspire’s package. Who knows? Such knowledge could come in handy someday.