H.264 Help

 

 

Your new Logitech webcam uses H.264 Video CODECs.

 

What is H.264?

H.264 is a standardized digital format for compressing high-definition, high-bitrate video. It can transform a large, raw video file into one that requires about half the space of the MPEG-2 format (the standard for a DVD-quality video). And H.264 is versatile. It can vary the amount of compression to meet the requirements of ISPs, Web sites as well as devices, including your laptop.

Why does compression matter?

Consider an elephant trying to squeeze into a mouse hole. The raw HD video recorded through your webcam or digital camera can take up tremendous space on a hard drive—gigabytes you probably need for other files. And Internet sites, including Facebook and YouTube, and ISPs such as Comcast and ATT have file-size requirements. A raw HD video can often be too large for the sites and ISPs.

How does H.264 work?

A video is a stream of individual pictures or frames. H.264 removes redundant information from the stream. Each frame is divided into tiny blocks of one quarter of a pixel, for precise analysis. When processing a frame, the compressing agent (the encoder) searches the blocks on the previous frame just encoded and the next one in line. It figures out what’s the same and what has changed. It then eliminates the redundant information. The process is repeated throughout the stream.

That action compresses the file size significantly–more than even MPEG-4. When the video is played, the decoder in the playback device pulls information from multiple frames to complete the Hi-Def picture.

How does H.264 work with a Logitech webcam?

Seamlessly. Turn on the camera. Lights. Action. Images are captured with the webcam’s sensor, digitized and compressed with H.264. All the video encoding is done in the camera, so your computer’s processor doesn’t have to do all the work. The video data is then sent through a USB cable to your computer for viewing. For a call. For Facebook. For YouTube. For the hard drive. For Mom. Extremely fast. In amazing HD.

What does it mean for me when I use a camera with H.264?

Since H.264 is optimized for video at higher resolutions like 720p and 1080p, some of the features of the non H.264 cameras are no longer available at these resolutions.

Following is a list of features that are not supported at 720p and 1080p resolutions:

· PTZ (Pan Tilt and Zoom)
· Face tracking

Note: You can still use these features (for videos only) by choosing a lower video resolution other than 720p and 1080p.

 

H.264 Help