Has anyone ever created streaming video or animation for use with mobile phones - 3G I think?
I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on these new technologies, or links where I could read up about what is possible and what isn’t. Also, codecs and software and workflow for actually creating this type of multimedia.
Happy Christmas to all!
Just a thought,
If you use the DivX codec and navigate to the Configure… dialogue you will see a tab labeled profiles at the top. This is a cool little wizard of sorts where you choose a profile and then enter some information and it will give feedback on what to change to make your animation work with this profile. Not sure about the streaming but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
Happy Christmas to you too 
--Jon
Ooo I know one!
I’m quite closely involved in this area. I would say that you have several options which will give you varying levels of success:
1) Real Networks is trying to sell their Helix Mobile Producer, that will take
content in just about any format that you have codecs for and convert
to 3gpp file format.
(3gpp == H.263 video codec and AMR or AMR-WB audio
codec) They have a 30 day eval on their site, I think.
In my experience, this is the most dummy proof, though you have
to sign away part of your life to the devil to get it.
2) QuickTime Pro has some addon packs which will allow you to
export your videos as 3gpp as well.
I’ve had some limited success and major problems making compliant
3gpp streams with this tool. There are a few ways to force it to work,
however.
3) But if you are brave, (and have some linux skill) you can
get mplayer & mencoder which has native ability for h.263 and AMR,AMRWB
encoding… And it’s FREE http://www.mplayerhq.hu
This tool works great for playing 3gpp, I haven’t tried to encode
yet, but I suspect that this will be one of the more powerful options.
Also, a bit harder to use (as it is command line driven) There are
cygwin ports for you windows nutz.
As for a few other tech details. It seems that a good baseline set of encoding params for 3gpp compliant files.
A) Your content should be maximum 176x144 (QCIF)
B) the bitrate should not exceed the given carrier for streaming:
GPRS ~= 40kbps
Edge GPRS ~= 128kbps
WCDMA ~= 384kbps
C) As mentioned earlier for 3gpp, H.263 profile 0 is supported on
most phones that claim it.
D) Audio codecs for 3gpp are AMR-Narrow Band, AMR-Wide Band
Some phones also support AAC (for local clips most likely), mp3,
and a range of proprietary codecs.
Hope this helps.
Escher
Thanks Escher
Definately some food for thought. I need to get my hands on one of those G3 phones and have a play.