
timetonoticeeachartifact;thus,theimagequalityperframemustbehighertoprovidethesame
perceivedquality.
Æ
Consequently,youshouldtrytousethesourceframerateifpossible,andnolessthanhalfthe
sourceframerate,unlessyoutargetreal‐timestreamingtodial‐upmodemusers.
Æ
Raisingframeratesgenerallypaysoffmorethanraisingframesizesinimprovingtheuser
experience.
NEGOTIATINGFRAMEDROPPING
‐Somecodecsoptionallyorautomaticallyreduceframerateinordertomaintainthequalityof
difficultframesandkeepwithinthetargetaveragedatarate.Thisprocessgenerallytakestheformof
acontrolthatsetstheminimumimagequalityperframe.Ifthebitsthatthecodecwouldnormally
allocatetoagivenframearen’tsufficienttohitthetargetquality,itraisesthedataratefortheframe
totheminimumrequiredforquality;thendropsoneormoreframesthatfollowtokeeptheaverage
datarateontarget.
Æ
Whetherthisprocessisappropriatedependsonthecontent.
Æ
Variousfactorscomeintoplayhere:
‐Keyframerate
‐Samplerate
‐Channels
Deliverymethodsforvideo
Themethodyouusetocompresscontentdependsgreatlyonhowyouplantodeliverit.
Æ
Disc‐baseddelivery
‐Discplaybackkeepsgettingbetterevenasthefocusoftheindustrymovestonetworkdelivery.
‐Disc‐baseddeliveryworkswell,andtheavailabledataratesareradicallyhigherthanthoseforweb
video.
Æ
Downloadablefiles
‐Themostbasictypeofvideoonthewebisasimple,downloadablefile.
‐Theadvantageofdownloadablefilesisthatusersdon’texpectreal‐timeplaybackduringthe
download.