Depending on what I’m encoding, I am trying as much as possible to do AV1 + Opus.
x264 kind of stands on its own. It is a legendary encoder with excellent encode times, but h264 is an ancient codec and it really shows if you don’t give it a bitrate that’s, frankly, too high. I use it most frequently these days for sharing short, low res clips of videos on Discord or through iMessage or something.
So that leaves us with with our modern choices: hevc, vp9, and AV1.
Off the bat I would say VP9 is irrelevant just because it’s way too slow to encode, and is effectively superseded by AV1. To whatever extent possible I try to use AV1, reencode into AV1, download AV1, and so forth. When done correctly it will shrink files even smaller than hevc can, it can encode relatively quickly with SVT-AV1 and is patent unencumbered so it’s actually supported in web browsers. If the video is an AV1 .webm it will play in Firefox. If I need subtitles, I can put them in a .mkv.
HEVC (with x265) is a pretty strong choice. I will not avoid downloading torrents in this format but I will avoid encoding into it. It maybe has better compatibility in certain cases, like if you have a “smart” TV (ugh) that can natively decode it. In which case that might override any decision you will make: you just want the best compatibility with your existing hardware.
As for audio, that’s Opus. Every time. It absolutely whips. For stereo audio I can do Opus at 96 or 112kbps and it is transparent. Another source with more going on (maybe loud explosions and effects and all that) could possibly benefit from 128. It’s great.
The final thing to mention about encoding is no matter which codec you use you will have to learn a bit about how to use it. You can one and done the encoders with default choices, but at minimum you do need to factor in what happens when you do things like change preset speeds. From there you can consider things like what about changing the keyframe interval (for shorter vids I will do more frequent keyframes to make seeking tolerable. For something like a full movie a keyframe every 10 seconds is probably fine. But what about scene detection? What about bit depth?). Potentially much to consider.
Does not accept free copies/codes for game or early copies of the games. Access journalism is a plague.
Brings in guests to the show/podcast/whatever who are proficient and knowledgeable about the games being discussed. I don’t expect the hosts to be experts, but I’m tired of hearing layman’s takes on games that I’m interested in.
Would you be interested in supporting an outlet financially? If it’s a good product, I’d support a Patreon or whatever.
Do you have any preferred platforms? Would you be interested in an outlet that prioritizes the Fediverse over Twitch, Youtube, etc.? I think it would be best to post content cross-platform otherwise you risk having a dead community or, worse, a circlejerk community.
Do you have a preference between written content, video, audio? I think video and written are a minimum nowadays with audio being a nice bonus.**************
I agree with you on keys/access. Part of why I think being beholden to the release calendar for content is such a problem. It was one thing when previews meant something, now that every publisher/developer promotes directly to their audience and being critical gets you on their bad side, there’s not a huge point to it.
Guests are a good point! That’s been something I’ve wanted to focus on, similar to Giant Bomb at Nite and the Interview Dumptruck. Doing post-mortems with developers could be really interesting.
I hear you on the dead community point as well. Kind of want to encourage discourse happening outside of the big platforms, but using the larger ones to help build an audience.
Totally agree with you. The hype cycle has killed a lot of interest in recently released titles for me as well, the first 2 weeks it’s the best thing ever, then the tide begins to turn.
Also agree on the Steam point. I’ve been trying to check out more indie games on Steam since it’s maybe the only platform that has decent discovery for them now, outside of Itch. It’s also so hard for indies to get any traction with how journalism and marketing functions outside of paying for it in one way or another.
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon - (it is now abandonware, you can play it for free) if you have never heard if it but like sierra/lucasarts style games you really should give it a try. Extremely funny.
But also the Monkey Island Series and Grim Fandango?
Would you be interested in perspectives on it from developers themselves?
Very interested in the topics you point out, I think for myself I’d cover them mostly in writing. There’s a larger amount of that style of content popping up these days, but largely in longer video essays that end up being released more sparsely. I used to turn to podcasts for this sort of coverage, but I’m not as aware of gaming podcasts right now.
For me its gotta be Donut County. I was baked out of my mind and my best friend was like “Dude you gotta play this game” and handed me his controller. It was awesome.
I’ve only played a little bit of Katamari Damaci but its such a WILD game!! I should go back again and try to beat it. Oh yeah, there’s totally some influence
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