Platform selection
- When you start the Sofdec2 Encoding Wizard, the platform selection page is displayed.
Since the codecs that can be used are different for each platform, first select the platform you are targetting.
- Select "Standard" to create data for a device that has no specific option (i.e. check box) such as Windows.
- For smartphones, you can choose either iOS or Android. The current data format is the same.
On the common usage of the Sofdec2 data
- When "Sofdec.Prime" or "VP9(*)" is selected as the video codec, data can be used on all platforms.
VP9 has some unsupported platforms.
Even when using the "H.264" codec, you can target multiple platforms, but due to limitations of their hardware decoder, data may not be playable on some of them.
For example, an H.264 movie output planned for game consoles will fail to play on smartphones.
If playback fails, please use movie data encoded specifically for the target platform.
Selecting the output codec
- Sofdec2 supports multiple video codecs and audio codecs. Please choose the appropriate codec according to the target platform and the application's requirements.
Refer to "\ref usr_cmew_codec" for details about codec.
This section presents some guidelines for the selection of the codec.
About the Video Codec
- The selection of the video codec is what affects the most the compression ratio and the play load.
First of all, the criteria will change depending on whether the application is developed for smartphones or for game consoles.
- For Smartphones
The comparison table of each codec for the smartphones is as follows:
- For smartphones, consider first using the VP9 codec for reduction of both the application's size and the volume of the data to transfer.
However, since the VP9 decoding is done in software, the CPU load and memory usage are higher. When playing a high-resolution movie on VP9, please check whether it can be displayed smoothly on the final device.
If it is about 960 x 540 (30 fps), you should be able to play it well with older devices such as iPhone5s.
- We recommend to use the H.264 codec when you need large resolution videos such as 1280x720. Because H.264 uses hardware decoding to play back the encoded data, a smooth loading with a lighter CPU load is possible.
However, there are some restrictions.
- Because it relies on the hardware for decoding, the data may not be played well on some Android devices.
Therefore, please check the performance on various devices before release.
- Movie playback will be instantaneously blocked when attempting to play multiple movies simultaneously.
- It does not support seek playback.
- Sofdec.Prime is good in terms of playback performance such as CPU load and memory usage.
Although it is not possible to compress the data as much, so please select Sofdec.Prime when you prioritize performance.
- For game consoles
For game consoles, we recommend using H.264. There are no more restrictions (as opposed to smartphones).
The disadvantage is that the memory usage is high.
\If you have enough storage capacity on disk, even if the data size is large, you should use the Sofdec.Prime codec.
At high bit rates, Sofdec.Prime may be able to reproduce the pictures with a better quality.
About the Audio Codecs
- It is basically recommended to use the HCA codec for audio.
There is not much difference between ADX and HCA in terms of performance and sound quality. Therefore, HCA, which comes with a high compression ratio, is usually the best choice.
Please use the ADX codec only when you want to reduce the CPU load (even if that's just a little).
Bitrate specification
- In Sofdec2, you can specify the bit rate at the time of encoding.
Adjust the bit rate and adjust the file size and picture quality.
The audio bit rate cannot be specified directly.
To adjust the amount of audio data, select "HCA" for the codec, then adjust the quality setting.
When exporting a batch file that encodes Alpha movies, the bit rate set by the Sofdec2 Encoding Wizard differs from the bit rate in the batch file.
This is because the console tool side specifies the bit rate of the RGB part only. The alpha channel part automatically allocates the right amount of data internally based on the RGB part.
