QuickTime Graphics is a lossy video compression and decompression algorithm (codec) developed by Apple Inc. and first released as part of QuickTime 1.x in the early 1990s.[1] The codec is also known by the name Apple Graphics and its FourCC SMC.[2][1] The codec operates on 8-bit palettized RGB data.[1] The bit-stream format of QuickTime Graphics has been reverse-engineered and a decoder has been implemented in the projects XAnim and libavcodec.[3][2]
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Technical Details
The input video that the codec operates on is in an 8-bit palettized RGB colorspace. Compression is achieved by conditional replenishment and by reducing the palette from 256 colors to a per-4×4 block adaptive palette of 1-16 colors. Because Apple Video operates in the image domain without motion compensation, decoding is much faster than MPEG-style codecs which use motion compensation and perform coding in a transform domain. As a tradeoff, the compression performance of Apple Graphics is lower. The decoding complexity is approximately 50% that of the QuickTime Animation codec.[4]
Each frame is segmented into 4×4 blocks in raster-scan order. Each block can be coded in one of the following coding modes: skip mode, single color, 2-, 4-, and 8 color palette modes, two repeat modes, and PCM.
Skip mode
The skip mode realizes conditional replenishment. If a block is coded in skip mode, the content of the block at same location in the previous frame is copied to the current frame.[1] Runs of skip blocks are coded in a run-length encoding scheme, enabling a high compression ratio in static areas of the picture.[1]
Single color
In single color mode, the entire 4×4 block is painted with a single color.[1] This mode can also be considered as a 1-color palette mode.
Palette (2, 4, or 8-color) modes
In the palette modes, each 4×4 block is coded with a 2, 4, or 8-color palette.[1] To select one of the colors from the palette, 1, 2, or 3 bits per pixel are used, respectively. The palette can be written to the bitstream either explicitly or as a reference to an entry in the palette cache.[1] The palette cache is a set of three circular buffers which store the 256 most recently used palettes, one each for of the 2, 4, and 8-color modes.[1]
Interpreted as vector quantization, three-dimensional vectors with components red, green, and blue are quantized using a forward adaptive codebook with between 1 and 8 entries.
Repeat modes
There are two different repeat modes.[1] In the single block repeat mode, the previous block is repeated a specified number of times.[1] In the two block repeat mode, the previous two blocks are repeated a specified number of times.[1]
PCM (16 color) mode
In 16-color mode, the color of each pixel in a block is explicitly written to the bit-stream.[1] This mode is lossless and equivalent to raw PCM without any compression.
See also
- Indexed color
- Color quantization
- Block truncation coding, a similar coding technique for grayscale content
- Color Cell Compression, a similar coding technique for color content, based on block truncation coding
- Apple Video, a codec based on a similar design
- Microsoft Video 1, a codec based on a similar design
- Smacker video, a codec based on a similar design
- S3 Texture Compression, a texture compression format based on a similar design
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Apple SMC". MultimediaWiki. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
- ^ a b "FFmpeg Documentation". FFmpeg. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
- ^ Mark Podlipec (10 December 1997). "xanim.2.70.6.4.2 README". XAnim. Archived from the original on 28 December 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
- ^ "QuickTime Compression and Decompression Guide" (PDF). Apple Computer, Inc. 10 January 2006. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
External links
This page was last edited on 8 August 2023, at 20:29