14 DAY TRIAL // The WebM project has announced the release of the second update to the VP8 Codec SDK, codenamed Bali. Packaged as libvpx 0.9.6, the latest version of the SDK comes with some big improvements in encoding quality in a number of scenarios.
"Today we're making available 'Bali,' our second named release of the VP8 Codec SDK (libvpx). Note that the VP8 format definition has not changed, only the SDK," WebM's John Luther announced.
"For Bali we focused on making the encoder faster while continuing to improve its video quality," he explained.
And the gains are quite impressive. The VP8 Codec SDK "Bali" is 4.5 times faster than the initial release and 1.35 times faster than the previous "Aylesbury," in the Best quality setting.
Using the Good quality setting, Bali is 2.7 times faster than the first release and 1.4 times faster than the previous one.
There are quality improvements as well, using the Best mode, there is a 6.3 percent improvement over the previous Aylesbury release, when using PSNR for measurement, and a 6.1 percent improvement using SSIM.
There are also some platform specific improvements with both ARM and Nvidia's Tegra2 platforms getting a performance boost.
"We're targeting late Q2, 2011 for our next named release of the VP8 Codec SDK (libvpx). We're calling this release 'Cayuga' in honor of our project's roots in New York state. Also because it's fun to say," Luther announced.
"We will continue to focus on encoder speed in Cayuga... As always, we'll continue to improve video quality in the encoder," he added.
The VP8 SDK is an important part of the WebM project, it provides developers with the code base for including VP8 support, both encoding and decoding functionality, in their apps. Without the support of software makers, video creators would have little options for creating WebM videos.