VERICUT Users' Forum

BillH

VERICUT Specialist

From: Irvine, CA

Registered: 2004-10-08

Posts: 146

Website

Speed AVI capture and reduce file size with TSCC CODEC

In VERICUT 6.0.1 CGTech added the ability to record AVI animations using a proprietary COmpression/DECompression CODEC from Techsmith. The Techsmith CODEC is specifically designed to compress digital animations captured from computer images. It is the same compression logic used by their CAMTASIA screen capture product. The Techsmith CODEC creates significantly smaller AVI files than other publicly available CODEC’s, with higher image quality and faster capture rates.

To record AVI animations from VERICUT 6.0.1 (or later) compressed with the TSCC CODEC:

1. Download and install the TSCC CODEC from Techsmith at http://www.techsmith.com/download/codecs.asp. Click on the “Download TSCC Codec” link.
2. Edit …\cgtech60\windows\commands\vericut.bat and add the following line:
set CGTECH_AVI_CODEC=tscc

Once you do this, all AVI’s recorded from VERICUT will be compressed with the TSCC CODEC.
   
The TSCC CODEC must also be installed on the computer playing VERICUT AVI animations compressed with TSCC. For example, to play a TSCC-compressed AVI on a computer on the shop floor, you must install the TSCC CODEC on that computer. Simply follow step #1 above.

Technical Details (for those who care):

The size of VERICUT 6.0's AVI files increased because we increased the number of shade (cut) colors from 12 (unchanged for 15+ years) to 128, forcing us to abandon our previous (CODEC) method. Our original implementation used a CODEC from Microsoft called RLE, which only works with 8 bit index color. Increasing VERICUT’s shade colors requires a true color (RGB) compressor.

Many of the CODEC’s available today are written at universities or by individual hobbyists or as research projects, and are not reliable in a commercial application. Most CODEC’s are designed to capture analog video and compress it slowly, sometimes with dedicated hardware, and almost always with a loss of quality. The compression speed is typically related to the image quality (slower=better, faster=poorer). The CODEC’s compression speed directly affects the speed of VERICUT when creating an AVI.

The compressor portion of a CODEC must be installed to allow AVI creation. The CODEC’s decompressor must be installed to view the compressed AVI. Most CODEC decompressors are free. Many commercial CODEC compressors require a purchased license. A handful of CODEC’s are delivered with Windows XP by default.
   
VERICUT 6.0’s color enhancement required us to find a good CODEC (that compresses quickly, has good image quality, and is readily available). But VERICUT also must record and playback images out-of-the-box, without forcing you to download and install something. 6.0 currently uses the Cinepak CODEC by default because (we think) it is delivered with Windows 2000 and XP by default. However Cinepak is not very good, with slow compression, relatively poor image quality, and a large AVI file.
   
More Technical Details (for the computer geeks in the audience):

It is possible to select different CODEC’s in VERICUT by setting the environment variable:

set CGTECH_AVI_CODEC='fourcc'

Where 'fourcc' is the ISO "Four Character Code" for a given CODEC. For example, if you wanted to use the Intel Indeo version 5 CODEC, you'd add the following to vericut.bat or to your user or system environment variables:

set CGTECH_AVI_CODEC=IV50

There is no good way to determine what CODEC’s you have. Windows hardware tools only give you a partial list and do not tell you the FOURCC of the CODEC. The following Microsoft help page provides some information: 
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window … mycomputer

Which then sends you to:

http://www.updatexp.com/sherlock-codec-detective.html

Where you can download 'sherlock.exe'. This utility program gives a listing of installed CODECs and their FOURCC names. Unfortunately, many of the CODEC’s in a typical Windows installation only have the decompression CODEC (playing only), or are not able to compress RGB color (MRLE for example), or are audio-only.
   
Following are examples of recording AVI’s from VERICUT using 3 different “standard” Windows’ CODECs:
(The test simulation runs in 0min:10sec without recording)

FOURCC Name = CVID (6.0's current default)
Simulation Time = 7min:52sec
AVI File Size = 128MB
Image Quality = fuzzy/blotchy in places

FOURCC Name = MSVC (Microsoft Video 1)
Simulation Time = 1min:37sec
AVI File Size = 332MB
Image Quality = good

The same test using the Techsmith CODEC:
FOURCC Name = TSCC
Simulation Time = 0min:43sec
AVI File Size = 4MB
Image Quality = equal to the original image (also called “lossless”)

The same test using the VERICUT’s image format:
FOURCC Name = n/a
Simulation Time = 0min:13sec
AVI File Size = 25MB
Image Quality = lossless

BillH

VERICUT Specialist

From: Irvine, CA

Registered: 2004-10-08

Posts: 146

Website

Re: Speed AVI capture and reduce file size with TSCC CODEC

When the setting of the FOURCC CODEC code was added to VERICUT's user interface in 6.1, the environment variable CGTECH_AVI_CODEC was removed. The value of the FOURCC is now set in VERICUT's GUI and saved in the user's preferences.