As you probably already know, Macromedia today announced Studio8 which includes a massive new release of Flash. One feature which has already been discussed widely is the support for a new video codec: ON2's VP6 codec.
To give you an idea of the improvements that this codec will bring I have put together a little sample. The video below consists of 2 parts, one part is encoded with the existing Sorenson Spark codec of Flash MX 2004, the other one uses the new VP6 codec. Turn the mask off to see VP6 only or enable the mask to see VP6 side by side with Spark. This application uses progressive download.
The demo works best once all files are cached to disk and you may want to let it download before viewing it again to get a better sync between the clips.
NOTE: you need the Flash 8 Player to view this video. If you view this using Player 7 you will only see the Spark version!
To give you an idea of the improvements that this codec will bring I have put together a little sample. The video below consists of 2 parts, one part is encoded with the existing Sorenson Spark codec of Flash MX 2004, the other one uses the new VP6 codec. Turn the mask off to see VP6 only or enable the mask to see VP6 side by side with Spark. This application uses progressive download.
The demo works best once all files are cached to disk and you may want to let it download before viewing it again to get a better sync between the clips.
NOTE: you need the Flash 8 Player to view this video. If you view this using Player 7 you will only see the Spark version!
The filesizes between the 2 versions do differ a bit with the VP6 version being a little heavier. 
Considering the quality improvement I think this is no big issue and if you had a target filesize in mind you could easily meet it and still exceed the Spark quality by a mile.
Hummm ok you are aware of the bigger filesizes, so let's look at the relative difference in filesize:
56 kbps: sparc (496 KB) vs VP6 (676 KB) = ~36% bigger
330 kbps: sparc (3,187 KB) vs. VP6 (3,849 KB) = ~21% bigger
Now that learns that the VP6 versions are ~30% bigge ron average.
And this is hard to say, but is the VP6 version on 'visually' about ~30% bigger -at least- ?
What encoding settings did you use?
If I find time I will post another sample using target filesizes. For the time being I think this one demos the new codec pretty well.
Stefan
you know.. as in.. looks better!
OK - I know that increasing the filesize with 30% doesn't have to mean the video will look 30% better too.
First of all you can't judge something like 'visually better' in exact percentages, and secondly there are many other encoding factors that influence the end result / size.
But that is why I aksed for which exact encoding parameters were used.
It looks good for sure, can't wait to get my hands on the encoder myself :-)
( VP6 looks almost "smeared" compared to Spark )
Spark vs. VP6.2
same quality: VP6.2 will be 1/2 the file size
same file size: VP6.2 will be 2x the quality
obviously that's not exact. There is some cost to higher quality, 2x is a loose number.
fun yours videos
where you recovered them?
Yaya
the different file sizes makes all the difference... more data better quality!
there are some really interesting points pertaining to the VP encoder here..
http://www.kaourantin.net/
- read the article on...
"Performance traps in Flash Player 8" (relates to the new codec)
written by the Principal Engineer on the Macromedia Flash Player.
Mike