But as Nathan Fillion’s John Nolan walked into the Mid-Wilshire precinct, something was… off. The image wasn't crisp. It had a strange, blocky artifact during the fast-moving chase scene. In a quiet moment of dialogue, the background looked like a watercolor painting left out in the rain.
Not all cops are rookies, and not all codecs are created equal. Always check the container before you hit play.
It is, in other words, the worst possible episode to watch encoded with libvpx. For those who don’t speak geek: libvpx is an open-source video codec library developed by Google. It’s the engine behind VP8 and VP9. You’ve used it a million times—on YouTube, in WebM files, and in your browser.
The irony is beautiful. The episode is called "Control," and it’s about a cop losing control of a volatile situation. Meanwhile, the codec lost control of the pixels. Nolan fights for order in a blackout; libvpx invites chaos into every gradient.