Show HN: I successfully failed at one-shot-ing a video codec like h.264

Sinter Video Codec

An experimental, vibecoded video codec built from scratch using Claude Code agent teams. Explores lapped transforms, perceptual vector quantization (PVQ), and rANS entropy coding as a patent-free alternative to the H.264/H.265 lineage.

This was a learning experiment, not a production codec. The goal was to test one-shot agent team workflows on a domain I had zero prior experience in — and to see how far a simulated expert team could push a novel architecture. Write-up: One-Shot Wonder | Claude Agent Teams

Results

At comparable luma quality (~49 dB): 18.6x larger than H.264. The architecture produces competitive perceptual quality but cannot match H.264's compression efficiency without adopting the same tools (B-frames, sub-pel MC, CABAC-level entropy coding).

QP Sinter PSNR Sinter Size H.264 PSNR H.264 Size 4 49.10 dB 136 KB 74.59 dB 33 KB 20 33.70 dB 37 KB 55.12 dB 11 KB 28 28.41 dB 13 KB 48.37 dB 7 KB

(256x256 testsrc, 30 frames. Full BD-rate data in SCOREBOARD.md.)

What We Built

~5,000 lines of C across 12 improvement loops:

Lapped transforms (TDLT, 20% Malvar lifting) — eliminates blocking artifacts structurally

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