Roger & Ryan
It's funny that the person who put up the comparison talked about QT7
- but then used Mencoder - did he assumed that all H.264/AVC is the
same - or because he's on a Windows Box.
Well here's a more complete comparison - this time including
everything under the "sun" (including Sorenson/H.264 - but excluding
- QT7 ) - (author on a Windows Box?):
http://www.heise.de/ct/05/10/146/tabelle.shtml
And a couple of lists :
available AVC/H.264 Codecs
AVC/H.264 implementations are available atm already from x264
(binary), Nero, Apple, MainConcept, Sorenson, Moonlight, CyberLink,
VSS, mpegable, Envivio, Hdot264 (binary), DSPR, JM (reference
software) (binary), ffmpeg, Philips, FastVDO
(announced: Skal, Sony)
Encoders
- x264: opensource (GPL) encoder (Source), available as VFW codec:
x264vfw or ffdshow (output .avi), as commandline: x264cli (outputs
.mp4 and raw) or mencoder (outputs raw and .avi) (GUI) and inside the
Handbrake tool (available for Linux, MacOS and BeOS)
supports 2pass, CABAC, Loop, multiple B-Frames, B-References, multiple
Reference Frames, 4x4 P-Frame and 8x8 B-Frame Blocksizes
- NeroDigital AVC: useable in Nero Recode2, outputs .mp4
ND AVC supports 2pass, CABAC, (adaptive) Loop, multiple B-Frames,
mulitple Reference Frames, weighted prediction, 8x8 P-Frame
Blocksizes, 16x16 B-Frame Blocksizes, Adaptive Quant. (Psy High)
- MainConcept: available as a free unlimited encoder app. (adds a
watermark), outputs .264 and .mpg PS/TS
1pass (CBR/VBR/fixed Quants), P-Frame Reordering, CABAC, Loop,
Multiple B-Frames, Multiple Ref, 4x4 P-Frame Sizes, PAR and RDO
- Sorenson: useable in Sorenson Squeeze 4, outputs .mp4,
Sorenson supports 2pass, max 2 B-Frames, B-References, Loop and
multiple Slices
- Moonlight: useable in Moonlight's OneClick Compressor and
CyberLink's PowerEncoder, outputs .mpg
Moonlight supports 1pass (VBR/CBR/Fixed Quants), CABAC, Loop, 2
B-Frames, 8x8 P-Frame Sizes, Adapt. Quant, PAR, Interlacing
- Apple: useable in Quicktime 7, outputs .mp4 and .mov
Apple supports 2pass, max 1 B-frame, Adapt. Quant, multiple Slices,
but no CABAC, no Loop and no Weighted Prediction
- JM: The AVC Reference Software offers in Version 9.3 already Main
and High Profile: B/SP-Frames, CABAC, Loop Filter, 4x4 Blocksizes,
multiple Reference Frames, Adaptive Quant, Error Resilience, RDO,
Lossless Coding, Custom Quants, Rate Control aso...
- Hdot264: opensource (GPL) VFW version of the reference software by
doom9 member charact3r, still based on a very old version of the
reference (JM 4.0c)
- mpegable: offered for some time a free VFW Encoder (not based on the
reference), doesnt handle YV12
mpegable supports 1pass (fixed quants) uses P-Frames only, 8x8 P-Frame
Blocksizes, CAVLC only, Loop
- VSS: free preview VFW Encoder (limited to 5 days), based on the
reference encoder
- Envivio: useable in 4Coder, outputs .mp4
Decoders
- ffmpeg: opensource (LGPL), used already for example in ffdshow (VFW
and DShow decoder), mplayer and VideoLAN
ffmpeg supports B-Frames, CABAC, Loop, Weighted Prediction...
- Apple: AVC decoding inside Quicktime 7
Quicktime 7 supports .mp4/.mov and B-Frames, CABAC, Loop
- NeroDigital AVC: DShow Decoder and .mp4 Parser coming with Recode2
ND AVC supports B-Frames, CABAC, Loop, Weighted Prediction...
- VSS: preview VFW Decoder (limited to 5 days) and a DShow Decoder
(limited to 30 days)
VSS DShow supports .avi (with VSSH and H264 fourcc), CABAC, Loop,
B-Frames
- Moonlight: offers a free DShow AVC decoder (adds a watermark)
together with Parsers handling AVC as .mpg, .mp4 and .264
- MainConcept: the preview offers a free DShow AVC decoder (adds a
watermark) and a Parser handling AVC as .mpg PS/TS
- Envivio: not freely available AVC DShow decoder called EnvivioTV,
handling AVC in .mp4 (since 2.0, current version: 2-1-181)
- Philips: DShow AVC decoder freely available in the AVC Alliance
player (handles raw AVC only)
- FastVDO: time limited (5 minutes per video) High Profile DShow
Decoder
- mpegable: offered for some time a free VFW decoder (usable also in
DShow), supports .avi (with DAVC fourcc)
- Pegasus: not really compliant DShow AVC decoder available here
- Basic AVC Decoder in C, for an university project available here
- Harry Pasternak
Roger Howard wrote:
On May 30, 2005, at 12:27 PM, Ryan Wyler wrote:
Hum, this is a cool comparison of Xvid to H.264, but both of these
tests were encoded with Mencoder (D-Vision 3.1.1). I don't see how
this is a QT7 comparison? I would like to see the results of the
same test comparing QT7's encoding and Mencoder D-Vision 3.1.1.
Agreed. That said, the H.264 results are clearly (to me) better.
The problem with these tests is like you said, but maybe even worse -
since there are a variety of both DiVX/Xvid and H.264 encoders, as
there should be, it's difficult to extrapolate blanket impressions of
all H.264 and DiVX encoders from a single encoder test. Even
comparing Apple's encoder will only tell us about Apple's encoder -
and of course, using Apple's MPEG-4 encoder would make the results
look even more lopsided.
