MPEG4 H.264 encoding tests (vs Xvid)

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  • Reply 21 of 59
    DVD is mpeg2, and ripping one doesn't mean re-encoding it but "demultiplexing" the VOBs (I don't know if we say that in English). The quality remains exactly the same. You can use YadeX for that.



    And we can compare the result to handbrake's H.264 (which uses Mencoder I think, or ffmpeg ?). The same codec does not imply the same image quality. For example, Mencoder's mpeg1-4 is better than ffmpeg's.
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  • Reply 22 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    good ... god... QT7 encoding... is.... slooooooow



    I downloaded Yadex and extracted the VOBs to MPEG2 (.m2v).



    QT7 Pro includes the MPEG2 decoders (hurrah) so I didnt have to download the MPEG2 Component.



    On a Dual G5 2.5GHz it took well over a minute to open the file (!!).



    Also there is no audio. Grr.



    Im currently saving as an H.264 file (700MB target size, 890kbit/sec, 2-pass) and its just abysmally slow.



    Its been going since 18:00 and its 21:00 now and its at about 1/8th of the way. *sigh* The result better be friggen amazing.



    Hmm... maybe I should've just encoded a chapter instead of the whole DVD...



    ah well... I'll let it run over night and come in the morning and see where it's at.
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  • Reply 23 of 59
    Can I ask whether QT7 has better support (ie actually playable) for .avi Xvid files? I swear I read somewhere that it was to have better support for third party codecs or something to that extent.
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  • Reply 24 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    No support for XviD
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  • Reply 25 of 59
    thininethinine Posts: 71member
    Hey ZO, how's that H.264 QT encode doing?
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  • Reply 26 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    hmmm... well, I got to work and it was done. Is there any way to see when an applications stopped doing something, like in a log file (and where would it be?)



    I'm ripping the movie with Handbrake now at the same specs. Its pretty slow as well but...



    Will put comparisons of XVID, QT H.264 encoded, and Handbrake H.264 encoded screenshots asap. Probably end of today or tomorrow. Depends on my workload today.



    If you have any requests, tell me now.



    PS The movie is going to be a bit dark, Interview With A Vampire. Not sure why I chose this movie. I guess its the first I got my hands on.
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  • Reply 27 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    No support for XviD



    Damn shame.



    I have been ripping Minority Report in Handbrake H.264 overnight. I stared at 9pm last night and when I left the house at 11am it had done 40% of the second pass. I'm using a 1.33GHz PowerBook G4 with 512MB RAM. Compared to Xvid (ffmpeg) encoding it seems to be about half to a third of the speed.



    I also have Minority Report as a MP4 Xvid file, which I can post images of if you like. I don't have QT7 though, so I'll be using VLC. Minority Report is 2hr 20min long btw.





    PS. Actually saying that, my MP4 Xvid copy of Minority Report plays in QT6. It would appear QT has a problem with .avi files and not the Xvid encoding?
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  • Reply 28 of 59
    Maybe it was due for announcement yesterday, but the pope dying came in the way...
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  • Reply 29 of 59
    oops, wrong thread... hell-of-a second post! (and third by the way
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  • Reply 30 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    well... this thread has suddenly gone waaaaaaaay weird



    QT doesnt support XVID. You may have a plugin that allows you to view it in QT6



    Regarding playback, it will be the same if you see H.264 files in VLC or QT7.
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  • Reply 31 of 59
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by danielctull

    PS. Actually saying that, my MP4 Xvid copy of Minority Report plays in QT6. It would appear QT has a problem with .avi files and not the Xvid encoding?



    Keep in mind that .avi is a container format, not a particular codec. An avi file could contain one of many different types of audio and video codecs.



    There is a divx plugin that allows QT to play avi files containing divx video. It doesn't work perfectly so I tend to use VLC for everything.
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  • Reply 32 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    Im currently saving as an H.264 file (700MB target size, 890kbit/sec, 2-pass) and its just abysmally slow.



    Its been going since 18:00 and its 21:00 now and its at about 1/8th of the way. *sigh* The result better be friggen amazing.

    [/B]



    That's a 24 hour encoding. On a dual 2.5 GHz G5 and given that H.264 must have been optimised for altivec, dual G5 etc, I really hope it's a bug. :

    Anyway, quicktime mpeg2 decoding has always sucked. Maybe diva would be faster.
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  • Reply 33 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    small update:



    HandBrake took 6 hours 15 minutes to encode the same file.

    QT took somewhere around 14-18 hours.



    No audio encoded, 2-pass, H.264



    In few hours should have some screenshot comparisons



    Curiosity: Both HandBrake and QT consume about 65-70% of the processors and not 99% like when I encode with HandBrake into Xvid. I dont understand why not.
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  • Reply 34 of 59
    Does Xvid use both CPUs ?
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  • Reply 35 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by french macuser

    Does Xvid use both CPUs ?



    yes (with HandBrake) 99% with both processors = approx 60fps encoding.



    when you encode in H.264 both processors are at about 70%



    same with QT. Both procs are at about 70%





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  • Reply 36 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    Curiosity: Both HandBrake and QT consume about 65-70% of the processors and not 99% like when I encode with HandBrake into Xvid. I dont understand why not.



    I found the same thing. Sometimes it went up to 80%, but it was completely the only thing running, even turned Airport and Bluetooth off.



    Also, i have just seen that Handbrake can encode 2 streams of audio. I have tried this with the original audio and a commentary and it's brilliant in VLC. I ripped a section in Xvid, but QT6 mixes the two audio streams together. Do you know if there is a way of playing each audio stream separately?
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  • Reply 37 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    Just tried it out on a chapter of Interview. Using HandBrake and ability to encode two audio streams.



    Plays back fine in QT7.



    See (PDF) [[taken off just in case. pm me if you want to see. its nothing special though. just a dialog box with option to select tracks of audio or video in a QT movie]]



    Problem is, it will play BOTH audio tracks if you dont deactivate one



    I was suddenly listening to the clip in English and French at the same time



    Just go into Properties (Apple+J) and deactivate the audio track you dont want to listen to.



    As you can see, the property window is VASTLY improved. You can rename the tracks and stuff. Great stuff.



    PS the screenshot is of a moving scene in the movie (no artifacts!). I forgot to make the pixels size smaller, so its at 1:1 DVD size of 720x400.
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  • Reply 38 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    yes (with HandBrake) 99% with both processors = approx 60fps encoding.



    when you encode in H.264 both processors are at about 70%



    same with QT. Both procs are at about 70%




    Xvid must be more optimised for dual processing. On my iBook, Xvid and H.264 use both 100% of my processor. Xvid is rougly 3 times faster.
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  • Reply 39 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    ...



    As you can see, the property window is VASTLY improved. You can rename the tracks and stuff. Great stuff.



    PS the screenshot is of a moving scene in the movie (no artifacts!). I forgot to make the pixels size smaller, so its at 1:1 DVD size of 720x400.




    That's bloody excellent Much much better options than QT6.



    As for the size, would you say there are less artifacts when the rip is at 1:1 size rather than when you scale it down? I personally always rip at the original 720x size.





    french macuser: I was running a Xvid rip earlier and on my PB it is about 3 times faster too. ~6fps for H.264 and ~17fps for Xvid.



    PS. Also, does the changes to the properties stick when the movie is closed. For example, if you disable the second audio track, will it stay disabled next time the movie is run? And same for if you rename the audio track.
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  • Reply 40 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    funny you should mention the save thing. I then tried to save the file with a track disabled and simply told me "unable to save". Gonna have to report that. Dammit.
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