MPEG4 H.264 encoding tests (vs Xvid)

zozo
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Heyall,



In my endevours of latest codec trials I just wanted to share a few with you.



The latest HandBrake 0.7 beta 2 is what I used since it supports H.264 encoding. www.m0k.org It can rip a DVD directly without needing to copy to the HD first.



I did the following with the DVD of "Almost Famous" which is about 2hours long.



I set resolution to 544x304 for encoding for both



Target size was 700MB



1) H.264 encoding, 2-pass, AAC Audio (Stereo although 5.1 is supported) @ 128bit. It calculated that bitrate was 775kbit/sec for video.



2) Xvid encoding 2-pass, MP3 (Stereo) @ 128bit) Said that average bit rate was 680kbit/sec



The H.264 file actually came out to 675.4MB, the Xvid came out to the desired 700.1MB (on the dot).



Result?



H.264 comes out on top. By quite a margin. I took a lot of screenshots I will post in PDF format (links will be given)



The downsides I saw are that H.264 encoding takes twice the time and the file is a lot more processor intensive to playback. A Dual G5 2.5GHz did the H.264 file at about 20fps. The Xvid at about 40.



Congrats Apple. Seems like you have a hell of a winner on your hands.



PS The MPEG4 files (H.264) created with HandBrake are 100% compatible with QuickTime 7.



Screenshots coming soon
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 59
    zenatekzenatek Posts: 203member
    Excited about seeing those screenshots.
  • Reply 2 of 59
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Thanks for the comparison!



    I'd be quite interested in those screenshots and any more details you could offer.



    h264 seems to be giving xvid/divx a run for there money. Competition is good.
  • Reply 3 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    I just realized something though..



    I dont get why the XVID file is bigger eventhough it says its a lower bitrate. That makes no sense. It should be even smaller.



    Weird.



    I was thinking of cropping the pics, but decided to leave them as is in PDF, uncompressed.



    Average size is 1MB (1024x768 )



    The window that has .AVI is the XVID file and the .MP4 is, yeah you guessed it, the H.264 version (the QuickTime 7 window)



    Overall, you'll see that H.264 is much crisper and the action shots pixelise much less. I dont know if this is because of the Codec (AVC/H.264) or the Encoder (HandBrake). In the end, H.264 is better.



    The window size of the videos are 1:1 ratio.



    Here ya go:



    Image 1

    Image 2

    Image 3

    Image 4

    Image 5

    Image 6

    Image 7

    Image 8



    PS Sorry if the VLC and QuickTime window sometimes change position
  • Reply 4 of 59
    screedscreed Posts: 1,077member
    Hm, so I'm in this PSP frame of mind (mine should be coming today). A light went off so I just googled "H.264 psp" and found this.



    Quote:

    In a presentation at the Hot Chips conference here Tuesday, designer Masanobu Okabe described further details of the PSP chipset, which the company concealed with the non-specific title: "A 90-nm embedded DRAM single-chip LSI with a 3D graphics H.264 codec engine and a reconfigurable processor".



    The fact that they used the Memory Stick Pro Duo is lame but... it's Sony (ATRAC, MiniDisc...)



    Apple + Sony + Standards = WOW!



    Screed
  • Reply 5 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    H.264 is fantastic.



    We've been dabbling in it for a while.



    It scales beautifully from a cell phone video stream to HDTV



    As a matter of fact, HDTV broadcasting will start in Europe in H.264, not MPEG2 like in USA now.



    H.264 is THE standard for the forseeable future.



    Now then... we just need uber cheap decoder chips and H.264 will explode out of control.
  • Reply 6 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    H.264 encoding, 2-pass, AAC Audio (Stereo although 5.1 is supported) @ 128bit. It calculated that bitrate was 775kbit/sec for video.



    How do you get it to rip in 5.1? Is it the AC3 option in .avi file?



    So glad it lets us rip H.264 video as a MP4 files now, as QT likes that (or will like in version 7) better than .avi
  • Reply 7 of 59
    patrik_lpatrik_l Posts: 55member
    Will I be able to play a H.264 movie on my iMac G4 or am i screwed? It seems kind of demanding....
  • Reply 8 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    i dunno if the final file actually has 5.1



    There is the option from which audio stream to rip. I had Stereo and AC3 5ch as options.



    Download HandBrake (free) to test.



    Im actually currently ripping another DVD with the 5channel option on to see if there is actually a difference.



    dunno
  • Reply 9 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    I just transfered the movie I made mentioned above to an old G4 733MHz with 1.25GB ram and played it full screen on a cinema display (1600 x 1020 ) and played with no problems whatsoever. nVidia2MX 32MB card. and this was with a half dozen open apps. (MacOS X 10.3.8 and latest build of QuickTime 7)



    edit: ok, at full screen it would stutter at very fast scenes but it's not too bad
  • Reply 10 of 59
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    ZO



    thanks man! I've been wanting to see something like this for a while. AVC is impressive, even in the screenshots the clarity improvement is evident.



    I'm excited to see what AVC can do personally.
  • Reply 11 of 59
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    I just transfered the movie I made mentioned above to an old G4 733MHz with 1.25GB ram and played it full screen on a cinema display (1600 x 1020 ) and played with no problems whatsoever. nVidia2MX 32MB card. and this was with a half dozen open apps. (MacOS X 10.3.8 and latest build of QuickTime 7)



    edit: ok, at full screen it would stutter at very fast scenes but it's not too bad




    Where can one obtain QT7 for panther right now?



    I am too poor to join ADC but would love a legal copy to play with - even if it is marked use-at-your-oun-risk.



    I havn't been torent searching but I am getting damn close to doing it.
  • Reply 12 of 59
    blue2kdaveblue2kdave Posts: 652member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a_greer

    Where can one obtain QT7 for panther right now?



    I am too poor to join ADC but would love a legal copy to play with - even if it is marked use-at-your-oun-risk.



    I havn't been torent searching but I am getting damn close to doing it.




    There is no legal copy of QT7 available for Panther, it has not been released yet. Remember, even if you find a QT 7 installer on BT, think before you install. I am a QT beta tester, and have been blown away. But that being said, do not try it on any day to day machine. These builds can cause serious havoc with your system.
  • Reply 13 of 59
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    I was a little disappointed at Handbreak's H.264 encoding. It is really slow. I usually use FFMPEG to encode my HDTV shows into H.264 for archiving, and it is much faster. (At least I think it is.)



    PS: Freakout time! The colors I am seeing in those PDF's can not be the same thing you see on your screen.
  • Reply 14 of 59
    mcqmcq Posts: 1,543member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a_greer

    Where can one obtain QT7 for panther right now?



    I am too poor to join ADC but would love a legal copy to play with - even if it is marked use-at-your-oun-risk.



    I havn't been torent searching but I am getting damn close to doing it.




    Well, an education copy of Tiger will likely be less than a student ADC subscription (est. $69 edu vs. $99 student ADC).



    Edit: Oh. you were talking about QT7. Just wait.



    Zo: Do you have any small sample H.264 clips from your testing that you could post?
  • Reply 15 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    i dunno if the final file actually has 5.1



    There is the option from which audio stream to rip. I had Stereo and AC3 5ch as options.



    Download HandBrake (free) to test.



    Im actually currently ripping another DVD with the 5channel option on to see if there is actually a difference.



    dunno




    I see the AC3 5ch for one of my DVDs, but I always got the impression that that was the available audio from the DVD, as I have seen French, Spanish etc come up there too.



    I can't wait for HandBrake to be able to rip surround sound, that will be awesome! Only then would I be happy to watch the ripped file as opposed to the original DVD. For now ripping my favourite movies for car journeys and headphones is great.
  • Reply 16 of 59
    thininethinine Posts: 71member
    Any way you could compare the speed and quality of Apple's H.264 encoder to ffmpeg's? I know Handbrake can't use QuickTime encoders (stupid, but it can't), so you may have to do some trickery to get everything to come out right, but it would be a good comparison.
  • Reply 17 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    I'll try and post some stuff ASAP... please wait



    QT7 betas still require a serial number for pro.



    Just wait a few weeks.



    How can I try to encode with QT H.264 from a DVD?



    With HandBrake encoding into Xvid or other is MUCH faster (double)... But I'd rather go get a crepe at the corner and wait for the better H.264 quality.



    Ebby... what you mean about the colors? Are they off or bad or something?
  • Reply 18 of 59
    ZO, since you have quicktime 7, why don't you use it for your H.264 encodings ?

    EDIT : oops, you just gave the answer.



    In order to encode your DVD with the QT H.264 codec, you need DIVA but I don't know if it'll work with quicktime 7.



    http://diva.3ivx.com/



    Diva can transcode any mpeg1-2 (not VOB, you must rip the DVD before) in any quicktime format.



    I'd be glad to see the image quality of a QT H.264 video.
  • Reply 19 of 59
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    Ebby... what you mean about the colors? Are they off or bad or something?



    Don't worry about it. It is some kind of color conversion problem most likely on my laptop. It makes the PDF look like a bad acid trip.
  • Reply 20 of 59
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by french macuser

    ZO, since you have quicktime 7, why don't you use it for your H.264 encodings ?

    EDIT : oops, you just gave the answer.



    In order to encode your DVD with the QT H.264 codec, you need DIVA but I don't know if it'll work with quicktime 7.



    http://diva.3ivx.com/



    Diva can transcode any mpeg1-2 (not VOB, you must rip the DVD before) in any quicktime format.



    I'd be glad to see the image quality of a QT H.264 video.




    ok... this doesnt make much sense though. What do you want me to compare it to?



    I would have to convert a DVD to MPEG1 or 2 and then encode it again into QT H.264? Thats two compressions.



    And what "normal" Quicktime would you want me to compare it to?



    In other news, yes, DIVA works with latest QT7 (lets me select H.264 as one of the CODECS)
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