Video codec question

[Chriz]

I was curious, for encoding videos, what are the differences between Xvid, Mpeg4 (MP4), and H.264? Mainly I'm wondering which is the best quality.

I was kind of curious on Audio too, I'm just using Lame Mp3 to encode.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Text

 

[rbV5]

Basically;

*MPEG4 = developing standard for video compression.(includes MPEG1/2)
*MPEG4 part2 = (Xvid, Divx, QT6) includes profiles, individual encoder/decoder implementations
*MPEG4 part10 = (H.264, AVC, QT7) Profiles, Extentions
*VC1 (MS H.264 alternative) implemented as WMV9

Originally, H.264 was developed for higher quality low bitrate video (relative to MPEG1/2) and flexable for low to high bitrate video. Fidelity Range Extensions and profiles make it suitable for very high quality video (High 4:4:4 profile level 5.1 supports a max bitrate 960 Mbit/s up to 4096x2304@30fps....120.5fps for 1920x1088!!)

VC1 advanced Level 4 profile supports up to 135 Mbit/s up to 2048 x 1536@24 fps (60fps for 1920x1080)

edit: added QT7 to MPEG4 part 10

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: Chriz
I was curious, for encoding videos, what are the differences between Xvid, Mpeg4 (MP4), and H.264? Mainly I'm wondering which is the best quality.

I was kind of curious on Audio too, I'm just using Lame Mp3 to encode.

H.264 or AVC or x264, depending on what you look at will give you the highest quality but sometimes takes a while to encode. Mpeg4 includes xvid and h264 so thats not really a choice.

And good old xvid. Solid and reliable, although compared to x264 it's showing it's age on lower bitrate encodes. And higher bitrates you shouldn't be able to tell the difference. It also takes less CPU power to decode but on modern CPU's at non-HD resolutions this shouldn't be a problem (unless your watching it on an Xbox with XBMC or something , then you might want to use Xvid, although lower bitrate and lower resolution x264 files will play)

But for max quality, x264+some avisynth filters are hard to beat.

As for audio codecs, lame (mp3) is also starting to show its age.

Ogg Vorbis beats it (especially the aotuv versions). I consider AAC to be tied with vorbis but I still like vorbis better for the lower amount of CPU resources it takes to decode (important on an Xbox with XBMC )

Also, check out AutoMKV. Encodes xvid, wmv, and X264 (which is the same as AVC or h264, just a different encoder name). In mp4, mkv, or avi file packages (avi only supports mp3 and xvid).

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: wizboy11

Originally posted by: Chriz

As for audio codecs, lame (mp3) is also starting to show its age.

Ogg Vorbis beats it (especially the aotuv versions). I consider AAC to be tied with vorbis but I still like vorbis better for the lower amount of CPU resources it takes to decode (important on an Xbox with XBMC )

Please, Please, Please! :heart: Let's all stick with mp3. a de facto standard. Lame is open and free. With proper settings (APS or APE) and a good encoder, like free Exact Audio Copy, it gives excellent results. OggVorbis has been the codec of the future forever now. As for AAC, can you say DRM-ready?

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: BernardP
Please, Please, Please! :heart: Let's all stick with mp3. a de facto standard. Lame is open and free. With proper settings (APS or APE) and a good encoder, like free Exact Audio Copy, it gives excellent results. OggVorbis has been the codec of the future forever now. As for AAC, can you say DRM-ready?

But WHY??? Why not change. I have a lot of video that uses ogg and aac. Don't know what your watching.

Well, there are several problems with sticking to mp3. First of all, we can't stick with it forever. Lame requires a license for it's compiled form, although its source is free under the GPL.

AAC can be used with or without DRM. It's a good codec although I think Ogg Vorbis is better.

Vorbis is open source. No licenses, no nothing of that nature.

Plus, I think the real question is, what does it matter to you what standard he uses. If he wants to use mp3 then fine, but ogg/aac are generally considered better. If he wants to use those then fine.

I like Vorbis, you like mpeg1 layer 3, so I'll use Vorbis and you can use mpeg1 layer 3.

How about some Codec Comparisons.

Vorbis=AAC>Lame

 

[BernardP]

Interesting codec comparison, wizboy11

.ogg is better at low bitrate and might be slightly better overall, but I never encode anything below 192 kbs and almost always use --alt-preset standard.

Unfortunately, ogg vorbis usage remain marginal where it matters...