First Annual MSU H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Video Codecs Comparison
For professional users and codec authors
MSU Graphics & Media Lab (Video Group)
See
NEW VERSION on Fourth Annual H.264/AVC comparison page!
Also see
Selected Comments for First Annual MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codecs Comparison!
Project head: Dr. Dmitriy Vatolin
Testing, charts, analysis: Dmitriy Kulikov, Alexander Parshin
Translating: Daria Kalinkina
Verification: Stanislav Soldatov
About comparison
We would like to thank Moonlight Cordless LTD, Fraunhofer
Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and Ateme for kindly providing us
their codecs for this test.
Tested codecs:
- Mpegable AVC Codec
- Moonlight H.264 Video Codec
- MainConcept H.264 Codec
- Fraunhofer IIS Codec
- Ateme MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 Codec
- Videosoft H.264 Codec
- DivX Pro 5.1.1 Codec
(
NOT 264!
Used for comparison with H.264 codecs as well tuned codec from previous generation MPEG-4 ASP)
MSU H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Codecs Comparison (3.69Mb, PDF)
Current plans:
- Codec speed comparison.
- Codec compatibility comparison.
- Adding more H.264 codecs to the comparison.
See also
Old codec cpmparison (May 2003)
and
Lossless codecs comparison (Jan 2005)
Main goals
The main idea is to compare the results provided by the new codecs when they
are used by an ordinary user for home video compression. As a rule, such
users prefer simple and popular programs to play DVD movies or digitize
signal from tuner. Also they rarely change default codec's settings. We
understand that it is very hard to create codecs that would work well on
different sequences using the same settings, but this situation is rather
common.
Taking the peculiarities of H.264 standard into consideration (such as long
time of coding when all possibilities are used) we are going to use 2
presets: "tuned" and "fast". First one is used to get maximum quality,
second one is used to ensure fast processing. These presets will be provided
by the codecs developers. Both time and quality will be measured. This will
allow codecs to show their possibilities in terms of quality and us to
compare speed in a more correct way.
Main parts of the comparison:
- Comparison in Y-PSNR, U-PSNR and V-PSNR metrics.
- Per frame comparison.
- Bit rate handling (does your movie fit on the CD?).
- Visual comparison.
- Informal codecs comparison.
Comparison with PSNR metric
PSNR - is a metric used to compare 2 pictures: the more per pixel
difference between the pictures is the less is PSNR value. We use the
average value of the per frame PSNR metric to compare two sequences. So
the higher is the codec's line on the graph the better is the quality of
compression performed by this codec.
Y-PSNR is the difference in brightness component, U-PSNR and V-PSNR are
the differences in hue components.
On this picture V-PSNR values are shown. The higher the line is the better is
the quality.
|
Visual codec comparison
In most cases the PSNR value is in accordance with the compression
quality. But sometimes this metric does not reflect presence of some
important visual artefacts. For example, we can't estimate the quality of
the blocking artefacts compensation performed by some codec using only
PSNR metric. Also in some cases it is difficult to say whether 2 dB
difference is significant or not.
That is why we use visual comparison of some frames in addition to the
PSNR images. This won`t help us to understand the whole situation, but
will allow to demonstrate some interesting features of the codec (e.g.
block artifacts compensation).
Ateme H.264
|
Divx 5.1.1
|
These pictures present the same frame compressed by two different codecs
with the same bitrate. One can see that Ateme H.264 codec provides a
better compensation of the blocking artifacts.
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Content of HTML version
PSNR/Bitrate diagrams
Y-PSNR/Bitrate diagrams
Delta-Y-PSNR/Bitrate diagrams
UV-PSNR/Bitrate diagrams
Additional testing
Average brightness shift diagrams
Bitrate handling diagrams
Per frame sequences comparison
Visual comparison of H.264 and DivX codecs
Final part
Informal codecs comparison
Common conclusion
Download
If you are interested in your codecs' testing or tuning,
please write to us at
E-mail:
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See all MSU Video Codecs Comparisons
MSU video codecs comparisons resources:
Other materials
Video resources:
Last updated:
12-May-2022
Server size: 8069 files, 1215Mb
(
Server statistics
)
Project updated by
Server Team
and
MSU Video Group
Project sponsored by
YUV
soft Corp.
Project supported by
MSU Graphics & Media Lab