Fifth MSU MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codec Comparison

For people, who make real research in field of high-end video compression and professionally use videocodecs

• Project head: Dr. Dmitriy Vatolin
• Testing, charts, analysis: Dmitriy Kulikov, Alexander Parshin

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Codecs that Were Tested

• Dicas H.264
• Elecard H.264
• Intel IPP H.264
• MainConcept H.264
• x264
• XviD (MPEG-4 ASP codec)

Comparison Rules

All codec options and presets were provided by codec authors.

• An important restriction on a preset is encoding time for it. A few iterations of compliance testing and preset optimization were made to meet the requirements.

• Provided decoders or JM 9.8 reference decoder were used to decode all encoded streams.

• All objective metrics measurements were performed with
  MSU Video Quality Measurement Tool (Pro Version).

• For each preset both speed and quality were measured.

Comparison Content

Following metrics were measured:

• PSNR (Y component)
• SSIM (Y component)

Codecs were analyzed separately in the following types of application:

• “Video Conferences”
• “Movies”
• “HDTV”

Individual codecs’ settings were used for each of usage areas.

Video sequences that were used in this comparison:

• “Akiyo” (standard sequence)
• “Foreman” (standard sequence)
• “Paris” (standard sequence)
• “Stefan” (standard sequence)
• “Indiana Jones” (part of “Indiana Jones” movie)
• “Battle” (part of “Terminator-2” movie)
• “State Enemy” (part of “Enemy of the State” movie)
• “Wendys” (uncompressed progressive)
• “Mobile Calendar” (uncompressed progressive)
• “Pedestrian Area” (uncompressed progressive)
• “Stockholm” (uncompressed progressive)
• “Troy” (part of “Troy” HDTV movie)

Different Comparison Versions

Short version of report is now available at website for free download (80 pages, 86 figures). There are two types of customized versions:

Free Version

• Mainly base analysis for Movie usage area
• RD curves
• Relative Bitrate/Relative Speed graphs
• Absolute encoding speed charts
• Bitrate handling graphs
• Short analysis for Video Conferences and HDTV (only average graphs)
• Some common analysis for all the usage areas
• SSIM as objective quality metric mainly
• Over-years comparison based on x264
• One Pass High Qualty encdoing analysis description

Full Version (Free now!)

• All from Free Users Edition
• RD curves for all the usage areas
• Absolute encoding speed charts for all the usage areas
• Bitrate handling graphs for all the usage areas
• All sequences for all the usage areas
• SSIM and PSNR RD curves individually for all the sequences
• Relative Bitrate/Relative Speed graphs individually for the all sequences
• Per-frame analysis
• Specific Analysis Methods (Synthetic sequences)
• Full one Pass High Qualty encdoing analysis
• All sequences, used in this comparison are provided with Pro version of report.

You can download all versions in Download section.

Download & Contribution

Dear video codec professionals!
You can support this comparison by buying Full Version of the report our report. This contribution will help us:

• To continue this comparison without any participation fees (this is important for x264 and XviD AVC next year)
• To avoid comparison sponsorship by codecs’ developers
• To keep comparison detailed and useful

Thank you for your contribution in advance!

Fifth MSU MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codec Comparison

Free Version

80 pages, 86 figures

Download PDF (2.37 Mb)

Full Version

204 pages, 279 figures
All the graphs, all the types of analysis, all the sequences

Download PDF (2.8 Mb)
or support us by purchasing

See also previous Fourth Annual MSU MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codec Comparison

Thanks

Special thanks to the following contributors of our previous comparisons

Contacts

E-mail: videocodec-testing@graphics.cs.msu.ru