MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codec Comparison Project head: Dmitriy Vatolin Measurements, analysis: Dmitriy Kulikov, Alexander Parshin Translation: Artem Titarenko Verification: Stanislav Soldatov Codecs: DivX 6.0 (MPEG4 ASP codec) ArcSoft H.264 Ateme H.264 ATI H.264 Elecard H.264 Fraunhofer IIS H.264 VSS H.264 x264 December 2005 CS MSU Graphics&Media Lab Video Group http://www.compression.ru/video/ [email protected] MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 VIDEO CODEC COMPARISON CS MSU GRAPHICS&MEDIA LAB VIDEO GROUP MOSCOW, 12 DEC 2005 Contents Contents.......................................................................................................................2 Thanks .........................................................................................................................4 Overview ......................................................................................................................5 Codecs................................................................................................................................... 5 Sequences............................................................................................................................. 5 Goal and testing rules ..................................................................................................6 H.264 Codecs Testing Objectives ......................................................................................... 6 Testing rules .......................................................................................................................... 6 Metrics Used in Comparison ................................................................................................. 7 Number of graphs.................................................................................................................. 7 Sequences ...................................................................................................................8 Foreman ................................................................................................................................ 8 Susi........................................................................................................................................ 9 BBC ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Battle.................................................................................................................................... 11 Simpsons ............................................................................................................................. 12 Matrix ................................................................................................................................... 13 Concert ................................................................................................................................ 14 Codecs.......................................................................................................................15 DivX 6.0 ............................................................................................................................... 15 ArcSoft H.264 ...................................................................................................................... 16 Ateme H.264........................................................................................................................ 17 ATI H.264............................................................................................................................. 17 Elecard H.264 ...................................................................................................................... 17 Fraunhofer IIS H.264 ........................................................................................................... 18 VSS H.264 ........................................................................................................................... 19 x264 ..................................................................................................................................... 20 Preset “Best quality”...................................................................................................21 Y-PSNR ............................................................................................................................... 21 U-PSNR, V-PSNR ............................................................................................................... 29 SSIM, VQM.......................................................................................................................... 31 Blurring measure, blocking measure................................................................................... 34 Bitrate handling.................................................................................................................... 36 Time..................................................................................................................................... 40 Preset “Best speed” ...................................................................................................45 Y-PSNR ............................................................................................................................... 45 Speed/Quality Tradeoff........................................................................................................ 49 Sequence “susi”, Y-PSNR .............................................................................................. 50 Sequence “battle”, Y-PSNR............................................................................................ 50 Bitrate handling.................................................................................................................... 51 Time..................................................................................................................................... 54 2-pass mode and High profile ....................................................................................60 Sequence “foreman”, preset “Best quality”.......................................................................... 61 http://www.compression.ru/video/ 2 MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 VIDEO CODEC COMPARISON CS MSU GRAPHICS&MEDIA LAB VIDEO GROUP MOSCOW, 12 DEC 2005 Sequence “battle”, preset “Best quality” .............................................................................. 64 Per frame comparison................................................................................................68 Sequence “foreman”, Y-PSNR, Preset “Best quality”.......................................................... 68 Sequence “bbc”, Y-PSNR, Preset “Best quality” ................................................................. 71 Visual comparison......................................................................................................76 Sequence “bbc”, frame 170, bitrate 1140 kbps ................................................................... 76 Sequence “bbc”, frame 250, bitrate 1140 kbps ................................................................... 77 Sequence “battle”, frame 527, bitrate 700 kbps .................................................................. 77 Sequence “battle”, frame 527, bitrate 700 kbps, Y-PSNR................................................... 81 Informal codec comparison ........................................................................................82 Informal comparison rules ................................................................................................... 82 Informal comparison results ................................................................................................ 83 Preset “Best quality”........................................................................................................ 83 Preset “Best speed” ........................................................................................................ 85 General conclusions...................................................................................................87 http://www.compression.ru/video/ 3 MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 VIDEO CODEC COMPARISON CS MSU GRAPHICS&MEDIA LAB VIDEO GROUP MOSCOW, 12 DEC 2005 Thanks We would like to express our gratitude to the following companies for providing us with codecs and settings: • ArcSoft, Inc. • Ateme • ATI Technologies Inc. • Elecard LTD • Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits • Vanguard Software Solutions, Inc. • x264 Development Team We would also like to thank these companies for their technical support and help during our tests. http://www.compression.ru/video/ 4 MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 VIDEO CODEC COMPARISON CS MSU GRAPHICS&MEDIA LAB VIDEO GROUP MOSCOW, 12 DEC 2005 Overview Codecs Codec Developer Version 1. DivX DivXNetworks, Inc 6.0 dev. version for 2. ArcSoft H.264 ArcSoft, Inc. 19.09.05 3. Ateme H.264 Ateme 1.2.1.6 4. ATI H.264 ATI Technologies Inc. 3.1.2 dev. version for 5. Elecard H.264 Elecard LTD 09.09.05 6. Franhofer IIS Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated dev. version for H.264 Circuits 20.09.05 7. VSS H.264 Vanguard Software Solutions, Inc. 3.0.2.7 8. x264 Development group x264 revision 293 Note: DivX 6.0 is not H.264 codec. It is MPEG-4 ASP codec, it takes part in this testing only as one of the best representative of previous video codec standard MPEG-4 Sequences Sequence Number of Frames per Spatial dimension frames second and color space 1. foreman 300 30 352x288(YV12) 2. susi 374 25 704x576(YV12)