MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codecs Comparison Short version of report Project head: Dr. Dmitriy Vatolin Measurements, analysis: Dr. Dmitriy Kulikov, Alexander Parshin Codecs: DivX H.264 Elecard H.264 Intel® MediaSDK AVC/H.264 MainConcept H.264 Microsoft Expression Encoder Theora x264 XviD (MPEG-4 ASP codec) April 2010 CS MSU Graphics&Media Lab Video Group http://www.compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/index_en.html [email protected] VIDEO MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 CODECS COMPARISON MOSCOW, APR 2010 CS MSU GRAPHICS & MEDIA LAB VIDEO GROUP SHORT VERSION Contents Contents .................................................................................................................... 2 1 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................. 4 2 Overview ........................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Sequences .....................................................................................................................5 2.2 Codecs ...........................................................................................................................5 2.3 Objectives and Testing Rules ........................................................................................6 2.4 H.264 Codec Testing Objectives ...................................................................................6 2.5 Testing Rules .................................................................................................................6 3 Comparison Results .......................................................................................... 8 3.1 Movies ...........................................................................................................................8 3.1.1 RD Curves ............................................................................................................8 3.1.2 Encoding Speed ................................................................................................. 10 3.1.3 Speed/Quality Trade-Off .................................................................................... 12 3.1.4 Bitrate Handling ................................................................................................. 16 3.1.5 Relative Quality Analysis ................................................................................... 19 3.2 HDTV .......................................................................................................................... 21 3.3 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 21 3.3.1 Movies ................................................................................................................ 21 3.3.2 HDTV ................................................................................................................. 22 3.3.3 Overall Conclusions ........................................................................................... 23 3.3.4 Codec Conclusions ............................................................................................ 25 3.3.5 Comments from Developers .............................................................................. 25 4 Appendix 1. Subjective Comparison and Psycho-Visual Enhancements ......... 27 4.1 Brief Description ......................................................................................................... 27 4.1.1 SAMVIQ Description .......................................................................................... 27 4.1.2 Subjective Assessment Description ................................................................... 27 4.2 Video Sequences........................................................................................................ 27 4.2.1 “Battle”................................................................................................................ 27 4.2.2 “Football” ............................................................................................................ 28 4.2.3 “Italy” .................................................................................................................. 29 4.2.4 “Quadbike” ......................................................................................................... 29 4.2.5 “Simpsons” ......................................................................................................... 30 4.3 Video Codecs ............................................................................................................. 30 4.4 Results ........................................................................................................................ 31 4.4.1 "Battle" Sequence .............................................................................................. 31 4.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 32 5 Appendix 2. x264 Comparison Over Time ....................................................... 32 6 Appendix 3. Video Codec Analyzers ................................................................ 39 7 Appendix 4. Theora vs. x264 Single-thread Comparison ................................. 40 8 Appendix 5. Test Set of Video Sequences ....................................................... 42 8.1 Movie Sequences ....................................................................................................... 42 8.1.1 “Ice Age”............................................................................................................. 42 8.1.2 “Indiana Jones” .................................................................................................. 43 8.1.3 “State Enemy” .................................................................................................... 44 8.1.4 “Up” .................................................................................................................... 45 8.2 HDTV Sequences ....................................................................................................... 46 http://compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/h264_2010 2 VIDEO MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 CODECS COMPARISON MOSCOW, APR 2010 CS MSU GRAPHICS & MEDIA LAB VIDEO GROUP SHORT VERSION 8.2.1 “Amazon”............................................................................................................ 46 8.2.2 “Iron Man”........................................................................................................... 47 8.2.3 “Mobile Calendar” .............................................................................................. 48 8.2.4 “Troy” .................................................................................................................. 49 9 Appendix 6. Tested Codecs and Presets ......................................................... 50 9.1 Codecs ........................................................................................................................ 50 9.1.1 DivX AVC/H.264 Video Encoder ........................................................................ 50 9.1.2 Elecard AVC Video Encoder 8-bit edition, ......................................................... 51 9.1.3 Intel® MediaSDK AVC/H.264 ............................................................................ 51 9.1.4 MainConcept AVC/H.264 Video Encoder Console Application ......................... 51 9.1.5 Microsoft Expression Encoder 3 ........................................................................ 51 9.1.6 Theora encoder .................................................................................................. 52 9.1.7 x264 ................................................................................................................... 53 9.1.8 XviD raw mpeg4 bitstream encoder ................................................................... 53 9.2 Presets ........................................................................................................................ 54 10 Appendix 7. Figures Explanation ..................................................................... 61 10.2 Bitrates Ratio with the Same Quality ...................................................................... 62 10.3 Relative Codec Encoding Time Computation ........................................................ 63 11 Appendix 7. Objective Quality Metrics Description ........................................... 64 11.1 SSIM (Structural SIMilarity) .................................................................................... 64 11.1.1 Brief Description ............................................................................................ 64 11.1.2 Examples ....................................................................................................... 65 11.2 PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio) ....................................................................... 67 11.2.1 Brief Description ............................................................................................ 67 11.2.2 Examples ....................................................................................................... 68 12 List of Figures .................................................................................................. 71 13 About the Graphics & Media Lab Video Group ................................................ 73 http://compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/h264_2010 3 VIDEO MPEG-4 AVC/H.264