MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video codecs comparison

[Dyomich]

Dear doom9 experts,

Moscow State University Graphics & Multimedia Laboratory has finished 6-th H.264 codecs comparison.
It is intended for practical researchers and developers in the field of high-end video compression.

http://compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/h264_2010

We have tested newest implementations of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video codecs and compare with XviD (MPEG-4 ASP) and Theora encoders.
One of the main targets for this comparison was to test H.264 encoders for transcoding tasks for Movies and HDTV video content.

Codec that were tested:

• DivX H.264
• Elecard H.264
• Intel® MediaSDK AVC/H.264
• MainConcept H.264
• Microsoft Expression Encoder
• Theora
• x264
• XviD (MPEG-4 ASP codec)
• VP8

Summary report topics:

• Objective measurements (SSIM, PSNR, Average Advantage and etc.)
• Encoding speed
• Analysis of averaged objective results
• Leaders in different areas (Movies, HDTV)
• Options analysis for codecs
• Additional subjective analysis for video codes

  • For psycho-visual enhancement in codecs analysis
  • For fade processing analysis
  • For animation movie compression analysis

• Codecs encoding quality progress over years

Enhancements in comparison to Previous H.264/AVC Comparison:

• Subjective comparison
• New codecs
• New sequences
• New type of special analysis for codecs
• Using natural sequences' special modifications
• Using synthetic sequences
• Not only H.264 Codecs (but also XviD, Theora) were tested

Some examples from the comparison report:

This figure depicts RD-curve for bitrate/quality. Higher curve corresponds better encoding quality. This graph shows quality drop for Theora encoder at 1000kbps.

This figure depicts bitrate handling graph – encoders with good bitarte handling methods has horizontal lines close to 1.0 value. This graph shows strange bitrate handling methods for MS Expression encoder. The more information for it could be found by other graphs analysis.

This figure depicts the progress of the x264 encoder over several years. Y-axis shows encoding quality – encoders with its mark higher than other have better quality. X-axis shows encoding time – encoders with its marks placed to left are faster than other. Therefore encoders in upper-left corner are best – faster and have higher quality than competitors.

More detailed analysis could be found at next page

http://compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/h264_2010

Best regards,
Dr. Dmitriy Kulikov,
Head of Video Codec Testing team,
Graphics&Media Lab,
Moscow State University