H.264 vs. FFMPEG: it's all about content
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:11 pm
I may not be communicating groundbreaking, unknown information, but my experience so far with HandBrake is that the type of content you are encoding is EVERYTHING as far as settings or even encoders.
I have a relatively slow machine, and my x.264 encodes take days. I am encoding episodes of The Simpsons (which I own, BTW).
The animation in The Simpsons is not the most complex and detailed--fairly primitive with lots of solid colors. I gave FFMPEG a try (2-pass) and not only did it encode in about 1/8th the time of x.264, but the results were excellent!
I was able to fill up the Queue and go to bed. (Something I could never do with x.264 encodes.)
I watched the resulting FFMPEG encodes with the lights out, my face trained on the screen at all times (I barely blinked), and I saw NOT ONE instance of combing or interlacing in the FFMPEG encoded material!
I can't help it if people don't believe there was absolutely no combing, it is just what I have to factually report.
I think I may use FFMPEG to encode the rest of the episodes I intend to encode for a "Best Of" Simpsons DVD.
If the content were different, FFMPEG may not have worked as well as it did on The Simpsons episodes.
So I will probably use x.264 for other content.
If there was a downside, it was that the FFMPEG encoded episodes were about 100MB larger than x.264 encoded episodes, so the compression is obviously not as good.
But the FFMPEG encoded material ran like magic when played in Quicktime (actual size). It didn't stutter once and played at full frame rates.
Sometimes the x.264 encodes cause QuickTime to stutter, halt for long periods, or cause the frame rate to drop.
But it looks like I may be using FFMPEG at least for the rest of my The Simpsons encodes, but will probably use x.264 for different material.
I'm glad FFMPEG is available under HandBrake.
defender
I have a relatively slow machine, and my x.264 encodes take days. I am encoding episodes of The Simpsons (which I own, BTW).
The animation in The Simpsons is not the most complex and detailed--fairly primitive with lots of solid colors. I gave FFMPEG a try (2-pass) and not only did it encode in about 1/8th the time of x.264, but the results were excellent!
I was able to fill up the Queue and go to bed. (Something I could never do with x.264 encodes.)
I watched the resulting FFMPEG encodes with the lights out, my face trained on the screen at all times (I barely blinked), and I saw NOT ONE instance of combing or interlacing in the FFMPEG encoded material!
I can't help it if people don't believe there was absolutely no combing, it is just what I have to factually report.
I think I may use FFMPEG to encode the rest of the episodes I intend to encode for a "Best Of" Simpsons DVD.
If the content were different, FFMPEG may not have worked as well as it did on The Simpsons episodes.
So I will probably use x.264 for other content.
If there was a downside, it was that the FFMPEG encoded episodes were about 100MB larger than x.264 encoded episodes, so the compression is obviously not as good.
But the FFMPEG encoded material ran like magic when played in Quicktime (actual size). It didn't stutter once and played at full frame rates.
Sometimes the x.264 encodes cause QuickTime to stutter, halt for long periods, or cause the frame rate to drop.
But it looks like I may be using FFMPEG at least for the rest of my The Simpsons encodes, but will probably use x.264 for different material.
I'm glad FFMPEG is available under HandBrake.
defender