Eighth MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codecs Comparison - Standard Version
MSU Graphics & Media Lab (Video Group)
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REPORT IS UPDATED!
Now it contains Appendixes with GPU encoders comparsion and Very High Speed Encoders comparison.
Now it contains Appendixes with GPU encoders comparsion and Very High Speed Encoders comparison.
Different Versions of Report
There are two different versions of H.264 Comparison 2012 report: Here is the comparison of the versions:| Standard Version | Pro Version (Enterprise) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objective Metrics (Y-SSIM) | YES | YES | ||
| Additional Metrics (Y-PSNR) | NO Only few graphs |
YES | ||
| Objective Metrics (3-SSIM, MS-SSIM) | NO | YES | ||
| ColorPlanes | Only Y from YUV | Y, U, V and overall | ||
| Graphs | Only some typical graphs | All the graphs for all the metrcis, codecds and presets | ||
| Number of figures | 207 | 2092 | ||
| Prices | Free | 895ドル | ||
| Purchase | Download pdf | Buy | ||
| Hint: You can remove "Extended download" service while purchasing to save money. | ||||
| We can help you to analyze your codec | ||||
Pro version of comparison will be available immediately after report purchasing.
Report Overview
Video Codecs that Were Tested
Overview
Sequences
Table 1. Summary of video sequences
| Sequence | Number of frames | Frame rate | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| VideoConference (5 sequences) | |||
| Deadline | 1374 | 30 | 352x288 |
| Developers 4CIF | 3600 | 30 | 640x480 |
| Developers 720p | 1500 | 30 | 1280x720 |
| Presentation | 548 | 30 | 720x480 |
| Business | 493 | 30 | 1920x1080 |
| Movies (10 SD sequences) | |||
| Ice Age | 2014 | 24 | 720x480 |
| City | 600 | 60 | 704x576 |
| Crew | 600 | 60 | 704x576 |
| Indiana Jones | 5000 | 30 | 704x288 |
| Harbour | 600 | 60 | 704x576 |
| Ice Skating | 480 | 60 | 704x576 |
| Soccer | 600 | 60 | 704x576 |
| Race Horses | 300 | 30 | 832x480 |
| State Enemy | 6500 | 24 | 720x304 |
| Party Scene | 500 | 50 | 832x480 |
| HDTV sequences (16 sequences) | |||
| Park Joy | 500 | 50 | 1280x720 |
| Riverbed | 250 | 25 | 1920x1080 |
| Rush Hour | 500 | 25 | 1920x1080 |
| Blue Sky | 217 | 25 | 1920x1080 |
| Station | 313 | 25 | 1920x1080 |
| Stockholm | 604 | 50 | 1280x720 |
| Sunflower | 500 | 25 | 1920x1080 |
| Tractor | 690 | 25 | 1920x1080 |
| Bunny | 600 | 24 | 1920x1080 |
| Dream | 600 | 24 | 1920x1080 |
| Troy | 300 | 24 | 1920x1072 |
| Water Drops | 535 | 30 | 1920x1080 |
| Capitol | 600 | 30 | 1920x1080 |
| Parrots | 600 | 30 | 1920x1080 |
| Citybus | 600 | 30 | 1920x1080 |
| Underwater | 600 | 30 | 1920x1080 |
Objectives and Testing Tools
H.264 Codec Testing Objectives
The main goal of this report is the presentation of a comparative evaluation of the quality of new H.264 codecs using objective measures of assessment. The comparison was done using settings provided by the developers of each codec. The main task of the comparison is to analyze different H.264 encoders for the task of transcoding video容.g., compressing video for personal use. Speed requirements are given for a sufficiently fast PC; fast presets are analogous to real-time encoding for a typical home-use PC.H.264 Codec Testing Tools
Overall Conclusions
Overall, the leader in this comparison for software encoders is x264, followed by MainConcept, DivX H.264 and Elecard.
Average bitrate for Movies and HDTV for all presets
The overall ranking of the software codecs tested in this comparison is as follows:
- x264
- MainConcept
- DivX H.264
- Elecard
- Intel Ivy Bridge QuickSync
- XviD
- DiscretePhoton
- MainConcept CUDA
This rank is based only on the encoders? quality results. Encoding speed is not considered here.
Professional Versions of Comparison Report
H.264 Comparison Report Pro 2012 version contains:
Acknowledgments
The Graphics & Media Lab Video Group would like to express
its gratitude to the following companies for providing
the codecs and settings used in this report:
DiscretePhoton team
Elecard Ltd
Intel Corporation
MainConcept GmbH
x264 Development Team
The Video Group would also like to thank these companies for
their help and technical support during the tests.
Thanks
Special thanks to the following contributors of our previous comparisons
Codec Analysis and Tuning for Codec Developers and Codec Users
Computer Graphics and Multimedia Laboratory of Moscow State University:
Strong and Weak Points of Your Codec
Independent Codec Estimation Comparing to Other Codecs for Different Use-cases
Encoder Features Implementation Optimality Analysis
We perform encoder features effectiveness (speed/quality trade-off) analysis that could lead up to 30% increase in the speed/quality characteristics of your codec. We can help you to tune your codec and find best encoding parameters.Contact Information
MSU video codecs comparisons resources:
- Introduction to Video Codecs Comparison
- Lossless Video Codecs Comparison 2004 (October 2004)
- MPEG-4 SP/ASP Video Codecs Comparison (March 2005)
- JPEG 2000 Image Codecs Comparison (September 2005)
- First Annual MPEG-4 AVC/ H.264 Video Codecs Comparison (January 2005)
- Second Annual MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codec Comparison (December 2005)
- Subjective Comparison of Modern Video Codecs (February 2006)
- MPEG-2 Video Decoders Comparison (May 2006)
- WMP and JPEG2000 Comparison (October 2006)
- Third Annual MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Comparison (December 2006) (All versions for free!)
- Lossless Video Codecs Comparison 2007 (March 2007)
- Fourth Annual MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Comparison (December 2007) (All versions for free!)
- Options Analysis of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Codec x264 (December 2008)
- Fifth MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Comparison (May 2009) (All versions for free!)
- Sixth MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Comparison (May 2010)
- Seventh MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Comparison (May 2011)
- Eighth MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Comparison (May 2012)
- Ninth MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Comparison (Dec 2013)
- Tenth Video Codec Comparison (HEVC) (Oct 2015)
- Eleventh Video Codec Comparison (HEVC) (Aug 2016)
- Twelfth Video Codec Comparison (HEVC) (Aug 2017)
- Thirteen Video Codec Comparison (HEVC) (Aug 2018)
- Fourteen Video Codec Comparison (HEVC) (Sept 2019)
- Cloud Encoding Servoces Comparison 2019 (Dec 2019)
- Fifteen Video Codec Comparison (HEVC) (Dec 2020)
- Sixteen Video Codec Comparison (Dec 2021)
- Seventeen Video Codecs Comparisons (Nov 2022)
- Eighteenth Video Codecs Comparisons (Apr 2025)
- Nineteenth Video Codecs Comparisons (2025)
- Codec Analysis for Companies:
Other Materials
Video resources:
3D and stereo video
Projects on 3D and stereo video processing and analysis
MSU Video Quality Measurement tools
Programs with different objective and subjective video quality metrics implementation
Objective and subjective quality evaluation
tests for video and image codecs
5-th MPEG4-AVC/H.264 Comparison
Codec Analysis for Companies:
Options Analysis of Codec x264
4-th MPEG4-AVC/H.264 Comparison
Lossless Video Codecs Comparison 2007
3-rd MPEG4-AVC/H.264 Comparison
HD Photo and JPEG 2000 Comparison
MPEG-2 Decoders Crash Test
Subjective Compar. of 4 Modern Codecs
2-nd MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Comparison
1-st MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Codecs Comparison
JPEG 2000 Image Codecs Comparison
Lossless Video Codecs Comparison 2004
MPEG-4 SP/ASP Codecs Comparison
Video codecs comparison (old)
Ext. link:
x264 parameters efficiency comparison
Projects on 3D and stereo video processing and analysis
- MSU S3D-video analysis reports
- MSU 3D Devices Testing
- 3D Displays Video Generation
- 3D Displays Video Capturing
- Stereo Video Depth Map Generation
- SAVAM Saliensy-Aware Video Compression & Dataset
- Video Matting Benchmark
- Video Inpainting Benchmark
MSU Video Quality Measurement tools
Programs with different objective and subjective video quality metrics implementation
- MSU Video Quality Measurement Tool - objective metrics for codecs and filters comparison
- MSU Human Perceptual Quality Metric - several metrics for exact visual tests
Objective and subjective quality evaluation
tests for video and image codecs
- MSU Video Codecs Comparison 2025
- MSU Video Codecs Comparison 2023-2024
- MSU Video Codecs Comparison 2022
- MSU Video Codecs Comparison 2021
- MSU Video Codecs Comparison 2020
- MSU Cloud Benchmark 2020
- Cloud Encoding Services Comparison 2019
- HEVC/AV1 Codec Comparison 2019
- HEVC/AV1 Codec Comparison 2018
- HEVC/AV1 Codec Comparison 2017
- HEVC Codec Comparison 2016
- HEVC Codec Comparison 2015
- 9-th MPEG4-AVC/H.264 Comparison
- 8-th MPEG4-AVC/H.264 Comparison
- 7-th MPEG4-AVC/H.264 Comparison
- 6-th MPEG4-AVC/H.264 Comparison
Public MSU video filters
Here are available VirtualDub and AviSynth filters. For a given type of digital video filtration we typically develop a family of different algorithms and implementations. Generally there are also versions optimized for PC and hardware implementations (ASIC/FPGA/DSP). These optimized versions can be licensed to companies. Please contact us for details via video(at)graphics.cs.msu_ru.
We are working with Intel, Samsung, RealNetworks and other companies on adapting our filters other video processing algorithms for specific video streams, applications and hardware like TV-sets, graphics cards, etc. Some of such projects are non-exclusive. Also we have internal researches. Please let us know via video(at)graphics.cs.msu_ru if you are interested in acquiring a license for such filters or making a custom R&D project on video processing, compression, computer vision.
Here are available VirtualDub and AviSynth filters. For a given type of digital video filtration we typically develop a family of different algorithms and implementations. Generally there are also versions optimized for PC and hardware implementations (ASIC/FPGA/DSP). These optimized versions can be licensed to companies. Please contact us for details via video(at)graphics.cs.msu_ru.
- MSU Cartoon Restore
- MSU Noise Estimation
- MSU Frame Rate Conversion
- MSU Image Restoration
- MSU Denoising
- MSU Old Cinema
- MSU Deblocking
- MSU Smart Brightness and Contrast
- MSU Smart Sharpen
- MSU Noise generation
- MSU Noise estimation
- MSU Motion Estimation Information
- MSU Subtitles removal
- MSU Logo removal
- MSU Deflicker
- MSU Field Shift Fixer AviSynth plug-in
- MSU StegoVideo
- MSU Cartoonizer
- MSU SmartDeblocking
- MSU Color Enhancement
- MSU Old Color Restoration
- MSU TV Commercial Detector
- MSU filters FAQ
- MSU filters statistics
We are working with Intel, Samsung, RealNetworks and other companies on adapting our filters other video processing algorithms for specific video streams, applications and hardware like TV-sets, graphics cards, etc. Some of such projects are non-exclusive. Also we have internal researches. Please let us know via video(at)graphics.cs.msu_ru if you are interested in acquiring a license for such filters or making a custom R&D project on video processing, compression, computer vision.
- 3D Displays Video Generation
- 3D Displays Video Capturing
- Stereo Video Depth Map Generation
- Automatic Objects Segmentation
- Semiautomatic Objects Segmentation
- New Frame Rate Conversion
- New Deinterlacer
- MSU-Samsung Deinterlacing Project
- Digital TV Signal Enhancement
- Old Film Recovery
- Tuner TV Restore
- Panorama
- Video2Photo
- SuperResolution
- SuperPrecision
- MSU-Samsung image and video resampling
- MSU-Samsung Frame Rate Conversion
- Motion Phase filter
- Deshaker (video stabilization)
- Film Grain/Degrain filter
- Deblurring filter
- Video Content Search
Video codecs projects
Different research and development
projects on video codecs
Other information
Last updated:
28-May-2025
Different research and development
projects on video codecs
- MSU Lossless Video Codec (Top!)
- MSU Screen Capture Lossless Codec (Top!)
- MSU MPEG-2 Video Codec
- x264 Codec Improvement
Other information
- Crazy gallery (filters screams :)
- License for commercial usage of MSU VideoGroup Public Software (please be careful: some soft like metrics has another license!)
Server size: 8069 files, 1215Mb (Server statistics)
Project updated by
Server Team and
MSU Video Group
Project sponsored by YUVsoft Corp.
Project supported by MSU Graphics & Media Lab