Introduction to Video Codecs Comparison
MSU Graphics & Media Lab (Video Group)
Take a look at this article on the new site! Follow the link
https://videoprocessing.ai/codecs/comparison-introduction.html
Short introduction
There are a lot of different codec comparisons on the internet - long and short, emotional or not, biased and unbiased. But most of the authors of such comparisons just put two frames from 2 movies nearby, forgetting following important issues:
1. Every codec gives different quality on different frames of same sequence
Various factors play a role here. First, all codecs have a bitrate control mechanism, that produces quality fluctuations even in very good implementation. Second, bitrate control strategy is selected by user, and in CBR case on slow scenes quality will be low, and on fast ones it will degrade. Third, codecs usually have a so-called key frame, whose quality is determined separately and differs from other frames. Next, final quality depends on prefiltrations, that is included on all present-day codecs. That means that on every sufficiently long movie (average movie is about 150.000-200.000 frames) it is possible to select very good and very bad frames, especially if one-pass CBR compression was used, and movie had enough motion. As a result, having two codecs almost identical in terms of quality, you can easily show the superiority of either codec on specific frames. That method is widely used, alike in press-releases and video processing sites.
Diagram brings into accord with metrics PSNR (if higher, then better quality).
If you make a comparison on "peak" frames, the VP result will be better then DivX one.
Other frames show the opposite conclusion.
2. Different codecs are tuned to different film types.
It is known that some time ago simultaneously existed two different codecs - DivX 4.1 LowMotion and DivX 4.1 FastMotion. Playback was the same, but their internal parameters were tuned to low and high motion, and compression produced different results. Note - FORMAT was same in both cases, but compression was different, so equal size movies had different quality. Similar devotion to specific data type exists in all codecs. Some codecs better perform on high bitrates, while others better compress low ones. Some are tuned to high motion, and some better do with low. Codecs can be tuned to better compress animation or real video. Noisy and clear movies require separate tuning also. That means, that if you have almost equal codecs A and B, it is easy to find movies where A is better than B and vise versa. Curiously this could be same movie, but one could be taken from DVD and other re-filmed in cinema.
Original frame
Original frame Divx 3.1
Divx 3.1 Divx 5.1
Divx 5.1
Original frame Divx 3.1
Divx 3.1 Divx 5.1
Divx 5.1
This is frames quality in conventional colors (black - no difference with original,
blue and green - more difference, red - huge difference). If we will use this frames
for comparison - DivX 3.1 will be better DivX 5.1.
blue and green - more difference, red - huge difference). If we will use this frames
for comparison - DivX 3.1 will be better DivX 5.1.
3. Compression quality could seriously depend on coding parameters.
Most people don't think about coding parameters, blaming it on the developers. Most codecs have many settings that can seriously affect quality First of all, these are bitrate strategy parameters, especially selection between "quality-based" and "bitrate-based" modes. After that prefiltration parameters play a role. For example, deinterlacing (because some movies were compressed with MPEG4 in interlaced mode), denoising (noise reduction), deflicking (removal of effect) and so on. There are parameters of key frame frequence, B-frame mask, control of prefiltering dependence from movie. etc. Here it is even easier to manipulate the results of a comparison of two codecs by simply optimizing the parameters of one of them. One can even put both movies on his site so everyone could see the difference (like some companies do) :-). In that case fact that one codec worked 10 times slower than another somehow becomes lost - why the people (and journalist) should to know such uninteresting information? In that case source sequence could not be found ( due to size, for sure), and coding parameters are unknown (and now you know why). Really there are many more delicate ways to receive "advantage" and even real advantage - for example there are no criteria to determine how frame skipping is significant for perception. But these methods are most common. So, if you study "fooling" methods, you could see that sufficiently large testing is required for correct comparison. As a minimum it is important to compare sequences with different characteristic on different bitrates, while using integral (average) quality characteristics throughout the sequence. So, let us wish you successful detailed comparison.
frame
Quality fall in one of the bitrates on this codec, because of the rate control error.
This bitrate is unlucky for this codec.
Good luck!
Quality fall in one of the bitrates on this codec, because of the rate control error.
This bitrate is unlucky for this codec.
E-mail:
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