MSU Subjective Comparison of Modern Video Codecs
MSU Graphics & Media Lab (Video Group)
Take a look at this article on the new site! Follow the link
https://videoprocessing.ai/codecs/subjective-codecs-comparison-2006.html
Project head: Dr. Dmitriy Vatolin
Organization of assessment: Alexander Parshin, Petrov Oleg
Refinement, translation: Oleg Petrov
Verification: Alexander Parshin, Artem Titarenko
About comparison
Tested codecs:
- DivX 6.0
- Xvid 1.1.0
- x264
- WMV 9.0
Bitrates:
- 690 kbps
- 1024 kbps
Number of sequences: 4
Number of experts: 50
Download MSU Subjective Comparison of Modern Video Codecs (32 pages in PDF, 1.38 MB)
Goal of subjective comparison
During last few years many comparisons of video, audio and image codecs were carried out by our Graphics & Media Lab at Moscow State University. All of them used objective metrics like PSNR, VQM or SSIM. This fact has raised reasonable questions on adequacy of objective measures to the subjectively perceived quality, which is the main parameter of a codec's performance. Goals of our assessment are subjective comparison of new versions of popular videocodecs, comparison of results with objective metrics and subjective assessment technology testing.
Main comparison parts:
- Subjective comparison of videocodecs.
- Comparison of results with objective metrics.
Subjective comparison
Main quality parameter for a codec - subjective impressions of a viewer of a compressed video.
Latter is the main idea of subjective comparison methods - quality score for a compressed sequence is the average opinion of a group of experts on its quality (MOS, Mean Opinion Score).
There are lots of methodologies of subjective assessment, many of them are implemented in
MSU Perceptual Video Quality tool
that was used for the assessment.
Our comparison is using SAMVIQ -
method that was recently developed by EBU (European Broadcasting Union), PDF with the comparison contains its description.
On a graph below you can see average MOS for all codecs, the higher the better. Probably, XviD results could be improved by switching on deblocking algorithm (this algorithm isn't used by default).
Average MOS for all codecs
Following graph illustrates average MOS for each codec and bitrate and its' 95% confidence intervals.
Average MOS for all codecs and bitrates
Evaluation of objective metrics
PSNR, VQM and SSIM were measured for each sequence with MSU Video Quality Measurement tool, description of these metrics can be found on this page. Note, that "VQM" metric refers to algorithm of Feng Xiao, not proposed by VQEG objective quality metric. The following graphs illustrate relation between subjective opinion and an objective metric: if set of points is close to a straight line, then the metric is adequate to the subjectively perceived quality (values of PSNR and SSIM were mapped on MOS scale, see PDF with the comparison for more details).
Content of HTML version
Download
- MSU Subjective Comparison of Modern Video Codecs - PDF (1.38 MB)
- MSU Subjective Comparison of Modern Video Codecs - ZIP (1.2 MB)
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 resources
Video resources:
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
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
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