x264 profile clarification

[travisbell]

Hey guys,

A while back I asked about some x264 profiles and was given a link to sharktooths sticky. Awesome.

As I dug deeper though, I am still unclear about something. After doing some test encodes with different profiles, all 720p encodes, I was not able to notice anything playback differences.

So, without breaking any rules, what are the recommended profiles for a x264 720p encode? I *think* I understand that with some profiles, the compressibility of the source is different, thus giving extra details with certain settings. Is that right? I am not very technical with this aspect of encoding...

Thanks in advance, I did some searching but was not able to find out anything concrete based on my question.

Cheers!

[CruNcher]

The difference are the tools used that is defined by the Profiles (bitrate usage is defined by the Level) the compression factor,detail preservation and decoding/encoding complexity rangeing from Baseline (gonna be mostly used in Mobile Devices, Main Profile for Online distribution Satellite Television and IPTV (also Consumer Electronic Devices (PSP,PS3,PVPs,Ipod,Itv) to High Profile (except Decoding Complexity) (Next Generation HD formats "Hollywood")
and yes to see a difference is also source dependent if you work with second class source like allready compressed Mpeg-2 you won't see a big visual difference going from Main to High Profile for example (but you gonna see a speed drop in encoding), ofcourse this is also runtime dependent. But i can assure you that you as a normal consumer would roughley get into contact with a Higher Profile then Main in the following years :)
So if you wan't to be sure that every Device/Software Supports your content in the next year use Main Profile and you can't make anything wrong :)


Baseline = Low Complexity (Mobile Devices for example Cellphones)
Main = Medium Complexity (Most Consumer Electronic Devices, Standalone Players compatible with consumer content, Ipod, PSP, PMP's, PS3, Itv, Satellite Television,IPTV(Online distribution))
High Profile = Higher Complexity (Professional area mostly High Definition content Producers)
even higher profiles ;) = High Complexity (Digital Cinema, Digital Film Cameras and Medical Research)

and all of this most probably gets overun by Wavelet Research in the coming years ;)

[travisbell]

The difference are the tools used that is defined by the Profiles (bitrate usage is defined by the Level) the compression factor,detail preservation and decoding complexity rangeing from Baseline (gonna be mostly used in Mobile Devices, Main Profile for Online distribution Satellite Television IPTV (also Consumer Electronic Devices (PSP,PS3,PVPs) to High Profile (Next Generation HD formats "Hollywood")
and yes to see a difference is also source dependent if you work with second class source like allready compressed Mpeg-2 you won't see a big visual difference going from Main to High Profile for example (but you gonna see a speed drop in both encoding/decoding), ofcourse this is also runtime dependent. But i can assure you that you as a normal consumer would roughley get into contact with a Higher Profile then Main in the following years :)
So if you wan't to be sure that every Device Supports your content in the next year use Main Profile and you can't make anything wrong :)

Awesome, that makes perfect sense and was the kind of clarification I needed.

As kind of a default, I had been using Baseline just because I know it is Quicktime compatible, but it looks like Main plays alright as well.

Thanks man,

[akupenguin]

if you work with second class source like allready compressed Mpeg-2 you won't see a big visual difference going from Main to High Profile for example (but you gonna see a speed drop in both encoding/decoding), ofcourse this is also runtime dependent.

Nitpick: High profile (i.e. 8x8dct, i8x8, cqm) allows more options to the encoder, so it takes some cpu time to decide between them. But each new option is no more complex than the main profile alternatives, so decoding is not slower.
Decoding only slows when you get into Even Higher profile with 4:4:4 12bit and the like.

[CruNcher]

Nitpick: High profile (i.e. 8x8dct, i8x8, cqm) allows more options to the encoder, so it takes some cpu time to decide between them. But each new option is no more complex than the main profile alternatives, so decoding is not slower.
Decoding only slows when you get into Even Higher profile with 4:4:4 12bit and the like.

ah ok thx for the clarification :)