x264.exe or ffmpeg.exe on a VPS ?

[yari]

what are the minimum requirements to run either one ?

is there a preference over the two x264.exe or ffmpeg.exe to encode videos ?

im more or less looking to see if i can produce efficient, and higher quality videos....i have seen Dark Shikari's site, and blown away by x264....

how can i reduce size video takes up and still improve the quality ? i would prefer to use ffmpeg...since its already installed and being used on my website...

thank you.

[Sharktooth]

x264 windows builds are usually more up to date than FFMPEG builds.
so, looking at the x264 development pace and its recent improvements, i would always use x264.

[Dark Shikari]

x264 alone doesn't do what you need--you need an audio encoder and muxer.

ffmpeg does all of it together, but if you want to have the muxing Flash-ready, you need to use qt-faststart or mp4box in addition. Also note that ffmpeg's option system is an absolute nightmare--it completely mangles the x264 options and defaults and requires a 7-line commandline to get decent results.

[roozhou]

ffmpeg's buggy muxers will sometimes give you bad files. Hope someone will fix them.

[yari]

i would like to use ffmpeg in that case....it seems just x264.exe is not enough.

i've taken a look at
http://rob.opendot.cl/index.php/useful-stuff/ffmpeg-x264-encoding-guide/

however, the first setting


ffmpeg -i INPUT -an -pass 1 -vcodec libx264 -b BIT_RATE -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -me epzs -subq 1 -trellis 0 -refs 1 -bf 16 -b_strategy 1 -coder 1 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -bt BIT_RATE -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 OUTPUT.mp4


works very well. however the second one


ffmpeg -i INPUT -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -pass 2 -vcodec libx264 -b BIT_RATE -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti8x8+parti4x4+partp8x8+partp4x4+partb8x8 -flags2 +brdo+dct8x8+wpred+bpyramid+mixed_refs -me umh -subq 7 -trellis 1 -refs 6 -bf 16 -directpred 3 -b_strategy 1 -bidir_refine 1 -coder 1 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -bt BIT_RATE -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 OUTPUT.mp4


throws weird errors and will not work....

are there more optimal settings out there? robert swain's blog is the only one i found that has an optimal setting laid out.

thank you.