best H.264 codec ?

[Flexy]

hi,

i just discovered the wonders of H.264 and i was wondering which is the best AVC/H.264 codec around ?

I was playing around with the latest ffdshow which has H.264 de/encoder....but it seems VERY, very slow.

I also got Nero recoder trial version and right now i am encoding a DVD for testing purposes.. Seems pretty quick.

But there is no "codec" in that sense with nero recode....and i'd really like to use a H.264 codec with vdubmod etc.

thanks ! ;)

[Sharktooth]

then use x264 (there's a CLI and VFW version). look at the x264 daily builds sticky thread.

[Chainmax]

I was going to make a new thread for this, but I might as well do it here. What about making a sticky with the recommended settings for all options, much like the Xvid guides?

[IgorC]

Why people are falling in love with virtualdub? Is it more comfortable than CLI with GUI? Is it faster? Does it suport standart container for H.264? Maybe explanation is simple - People don't want the changes.
I don't see any reason to use VD for H.264.

[Revgen]

Well I could be wrong, but AFAIK the MP4 format doesn't work with AC3 or DTS files. I would rather use the AC3 and DTS files from my original DVD rather than reencoding them and loosing quality. Also Virtual dub allows me to adjust the AC3 and DTS files to sync with the Video. Sometimes AC3 or DTS files are synced + or - ms from the video and need to be adjusted.

I don't think that there is a CLI GUI or MP4 splitter out there that does this yet.

[celtic_druid]

So re-encoding the video is ok, but not the audio?
ffdshow uses x264 for h.264 encoding by the way so I wouldn't expect a big speed difference.

Also what happened to rule 12?

[Tommy Carrot]

Why people are falling in love with virtualdub? Is it more comfortable than CLI with GUI? Is it faster? Does it suport standart container for H.264? Maybe explanation is simple - People don't want the changes.
I don't see any reason to use VD for H.264.

You are right from your viewpoint, but the opposite is also true - i don't see any reason NOT to use VD. :D The only important difference is that CLI outputs to MP4, what is more of a disadvantage to me anyway (editing it is a real pain, awkward tools, etc), and doesn't offer any real reason to use it other than it's "standard" (and the wide support for it is not even assured, HD-DVD will probably encapsulate AVC in VOB like container, and HD-TV will use transport stream... not even the reference encoder has mp4 support, etc.). Without the industrial support it's just another container, like AVI or MKV.

[Sergei_Esenin]

So re-encoding the video is ok, but not the audio?

For me it's rather the fact that the space saved by recompressing the video of a typical film to ASP or AVC from 3-8GB MPEG-2 is huge, while the space saved by recompressing the audio to AAC or MP3 from 110-350MB AC3 is relatively tiny. Sure, it's necessary for a 1CD encode, but many people stopped doing those and started doing 1-2GB encodes once DVD+/-R and hard drive prices fell. If you're dealing with sizes like that, there stops being any good reason to recompress the original audio to save a measly 100MB or so.

That's why I stuck with AVI, and eventually switched to MKV, and have little use for MP4. All along, VirtualDub and VfW codecs have remained useful, with no practical advantage given to cli+Gui solutions since MP4 was too inflexible as it lacks useability of original AC3 tracks. With no real-use advantage to non-VfW tools, why switch? Now that has changed, and I use cli+GUI encoding only because MKV writes AVC video in "native mode" only if it comes from an MP4 rather than an AVI. But if I hadn't switched to MKV and it didn't have the restriction of writing AVC from AVI in "AVI compatibility mode" rather than native, I'd still be mainly using VfW tools and codecs.

And as has been pointed out, the MP4 container is still an unproven format. If you don't count Apple's DRM'd frankenversion, it hasn't begun to catch up to AVI and WMV in terms of real-world internet use, and might even be surpassed by whatever container formats HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray use once devices and authoring tools start being cranked out next year.

It's certainly elegant to have a complete MPEG-4 system of A/V codecs, text, and container--but if elegance counted for much the Quicktime MOV format would've displaced AVI, WMV, and MPG containers years ago. It hasn't, and I still doubt MP4 will. Elegance takes a back seat to useability, flexibility, and tools. If MP4 is to succeed as more than a niche, it must start offering more in those three regards--otherwise, AVI and WMV will keep their marketshare.

[it] doesn't offer any real reason to use it other than it's "standard" (and the wide support for it is not even assured, HD-DVD will probably encapsulate AVC in VOB like container, and HD-TV will use transport stream... not even the reference encoder has mp4 support, etc.). Without the industrial support it's just another container, like AVI or MKV.

Exactly. ;)

[kurt]

That's why I stuck with AVI, and eventually switched to MKV, and have little use for MP4. All along, VirtualDub and VfW codecs have remained useful, with no practical advantage given to cli+Gui solutions since MP4 was too inflexible as it lacks useability of original AC3 tracks. With no real-use advantage to non-VfW tools, why switch? Now that has changed, and I use cli+GUI encoding only because MKV writes AVC video in "native mode" only if it comes from an MP4 rather than an AVI. But if I hadn't switched to MKV and it didn't have the restriction of writing AVC from AVI in "AVI compatibility mode" rather than native, I'd still be mainly using VfW tools and codecs.
but you can set output in VirtualDubMod to *.mkv - is this no "native" storage of avc?

[celtic_druid]

No, that means AVC via VfW compatabilty mode.