measuring performances of codecs

[simonek]

I'm doing quality measurements of different recent codecs and I need some help..!

Here is some information:

OS: Windows Xp Pro

Quality measurement software: (PSNR, SSIM, VQM)
MSU Video Quality Measure v1.2
PSNRCreator
AVISynth 2.55

encoding software:
VirtualDub and VirtualDubMod

Nic's Wmenc (for wmv9 and wvc1)
Mainconcept H.264 Encoder v2
Sorenson Squeeze 4.3 (for sorenson encoder)
Mpegable x4live (for empagble encoder)

video sources:
uncompressed NTSC video - 720x576 - RGB24

The following script is used as base input for both MSU and PSNRCreator:

DirectShowSource(clip clip).ConvertToRGB24.LanczosResize(720, 576).Trim(8,240)

In this manner I can measure not only .avi but other containers too.

All videos work well in Media Player Classics

For now the main problem is that I can't obtain correct measurements for many codecs because of various frames shifting when measuring them. DivX, XviD, VSS_H.264 and few others have no problems.

x264 is 3 frames late
hdx4 is 1 frame late
Nero AVC is varying
sorenson and mpegable are mad (frames loop etc.)

so it seems the problem is with the H.264 codecs.
Any solution? Thanks

[AlexB17]

Do not use Virtual DUB & VFW for x.264!!! AVI not a good(vary bad actually) container for H.264!!! Use MeGUI and you get better quality and speed gain! Also no problems with frame shifting & other issues.

[Sharktooth]

so it seems the problem is with the H.264 codecs.
Any solution? Thanks
As AlexB17 said it's not a h.264 codecs problem, it is VFW problem. AVI container also plays it's part...
So, use MeGUI, StaxRip, RealAnime or any other tool that's not based on VFW and a newer container (.mpg, .mp4, .mkv, etc) and all the problems caused by VFW and AVI will go away.

[simonek]

Infact I use VirtualDub only for non-H.264 codecs.

But other mpeg-4 codecs often come with their own software (Nero, mainconcept, sorenson, mpegable, etc) and I can't use them with MEgui or other encoding programs. But the problem is not there, because they work well and produce mp4 or mpg video files, so the container is appropriate.

I guess the problem could be the decompressor, I tried different ways but it's still the same result...

:-(

so... other suggestions?

[GodofaGap]

No problems here with DirectShowSource. But as long as you don't tell us the decoders and splitters you used, it's hard to give you any kind of advice. You could always use the trim command to fix the delay.

Why is there a resizer in your AVS-compare script?

[simonek]

Yes I tried to use Trim() to fix the delay. I did it with x264 that has a stable 3 frames shift and it worked well. But the others have very strange conduct, some repeat the frames, some cut the scense... it's impossible to manage them.

I repeat that I have no problem for playing them all. In Media Player Classics and in other players such as Videolan or WMPlayer everything is fine, no errors. Problems emerge when using quality measurement software.

As decoder I use libavcodec (last version) for almost everything but I tried Xvid decoder too and nothing changes.

The LanczosResize() function is no use as the videos were already correctly sized so I removed it.

Some of you have never used theese comparison softwares with mp4 and mpg containers?

[niphlod]

don't know quite anything , but I resolved various "episodes" of frame shifting forcing opendml instead of directshowsource .... with all containers I had shiftings with video in x264 and the "original" audio, so in my case wasn't a problem of container .... just change your script from directshowsource to opendmlsource ... I don't know how and why, but it was useful to me :D

[simonek]

I tried OpenDMLSource but it returned an error. I guess because it skip the RGB24 command of my script, don't know why, but the videos are no more the same color space.

Niphlod, did you reach to measure psnr of an mp4 or mpg file?

[GodofaGap]

As decoder I use libavcodec (last version) for almost everything but I tried Xvid decoder too and nothing changes.
I'm confused now again... how would XviD solve anything regarding h264 decoding?

I normally use Haali's splitter and ffdshow for these comparisons and have no trouble with delays if I use mp4 or Matroska.


Some of you have never used theese comparison softwares with mp4 and mpg containers?
Normally I use compareyv12 and ssim plugins for Avisynth.

OpenDMLSource can only be used for AVIs.