H.264 or Nero's AVC is there a difference?

[radiodaze]

Hello, I'm not sure if posting this in the Mpeg-4 Section would be OK so I'm doing it here.

I was just reading up on the page a bit and I notice alot of mention of x264.. I've been using Nero Digital's AVC for a while and I was just wondering if one is better than the other? They both produce mp4's right?

Also. If anyone is gonna explain this to me. Please put it as simple as possible as I just cannot relate to all the terms you guys use. (Makes my head explode). Thanks guys for any help.

[Dark Shikari]

MP4 is a video container.

Much like a cake, the container can have different components: different types of cake (video), various flavors and types of icing (audio), and perhaps some other components, like ice cream (subtitles).

In this case, the cake is made of video compliant with the H.264 standard. The audio is likely AAC, Advanced Audio Coding.

Nero, though it has a good user interface, is a relatively limited encoder, which isn't surprising given its price. x264 will definitely outperform it in terms of quality if given the appropriate encoding settings. Its also a lot more versatile; you can customize its encoding settings a lot more.

On the other hand, x264 doesn't come with a GUI, so you need to use an appropriate one (MeGUI, Handbrake, Staxrip, etc) or use it manually through the commandline interface.