H.264 Stream Analyzer

[Davinator]

I was wondering if there any tools to analyze an h.264 video stream. I recently created some high bitrate test files using x264 and sorenson's AVC Pro, and I noticed something interesting. The Sorenson encodes are using around 30-40% of the CPU, while the x264 encodes are using around 50-60%.

I'm interested to see if I'm using some advanced flags with x264 that Sorenson is not using. Here are my settings I'm using:

x264

x264 --bitrate 5000 --level 3 --keyint 60 --min-keyint 24 --no-fast-pskip --subme 6 --analyse p8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --qcomp 0 --scenecut 45 --me umh --progress --no-psnr --output "example_5000_vid.mp4" "example_5000.avs"

Sorenson AVC Pro

1-Pass CBR
5000 Kbps
Auto Keyframe on scenechange - 50

[foxyshadis]

Avinaptic will probably be the simplest way to get it. There's also h264_parse (raw streams only) and elecard streameye (different information, huge cost).

[Sergey A. Sablin]

Avinaptic will probably be the simplest way to get it. There's also h264_parse (raw streams only) and elecard streameye (different information, huge cost).

if 20 times lesser cost than tektronix and interra is considered huge, than how one describe their cost?
anyway there is an evaluation version which is more than enough to understand the difference between two encodes. Once you think a bit you'll understand how to manage 200 frames limit to analyze internals of the stream - less convenient that full version, but it is possible.

[Davinator]

Thanks Foxyshadis for your help as always. I downloaded Avinaptic, but I can't seem to get the program into English. When I select "Select Another Language", I only see Italian. Is there an English translation file I need to download, or a different version of it to download? I'm currently using the avinaptic-20070909-full.zip package from http://fsinapsi.altervista.org/.

[Dark Shikari]

If you can upload the file samples, I have access to Elecard Streameye and can do something like I did in this post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1044839#post1044839) for you.

[foxyshadis]

if 20 times lesser cost than tektronix and interra is considered huge, than how one describe their cost?
anyway there is an evaluation version which is more than enough to understand the difference between two encodes. Once you think a bit you'll understand how to manage 200 frames limit to analyze internals of the stream - less convenient that full version, but it is possible.

I'm not making a judgement on the cost there, it's just a warning, since someone randomly looking for stream info probably doesn't want to pay a thousand for it if it's for regular use, even if there are companies that find the price worthwhile. (Aren't there even tektronix hardware mpeg analyzers that cost well over $100K?)

[Davinator]

@Dark Shikari

Thanks for your generous offer. Once I get Avinaptic working, if that's not able to get me the information I'm looking for I'll take you up on your offer.

@Foxyshadis

I'm still not able to get Avinaptic working in English. Do you have any suggestions on how to get this working?

[foxyshadis]

Honestly, I don't know. When I click on the language it gives a drop-down with both listed. (One of the peculiarities of GTK is that a button on the right side of a button indicates a drop-down menu, you have to click it to make the rest show.) The only other way to get it to switch is to edit the sqlite db that comes with it.

[buzzqw]

use the help button to change language

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4332/avinaptic1ua0.png

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/2980/avinaptic2zu6.png
BHH