H264(avc) vs WMV9 VC-1

[Shezed]

I have 2 movies one is Mkv h264 4000kbps the other is wmv9 vc1 6000kbps(DRM) both are 1920x1080 and although i cant determine much difference in visual quality i like to know from a technical point which is better. My guess is WMV because it has a higer bitrate or can MKV be the same quality even though it has a lower bitrate

[Asmodian]

VC1 is getting pretty old now but depending on which encoder was used with what options either could offer better quality. Really impossible to say without more information.

[captainadamo]

I have 2 movies one is Mkv h264 4000kbps the other is wmv9 vc1 6000kbps(DRM) both are 1920x1080 and although i cant determine much difference in visual quality i like to know from a technical point which is better. My guess is WMV because it has a higer bitrate or can MKV be the same quality even though it has a lower bitrate

Based solely on what you have posted there is no way to know which would be better from a technical perspective. We would need to know which encoder was used for either and their respective encoder settings. Simply a bitrate and the codec doesn't say much.

[Shezed]

I dont think i can found out i bought the movie n downloaded both versions

[benwaggoner]

I have 2 movies one is Mkv h264 4000kbps the other is wmv9 vc1 6000kbps(DRM) both are 1920x1080 and although i cant determine much difference in visual quality i like to know from a technical point which is better. My guess is WMV because it has a higer bitrate or can MKV be the same quality even though it has a lower bitrate
It really depends on how good each encoder was. The best VC-1, with well-tuned settings can certainly look better than some H.264 encoders without good tuning. And a 50% bitrate advantage is huge.

But VC-1 hasn't been updated in years, and x264 left it in the dust ages ago*. Using the best available H.264 and VC-1 implementations with optimal settings, x264 at 4 Mbps can beat VC-1 at 6 Mbps for lots of types of content.

But it gets in the weeds with CBR versus VBR, encoder versions, etcetera. If they both look equally good, that's the important answer :).

* Basically once Main Profile became standard and mbtree was in stable builds.