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Project head: Dr. Dmitriy Vatolin
Testing, charts, analysis: Dmitriy Kulikov, Alexander Parshin
Translating: Daria Kalinkina
Verification: Stanislav Soldatov

About comparison

We would like to thank Moonlight Cordless LTD, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and Ateme for kindly providing us their codecs for this test.

Tested codecs:

• Mpegable AVC Codec
• Moonlight H.264 Video Codec
• MainConcept H.264 Codec
• Fraunhofer IIS Codec
• Ateme MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 Codec
• Videosoft H.264 Codec
• DivX Pro 5.1.1 Codec (NOT 264! Used for comparison with H.264 codecs as well tuned codec from previous generation MPEG-4 ASP)

Main goals

The main idea is to compare the results provided by the new codecs when they are used by an ordinary user for home video compression. As a rule, such users prefer simple and popular programs to play DVD movies or digitize signal from tuner. Also they rarely change default codec's settings. We understand that it is very hard to create codecs that would work well on different sequences using the same settings, but this situation is rather common.

Taking the peculiarities of H.264 standard into consideration (such as long time of coding when all possibilities are used) we are going to use 2 presets: "tuned" and "fast". First one is used to get maximum quality, second one is used to ensure fast processing. These presets will be provided by the codecs developers. Both time and quality will be measured. This will allow codecs to show their possibilities in terms of quality and us to compare speed in a more correct way.

Main parts of the comparison:

1. Comparison in Y-PSNR, U-PSNR and V-PSNR metrics.
2. Per frame comparison.
3. Bit rate handling (does your movie fit on the CD?).
4. Visual comparison.
5. Informal codecs comparison.

Comparison with PSNR metric

PSNR - is a metric used to compare 2 pictures: the more per pixel difference between the pictures is the less is PSNR value. We use the average value of the per frame PSNR metric to compare two sequences. So the higher is the codec's line on the graph the better is the quality of compression performed by this codec.

Y-PSNR is the difference in brightness component, U-PSNR and V-PSNR are the differences in hue components.

On this picture V-PSNR values are shown. The higher the line is the better is the quality.

Visual codec comparison

In most cases the PSNR value is in accordance with the compression quality. But sometimes this metric does not reflect presence of some important visual artefacts. For example, we can't estimate the quality of the blocking artefacts compensation performed by some codec using only PSNR metric. Also in some cases it is difficult to say whether 2 dB difference is significant or not.

That is why we use visual comparison of some frames in addition to the PSNR images. This won`t help us to understand the whole situation, but will allow to demonstrate some interesting features of the codec (e.g. block artifacts compensation).

Ateme H.264	Divx 5.1.1
These pictures present the same frame compressed by two different codecs with the same bitrate. One can see that Ateme H.264 codec provides a better compensation of the blocking artifacts.

Content of HTML version

Download

• First Annual MSU H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video Codecs Comparison - PDF (3248 Kb)
• First Annual MSU H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video Codecs Comparison - ZIP (2709 Kb)

If you are interested in your codecs' testing or tuning, please write to us at

Other materials

Video resources:

Public MSU video filters Here are available VirtualDub and AviSynth filters. Commonly we develop a whole family of some kind of a filter. Generally there are also versions optimized for PC and hardware implementations (ASIC/FPGA/DSP). These optimized versions can be licensed to companies. Please contact us for details via video(at)graphics.cs.msu_ru. MSU Cartoon Restore (New!) MSU Noise Estimation (New!) MSU Frame Rate Conversion (New!) MSU Image Restoration (New!) MSU Denoising (Top!) MSU Old Cinema MSU Deblocking (Top!) MSU Smart Brightness and Contrast (Top!) MSU Smart Sharpen (Top!) MSU Noise generation MSU Noise estimation MSU Motion Estimation Information MSU Subtitles removal MSU Logo removal (Top!) MSU Deflicker (Top!) MSU Field Shift Fixer AviSynth plug-in MSU StegoVideo MSU Cartoonizer (Top!) MSU SmartDeblocking (Top!) MSU Color Enhancement MSU Old Color Restoration MSU filters FAQ (Read me!) MSU filters statistics (New!)	MSU filters for companies We are working with Intel, Samsung, RealNetworks and other companies on adapting our filters other video processing algorithms for specific video streams, applications and hardware like TV-sets, graphics cards, etc. Some of such projects are non-exclusive. Also we have internal researches. Please let us know via video(at)graphics.cs.msu_ru if you are interested in acquiring a license for such filters or making a custom R&D project on video processing, compression, computer vision. Automatic Objects Segmentation (New!) Semiautomatic Objects Segmentation New Frame Rate Conversion (New!) New Deinterlacer (New!) MSU-Samsung Deinterlacing Project Digital TV Signal Enhancement Old Film Recovery Tuner TV Restore Panorama Video2Photo SuperResolution SuperPrecision MSU-Samsung image and video resampling MSU-Samsung Frame Rate Conversion Motion Phase filter Deshaker (video stabilization) Film Grain/Degrain filter (New!) Deblurring filter Video Content Marking
Codecs comparisons Objective and subjective quality evaluation tests for video and image codecs 4-th MPEG4-AVC/H.264 Comparison (New!) Lossless Video Codecs Comparison 2007 (New!) 3-rd MPEG4-AVC/H.264 Comparison HD Photo and JPEG 2000 Comparison MPEG-2 Decoders Crash Test (Top!) Subjective Compar. of 4 Modern Codecs (Top!) 2-nd MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Comparison (Top!) FAQ of 2-nd H.264 Comparison 1-st MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Codecs Comparison FAQ of 1-st H.264 Comparison JPEG 2000 Image Codecs Comparison (Top!) Lossless Video Codecs Comparison 2004 MPEG-4 SP/ASP Codecs Comparison (Top!) Video codecs comparison (old) Ads link: x264 parameters efficiency comparison	Video quality metrics Programs with different objective and subjective video quality metrics implementation MSU Video Quality Metric - objective metrics for codecs and filters comparison (Top!) Implemented metrics short info: PSNR, Delta, MSAD, MSE, SSIM, VQM, MSU Blurring, MSU Blocking MSU Brightness Flicking Metric MSU Brightness Independent PSNR MSU Drop Frame Metric MSU Noise Estimation Metric MSU VQM Metric Tool FAQ MSU Human Perceptual Quality Metric - several metrics for exact visual tests (Top!) Implemented metrics short info: ITU-R BT.500-11: DSIS, DSCQS I & II, SCACJ; EBU: SAMVIQ; MSUCQE MSU PVQ Metric Tool FAQ
Video codecs projects Different research and development projects on video codecs MSU Lossless Video Codec (Top!) MSU Screen Capture Lossless Codec (Top!) MSU MPEG-2 Video Codec x264 Codec Improvement	Other Other information Crazy gallery (filters screams :) License for commercial usage of MSU VideoGroup Public Software (please be careful: some soft like metrics has another license!)

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Last updated: 16-January-2008

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Project sponsored by YUVsoft Corp.

Project supported by MSU Graphics & Media Lab