New v.2\. How to encode h264 to get best playback?
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I use MPEG Streamclip a lot for batch converting. I use it a lot to rescale videos to a half-res version when I can get away with a lower res option to increase playback. I've also had good results using it to convert to Photo-JPEG and Apple Prores. It can also convert to H.264 and MP4 as well as HAP, but I haven't done much testing to see the quality of those conversions...
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There is some good info here about H264.
It suggests that Quicktime Pro is a better quality H264 export than Compressor, but there is a lot of good info in the article to look into.
It lists two other encoders worth looking at, as X264 and MainConcept, neither of which am I familiar with.
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/What-Is-.../What-is-H.264-74735.aspxThere is also a chart comparing software encoders near the bottom of their very long technical wiki ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC
The first column shows QT for encoding.
It goes into a lot of detail about B-Frames and other complexities.After reading these two articles, I also conclude that HandBrake is using the high quality (award winning) X264 open source algortihms to encode to H264.
So HandBrake and Quicktime Pro seem to be the best quality options from the texts I have read so far.But all of this does lead to the inevitable question: what re the best SETTINGS in HandBrake or QKT7 Pro for use in Isadora movie playback?
And that means doing some tests. I believe Mark already did a large number of these kinds of tests already... but we need to publish some advice on this, imho.jamie
Perhaps we need an Isadora online tutorial on codec compression tools for Mac and WIndows users?
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@jamie Thank you, thank you! Finally I got some excellent information.
The article you point to is very good indeed and easy to understand. While WiKi is most up to date but overwhelming as such.My tests with Handbrake are very promising as well. It works very fast and quality is good. however I have been able to get imageless video with some settings. But I haven't had time to run systematic tests yet.The reason starting this topic was precisely that: to get people test results together and find the preferable options. You tutorial idea is very welcome. -
Just as an added note, my test files use: MainConcept h264, and Sony AVC (h264), (in MP4 wrappers)I am also adding this for additional testing: http://x264vfw.sourceforge.net/ since ffmpeg is a popular standard. -
Just saw this article... apparently Adobe Premiere does a rather bad job of exporting H264.. who knew!
http://www.nofilmschool.com/2014/09/massive-difference-export-quality-fcpx-and-premiere-pro
