[Ffmpeg-devel] Video compression and quality of codecs.

[Bogdan Mustiata]

Hello all,

I have tested the H263 codec in order to achieve best compression and 
quality (an utopia, I know).

After playing around with bitrates, resolutions and framerates I 
obtained something like:
Bitrate:	2750
Rezolution:	352x288
Framerate:	10 fps
Keyframe:	1/s (one keyframe at a second)
KB/s		29-31.
(KiloBytes per second)

The problem was that I was getting some small (and sometimes bigger) 
squares (done probably by the super-sampling).

Now, someone showed me a live streaming at the same resolution , at 15 
fps using a WMV proprietary codec and RTSP streaming and obtained the 
following:
Bitrate:	unknown
Rezolution:	352x288
Framerate:	15 fps
Keyframe:	unknown
KB/s		15 (!!)

What astonishes me is the quality which was so much better on the WMV 
codec and only the buffering times were way to big (~2-3 seconds at 
encoding and decoding, resulting a cumulative delay of ~4-6 seconds).

That means there is room for improvement.

Anyway, regarding strictly compression, the question that wonders me is: 
which is the best codec that still keeps a good quality in FFmpeg not 
regarding CPU consumption, memory or other factors, simply compression?

Have a nice day anyone,

Bogdan