[FFmpeg-user] A question about video encoding.

[Aditya Dandavate]

On Mon, 13 Nov, 2023, 11:00 pm Andrew Randrianasulu, <
randrianasulu at gmail.com> wrote:

> пн, 13 нояб. 2023 г., 14:35 Aditya Dandavate <adityadandavate04 at gmail.com
> >:
>
> > On Sun, 12 Nov, 2023, 11:15 pm Andrew Randrianasulu, <
> > randrianasulu at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > вс, 12 нояб. 2023 г., 20:23 Aditya Dandavate <
> > adityadandavate04 at gmail.com
> > > >:
> > >
> > >
> > > > So, Should I stick to h264_qsv or mpeg4 ? In general, which encoder
> > gives
> > > > higher quality at the same bitrate ?
> > > >
> > >
> > > Hardware encoders used to be not good at 2-4-6 Mbs range for live
> > > streaming, but from existence of some bluray compat option in nvenc
> > wrapper
> > > I can guess at BluRay bitrates they might be quite good?
> >
> >
> > I am using Intel, so I can't use Nvenc. So, which encoder should I stick
> to
> > for better quality or higher quality at same bitrate, h264_qsv or mpeg4 ?
> >
>
>
> well, from brief search g3240 Pentium from around  year 2014.
>
> I have laptop with just slightly earlier Intel CPU/GPU (Sandybridge era),
> but I only tried h264_vaapi, and not QSV.
>
> for me 1080p 24 fps re-encode from yt-dlp download,  at default setting was
> ok quality-wise, but I might be not best person to ask about visual
> quality.
>
> Back in the day (2003-5) I used  ffmpeg (mencoder) for live-capturing tv /
> vhs stream with mpeg4 or asv2 (Asus video codec 2). Probably not best
> quality, but back then there was no hw encoders (for me, under Linux) so
> only way to encode was lowering capture resolution until process become
> realtime at 25 fps.
>
> You probably do not need strictly realtime encode, so ...
>
> I guess it also depend on where exactly you intend to play this stream. If
> intended device only have mpeg4 (ASP) decoder, or can't decode h264 stream
> at given resolution - then stick to mpeg4.
>
> If on the contrary your hardware ONLY can accelerate h264 stream as encoded
> by hw encoder - then go for it, if you are ok with quality (hw encoders
> might behave a bit different comparing to software ones when scene abruptly
> changes ....)
>
> Honestly, people were writing multipage articles comparing various codecs
> at various resolutions and input sequences. But for non-scientific use  -
> just trust your eyes, I guess?


Yeah, you are right. 👍

But, I found a nice alternative to mpeg4 and h264_qsv.

VP8 at -quality good, -cpu-used 4, 1920x1080 resolution, 60 fps, -crf 10,
-b:v 15000k, gives speed of 15 fps when I viddump Doom demos to videos. And
at 15000k, the quality of video also looks very good, better than h264_qsv
and mpeg4 at 15 mbps.

So, long live VP8 (libvpx) encoder!
Long live FFMPEG!

I'll stick to VP8. I humbly request FFMPEG developers to not remove/delete
VP8 encoders/decoders from FFMPEG. 🙏

Thank you.

>