[MPlayer-DOCS] [PATCH] Choosing the video codec

[Diego Biurrun]

On Mon, Dec 26, 2005 at 03:30:22PM +0100, Guillaume Poirier wrote:
> 
> <para>
>   Choosing the video codec to use depends on several factors, some of
>   which widely depends on personal tastes and technical constraints.

depend, taste

>   <emphasis role="bold">Compression efficiency</emphasis>:
>   It's quite easy to understand that newer generation of codecs are made
>   to yield better picture quality than previous generations.
>   Therefore, you can't be wrong choosing MPEG-4 AVC codecs like

cannot

>   <systemitem class="library">x264</systemitem> instead of MPEG-4 codecs
>   such as <systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem> or
>   <systemitem class="library">XviD</systemitem>

missing period

Ouch, you HAVE TO mention here that newer codecs trade quality for
speed, H.264 is no fun with less than a 1GHz (2GHz?) CPU..

>   (To get a better grasp of what are the fundamental differences between
>   MPEG-4 ASP and MPEG-4 AVC,

what the .. differences .. are

>   of Michael Niedermayer's blog).

from

>   However, newer codecs which are in heavy development can suffer from
>   some bugs which have not been spotted at the time you used that codec,
>   ruining your video encode.

s/video encode/encode/

>   Standalone video players are usually quite behind what is going on
>   in video codec.

codecs

>   That means that much only MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 ASP supported

Hmm, I guess you are trying to say "That means that most only support
MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 ASP".

>   Codecs that have been around for some times (such as

time

>   optimized using all kinds of smart algorithm and SIMD assembly code.

algorithms

>   If your are after blazing speed you should stick around the default

you are

>   settings of the video codec (which doesn't mean you should not play
>   around with some of the options

s/play around/play/ or s/play around/experiment/

> which are told about in other sections of this guide).

s/told about/mentioned/

>   <systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem> does allow that,
>   but at the price of picture quality for some low speed gains.

libavcodec does allow that, at the price of lowering picture quality
for small speed gains.

>   <emphasis role="bold">Personal tastes</emphasis>:

I'd use the singular: personal taste.

>   This is were it gets almost irrational: For the same reason that some
>   hanged on to DivX3 for years when newer codecs were already doing wonders,
>   some folks will prefer <systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem>
>   over <systemitem class="library">XviD</systemitem> or
>   <systemitem class="library">x264</systemitem>.

Hehe, I think we should push libavcodec where we can, so say that some
people (irrationally) prefer other codecs over lavc ;)

>   Make your own judgment, and don't always listen to what some people will
>   tell you to do or think: the best codec is the one you master the best,

Capitalize the sentence after the colon.

>   and the one that looks better to your eyes!

s/better/best/

Diego