[MPlayer-users] Re: lavc vs. xvid (and improving lavc quality)

[Jason Tackaberry]

On Sun, 2004-05-30 at 12:06 +0700, Evgueni V. Gavrilov wrote:
> this comparison isn't correct because by default lavc doesn't create
> B-frames, but xvid does.

It does?  I assumed it didn't because the man page says (under
xvidencopts):

   max_bframes=<0-4>
        maximum number of B frames to put between I/P frames (default=0)

I've definitely also noticed that xvid at quant=3 and lavc at quant=3
yield very different bitrates.  I assumed that the numbers weren't
really comparable between the two codecs, but it sounds like they're
supposed to be.  Can B-frames really account for such a significant
difference in bitrate?

I seem to remember someone, I think it was Rich, very much abhorring
B-frames, but I never really knew why.

Jason.