Video comparisons
between software dvd players, encoders, tv card, video files,
players, codecs...Use the links above here to navigate.
| Format |
VCD |
SVCD
|
DVD |
HDDVD
HDTV
(WMVHD) |
AVI
DivX
XviD
WMV |
MOV
Quick-
Time
|
RM
Real-
Media
|
AVI
DV |
| Resolution
NTSC/PAL |
352x240
352x288 |
480x480
480x576
|
720x480²
720x576² |
1920x1080²
1280x720² |
640x480² |
640x480² |
320x240² |
720x480
720x576 |
| Video
Compression |
MPEG1 |
MPEG2 |
MPEG2,
MPEG1 |
MPEG2
(WMV-
MPEG4) |
MPEG4 |
Sorenson,
Cinepak, MPEG4 ... |
RM |
DV |
| Video bitrate |
1150kbps |
~2000kbps |
~5000kbps |
~20Mbps
(~8Mbps) |
~1000kbps |
~1000kbps |
~350kbps |
25Mbps |
| Audio
Compression |
MP1 |
MP1 |
MP1, MP2, AC3, DTS, PCM |
MP1, MP2, AC3, DTS, PCM |
MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, AC3 |
QDesign Music, MP3 ... |
RM |
DV |
| Audio bitrate |
224kbps |
~224kbps |
~448kbps |
~448kbps |
~128kbps |
~128kbps |
~64kbps |
~1500kbps |
| Size/min |
10
MB/min |
10-20
MB/min |
30-70
MB/min
|
~150MB/min
(~60MB/min)
|
4-10
MB/min |
4-20
MB/min |
2-5
MB/min
|
216MB/min |
| Min/74min
CD |
74min |
35-60min |
10-20min |
~4min
(~10min) |
60-180min |
30-180
min |
120-300
min |
3min |
| Hours/DVD |
N/A |
N/A |
1-2hrs
(2-5hrsª) |
~30min
(~1hrs) |
7-18hrs |
3-18hrs |
14-35hrs |
20min |
Hours/
DualLayerDVD |
N/A |
N/A |
2-4hrs
(5-9hrsª) |
~55min
(~2hrs) |
13-30hrs |
6-30hrs |
25-65hrs |
37min |
| DVD Player
Compatibility |
Great |
Good |
Excellent |
None |
Few |
None |
None |
None |
| Computer
CPU Usage |
Low |
High |
Very High |
Super high |
Very High |
High |
Low |
High |
| Quality |
Good |
Great* |
Excellent* |
Superb* |
Great* |
Great* |
Decent* |
Excellent |
kbps = thousand bits per second
Mbps = million bits per second
² approximately resolution, it can be higher or lower
~ approximately bitrate, it can be higher or lower
ª DVD with lower video quality, similiar to VCD/SVCD video quality
* the video quality depends on the bitrate and the video resolution, higher bitrate
and higher resolution generally means better video quality but bigger file size
| MPEG2
SVCD Encoders Comparison |
Testfile: Uncompressed
RGB AVI, 60 seconds, 1500 frames at 25 fps, 720 x 576 interlaced.
CPU: P3 750 with 512 MB RAM running Win2k
Encoders:
TMPGEnc 12j
Cinema
Craft Encoder 2.50 (require P3/Athlon processor and
I had to use a external resizer and frameserve
to CCE)
LSX MPEG
Encoder 3.5
Nero 5.5 with
MPEG2/SVCD/DVD Plugin
WinTV PVR (hardware
MPEG encoder)
Converting
to PAL SVCD Format using 2400 kbit/s Constant Bitrate with the
"slowest" encoding settings to get best quality. I
checked the actual average with Teco
LTD's Bitrate viewer.
|
Results:
|
Cinema Craft
2.5
|
TMPGEnc 12j
|
Nero 5.5
|
LSX 3.5
|
WinTV PVR
|
| Settings |
Pal SVCD
2400kbit/s CBR
(actual average bitrate 2345)
224kbit/s audio
|
Pal SVCD
High Quality
2400 kbit/s CBR
(actual average bitrate 2347)
224kbit/s audio
|
Pal SVCD
2400 kbit/s VBR*
2600 kbit/s MAX
(actual average bitrate 2448)
224kbit/s audio
|
Pal SVCD
Very slow
2400 kbit/s CBR
(actual average bitrate 2402)
224kbit/s audio
|
Pal SVCD
2400 kbit/s CBR
(actual average bitrate 2346)
224kbit/s audio
|
| Time
taken |
resize using tmpgenc
3min 24secs
resize using virtualdub bilinear
5mins 36secs
|
8mins 12secs
|
12 mins 51*
|
13mins 6secs |
1 min |
| Encoding
speed (frames per second) |
7.4 fps with tmpgenc resize
4.4 fps with virtualdub bilinear resize
|
3.0 fps
|
1.9 fps* |
1.9 fps |
25 fps |
| High
action scenes |
Great
|
Great
|
Good
|
Good
|
Bad
|
| Color |
Great
|
Great
|
Great
|
Great
|
Good
|
| Blockiness |
Excellent
|
Great
|
Good
|
Decent
|
Bad
|
| Sharpness |
Great
|
Great
|
Good
|
Great
|
Good
|
| |
click on picture for image comparisons
between all encoders.
|
|
Features:
|
Cinema Craft
2.5
|
TMPGEnc 12j
|
Nero 5.5
|
LSX 3.5
|
WinTV PVR
|
| Resize |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Custom
Bitrate |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| CBR |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| VBR |
Yes (SP Version only)
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Crop
image |
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
| Add
borders(very important
if you are going to convert WS DivX for example) |
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
| Noise
reduction |
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Preview |
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Price |
$250 Lite version
$3980 SP version
|
$0
|
$49.00 Nero
$16.00 SVCD plugin
|
$179.95
|
$220
|
| More |
Require P3/Athlon processor, MPEG1
Encoding also
|
Freeware,
MPEG1 Encoding also, Deinterlace, Normalize, MPEG-Tools
-Join/Cut/ Demultiplex/ Multiplex and much more
|
MPEG1 Encoding also
|
MPEG1 Encoding also
|
Hardware encoder. Capture card and TV-Card.
|
* Nero does only support 2-pass Variable Bitrate Encoding with
max bitrate 2600kbit/s and audio encoding with 224 kbit/s.
And
the winner is TMPGEnc because it is almost as good
Cinemacraft Encoder and it is FREE but the differences
arent so big between all these encoders, WinTV PVR is worst
but a hardware encoder is then the easiest and fastest way
to create SVCDs and really good hardware encoders are very
very expensive.
Another MPEG2 DVD Software Encoder test here http://www.tecoltd.com/enctest/enctest.htm
| MPEG1
Encoders Comparison |
Testfile: Uncompressed RGB AVI, 174 seconds, 4360 frames
at 25 fps, 352 x 288
CPU: P3 800 with 196 MB RAM running Win2k
Encoders:
TMPGEnc 12a
Cinema
Craft Encoder 2.50 (require P3/Athlon processor)
BBMPEG
1.2
Panasonic Mpeg Encoder 2.51
LSX MPEG
Encoder 3.0
AVI2VCD
1.33
Xing Mpeg
Encoder 2.20
Converting
to Pal VCD Format.
|
Results:
|
Cinema
Craft
|
TMPGEnc
|
BBMPEG
|
Panasonic
|
LSX
|
AVI2VCD
|
Xing
|
| Settings |
Pal
VCD
|
Pal
VCD
High Quality
|
Pal
VCD
|
Pal
VCD
|
Pal
VCD
Very Slow
|
Pal
VCD
|
Pal
VCD
|
| Time
taken |
2mins
40secs
|
8mins
21secs
|
9mins
56secs |
9mins
35secs |
8mins
16secs |
11mins
31secs |
4mins
25secs |
| Speed
(fps) |
27.3
fps
|
8.7
fps
|
7.3
fps |
7.6
fps |
8.8
fps |
6.3
fps |
16.5
fps |
| Color |
Great
|
Great
|
Great
|
Good
|
Great
|
Great
|
Great
|
| Blockiness |
Good
|
Great
|
Good
|
Excellent
|
Bad
|
Bad
|
Bad
|
| Sharpness |
Great
|
Excellent
|
Great
|
Good
|
Good
|
Good
|
Excellent
|
| Features: |
image
comparison, click for 2x real size samples
|
image
comparison, click for 2x real size sample |
| Resize |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
| Crop
image |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
| Add
borders |
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
| Noise
reduction |
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
| Preview |
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
| More |
Require
P3/Athlon processor
MPEG2 Encoding
|
Freeware,
MPEG2 Encoding, Deinterlace, Normalize, MPEG-Tools -Join/Cut/
Demultiplex/ Multiplex and much more
|
|
|
MPEG2
Encoding
|
Freeware
|
|
And the
winner is....TMPGENc
REMEMBER that the encoding speed will decrease if you
add filters like resize, deinterlace, noise remover or whatever.
Also remember that Cinema Craft can't resize so if the source
isn't in the correct resolution you have to resize with for
example Virtualdub and frameserve
to Cinema Craft and the speed will of course decrease a lot
than.
More comparison here http://www.members.home.net/richa2/index.htm
with Ati All in Wonder and Snazzi.
Another sample from a very good hardware mpeg encoder
here.
(Optibase MPEG Moviemaker).
MPEG2
Software Encoder tests here http://www.tecoltd.com/enctest/enctest.htm
|
CD-ReWriters - Comparison and Prices |
View the
CD-ReWriters comparison
made by Sefy here.
|
Operating Systems comparison |
View the
comparison betwen Win98, Win98SE
and Win2K here.
|
DVD Software Players comparison |
View the
full list of 7 Software DVD Players and 1 Hardware Decoder here.
|
MJPEG/MPEG1/MPEG2 Hardware Capture Card comparison |
View Safe
Harbors head-to-head comparison between hardware capture cards
here.
|
PICVideo MJPEG comparison |
View a comparison
between the 20 Quality settings in PicVideo
MJPEG here.
View the full list here with 29 TV
Cards.
Picture quality with XingMpeg Player, Win Media Player and a
hardware Mpeg-decoder card. Screenshots taken at fullscreen.
(Click
to enlarge)
Conclusion:
Buy a Hollywood + (realmagic) and watch the movies on the
TV.
|
