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

[Guillaume Poirier]

Diego Biurrun wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 26, 2005 at 03:30:22PM +0100, Guillaume Poirier wrote:

[..]

>>  <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..

Just to prevent ppl from keeping thinking that H.264 is god awfully
slow, my Celeron M 1.3Ghz decodes (close to) DVD-size using only around
50% of CPU time.
I don't know what is the minimum CPU for most CPU flavours thought.


[..]

>>  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".

Yes, that's what I mean.


>>  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 ;)

Well, I do see that you're jocking here... I've used the 3 above
mentioned codecs, and I like them all for different reasons, and what
thing is clear to me: it's darn useless to try to find which of those
codecs are better when there are so many options to play with that it's
as easy to screw things up...

Not to mention that the picture quality you'll get with ASP codecs also
(sadly) depends on the decoder (which lead to the flamewar on
mencoder-users), just as much as the kind of monitor/video projector/TV
you're gonna use, each of which make some encoding artifacts more visible.

Eh, I guess I should add smth about monitors to that doc patch...


I'll post an updated version of that patch wich features your
suggestions when I get home.

Thanks a lot,

Guillaume