H.264 vs. MPEG-4

I've heard many things about both formats, but what are the distinct advantages and disadvantages of both formats? And in the end, which format would be best on my movies on my iPod? I have probably over 55GB of free space with all my music, photos, and other movies on it right now, so video quality is not an issue with me.

A little more background:
Apple added H.264 video playback to their 5th Generation iPod on October 12, 2005. The new product will use this format, as well as MPEG-4 Part 2, for video playback. The video-enabled iPod will use the H.264 Baseline Profile with support of bit rates up to 768 kbit/s, image resolutions up to 320 x 240, and frame rates up to 30 frames per second.
The intent of H.264/AVC project has been to create a standard that would be capable of providing good video quality at bit rates that are substantially lower (e.g., half or less) than what previous standards would need (e.g., relative to MPEG-2, H.263, or MPEG-4 Part 2), and to do so without so much of an increase in complexity as to make the design impractical (excessively expensive) to implement.

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Blu Ray via Encore: H.264 or MPEG?

Hi,
I want to create a Blu Ray via Encoe Export to be played on a Samsung 1400 Blu Ray Player. Which settings would you use? H.264 or MPEG? What is the best bit rate?
Regards, Sascha

h.264 will give you better quality at a given bit rate. If memory serves, something between 19 and 30 Mbps.

H.264 or MPEG 4???

I have a file converter for iPad movies - I have a choice of:
H.264 or MPEG-4
What's the difference? Thanks -

In practical terms, none
From Wikipedia
"The ITU-T H.264 standard and the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 AVC standard (formally, ISO/IEC 14496-10 - MPEG-4 Part 10, Advanced Video Coding) are jointly maintained so that they have identical technical content."
If you'd like to increase your geek quotient:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

H.264 vs MPEG-4 and Quicktime Plug in vs the Quicktime Player.

I am currently setting up a webpage that will have over 100 videos (30 minute videos)that will be in the quicktime format and ipod format. So I have a few questions about setting up this page and wanted to get someones experienced input on a few things.
I'm setting up the videos with links as there are so many videos. When setting up the page, should I have the entire quicktime player download or just the plug in?
Should I use the H.264 or Mpeg-4 compression setting. I realize that H.264 requires the Quicktime 7 download but I could put a link that sends them to this page, I'm just wondering what the best choice for compression would be.
Do you know of any webpages that have videos that are available for the user to be able to click on the video link and watch the video in quicktime or to choose the ipod
download? I wanted to see how this is set up on one page.

100 videos on one page? I hope you have enough bandwidth to serve all of this data.
I would use "poster" movies that target the QuickTime Player (not the plug-in). No data would download until a viewer clicks a "play" button (a simple image file save as a .mov file). An example of one of my files that uses a poster movie and targets the QuickTime Player. The escape key exits full screen mode.
http://homepage.mac.com/kkirkster/03war/
To set up a page that allows a download you could use a text based link to the same file. Just tell the viewers to right-click (Control-click on a Mac) and save the file from the pop-up menu.
This save you bandwidth and makes creating the page fairly simple (even for 100 files).
I would use MPEG-4 using MPEG-4 video codec instead of H.264 (broader base of possible viewers). I would encode the files at 480X360 dimensions and use the QuickTime playback "Presentation" option to play the files. Big "wow" factor as you can see from my example file.
The page would look something like this:
Name and description of the file as text.
Poster movie (simple image that says Play) sized at 25X30.
Text based link to the "download" version.
Instructions right-click to save (text).
You could make the page using a "three across" (like columns) so the viewer doesn't have to scroll down a long list. Even with 100 linked files the html code would be under 30KB's.

Converting a Low Res H.264 TO Mpeg-2 for Uploading

I have a two minute trailer for a documentary that the producer wants me to upload for "Independent Film Week" that needs to be in Mpeg-2 format. Previously, i have uploaded an low res "H.264" format. How do i convert the H.264 (quicktime?) to mpeg-2? I tried using Compressor, but the MPEG-2 setting was high res (6 gigs).
2nd question: if i convert a H.264 quicktime with Compressor, the file is "batch file". What did i do wrong?

I'm not really an experienced guy at this, but you might try experimenting with these suggestions and test your results:
I would try exporting directly from your original timeline instead of trying to convert your H.264 footage. Export to the MPEG2 setting, but double-click the setting in Compressor to open the setting in the Inspector. Click on the "Quality" tab, and lower your bit rate (you'll see it adjust the file size at the bottom).
Oh, and I'd set In & Out points in your FCP timeline before you export so that you can experiment with a few seconds to better see your results. Or you could just examine the quality in the Preview window of Compressor.
So you might try experimentation with that. Hopefully, that's helpful. Good luck!
Lawrence

Elgato Video Capture to convert old VHS - H.264 or MPEG-4?

Elgato offers two different settings for capturing video...
Video resolution: 640×480 (4:3)
Video format: H.264 at 1.4 MBit/sec or MPEG-4 at 2.4 MBit/sec
Audio: AAC, 48kHZ, 128 kBit/sec
Which one of these would be best for importing into FCPX v10.1?
Thanks!

Thanks... that's what it looked like when I did a test import of some VHS footage using both settings. I opened them up in Quicktime and enlarged them and saw no noticeable difference between the two when comparing the exact same freeze frame. It seems MPEG-4 would be slightly better based on the extra 1 MBit/sec but I didn't see the difference it in the freeze frame.
At any rate, it's a pretty handy tool when connected to a VCR via S-Video and you have hundreds of VHS tapes to convert. I assume that when the video is captured by the Elgato it is doing a conversion that loses quality from the original and then FCP is transcoding it to when it gets imported for more quality loss but I guess that's unavoidable.
Appreciate the reply!

H.264 within MPEG-2 TS Container

hi all,
is it posssible to use compressor (or another apple app) to create an H.264 format movie that is packages within an MPEG-2 TS (broadcast transport stream) Container.
many thanks
Excelsior01

Try creating a custom setting:
1. H.264 for DVD Studio Pro
2. make sure that "Include PCM audio" is checked
3. set the stream settings as needed.
This will create a muxed QT movie (program stream)...see if it works in your delivery environment.
BG

CPU/speed differences between Compressor settings - H.264 versus Mpeg-2

After setting up my 2.26 8-core Mac Pro for distributed processing for Compressor, I was able to get nice speeds using mpeg-2, but the h.264 codec seems to throttle back the speed of the compression.
For mpeg-2, Activity Monitor shows around 55% of the CPU being used for the process overall. For h.264, it shows around 15% CPU use, which is around the amount that would be used without distributed processing. I am using 8 instances in the qmaster setup.
Any ideas? I've tried some other settings and the mpeg ones (mpeg-1, mpeg-4) seem to take advantage of the speed while others (h.264, Uncompressed 8-bit) don't.

This sounds like its I/O bound. Open Activity Monitor, and check data read/sec and data written/sec in the Disk Activity tab. If the number is over like 100MB/sec, that could be whats holding you back, depending on the speed of your disk. If you are using a network volume, check the network tab. 1 instance seems to be good for 2 physical cores when doing H.264. 8 instances should max you out, unless your source is something like Uncompressed 10 bit and the reads are bottlenecking processing. In essence you have 8 instances trying to read data as fast as it can, which means no process reads it fast. So the instances are waiting around for data.

No more H.264 or MPEG-4 recordings in Quicktime 7.3.1?

I'm really confused and a little frustrated. After upgrading to Leopard, I hadn't used Quicktime much, but recently, I wanted to make some video recordings, and much to my surprise, it would not record. Everytime I stopped the recording, I got the error message:
Recording Filed because no data was received. Make sure that the media input source is turned on an playing.
According to another post I saw, the solution to this was to set the recording quality to device native, which apparently is the YUV422 codec, Interger (Little Endian). The problem with this is that it's raw video and huge! A 2:26 video is taking up 1.34 gig on my HD. Now, I can convert it, of course, but what happened to natively recording in web-friendly formats? Is there a fix for this besides just using Photobooth (no sound) or alternate programs?
Also, this is on a Macbook 2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, not the B&W listed in my system signature.
Message was edited by: Lezard Valeth1

Nope. Wasn't aware that you could do that with Photobooth. I'm not seeing an option which allows me to set audio in Photobooth in 10.5.1, all Apple Software up to date (according to software update).
I've been paging around for ~ the last hour or so and tried some of the other mentioned solutions, such as testing in a difference account, checking for incompatible codecs and what not. I removed all excess codecs and tried QTP in another admin account and a non-admin account. No difference. I've also don't have any applications which reportedly don't play well with QTP, such as Final Cut Pro and such.
Heh, guess I have two problems now, what with Photobooth.

How do I convert an .mp4 h.264 file into a simple Mpeg 2 file...

I've had Quicktime for quitesometime now.
I'been been through many QT versions but version 7 series, I think has problems.
I've been dl'ing .mp4 files, with h.264 codecs.
Quicktime plays them wonderfully but I'd like to put the movies on my media servers and stream them to my network dvd players(thin-clients).
They can stream mpeg 1 and 2 great, as well as Xvid, Divx, and even VOBs'.
I installed Quicktime 7 along time ago, and tried an export to many different data file formats. I would either get no video or no sound. I have just about every codec needed to do any conversion to Divx or Xvid.
I also installed 3ivx.
Can anyone tell me how something so simple can be so difficult? QuickTime, if it plays it, and shows that its capable of exporting to different formats, should be able to do the job.
Beleive me, I know what your thinking. I've going as far as formatting, reinstalling Windows XP Pro, Updating, etc many times just to try to re-encode these .mp4 files into something big, yes, a large RAW file. Something that can be easily converted into anything else such as the basic old Mpg 1 or 2 file...
Please, any help would be apprecaited!
NeuroPsyche

I tried ffmpeg but it just doesn't seem like it does a very good job at converting. I dont know why, but I think its because the .mp4 file has 6.1 sound or that new acc codec.
I'm not sure about it, but when I do use ffmpeg, the sound doens't come out.
Thanks!
Dave.
QuickTime doesn't have the capability to export to
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, at least not without third-party
codecs (and I'm not aware of any for Windows for
those formats, though there could be some somewhere).
You might want to take a look at the open-source ffmpeg which can
convert H.264 to MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 (as well as a
number of other formats).
Hope this helps.

After Effects CC 2014 - removal of H.264, MPEG-2, WMV, FLV, F4V, and SWF exporters - WHY !?

While reading the features of AfterEffects CC2014, I noticed the following:
"removal of H.264, MPEG-2, WMV, FLV, F4V, and SWF exporters from After Effects"
THAT IS IS REDICULOUS!!
NO FLV !?!?
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT USERS TO IMPORT INTO FLASH ??
IF no FLV export is available under After Effects CC 2014, there is NO WAY to EMBED an flv into flash !! (Linking is NOT always what is wanted!!)
NO H264 !?!?!
HAVE YOU GONE CRAZY ?!!?!?
YOU BREAK WORKFLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THAT IS REDICULOUS!!!
Any chance of restoring such features so that it makes updating to it worthwhile ?

To date I've primarily been a Photoshop user and have dealt with years of mystifying UX and workflow changes, features that are useless to me added, and critical ones taken away (I'm looking at you Bridge, you worthless piece of garbage). Then, to add insult to injury, Adobe forum mods telling me I'm doing it wrong and should be jumping through more hoops to achieve the same results. Now, with AE becoming a bigger part of my work, I am sad to find, that the same culture of disconnected arrogance and myopia prevails on the AE dev team.
"Oh um user, you really want to be going through AME, because um technically speaking there have been many problems with the H.264 and MPEG-2 exporters in After Effects"
Oh really? Tell me more about my job. Tell me about my experiences exporting these formats directly from AE. Tell me how my client views my content, is it on a Mac, or a PC? Maybe it's on his phone, or her iPad. What kind of phone is it though? Tell me at what point in my process it's ideal to render. Tell me about other tasks I'm performing. Tell me about the resolution and the bit-rate my files should play at. Tell me the final application I will be using the footage. Probably broadcast right? Or is it web? Or is it PowerPoint? Wait, what if there is no final output? What if it's just pre-vis for some other application?
Tell me how to win over my clients; what's the correct method of presentation to engage them most impactfully? Tell me about how much time I have to render massive video files. Is it more time efficient due to the nature of my composite to render once because my file is super shallow and will render quickly or is it more efficient to render twice because my file is extremely complex with hundreds of layers?
That the deprecated formats were hidden away in the preferences menu is dumb and annoying. That this same preference would then be removed is despicable and petty and is further confirmation that Adobe has contempt for me as a user.

MPEG to MPEG-4 or H.264 Quicktime Pro issues

Today, as I sit anticipating my new ipod video's arrival I decided to take the time to convert some of my MPG files to H.264 and MPEG-4 with my new version of Quicktime Pro that is supposed to convert these for your iPod. Soon to find out when you convert them there is no way to get the audio converted. So now my new ipod video is useless to me and wish I didn't buy it because I can't play any of my videos on it. well... maybe I'll still keep it for the music... but if anyone can shed some light on this it would be a big help.

on a Mac use Handbrake and use MPEG-4 instead of h.264
you can customize the video resolution (320x240) and the audio
works great. i've already tested a couple and they work on the iPod fine....
http://playlistmag.com/weblogs/ipodblog/2005/10/videoipodlessons/index.php?lsrc= mwrss

MPEG-4 in, H.264 out

Hi: I've heard that MPEG-4 is H.264 (not sure ?) ... If my Video starts in MPEG-4 and My final FCP or Compressor Export is H.264 is there a Format conversion in the process or is it untouched because it is the same (or very close) ? Thanks, MLR

H.264 is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC but when Apple refers to an H.264 codec or encoding it's not the same as basic MPEG-4. Thus, when you export or convert a basic MPEG-4 video to H.264 you are going through an extra encoding step (i.e. there is a video data conversion). Whether you will notice much of a change depends upon the encoding quality and bitrate of the original and/or the result (thus, garbage in -- garbage out, etc.).
Usually when QuickTime can perform a lossless or in-place format change it will offer a pass-through option. You may see this option when you convert a QuickTime movie (.mov) to/from a native H.264 or MPEG-4 file container (such as a .mp4).

Unwatchtable results when converting to H.264 (MPEG Streamclip 1.8)

I converted several movies to H.264 a year ago using an older version of MPEG Streamclip, using the exact same settings (H.264, 720x576, 25 fps, 2400 kbps). These movies play fine on the atv. Movies that I recently converted, using MPEG Streamclip 1.8 and newer versions of QT (whatever the current version is) no longer play correctly on the atv. These newer conversions flicker green and really have no dicernable picture. The atv attempts to play the content (no error message), but the displayed picture is just a torn up mess. These newer conversions play fine on the Mac
(in iTunes or QT Player). Does anyone know what's wrong or how to work around this problem?
Thanks.
Jens Petersohn
PowerMac G4 1.25 DP, AlBk 15 1 GHz, Mac Mini 1.25 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Codec: H.264
Size: 720x576
Bitrate: 300 KBps
Quality: 100%
I stored this settings about 2 years ago as a preset.These settings do lot look right. If saved 2 years ago with a data rate of 300 Kbps, this should have been an iPod preset (likely for a 320 x 240) or possibly quarter PAL display dimensions "Baseline" profile. (I.e., roughly half the recommended iPod setting but a setting likely good for web use.) Baseline, files, despited their low data rate, would have been iPod compatible then and TV compatible now.
As I said before, the resulting movies all work fine on the atv except the very latest.Actually, in your original post, the settings you gave look more like they are for a PAL "Main" profile if you are using 720 x 576 dimensions and a data rate of 2400 Kbps. The problem is if your are using the "Baseline Low Complexity" profile, then this file will likely be trapped by iTunes as not be within acceptable "LC" profile specifications and I would assume not sync with either iPod or TV devices. On the other hand, if you are using the "Main" profile, then the file should be TV compatible but not iPod compatible.
I believe, unlike Handbrake, MPEG Streamclip uses Apple's H.264 Codec.The MPEG Streamclip default is H.264, but MPEG-4 is also available if you select it. However, even the MPEG-4 codec was originally limited to 900 macro-16 blocks back then -- usually assigned as a 480 x 480 display encode matrix. This was increased to 1200 macro-16 blocks when the "Low Complexity" H.264 format was introduced for MPEG-4 640 x 480 compatibility. However, even now, according to Apple, the MPEG-4 "Simple" profile is limited to 1215 macro-16 blocks or a 720 x 432 display encode matrix -- not 720 x 576.
I'm going to attempt to compress something with the Quicktime Pro tool as a comparision.Suggest you run your tests using H.264 "Main" profile at originally posted settings, switch to "LC" compatible H.264 dimensions/data rates, or use MPEG-4 at stated data rate but using compatible dimensions (e.g., 16:9 aspect ratio 720 x 400 display which is equivalent to a compatible 1125 macro-16 blocks).

MPEG-2 or H.264

Hi-
I have about 1.5 hours of HD footage and 25 chapters to fill a DVD. I read that H.264 is the much better encoder setting, but the DVD will only be able to hold 50min. Is this true? And if so, is encoding to MPEG-2 that much worse?
Also, I read that compressing the audio separately will also lower my file size. What bit-rate or compression setting should I use for the audio?
Thank you!
ps. I have DVD Studio Pro 4 (FCP7)

Before you get started you need to know this. DVD SP allows you to create SD DVD discs and HD DVD discs. You need to go into the Preferences for DVD SP and choose BEFORE you start creating a new project.
An HD DVD will only play on Macs and a few, now obsolete Toshiba HD DVD players. They will not play on PCs, stand alone DVD players, or Blu-Ray players. An HD DVD can play H.264 or MPEG-2 files at HD resolution.
An SD DVD player will play on Macs, PCs, DVD players and Blu-Ray players. It is limited to SD resolution, but every single DVD you have ever owned/rented/watched has been a SD DVD. SD DVDs will only play MPEG-2 files.

H.264 vs. MPEG-4 video, which is better quality?

Which is better quality? H.264 or MPEG-4? Is one more compressed than the other? I'm putting video on my iPod and also may want to output to television from the iPod, so I'd also like to know which is better for that as well in addition to which is better in general.

H.264 is significantly more compressed than typical MPEG-4. MPEG-4 naturally would be better quality to the discerning eye, and is not as dependent on the speed of your processor and the strength of your GPU as H.264 is. I managed to get a 320 x 240 video of H.264 compressed to be 200 Megabytes for a 2.5 hour video. On a G5 iMac 1.8 Ghz the playback was fine. Trying the same video on a slower Mac there was significant amount of stuttering of the video itself. Experiment with some one minute shorts and measure the file size and see which has better quality on what you are playing it back on. If you can tell the difference, then go with the higher quality format. Certainly keep a higher quality format burnt to DVD in case you need to recreate from the original.

H.264 vs. MPEG-4

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