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).

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QuickTime Broadcaster, from MPEG-2 to H.264 stream

Can QT Broadcaster connect to a MPEG-2-stream, convert it to H.264 MPEG-4 and broadcast the new stream on the fly?

I could be missing something, but to the best of my knowledge, no, QT Broadcaster cannot. It's not a transcoder; it's intended to capture live audio and video from Firewire, USB or an analog input.
There is at least one real-time MPEG-2 to H.264 transcoder available, from Media Excel, but it's not cheap; ca. $13,500 US. If there's anything less expensive that can convert MPEG-2 to H.264 in real time, I haven't been able to find it.
Your only other option, I think, would be to capture a video output stream from your MPEG-2 content to an analog or DV output, then use QT Broadcaster or another real-time compression tool to handle the H.264 output.

Ipod plays MPEG-4 but not MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)??

I've converted a bunch of DVD's to MPEG-4 AVC H.264 using Xilisoft's DVD Ripper Platinum. But to my surprise my iTunes doesn't even transfer them to the Ipod. It says on Apple's Tech Spec's that the Ipod plays H.264 format.
The video's are converted in 320x240, 30fps, 768Kbps, all according to "what's allowed". Xilisoft also converts DVD's straight to Ipod format, which plays without a problem. But the problem for me is, that it is in MPEG-4 format and the file is TWICE as big as in H.264!!
It is possible to use in "iTunes->Advanced->Convert selection for Ipod" too. This converts the MPEG-4 AVC H.264 file to a .m4v file, which works fine on the Ipod and all.
But i'm still wondering why the Ipod doesn't play from the beginning the MPEG-4 AVC H.264 file? So if i want a small file that plays in my Ipod i need to convert twice, DVD->H.264 and then H.264->.m4v?? Just sounds so crazy...What am i missing??
I would appreciate it very much if somebody could help me with this, i have tried to search in just about every single forum on Google but none has really helped me.

Do you have a check box or option for baseline
profile under h.264?
Yes, it says on the upper right corner, after you choose in which format you want to conver the file to, in which codec it is. So when i convert it to MPEG-4 AVC it says h.264 and when converted to "Ipod format" on the drop down menu, it says on the upper right corner mpeg-4.
I am just really dwelled with this and i have updated all softwares, but no luck whatsoever.

What is the advantage of recording with the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format?

Solved!
Go to Solution.

The MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format is capable of compressing images at a higher efficiency than that of more conventional image-compressing formats, like MPEG-4 or MPEG-2. This format makes it possible to record longer lengths of high-definition video footage.

MPEG-4 AVC/H.264

Hello all,
I had a camera which records MPEG2, but it is broken. Now I want to buy a new camera which will record in AVCHD. Before I do this, I want to try to edit a MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 file in Adobe Premiere, see how it works on my PC.
Is there a place or site where I can download a sample MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 file. The content doesn't matter, as long as it is a file in the format I will get when having a AVCHD camera.
Thanks in advance,
Best Regards,
André.

What version of Premiere?
Here's a downloadable sample file courtesy Fuzzy Barsik:
Spanned AVCHD clips sample from SONY HDR-SR12 camcorder
(7z archive file / Post #148).
http://forums.adobe.com/message/5461972#5461972
Reference:
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
CS6 note:
Audio and Video glitches | AVCHD footage - CS6 bug
http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/kb/audio-video-glitches-avchd.html
Promised fix:
Premiere Pro CC July 2013 Update
"Our commitment to customers includes those who haven't yet
subscribed to Creative Cloud or who rely on CS6, and we plan to
release an update to Premiere Pro CS6 in the coming weeks that
will address an AVCHD clip spanning issue."
http://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2013/07/ppro-cc-july-2013-update.html

MPEG 4 and H.264

Someone tell me what is better quality MPEG4 or H.264.

From the Wikipedia entry on MEPG-4
+"MPEG-4 is a patented collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV) digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) under the formal standard ISO/IEC 14496."+
... and the entry on H.264
+"MPEG-4 is a patented suite of standards which has many "parts", where each part standardizes various entities related to multimedia, such as audio, video, and file formats. To learn more about various parts and what they mean, please see the entry for MPEG-4.+
+H.264 is a standard for video compression, and is equivalent to MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). The final drafting work on the first version of the standard was completed in May 2003.+
+H.264 is the latest block-oriented motion-compensation-based codec standard developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) together with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and it was the product of a partnership effort known as the Joint Video Team (JVT). The ITU-T H.264 standard and the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 Part 10 standard (formally, ISO/IEC 14496-10) are jointly maintained so that they have identical technical content."+
The essence is that MPEG-4 allows for a wide variety of uses and implementations, leading to a wide variety of compression levels, whereas H.264, being a subset, is more tightly defined for specific uses.
AVCHD is also an implementation of MPEG-4, and you'll find most often that AVCHD files are smaller than either H.264 or 'standard' MPEG-4.
Hope that does more than just confuse things further

QuickTime Newb... Converting MPEG-2 to H.264 - ERRORS :-(

I’ve just purchased and downloaded both the MPEG-2 playback add-on for QuickTime PRO 7.1.3 as well as QT Pro it's self
And I am in the process of trying to convert (encode) some video files into QuickTime *.mov files, using the H.264 codec… and every time I try it gets about 20% thru the video file and freezes and then a windows error appears.
I’ve taken multiple screenshots of the errors:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ChrisRut/quicktime/qt_error1.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ChrisRut/quicktime/qt_error2.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ChrisRut/quicktime/qt_error3.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ChrisRut/quicktime/qt_error4.jpg
I was looking forward to using QuickTime to help me publish some home videos of mine on a website. But now I am beginning to regret my purchase decision. I might just stick with DivX... But now I am out $50
Please help me resolve these issues.
Thanks in advance,
-Chris

I forgot to upload the text file that was given in screenshot #3 (http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ChrisRut/quicktime/qt_error3.jpg)...
So I re-ran it again and got a new error log file.
It's rather large for a text file (126KB)
So Here is a link to download it: http://rapidshare.de/files/33028502/9afe_appcompat.txt.html
Hope this will help find a solution.
-Chris

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

In my Music Library the MPEG format files are greyed out and I cannot edit them, any ideas?

I have imported both ACC and MPEG files into my Itunes music library. On the ACC tunes I can edit information through Get Info command. On the MPEG tunes I cannot edit the information through Get Info command as all entries are greyed out. Any ideas?

Problem solved
Thanks I found the answer in other threads.
Regards

Is CS5 a good edit program to edit mpeg-4 AVC/H.264 with?

I always used adobe premiere pro 2 to edit DV. But now i've bought a new HD camera so i'm searching for a good program to edit my movies with. Right now I have to convert my HD movies in elements 7 and transfer it to adobe, but the result is very poor,time consuming and frustrating.
I'm about to buy a new computer and also a new edit program. But is CS5 a good choice? Is it possible to capture or transfer my movies of mpeg4 AVC/H.264 straight into a project in CS5? is there anybody out there who already uses this kind of codec for projects in CS5?
Monique.

Thanks a lot, I will check this section.
Can you also give me information about the quality when burning
(H.264) projects from CS5 on DVD?
Or do I have to use a blue ray recorder to avoid looking at unstable/jerky
images?
2010/10/7 Colin Brougham <[email protected]>
If you get a fast enough computer, you should be fine. Check out the
Hardware section for recommendations on computers or components that will
help make the most of Premiere.
>

Trying to export a movie compressed with H.264 out of AE

I am having some issues with exporting a movie compressed with H.264. I am using AE CS3. When I output with the settings of this image:
http://intuitionusa.com/ae.gif
I get an error message that is below in the image. I have to leave Quicktime in the top settings in the output module and then select H.264 in the format button. It allows me to render out, but a message appears saying it is better to select H.264 from the "format" dialog box.
* Also, when I export out to H.264 the file size is much larger than just using quicktime pro. I think it might be better to export an uncompressed file from AE and then use QT pro to compress but that is going to use up a lot of disc space.
SHoutzager

You're probably getting that error because of a frame size/codec conflict.
Your comp is 900x600, and the MainConcept codec is looking for a frame size of 720x480 (NTSC DV).
Using the Quicktime wrapper to export the H.264 is a fine optioin, however, AE will not do as good of a job compressing to that codec as Quicktime Pro, or a dedicated compression application would do. AE can only cache a limited number of frames for the compression process (frames before and after the current frame), and as a result, the compression quality and filesize will not be as small as they could be by using a different tool for the job.
As such, your supposition about rendering out an uncompressed/losslessly compressed movie and then running it through QT Pro (or another compression application) yielding superior results was a correct one.

Mpeg Streamclip-Video fastforwards, audio out of sync

I'm using mpeg streamclip to convert files from a sony mini dvd camcorder .vob to quicktime dvcpro50, but the video intermittently fastforwards causing the audio to go out of sync, any hints?
Thanks, Schooner

you are the second person i have heard that has this problem. with the first, i never heard back, but one thing i suggested it to that person was to connect with component video and analog audio cables.
are you using HDMI? is this something that you could try?
what equipment are you using and what are the file types, bitrates, etc... of the files that exhibit this behavior? does it happen no matter what type of file you play?
* NEVER MIND * i just checked the first poster and see that you chimed in there to. sounds like a potential hardware / software defect. i get something simliar with my computers if i plug headphones in or sometimes with long quicktime files, the audio drifts.
when in doubt, hard power the unit off and try again, if you haven't already.

H.264 out of FCP

Hello, Im new to FCP and Im trying to get a project out of FCP to a quicktime movie with the H.264 codec. My project was captured in 1080/60i and its 4 minutes and 39 seconds long. If I export to compressor and chose the 720HD 30p output the file is 660 meg. Of course Way to big , what I want to do is compress it in the H.264 codec down to about 200 meg.
When I change my render settings in FCP to H.264 and try to render I get "codec error".
If I try to export to quicktime movie and choose custom present-H.264 the same thing happens.
Any help is greatly appreciated

Export using quicktime conversion.
jw

MPEG Streamclip 1.8 is out...

A new version of MPEG Streamclip is out...MPEG Streamclip 1.8
As of 12/30/06
http://www.squared5.com/
added compatibility with DivX 6.5-6.6
improved AVI and DivX playback, encoding and editing
added an internal AVI importer
improved iPod compatibility
added the Open URL command with the Download button
added an internal audio resampler
added support for MPEG-1 in VOBs and transport streams
the Fix Timecode Breaks command has been improved
added 90 and 180 degree rotation
many bugs have been fixed

- MPEG Streamclip can now open and download FLV files.
- MicroMV and HDV camera owners please use Apple's DVHSCap to transfer movies into your Mac; then use MPEG Streamclip to convert them.
- DreamBox and Topfield users can open, download and upload movies with MPEG Streamclip, using the Enigma and Altair menus.
NEW IN VERSION 1.8
The Open URL command of the File menu, can now open and also download (or batch download) streams over the Internet, and it often recognizes and opens movies embedded in web pages. More details later in this guide.
MPEG Streamclip is now compatible with DivX 6. A special codec adapter has been added so now the DivX codec can be selected in the AVI and MOV exporter windows. If DivX 6.5 or later is installed, you can select MPEG Layer 3 audio in the exporter window as well.
The "Save As" command for AVI files has been significantly improved: it is faster, and can now handle B-frames properly. Better B-frame support has also been added in the AVI exporter, when the XviD codec is selected and B-frames are enabled in XviD options. Other improvements in the AVI exporter include proper encoding of AVI files with BMP and JPEG video, "lower" dominance for DivX, and a special frame size called "720x576 DivX PAL" that appear in place of "720x576 DV-PAL", when a DivX compatible codec is used.
An internal AVI importer has been added; it is a component that puts the AVI file in the player when it is opened in MPEG Streamclip. It was necessary because none of the three external AVI importers currently available (QuickTime, DivX, Perian-FFusion) seem to work properly.
Two internal AC3 and MP2 decoder components have been added: now it is possible to play QuickTime and AVI files with MPEG Layer 2 and AC3 sound without having to install any external codec.
An internal high-quality audio resampler (aka sample rate converter) has been added. This was necessary to replace the QuickTime audio resampler, used in previous versions of MPEG Streamclip, which worked well on PowerPC Macs but appeared to have random bugs on Intel Macs that affected the quality of sound and caused many out-of-sync problems.
Fixed many bugs; some of them were there since version 1.5, including: a bug in which the last few seconds of the audio track were not exported; a bug in which the video compressor used was sometimes different from the video compressor chosen; a bug in which the picture became darker/brighter when exporting with the same compressor; a bug in which the frame rate was not detected properly.
For FLV files, the Video PID menu lets you select the video aspect ratio (4:3/16:9).
Added support for MPEG-1 video in transport streams and in VOB files.
Added a quality slider for JPEG frame export.

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.

MPEG-4 in, H.264 out

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