mpeg or wmv, for better quality!?
- Thread starter rulindasheng
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Wmv with a high bitrate is definitely great quality. Forget about mpeg. But i still think the best results are produced with h264/x264 codecs. But of course, if you want to watch them on your tv with a regular player, it's possible it'll not work.
Give us more details please.
uzzled:
Give us more details please.
uzzled:
The m in "mp4" stands for mpeg-4 Part 14 and most mp4 files in existence today are actually not encoded in H.264, since the mp4 container is much older than the H.264 codec... your answer doesn't really make sense.
The question the original poster is asking is technically complicated to explain and even then, the correct answer is "it depends".
Which version of wmv and which version of mpeg are you asking about? Are we comparing codecs at the same bitrate or different bitrates? Does the file have to play on lots of devices or just a computer with plenty of processing power? Does decoding happen entirely in software or is hardware acceleration available for a certain codec?
If the file looks good and plays on the device you want, I would be content with that, because you will not find an imformed opinion about such technical matters on anything less than a videophile forum. Most of us here don't even know the difference between a codec and a container...
Need some background to address your question properly
Container:
A file that contains one or more data files, typically audio or video streams, but also subtitles, chapters etc. Examples of containers are AVI, MP4. MKV, ASF etc.
Codec:
A compression format used to encode an individual multimedia data stream, which may or may not be held in a container, for example H264 & WMV9 for video, MP3 and AAC for audio
Examples:
An AVI file might contain two components, a video stream using the DivX codec, and an audio stream using the MP3 codec
Or an MKV file might contain three components, a video stream using the x264 codec, an audio stream using the AAC codec, and chapter list
There is naming confusion, especially in the MPEG family, where the short container and codec names are used inconsistently. E.g. MP3 refers to an audio codec, but MP4 to a container type. Also WMV is strictly a codec, but is often used to mean the ASF container type.
However, setting those issues aside, you should see from the examples that the container has no real effect on file size or playback quality. It's just the bag you put your data in. Choice of container is made purely on compatibility and flexibility. So the question you mean to ask is: what codec (compression format) should I use for my audio / video data? Then you can package your compressed data in a container that suits your purpose.
As noted by mister_playboy, a full discussion of the relative merits of different codecs is far, far, far too detailed to get into here and you should research that elsewhere. However, the better rippers here are currently using H264 (the x264 implementation) as a video compression codec and AAC (the Nero implementation) for audio. But even within these specific codecs there are a myriad of settings that can vastly improve/reduce file size and quality. Consider using MeGUI or Akiba-Online's own MeguIV to encode using H264/AAC/MP3 and contain with MKV/MP4.
If you really don't care about filesize, then there are lossless compression schemes, for example H264 lossless. This encodes your media without any change from the source. However bear in mind that an hour of lossless 30fps video uses about 40Gb.
Container:
A file that contains one or more data files, typically audio or video streams, but also subtitles, chapters etc. Examples of containers are AVI, MP4. MKV, ASF etc.
Codec:
A compression format used to encode an individual multimedia data stream, which may or may not be held in a container, for example H264 & WMV9 for video, MP3 and AAC for audio
Examples:
An AVI file might contain two components, a video stream using the DivX codec, and an audio stream using the MP3 codec
Or an MKV file might contain three components, a video stream using the x264 codec, an audio stream using the AAC codec, and chapter list
There is naming confusion, especially in the MPEG family, where the short container and codec names are used inconsistently. E.g. MP3 refers to an audio codec, but MP4 to a container type. Also WMV is strictly a codec, but is often used to mean the ASF container type.
However, setting those issues aside, you should see from the examples that the container has no real effect on file size or playback quality. It's just the bag you put your data in. Choice of container is made purely on compatibility and flexibility. So the question you mean to ask is: what codec (compression format) should I use for my audio / video data? Then you can package your compressed data in a container that suits your purpose.
As noted by mister_playboy, a full discussion of the relative merits of different codecs is far, far, far too detailed to get into here and you should research that elsewhere. However, the better rippers here are currently using H264 (the x264 implementation) as a video compression codec and AAC (the Nero implementation) for audio. But even within these specific codecs there are a myriad of settings that can vastly improve/reduce file size and quality. Consider using MeGUI or Akiba-Online's own MeguIV to encode using H264/AAC/MP3 and contain with MKV/MP4.
If you really don't care about filesize, then there are lossless compression schemes, for example H264 lossless. This encodes your media without any change from the source. However bear in mind that an hour of lossless 30fps video uses about 40Gb.