May 24, 2010 at 17:41H.264 vs VP8 frame-by-frame comparison
In connection with the planned confrontation between H.264 and the “free” VP8 codec, it’s quite interesting to compare which of these codecs is actually better in real life application. One of the first adequate independent tests was conducted by the guys from Streaming Media: they took a standard test file, using Squish they compressed it with the same bitrate by H.264 and VP8 codecs, and then compared the result by frames.
Final videos can be downloaded here: H.264 file and VP8 file . Here are their specifications.
Encoding static scenes (low motion), such as talking heads, is a fairly simple task, and here the difference in the performance of the two codecs is almost impossible to find, both cope equally well.
However, in another static scene with a terrible coding background (highly detailed wallpapers), VP8 managed to save much more details than H.264. This is an interesting result.
In fast motion scenes, sometimes VP8 shows quite comparable quality.
But in the most dynamic scenes with lots of detail, H.264 looks clearly better. In the frames below, VP8 leaves clearly distinguishable blocks, while H.264 provides good anti-aliasing. The striped shirt on the right side of the frame on H.264 is also sharper than on VP8.
On another fragment with a dynamic scene, H.264 again shows the best result, especially in bright areas, while VP8 has slightly noticeable artifacts.
And finally, another scene where VP8 has an advantage.
As a final conclusion, we can say that H.264 still has an advantage and provides better compression quality, but the difference is unlikely to be noticeable in most situations.
PS A more detailed comparison of the two codecs, tests on higher resolution samples with different compression profiles can be found here .
Final videos can be downloaded here: H.264 file and VP8 file . Here are their specifications.
Encoding static scenes (low motion), such as talking heads, is a fairly simple task, and here the difference in the performance of the two codecs is almost impossible to find, both cope equally well.
However, in another static scene with a terrible coding background (highly detailed wallpapers), VP8 managed to save much more details than H.264. This is an interesting result.
In fast motion scenes, sometimes VP8 shows quite comparable quality.
But in the most dynamic scenes with lots of detail, H.264 looks clearly better. In the frames below, VP8 leaves clearly distinguishable blocks, while H.264 provides good anti-aliasing. The striped shirt on the right side of the frame on H.264 is also sharper than on VP8.
On another fragment with a dynamic scene, H.264 again shows the best result, especially in bright areas, while VP8 has slightly noticeable artifacts.
And finally, another scene where VP8 has an advantage.
As a final conclusion, we can say that H.264 still has an advantage and provides better compression quality, but the difference is unlikely to be noticeable in most situations.
PS A more detailed comparison of the two codecs, tests on higher resolution samples with different compression profiles can be found here .