The Graphics and Media Lab at Moscow State University put Google’s WebM VP8 codec in a head-to-head test with MPEG-4/H.264.
While the H.264 encoders are fee based and WebM is open source and royalty-free, H.264 performed better.
TVB’s Deborah McAdams has the story.
“Bitrate handling for the VP8 encoder for HDTV is quite good, except the ‘Troy’ sequenced at low bitrates,” the McAdams reported.
Comparing VP8 and x264, VP8 was 5 to 25 times slower with 20 to 30 percent lower quality, McAdams said.
But because the movie, “Troy,” was encoded using sequences the x264 knew how to handle more efficiently, VP8 was at a disadvantage.
When tests were run on uncompressed video, VP8 scored higher marks.