Best MPEG4 encoder?

[ArthurDaley]

I keep my family videos in .AVI format. For sharing with friends I convert these to MPEG2 to share over the Internet. Now lately I see more files on the Internet that are MPEG4 (.MP4). These are smaller sizes and better quality it would appear. So now I am thinking of now converting to MPEG4 to share instead. But there seems to be lots of confusion around what is MPEG4. Anyhow what is the best encoder, commercial or free? TKS

[mgh]

MeGUI or StaxRip-both of them use x264 and the learning curve is steep
you can also try Elecard Converter Studio
or Mainconcept H.264 Encoder

[ArthurDaley]

I wonder which of these produces the best consumer results and is the most straightforward to use?

[RabidDog]

Apple quicktime is good. It works on multi-cores and is green/red skinnable. But dont swallow the pips. Make sure it doesnt contain any worms.
Nero can produce mp4 video

[GMaq]

ArthurDaley,
If your existing Videos are already AVI, you don't necessarily need to convert them to MPEG-4, If they are DivX 5 or higher,XviD or 3ivX you can convert the Audio only to AAC or mp4 you can mux that together with your existing AVI video in an .mp4 container. If your AVI files are DV or MJPEG then this will not work. For high quality conversions to MPEG-4 with minimum fuss I would recommend Nero Recode. Some aspects of Nero products suck but the Nero Digital MPEG-4 capabilities are not one of them. The Nero Digital Pro Bundle is available at http://ww2.nero.com//enu/Nero_Digital_Pro_InfoPage.html for 29.99USD.

[jman98]

mgh's post is excellent and well-intentioned, but he failed to point out is that if you use X.264, it can make playback difficult. X.264 requires massive amounts of CPU to play back properly, especially at high resolutions. It's not really a good option at this time in my opinion.

Stick with Divx or Xvid. Both codecs can provide excellent quality video. Despite all the crap that people here say about Divx in comparison to Xvid, I have the commercial Divx package and use Dr. Divx to encode and I get terrific results. In my opinion they're both fine.

MPEG-4 covers a variety of codecs, which just confuses people. Stick to Divx/Xvid and you'll easily be able to do what you want.

[edDV]

As you can see from the above, "MPeg4" covers a wide variety of codecs. In general, MPeg4 allows from 2x to 3x additional compression compared to MPeg2 at similar quality but at the cost of additional CPU investment in both compression and playback decompression.

Adding to the difficulty is the need for a playback decoder at the user site and additional CPU or display card power for smooth playback. Codec choices mentioned above include DivX, XviD, x264, H.264, 3ivX, etc. Not mentioned so far is wmv or VC-1 which are also variations of MPeg4 and are widely supported in consumer or professional players. Another is Flash flv.

By "AVI" are we to assume camcorder DV format? DV, HDV and AVCHD camcorder formats present additional concern since they are mostly interlace formats, where most MPeg4 is currently progressive. The professional video community is backing VC-1 and other proprietary MPeg4 codecs to properly handle interlace 480i, 576i and 1080i.

DVD (HD/BD) and digital television (ATSC/DVB) are standardizing on the H.264 and VC-1 MPeg4 flavors for the next generation hardware and software players. These are being intergrated into Windows, MAC OS and next generation hardware media servers. Hardware support is very important for high definition formats.

So, what to choose for now? WMV is widely supported for general distribution. Most users can play it without first installing a codec. Alternatives are XviD, DivX or FLV which would require codec installation but can operate within the software decode capability of most home PCs. All require deinterlace prior to encoding with the resulting quality compromises. VC-1 (advanced) and future versions of H.264 will handle 480i, 576i and 1080i better.

[GMaq]

Hi,
Just to clarify, Nero Recode encodes to both regular MPEG-4 and also H.264/AVC formats.

[ArthurDaley]

Damn, I thought MPEG4 had a single CODEC defined. I have Nero Recode but had never used it, so I may give it a try.

And yes by AVI I did mean DV from camcorder. I simply want a format that I can share with people over the Internet easier. I feel MPEG2 is somewhat old and does not create small enough files sizes compared to videos I have downloaded off the Internet which have a .mp4 extension.

[ArthurDaley]

Hmmm it would seem that for Nero, then others will need it's CODEC which is not great for sharing. Why MPEG4 is many things and why it is not supported like MPEG2 I don't know. Damn annoying. It is beginning to seem that to share video with non techie family members I need to opt for MPEG2.

[jagabo]

Windows doesn't come with an MPEG2 decoder either. Use MPEG1 or WMV.

[GMaq]

ArthurDaley,
If you stay away from H.264/AVC for now you shouldn't find it difficult to share these files because in most cases one MPEG-4 Codec will decode the others, For example I use Quicktime to watch my MPEG-4 files, it uses the 3ivX Codec to decode DivX,XviD and Nero Digital files. XviD will decode DivX and vice versa, In most cases your end viewer probably needs only one of these Codecs on their machine to watch the videos in the media player of their choice. Another option is a media player like VLC which is free and come with it own Codecs for playback. I agree with jagabo that WMV and MPEG-1 are the most universal options but the quality of both can be an issue depending on how in-depth you want to get.

[edDV]

You could distribute the VLC player or just a link to the download site.

VLC is very useful because it is self contained and multi platform. The only disadvantage is it doesn't install it's codecs to windows so other players won't see them.

wmv can look good at high compression if you experiment with the "free" encoder settings.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

[edDV]

Hmmm it would seem that for Nero, then others will need it's CODEC which is not great for sharing. Why MPEG4 is many things and why it is not supported like MPEG2 I don't know. Damn annoying. It is beginning to seem that to share video with non techie family members I need to opt for MPEG2.

The big advantage with MPeg2 remains universal DVD player compatibility. Many will want to copy (author) it to DVDR. If you distribute as MPeg4, it will need to be transcoded again for DVD.

Another MPeg2 advantage is maintenance of interlace at least down to 352x480. It will look better played to a normal TV. WMV/MPeg4 may initially look better for computer playback.