Call for MPEG4-AVC/H.264 codecs

[DmitriyV]

Please, forward this information to H.264 codecs developers!

MSU Graphics&Media Lab Video Group announce third Annual H.264 video codec comparison:

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CALL FOR MPEG4-AVC/H.264 CODECS
Third Annual H.264 video codec comparison
For people, who make real research in field of high-end video compression
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Scope of test
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* Encoding and decoding time
* Objective measurements (PSNR, SSIM, VQM, Average Advantage and etc)
* Analysis of averaged objective results
* Leaders in different areas
* Cross-compatibility test

See previous comparison for detailes:
http://www.compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/mpeg-4_avc_h264_2005_en.html



Important Dates
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* August, 1 - deadline for receipt of a H.264 codec with required presets
* August, 15 - deadline for settling technical problems with codec's functioning


The Facts about the Previous H.264 Video Codecs Comparison
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* There were more than 50.000 downloads of previous H.264 video codec comparison results
* Many codec's bugs were found and reported to developers
* Following codecs was granted for second annual comparison by
developers last year (in alphabetic order):
- ArcSoft H.264
- Ateme H.264
- ATI H.264
- Elecard H.264
- Fraunhofer IIS H.264
- VSS H.264
- x264
* Intel H.264 will going to take part in comparison this year


Enhancements from Previous H.264/AVC Comparison
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* Better sequences set (several subsets with independent encoding presets
and results calculation)
* Decompression will be performed by JM reference software
* Comparison of original decoders and JM reference decoder (postfilters
testing) will be added
* Cross-compatibility test will be added
* Decoders time measurement will be added
* 2-pass encoding will be added and tested


Developers Deliverables
-----------------------

Following deliverables should be provided by each developer:
* Codec files (CLI executable file is preferable)
* Short description of codec parameters
* Codec's presets with pointing of used H.264/AVC profile


Useful Links to Previous Comparisons
-----------------------------------

* Second Annual MSU MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codec Comparison
http://www.compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/mpeg-4_avc_h264_2005_en.html
* MPEG-2 Video Decoders "Crash-Test" Comparison
http://www.compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/mpeg-2_2006_en.html
* MSU MPEG-4 SP/ASP Codecs Comparison
http://www.compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/mpeg-4_en.html
* MSU Lossless Video Codecs Comparison
http://www.compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/lossless_codecs_en.html

See full text of CALL FOR MPEG4-AVC/H.264 CODECS on
http://www.compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/call_for_codecs_06.html

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Our current roadmap (codecs testing area):
1) Third Annual H.264 video codec comparison (extended in comparison with previous year).
2) MPEG-4/MPEG-4 AVC Decoders "Crash-test"

[edDV]

A work in progress.

A playback evaluation guide would be helpful including classes of hardware and what to look for.

E.G. how should H.264 be played and evaluated on a P4 2.0 GHz with a generic ATI 9250 or 9550? VLC? Nero? How would this change for AVIVO?

Same question for a 3.0GHz, dual processor, etc.

[DmitriyV]

A playback evaluation guide would be helpful including classes of hardware and what to look for.
E.G. how should H.264 be played and evaluated on a P4 2.0 GHz with a generic ATI 9250 or 9550? VLC? Nero? How would this change for AVIVO?
Same question for a 3.0GHz, dual processor, etc.

During our comparisons we test codecs on fully same hardware and software (several fully equal testing computers with equal - installed one time and copied on HD level - operation system). And this is mass testing (about 2 weeks of non-stop calculation) on several different video streams. Such type of test resonable in Laboratory envirement (and difficult for home).

I think that your type of test is't more resonable for distributed testing by several guys on different home PC's. (All of them will install the same codecs and will test with the same parameters).

So good idea for distributed testing! I know such test of DVD recorders - http://mag.irk.ru/index_en.html http://mag.irk.ru/results_en.html Unfortunately it's not fully translated.