Extremetech has an exhaustive “overview and analysis” of the MPEG-4 video codec, along with comparison to other major video codecs including Real Video and Windows Media Video. I recommend it for anyone moderately familiar with the ins an outs of digital video and streaming.
I also reviewed their sample clips encoded with the various codecs at various bitrates, and I agree that Real Video 8 and Windows Media 8 come out on top in both still frame and motion quality. In my opinion Windows Media 8 comes out slightly ahead in still frame quality and overall resolution and definition (though I hate to admit it), while Real Video 8 handles motion better, especially fast transients, which still seems to create mosaics in Windows Media even at high bitrates (500 kbps – 1mbps).
Comments are closed.