Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

H.264 vs. DivX........ WOW!

Chase R

Chase R

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 8, 2008
1,279
81
PDX
So I had some spare time to do a little comparing of H.264 and DivX yesterday. I knew that H.264 was more efficient than DivX but not by this much...

I downloaded "American Gangster" (FXG) to compare with the same movie encoded in H.264 via HandBrake (I own the DVD).

The DivX version of "American Gangster" hasd a bitrate of 831 kbit/s (128 kbit/s MP3 stereo). The H.264 version of "American Gangster" that I did ended up having a bitrate of 812 kbit/s (128 kbit/s AAC stereo). So the H.264 encode actually had a smaller bitrate, but still very close.

These are the settings for the HandBrake H.264 encode:

Type: MKV
Frame Rate: 24p
Anamorphic: Strict
Audio: 128 kbit/s AAC stereo
Target File Size: 700MB

Picture1-8.png


Holy-moly-cows was H.264 better than the DivX encode. It was very close in quality to the original DVD! The DivX one has clearly visible blocks in dark solid colors as well as in solid blue skies while the H.264 one didn't have much if any at all.

I'm very surprised with how much better the H.264 encode was compared to the DivX one. Why does the "file-sharing" community still rely on DivX when H.264 is so much better?
 
i.shaun

i.shaun

macrumors 6502a
May 1, 2008
784
0
Canada
I like H.264 mp4 movies.

All my handbrake encodes are done in .mp4 with average bitrate of 900kbps and MPEG-4 / AAC Audio

It seems to be the most efficient setting I've found to preserve decent quality, and also keep the size down. Most movies will still be over 1GB, but barely (1.02GB or something). Some movies even output 800 or 900MB in size, which is good for saving space.


I tried going lower than 900 kbps but the quality was unacceptable to me.
 
S

sven-

macrumors member
May 14, 2009
35
0
Chase R said:
Why does the "file-sharing" community still rely on DivX when H.264 is so much better?
Click to expand...
Because people don't like change. Back in the days, DivX was the way to go, and DVD rips in DivX format with a file size around 700 MB was perfect because you could burn it on a CD-R and watch it in really good quality on your (CRT) television if your DVD player supported DivX.

Now of course, we know better, and you're right about the fact that H.264 is a far superior codec compared to DivX. That's why all the HDTV rips and Blu-Ray rips (720p and 1080p) use the H.264 codec.
 
Anonymous Freak

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,561
1,252
Cascadia
A downloaded DivX isn't directly comparable to a self-ripped H.264.

If you want a proper comparison, you need to make sure that you encode equally. From the same source, using equivalent settings. (For example, did you do one-pass or two-pass encoding? That alone can make a big difference.)
 
almostinsane

almostinsane

macrumors 6502
Feb 9, 2008
303
63
I think divx is h.264 Main Profile while the x.264 encode you did was AVC. Not a valid comparison. What was the CPU usage like between the two?
 
I

ihabime

macrumors 6502
Jan 12, 2005
480
0
You have to take into account the number of people that own DivX capable DVD players too.
Ripped at a higher bitrate the quality is comparable to DVD and I can backup 3-4 movies to a single DVD.
The DivX 7 standard from DivX inc is simply h264/AAC in an MKV container, so I'm hoping we'll see some cheap disk players supporting it soon.
 
Chase R

Chase R

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 8, 2008
1,279
81
PDX
ehurtley said:
A downloaded DivX isn't directly comparable to a self-ripped H.264.

If you want a proper comparison, you need to make sure that you encode equally. From the same source, using equivalent settings. (For example, did you do one-pass or two-pass encoding?
Click to expand...

I only did single pass.

I know it's not the best comparison but still, for two movies encoded at the same bitrate (H.264 was actually a little lower), the difference is very big, much bigger than I would have expected.
 
geoffreak

geoffreak

macrumors 68020
Feb 8, 2008
2,193
2
The "file sharing" communities are switching to h.264 already. Many groups have EOL'ed DIVX for all future releases just within the past few months.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom