[x264-devel] Re: Archiving

[Mathieu Monnier]

Hi,

> So I wonder, is there anything in the current version not conforming
> to MPEG4 AVC ?

Whenever a developper add a feature, it tries to ensure not to break AVC 
  compliance.

Now, as the codec grows, it becomes more complicated and ensuring such a 
thing becomes harder.

However, the current state of the encoder seems really stable concerning 
AVC compliance, and no new AVC features have been added since high 
profile, so I guess we can call x264's current state compliant.

The work currently being done mainly concerns quality and speed. Though 
speed gains might sometimes lead to unvoluntary uncompliant shortcuts, 
recent speed gains have proved quite stable ( though perhaps not 
thoroughly tested toward very low quants : 1 - 2, but these quants don't 
get used in real life anyway, and the changed have been made by people 
aware of the issues arising at such quants, so it should work ok )

All that to say that, compliance-wise, x264 should stay stable as long 
as no new features are added. Quality-wise / speed-wise, things evolve. 
And it might happen that a newer build will lead to a worse quality.

> I tried to read my files under windows with vlc 0.8.1,

Too old, always used at least the latest stable ( 0.8.3 ), and if 
possible the latest snapshot ( in this case, I strongly advise the 
snapshot, since it fixes avc in mkv )

> and nero media player 

That's stranger. What was the container used ? What were the options ? 
How behaved the latest ffdshow build ?

> So can I use it in the current stage for archiving purpose

I would say so.

 > Are there some really interesting feature coming out in the
> next months which are worth waiting for ?

Perhaps, but it depends how much time you can afford. In its current 
state, x264 is already quite efficient. Don't expect outstanding quality 
boost in the near future ( a fair boost would be 0.3 dB, which I think 
can be reached, and which represents roughly a 6% bitrate saving with 
the same quality ). Now it's up to you to see how much time you can wait.

Feature-wise, AlexI is working on adding interlacing support to x264, 
so, of course, if your streams are interlacing, I'd advise to wait. In 
any other case, I'd encode right away ( you can't wait indefinitely ), 
but you might think otherwise.

Regards,

Mathieu

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