Kionon wrote:Why, when x264 is free? O_o
And additionally, CoreAVC has no encoding ability as far as I know, so the comparison is rather unequal.
I don't know if there have been any recent tests on doom9 about this, but the last time I remember an H.264-specific test being conducted, x264 ranked second only to the Ateme codec that Nero Recode uses. That was a while ago, however, and many of those codecs have had many rounds of updates.
Unless you're dealing with content that uses stuff that hasn't gotten great support yet (PAFF, *cough*), then just go with ffdshow. CoreAVC, as far as I'm concerned, is the best option for otherwise lower-end machines trying to play SD content, or 2004-2005 era comps attempting to play 720p (provided it's not 720p60). 2004-2005 comps will likely play SD content fine with ffdshow, and setups from the last couple years will probably deal with 720p and maybe even some 1080p stuff just fine with it also.
Basically,
x264 + ffdshow
or
x264 + CoreAVC (for lower-end machines, or if you just want the extra performance boost)