by Quu » Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:09 am
Yea, i expected it to play better... which is making me evaluate things a bit more. I am going to expand my testing to include MPEG-4 part 2 (probably just the ASP profile)
I can't find a list of levels for MPEG-4 ASP, except that level 5 is pretty much max dvd resolution. I know that the MPEG-4 Layer 2 ASP profile supports up to 2048x2048 (fps is constrained only by bitrate)... but i can't find a nice breakdown of the levels. MPEG-2 can not, while remaining in spec, handle 1080p@60.
So it looks like what I am considering now is
Video
MPEG-2 (H.262) Part 2 MP@HL - 1080p@30/720p@60 max (May go unconstrained)
MPEG-4 (H.263) Part 2 ASP@Unconstrained - 1080p@60 max
MPEG-4 (H.264) Part 10 High@4.2 - 1080p@60 max
Audio
MPEG-2 Part 3 Layer 2 and Layer 3 (mp2 and mp3)
MPEG-4 Part 3 AAC
FLAC
Container
MPEG-2 Part 1 Transport Stream (Program Stream is MPEG-1/2 only so no, TS is used on Blueray discs so yes)
MPEG-4 Part 1/12/14/15 File Format (MP4 files are... confusing)
Matroska
(I am going out of my "safety net" of MPEG with FLAC and MKV, but they are both very mature standards)
Remember... for my purposes, stability, maturity, and consistency is most important. I don't care about file size (Hard Drives are cheap), as so much that file size is not a detriment on the playback, and hardware can handle the streaming (ie no uncompressed video). I don't care about encode time (non con time is cheap), and will be using constant quality instead of constant bit rate when possible, quality over file size. All of the above options will be checked for encoding sync based on VLC and MPlayer as decoding targets. They will then be played back on the reference machine, both in Windows 7 and in Linux for performance metrics.
Based on all of that, I will then see where we go from there and hopefully we come up with a working set of tools. The best solution will be picked based on it passing all tests, and then file size if there are multiple solutions that passed. Total failure options include changing the reference hardware, lowering the maximum resolution/fps, or "other".
MPEG-2 video, within specs, can not handle the ultra high end... so I am not sure if I should just go Unconstrained on it. I really want to know what all levels for MPEG-4 part 2, but i can't find them enumerated anywhere.
since I am basically encoding based on constant quality, instead of constant bit rate, I am going to use file size as a measure of quality. I would like to have an automated test to compare the decoded results vs the original, to make sure the CQ style encoding was true... but not sure how to automate that yet.
Lead me not to temptation, for I have deadlines