Mozilla

an update on open video codecs and quality

on June 16, 2009 by

in Video

Two days ago we posted a comparison by Greg Maxwell of low and medium resolution YouTube videos vs. Theora counterparts at the same bit rates. The result in that test was that Theora did much better at the low bit rate and more or less the same at the slightly higher bit rate. The conclusion being that Theora is perfectly appropriate for a site like YouTube.

Now Maik Merten has done the same with videos at HD resolution, comparing videos encoded by YouTube and a video encoded with the new Theora encoder at a managed bitrate. The results? Go have a look at the images in the post. Tell us if you can honestly see a major difference. We can’t.

H.264
Theora

170 comments

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  1. Pingback from The Beauty of the Community « Aaron On Software on July 12th, 2009 at 10:45 am:

    [...] of the new core features; support for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio. Less than 12 days later, community members have created [...]

  2. Pingback from wanmus.com » Blog Archive » Firefox 3.5 Fastest, Smartest & Safest Browser? on July 14th, 2009 at 12:10 am:

    [...] for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio. (Try it [...]

  3. Eduardo B. da C. Krukoski wrote on July 14th, 2009 at 7:06 am:

    What is most important?
    Create a default Audio & Video codec for WEB that can be open directly on browser.
    But this codec MUST be open source, with quality and low CPU power use. THEORA is a candidate. Let’s test him!

    1. chop wrote on March 13th, 2010 at 7:59 am:

      I completely agree!

  4. Pingback from Por fin Firefox 3.5 | Queni™ on July 14th, 2009 at 7:38 pm:

    [...] y <audio> de HTML 5, incluyendo audio codificado en Vorbis y vídeo codificado en Ogg Theora de manera nativa (¡Pruébalo [...]

  5. Pingback from ExcEsc | on July 16th, 2009 at 12:51 am:

    [...] for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio. (Try it [...]

  6. Pingback from 從tete009更換成Ayakawa（綾川版） | 六尾さそりの東 on July 18th, 2009 at 11:41 am:

    [...] HTML5 <video> 和 <audio> 元素，包括對 Ogg Theora 編碼影像和 Vorbis [...]

  7. KeV wrote on July 22nd, 2009 at 7:28 am:

    Well said,

    I’m so glad we have native support and the codecs improving all the time, hopefully one day we can get rid of adverts that use flash to redirect you anywhere they like and flash LSO cookies and have code that’s ratified by responsible browser developers that is as cross platform as can be and make life easier for developers by only needing to support one open format. ;)

  8. Pingback from Algunas Actualizaciones « El Bl®ck de PuPiLo) on July 23rd, 2009 at 1:57 pm:

    [...] y <audio> de HTML 5, incluyendo audio codificado en Vorbis y vídeo codificado en Ogg Theora de manera nativa (¡Pruébalo [...]

  9. Pingback from 谋智社区 » Blog Archives » 颠覆网络35天 ─ “开放视频编码和质量”一文的更新 on July 27th, 2009 at 8:22 pm:

    [...] 原文地址：an update on open video codecs and quality 系列地址：颠覆网络35天 [...]

  10. Pingback from Zio Magazine Blog » Blog Archive » Mozilla Firefox 3.5 on August 1st, 2009 at 9:21 am:

    [...] agli elementi <video> e <audio> di HTML5, incluso il supporto nativo ai video con codifica Ogg Theora e all’audio con codifica Vorbis (fai un test [...]

  11. Pingback from جديد موزيلا Firefox 3.5 دعم للهوتمل الاصدار الخامس « مدونة on August 2nd, 2009 at 3:14 pm:

    [...] 3.5 has support for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded [...]

  12. Pingback from Firefox 3.5 (A.K.A. Shiretoko) on August 2nd, 2009 at 7:37 pm:

    [...] for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio. (Try it [...]

  13. Dmitry wrote on August 10th, 2009 at 8:22 am:

    Great thanks for new VIDEO tag. I use ogg for web TV streaming. But how I did understand, new VIDEO element not yet support stream video – infinite file. This element can only single files play. It is thuth?

  14. Pingback from Mozilla Firefox arriva alla 3.5! | Open your Mind . . on August 16th, 2009 at 1:42 pm:

    [...] agli elementi <video> e <audio> di HTML5, incluso il supporto nativo ai video con codifica Ogg Theora e all’audio con codifica Vorbis (fai un test [...]

  15. Vamp94 wrote on December 28th, 2009 at 1:45 pm:

    No noticable difference. Theora is better because it’s free and open sourec.

  16. Martin wrote on January 2nd, 2010 at 1:30 am:

    Very nice.

  17. kx wrote on January 23rd, 2010 at 12:32 pm:

    I’ve followed up to original images and found no noticeable differences between them. Why I see face smoothing here (small format) but not there (large format)? What algorithm is used for resizing original images to thumbnails? I’ve downloaded original images and stretched them to 480×270 with Lanczos and Belinear algorithms. The images became almost identical.

    I know that H.264 is much better than Theora. You’ve used unknown codec with unknown settings for encoding, so I don’t believe that your results are correct. There is another comparison that looks more convincing: http://www.osnews.com/story/19019/Theora-vs-h.264/

  18. Shawn J. Goff wrote on January 23rd, 2010 at 5:22 pm:

    Wow, you’re so wrong. First, why are you comparing the resized images? This makes no sense. Second, that comparison you have (from which you “know” h264 looks better) is from late 2007. There was much done in the year and a half that occurred between then and when this comparison was done.

  19. Pingback from Rendere compatibili plugin per il nuovo Firefox | Hat Tips Db on June 26th, 2011 at 9:29 am:

    [...] agli elementi <video> e <audio> di HTML5, incluso il supporto nativo ai video con codifica Ogg Theora e all’audio con codifica Vorbis (fai un test [...]

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