h264 codec

[jansensan]

hiyall, i am just wondering since there are many versions available here (http://www.codec-download.com/top.php) which would be the best if any?

[anonymez]

there are currently a very small number of H264 codecs. x264 (get it at http://www.free-codecs.com) is easily the best imho

[celtic_druid]

To be fair, x264 doesn't contain a working decoder therefor it isn't a codec. It is however the best AVC encoder. The best version to download would be the latest cli which as of now is Revision 410. The best decoder currently would be CoreAVC since it is the fastest.

[anonymez]

get coreAVC here http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?...&postcount=315

and x264 here http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=89979

[jansensan]

hmmm... i should have been more specific as i see... so coreAVC has playback capabilities? cuz that's really what i am after for now, i do not intend to encode for now

[celtic_druid]

CoreAVC is a directshow AVC decoder. AVC = h.264. If you want VfW decoding, then you will need ffdshow.

x264 is at revision 411 now by the way.

[jansensan]

well, this didn't work... i do have ffdshow, i installed coreavc like the readme files say, but i get no video... is there something else that i should look for when i want to play back a .mkv container (i hate those) including a video encoded in h264? i mean, when the same group released previous things with divx or xvid encoded videos, everything worked fin...

[celtic_druid]

To playback an mkv containing AVC you need a mkv splitter, AVC decoder and audio decoders for whatever audio streams it contains. If you have a video decoder installed, then I guess that leaves the splitter. Haali's or Gabest's should do. You could also try mplayer or VLC. They both have built in splitters/decoders.

If for some odd reason they mkv contained AVC stored in VfW compatibility mode, then the decoder would need to handle the fourCC.

AVC gives better quality for the size. mkv allows for VFR video and alternative audio codecs. They didn't just switch to mkv/h.264 to make things more complicated.

[ChristianHJW]

A nice alternative to play h.264 MKVs is the win32 compile of TCPMP, in combination with the CoreAVC decoder plugin avc.plg and a AAC decoder plugin (aac.plg). The latest version of this player is 0.71 k, you can get it from here.

For avc.plg and aac.plg , Google should be your friend, but i also heard you can find them on ED2K ....

Christian
matroska project admin