[Mp4-tech] [video][h.264] Can the ffmpeg be used as h.264 encoder?

[Tuukka Toivonen]

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005, [gb2312] Shen_sha\(Éòɳ\) wrote:
> Could you tell me whether the ffmpeg(one open source software)
> can be used as h.264 encoder? For example, can it convert a
> avi video file into h.264 format??

No, but there's a closely related project x264 which can
do encoding. You need svn (subversion) to download the source.
http://www.videolan.org/x264.html
I made some RD-comparisons between x264 and JM 7.5c, here
are the results:
http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~tuukkat/mplayer/tests/x264test/readme.html
(warning: embedded eps images. At least Konqueror
can display them directly, with other browsers, you may
download the images)
Although x264 doesn't have real RD-optimization (it doesn't encode
a block in all available modes to see the bit consumption/distortion but 
uses heuristics for speed) it isn't much worse than JM, with some sequences 
(Paris) even better. Also hundreds of times faster (real-time).