mpeg 4 or h.264?

Posted by: Loki on 04 March 2015

Just learning to digitise the Asgaard  VHS archives using Elgato and am confused as to which format to use. From other fora I am led to believe that h.264 is supposed to be for HD, but to my eyes the lower bit rate gives an image with inferior detail.

 

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Posted on: 04 March 2015 by Mr Underhill

Hi Loki,

 

I will display my ignorance ....or kick off the discussion if you prefer!

 

I rip my DVDs to MKV as this rips to the highest quality. The MKV is the container and the video stream is MPEG2.

 

MPEG4 was a later codec that I believe was developed to allow compressed (lossy) video streams.

 

I believe that h.264 has now been captured within the  MPEG4 standard as Part 10; it allows greater compression for the same level of quality .....although I would test it and see what you think.

 

http://www.velleman.eu/downloa...h264_vs_mpeg4_en.pdf

 

I have produced lower bit-rate versions of my MKV files for when I go on holiday. Producing the lower size files is not difficult, producing ones that look good I find is ....but, there are many examples on YouTube, for instance,  and these usually have a h.264 video stream.

 

Hope this helps.

 

M

Posted on: 04 March 2015 by Loki

Thanks Mr U. That is helpful. Problem is that the Elgato kit only gives Mpeg 4 or h.624 as options. Mpeg 4 seems better to me, but I had hoped for larger native screen size, so full screen can look a bit blurred.