Why is Quicktime encoding so slow?

lilbandit

lilbandit

I hate Meath
Running a DP 2 Ghz with 4 GB Ram, why is Quicktime so slow to encode H264, export to iPod etc? Handbrake/ffmpegx flies along. Looking at Activity Monitor, neither Processor is maxed out, lots of memory available...what gives?
 
Handbrake does MPEG4 -- QuickTime, as you said, is doing h.264, which requires a lot more horsepower to encode.

Try comparing Handbrake's MPEG4 encoding to QuickTime's MPEG4 encoding at the same size and settings... I'll bet they'd be closer in encoding times.
 
h.264 is the *new* codec. far more advanced, it mangaes much higher quality in much smaller file sizes (mpeg4 quality in a 1/4 of the file size, i think).

the compromise is huge encoding/decoding processor grunt. imagine encoding on a 500mhz G4...
 
I agree, there's a HUGE difference encoding something in Sorenson Video 3 on my iMac compared with a good quality H.264 clip. But the result you get at the end will be worth the wait.
 
Handbrake can do both MPEG4 AND H.264, actually. And yes, QuickTime is slower.

Different encoders just have different speeds. 'Tis the way of the world. Apple's codecs have never had the best speed or the best quality, really. Apple's MPEG4 encoder is slower and looks worse than most of the open encoders like Xvid and ffmpeg. Same with H.264 (although I have to admit I haven't tested the various H.264 encoders very extensively myself).
 
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