Bit-Rate Efficiency of H.264 Encoders Measured With Subjective Assessment Techniques

In this study we evaluated the bit-rate efficiency of current hardware H.264 encoders as compared to that of established MPEG-2 hardware encoders. To estimate bit-rate efficiency, we measured the subjective video quality of MPEG-2 encoded material processed at three bit rates: 8, 12, and 16 Mbps, and determined the bit-rate at which H.264 encoded material produced similar subjective video quality. The MPEG-2 and H.264 bit rates that resulted in the same perceived video quality were used to estimate bit-rate efficiency.