[iptv-users] Open Source x264 Encoder

[Jared Gordon]

As a small IPTV service provider, we simply don't have the time or expertise to play around with an open source solution.  We want something turn-key, and "hardware" or proprietary encoders fit the bill.  Actually the encoders we use (Astria/Motorola/Vidtel blades) run a flavor of linux to operate the hardware.  We get pretty darn good results doing SD content at 2.9Mb/sec (constant bit rate) using Mpeg4 encoders.  I think your IPTV provider might be cutting bandwidth corners trying to squeeze it down to 2Mb- it's just not enough bandwidth from my experiences in a headend-to-set top box scenario.  I'm sure there is always another encoder out there that will do better job, but when you factor in cost (including development and testing), time to deploy, and stability, I think it would be a challenge to beat a dedicated hardware encoder.  Our Mpeg4 encoder costs are about $5600/channel for new encoding gear (not including distribution, or the chassis)- $3400/channel if you can find used encoders.  
I'm open to suggestions however, as we're always looking for a way to reduce costs and increase quality.  Now if you could put together something similar to what you described, and sell it for less than $3400/channel- I'd be all about that.  :)

Regards,

Jared Gordon

Winnebago Coop Telecom Assn


-----Original Message-----
From: iptv-users-bounces at puck.nether.net [mailto:iptv-users-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of João Serra
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 8:35 PM
To: iptv-users at puck.nether.net
Subject: [iptv-users] Open Source x264 Encoder

I noticed that almost all of you are working at some IPTV provider,
I'm just an IPTV application Developer and i don't deal with encoders
at all, so i have a question for all of you:

Have you tried the open-source X264 H.264 encoder? According to the
things i read on the net, x264 can out perform every hardware encoder
on the market, even in real-time, both in quality and speed... In the
last version it can even encoder in real time without latency, making
it suitable for video-conferencing applications...
I suggest you to read this post in one of the x264 developers blog -
http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=249&cpage=1#comment-2427 According to
him, there are no h264 encoders in the market(both software and
hardware) that can achieve that level of low-latency... (I know IPTV
doesn't care much about latency, I'm just trying to illustrate the
power of x264)

My IPTV provider, for instance, uses 2 MB/s(in average, they use VBR)
h264 streams for SD content(they're using Harmonic's Divicom Electra
8000) and it really looks awful when compared to a couple of x264
files i have encoded with x264 at 500kb/s(average - VBR encoded) Yes,
i know i can't compare off-line encoding with real-time encoding, so i
did another test: I encoded a video in real-time on a Core 2 Duo with
the same average bitrate of 2mb/s and again, my provider hardware
encoder looses again in quality... I tried Sports, Movies, News, etc
and looking to my Samsung LCD, o difference is very visible, x264
wins!

So, my question to you is: why do you use those very very expensive
hardware encoders that produce mediocre results, if Software encoders
can easily outperform them? And they are much more cheaper(they are a
just standard servers, you can even add SDI/ASI PCI cards if you
want)...

I know x264 can be a pain in the ass to configure, given the bazillion
features and options it supports, however, i think it's a fair
trade-off, if you consider it's price...
I only think i cannot test is it's stability, have any of you tested
it? For instance, letting a Red Hat Enterprise Linux box real time
encoding a stream for a couple of months without interruption?
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