[iptv-users] Open Source x264 Encoder

[Adam Palmblad]

I don't think that the size of the company really matters, as I see it the
support part is the key factor. If you make a home brew solution it's
totally up to you to maintain that solution, I'm unsure if you really want
that in any head end. Also the configuration process and monitoring of the
system will probably be more easy with an of the shelf product. But sure it
have a price.

Regarding the quality I'm not so surprised, off the shelf products needs
tuning as well and for what's worth I'm not so impressed of Harmonics in
general. ;o)

For stability test I would use some kind of stream analyser and feed the
encoder with different materials, not only testing with a good source all
the time.

//Adam

2010/1/22 Jared Gordon <jaredgordon at wctatel.com>

> 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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