VP8

h.264 baseline

Well I have to say I’m quite impressed with the VP8 format, the video quality of that format is quite comparable to the h.264 baseline format, I have notice that there are a few minor quirks with WebM, but still I think it’s good for the web and I’m sure that Google will iron out those minor quirks. But anyway WebM is looking awesome right now, but now for the video size comparison with the link to the video.

• M4V – 640×368 h.264 at 500kbits (x264), LC-AAC 128kbits (FAAC) – 44.9MB (Blame FAAC).
• WebM – 640×368 VP8 at 500kbits, Vorbis 96kbits (AoTuV) – 43.5MB (Gotta Love AoTuV).

Yes it is possible to archive a slightly smaller filesize in WebM compared to M4V at the same video bitrate, thanks to AoTuV but 96kbits is actually an overkill, AoTuV post beta 5.7 can achieve transparent audio around 48-64kbits, beating LC-AAC, HE-AAC is better at that bitrate but too complex and don’t mix well with video due to compatibility issues with mobile devices.

I have used Handbrake to encode m4v and mkv (h.264 60% constants quality and vorbis (AoTuV)), I use the latest build of FFMpeg to encode mkv to WebM (h.264 to vp8, audio on copy).