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x264

Developer(s)	x264 team
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Video encoder
License	GPL
Website	http://www.videolan.org/developers/x264.html

x264 is a free software library for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format. It is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

[edit] History

The code is developed by Laurent Aimar, Loren Merritt, Mat Ramskill, Jason Garrett-Glaser, Eric Petit (OS X), Min Chen (vfw/asm), Justin Clay (vfw), Måns Rullgård, David Jallow, Radek Czyz, Christian Heine (asm), Alex Izvorski, and Alex Wright.

[edit] User interfaces

x264 itself provides a command line interface.

Several graphical user interfaces have been made for the command line version, including Staxrip and MeGUI.

[edit] Capabilities

As of August 2008, x264 implements more features than any other H.264 encoder.

x264 has won awards in the following codec comparisons:

• Doom9's 2005 codec shoot-out
• Third Annual MSU MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codec Comparison, 2006
• Fourth Annual MSU MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codec Comparison, 2007
• Fifth Annual MSU MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Video Codec Comparison, 2009 - placed first for movies and close second overall. Note x264 lost overall because MSU used the wrong presets for specific tests even though they were asked to use that setting, optimized for that kind of test. Therefore x264 is second even though it should score much higher.^[1]

Compared to other commercial H.264 encoders, x264 has the best picture quality, sometimes significantly better.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] x264 frontends

• Avidemux
• FFmpeg
• HandBrake, a cross-platform DVD and video file converter
• MediaCoder
• MeGUI
• MEncoder
• SUPER : Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer.
• VirtualDub with a Video for Windows-compatible version of x264
• VLC media player (x264 project homepage and repository is on the VideoLAN website)

[edit] See also

Free software portal

• H.264
• H.264 patent issues
• libdvdcss
• MPEG-4
• Theora
• Doom9

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• x264 Home Page
• x264 Options Explained Guide @ Digital Digest
• x264 CLI binaries for Windows
• x264 Video For Windows-compatible Codec