Test 1: The Matrix

Some people were concerned when I announced that I was going to use this movie again as it compresses pretty well. Well.. I let the results speak for themselves but rest assured that the clips I reviewed had plenty of scenes to make each codec sweat.

As usual I reviewed chapters 28-30, that's frames 140155 - 153948 from a total of 196155.

Chapter 28

This is a chapter with very little action. On the other hand we have many close-ups and hard to encode background like uniformly colored walls that have a lot of film grain on them.

I will always present the screenshots in the following order: DivX5, SBC, XviD, RV9. The reason for this is that I still consider SBC to be the reference. So obviously you want to have the closest competitors around it. And before I start the mandatory warning: screenshots cannot represent how the movie looks when being played very well. It may well be that a screenshot looks better than the actual movie, or also the other way around. So please don't make draw conclusions uniquely based on what you see here but read my notes, too.

DivX5: As its predecessor there's a little too much motion around the edges of objects, especially the cables and the heads. The walls looked extremely good, blocks were only visible in a small area (just on the right of the agent's shoulder.. if you look hard enough you can spot it).

SBC: DivX3 already had this problem and SBC can't correct it all the way: Take a look at the wall and notice all the blocks. They're not dancing as much as in plain DivX3 but it's still pretty annoying and very visible. Furthermore there's a slight problem with the dark lines on the wall... the vertical one doesn't quite look right (once again you can spot if if you look hard enough).

Additionally there was something which I can only describe as smearing. It looks like sometimes a part of the texture of an object somehow gets stuck to the underlying object and when it moves it drags the texture along. Unfortunately I don't have a shot of this to show you but it repeated throughout the test.

XviD: The walls look better than in SBC, much like DivX5. In fact I would say it's even closer to the original than DivX5 when you look at the actual video instead of the screenshots.

RV9: The walls looked pretty good, the amount of blocks was minimal but there was a kind of flickering on the walls

This scene clearly exhibits flaws in codecs trying to deal with film grain and edges. As you see the agent frontally it's also interesting to look out of the window and check how the building on the opposite side of the street look like. You'll see how each codec does with distant blurry objects.

The next shot is an extreme close-up that shows how much details a codec really preserves.

DivX5: As stated in earlier tests this is not one of DivX5's (and DivX4 neither for the matter) strengths. While the shot looks good, you have to compare with the other codecs and you'll see. Even at full speed you will be able to notice the difference.

SBC shows more details on the fact than DivX5.

XviD also shows more details than DivX5.

When I flicked through these 4 shots I found RV9 to be the most natural looking which came as quite a surprise for me as so far I haven't made the best experiences with free codecs (okay, DivX5 Pro isn't really free but you can get it for free).

The next scene will show how the codec will perform when you have a still object in front of a fast moving background.

DivX5: Once the camera starts flying into the weapons rack you can see the problems DivX5 has with sharp contrasts and edges.. There's a lot of tiny dots around the rack and the heads of the actors. Then you'll see how Neo's head rapidly gets block and smoothed again as the playback filter kicks in, but you'll see the head going from ugly to halfway okay (like this screenshot) a lot and this catches the eye.

SBC: You can still see the effect mentioned above but it's slightly less visible. This is the one scene in the whole test where SBC clearly dominated, the good -> ugly -> good effect was the least visible of all codecs I've ever tested.

XviD made the worst impression of the 4 codecs in this scene and that has been the case ever since I started testing XviD. There's a clear potential for improvement here...

RV9: Interestingly enough while just shortly before RV9 preserved the largest amount of details in this scene you could notice a lack of details. While it's not that bad that we don't see too much of the background, once the movement stops you see a lack of details on Neo's head as compared to the other codecs.

The next scene is a close-ups with static background.

DivX5: Slightly less details than in SBC as you can see.

SBC: More details but also more visible blocks.

The blocks you can even notice here when you look hard enough also have the tendency to smear just a bit.

XviD shows almost no blocks and there's almost no movement on the agent's face.

RV9: While we once again have a very good detail level the problem from the first shot repeated itself.. parts of the agent's face tend to flicker just a bit.

In this first scene it's rather hard to pick a winner. All codecs showed good results but there's always a scene where they break (weapon's rack for XviD and RV9) or an issue that keeps repeating itself (blocks on the walls, smears for SBC, lack of detail on close-ups, blurry edges for DivX5 and flickering for RV9).

Now let's move on to the most famous scene of the movie:

DivX5: The whole lobby shoot-out was pretty hard to judge as the codecs are getting better and better. As you can see in the screenshot DivX5 has a bit less detail but the difference is not visible unless you really compare frame by frame.

SBC: In direct comparison to DivX5 you tend to notice more blocks but if you look hard enough you'll also notice a few more details. The smearing once again was apparent in a few scenes.

XviD: Even from the screenshot you can notice two things: First we have pretty much the same level of detail and second there are a couple more blocks visible than in SBC. This was also apparent at scene changes when XviD had a slight tendency to show a lot of blocks for a split second. While the effect was also present in DivX5 and SBC it was most visible in XviD.

RV9: On the screenshot you can notice slightly less details. However, in such scenes RV9's "smooth out the background a bit and focus on the foreground objects" approach pays off. The overall impression is rather pleasing.

And now for something very hard. A screen full of flying debris.

DivX5: DivX5's slight smoothing pays off here, you can hardly notice any blocks but at the same time the lack of detail is not noticeable (unless you compare frames of course;)

SBC is a tad more detailed which also results in more visible blocks.

XviD: Since a bit more detailed than DivX5 but you can't notice any blocks here or at any other time during the fighting.

All 3 codecs allowed the debris to have its own life.. it seemed to move a bit more than in the original..

RV9: Remember what I said for the last scene? Focus on foreground objects. This is a good example to illustrate that behavior. In scenes where we have a lot of smoke RV9 also has a tendency to show rapidly disappearing blocks.

And last but not least a close-ups in this chapter.

DivX5: If you compare with SBC you'll notice the slight smoothing effect again.

SBC

XviD

RV9

And on a final note to this chapter: If you see people up close you'll usually notice a lot of blocks in the background. This effect is most visible in SBC. Have a look at Neo's coat when you see him from behind, or when you see the close-up of one soldier shooting with at Neo with an M-16 rifle. And the elevator door looks blocky in SBC as compared to DivX5 and XviD. RV9's focus on foreground objects and keeping a rather static background pays off in such scenes.. you may notice the lack of detail when looking hard enough but it's not surprising that some people like RV9 a lot.. if you don't pay attention to details like the background RV9 makes the most harmonic impression.

The last chapter has everything. Still scenes, scenes that will go from slow to action packed within seconds, a huge explosion, water, everything it takes to give a codec a good beating. First we start off with a still scene that once again exhibits what I mentioned in the first chapter. DivX5 and XviD handle the walls best, SBC tends to smear them and RV9 shows some flickering tendencies.

The walls of the elevator before the explosion tend to be rather blocky in DivX5 and SBC, XviD and particularly RV9 make a better impression. When the elevator descends we can notice blocks in all 4 codecs.

DivX5: Even though you can't see the blocks in this particular shot they're still visible when you watch the clip closely enough. Though you can only spot them for a split second..

SBC: The same applies here, if you watch closely enough you will see some blocks even though you can't see any on the screenshot.

XviD: The blocks in this screenshot make the codec look worse than it is. This scene looks pretty much the same in DivX5, SBC and XviD but this shot illustrates why it's better to compare clips rather than frames because at 23.976fps you can't really see the blocks and there's too much going on that will distract your eyes.

RV9: The shot looks really nice, doesn't it? But even in RV9 you can notice blocks for a split second.


DivX5

SBC

XviD

RV9

Now let's have a look at a watery scene:

DivX5: Along with XviD I liked DivX5's representation of this scene the most.

SBC: The walls got pretty blocky once the sprinklers started but it got back to normal soon enough to look nice on my screenshots.

XviD: I found this scene slightly more detailed and less blocky than SBC.

RV9: No visible blocks but you can notice the lack of detail when it comes to the sprinkler water.

And now for the very last set of screenshots.

DivX5: While you can see the picture getting blocky twice for a short while you really have to look hard.

SBC has the same getting very blocky twice effect but the filter does a pretty good job of filtering most of the blocks out and as you can see, the edges aren't that rough.

XviD: Once again only the XviD screenshot shows what happens with the 2 codecs above but the blockyness effect appears to be a bit stronger, too.

RV9: Once again you can notice that the background is not as detailed but in such rapid scenes this strategy works pretty well.

In conclusion, despite compressing rather well Matrix is still very well suited to test a codec, especially at low bitrates. And these 3 chapters show that we're still far away from DVD quality at a bitrate around 600kbit/s. So much about the hype around certain codecs.

Generally I found this scene very hard to judge. All codecs made a pretty good impression but all also showed some weaknesses. The 2nd chapter was hardest to judge as before and the detail level differences are almost unnoticeable. XviD had a slightly higher tendency to block than the competition, RV9 sometimes smoothes out too many details for my taste. If I had to pick one scene to make a codec really sweat I would pick the weapon's rack.. it can really ruin a good impression of a codec (XviD particularly in this test). The sprinkler scene was RV9's Achilles heel. Another word about DivX5. It seems that certain textures have the tendency to "come off" the supporting object and being dragged behind the object. It's a bit the same as the smearing in SBC but it's much stronger and happens more frequently. Imagine your carpet coming lose and you dragging it around through your apartment... it's about the same but the carpet is really blurred.

Now let's move on to Saving Private Ryan. If you think you've heard enough you can proceed directly to the conclusion.

This document was last updated on 08/05/02