Ogg Theora vs. H.264: head to head comparisons

“Although the h264 codec has gained dominance due to its
excellent compression and broad support in the consumer electronics
ecosystem, it is covered by patents that preclude broad
royalty-free usage. Several browser vendors, including Opera and
Mozilla, favor the Ogg Theora media codec, which is believed to be
unencumbered by patents. Ogg may offer advantages from a licensing
standpoint, but there are still many unanswered questions about its
quality and suitability for Internet video streaming services.

“Streaming media consultant Jan Ozer conducted a hands-on
comparison of Ogg and h264 in order to shed some light on the
relative difference in encoding quality and performance. He has
published the results of his comparison, including screen captures
and sample clips, in a report at the Streaming Learning Center.

“In the videos and still images that he provides for comparison
purposes, the h264 content has better color quality and higher
detail than the Ogg Theora content. Comparing 468 kbps clips, one
can detect a very noticeable difference in quality between the two
codecs. Even the 1mbps Ogg Theora clips are not on par with the 468
kbps h264 clips. Based on the results, Ozer concludes that h264
will have the upper hand in many Internet streaming scenarios.”

Complete Story