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FFmpeg/avconv Benchmarks
Comparing the ffmpeg.exe and avconv.exe win32/win64 versions
December 26, 2011

  
 
26 DEC 2011 FFMPEG/AVCONV BENCHMARKS

OTHER FFMPEG/AVCONV BENCHMARKS
  21 Nov 2012
  8 Oct 2011

OVERVIEW
These are run times of ffmpeg.exe as downloaded from Zeranoe (FFmpeg.org) and avconv.exe as downloaded from win32.libav.org (libav.org). If you are not aware of why there are now two different web sites (ffmpeg.org and libav.org) and two different converters (ffmpeg.exe and avconv.exe), see the FFmpeg section of my useful utilities page. To get the run times below, I ran ffmpeg.exe and avconv.exe under Windows 7 on a core i5-670 (3.47 GHz, 2 cores, 4 threads). The source video is a 23-second, high-def (720p) video (.mts file) directly from my Panasonic Lumix camera.

As of December 26, 2011, somewhat surprisingly, the 32-bit ffmpeg download from Zeranoe is the only one that successfully does all of the conversions below. At least there is now one version of avconv that will do .webm encoding. That's an improvement over October 2011.

A frustration I have with ffmpeg (and avconv, to a lesser extent) is that the version numbers listed on the "live" builds don't match up with the major version numbers listed on the web site news pages (e.g. 0.7.3, 0.8.x, or 0.9.x). It would be nice if the live builds gave some indication of what major and minor version release they are related to, even if it's a snapshot build. A version number like N-36088-gdd1fb65 is meaningless to me (and to most other users, I imagine). At least avconv.exe gives a more intelligible version number like v0.7-2384-gc65dfac, though I'd still like an indicator of the minor version number, e.g. v0.7.3-0123-abcdefg. Come on guys. It can't be that hard.


CONVERTING TO MP4
Command-line options:   -i myfile.mts -strict experimental -threads <n> -s 640x360 -b:v 1250k -i_qfactor 0.71 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 63 -qdiff 4 -trellis 0 -vcodec libx264 -b:a 56k -ar 22050 outfile.mp4
Note: The "-strict experimental" command-line option is only necessary for the win32.libav.org downloads due to the aac audio encoding.

Run Times from Dec 26, 2011 Downloads
Command From Type Version gcc ver -threads 1 -threads 2 -threads 3 -threads 4
ffmpeg.exe zeranoe win32 static N-36088-gdd1fb65 4.6.1 26.2 s 16.7 s 13.7 s 12.2 s
ffmpeg.exe zeranoe win64 static N-36088-gdd1fb65 4.6.2 24.7 s 16.4 s 12.9 s 11.5 s
avconv.exe win32.libav.org win32 v0.7-2384-gc65dfac 4.5.2 22.2 s 15.4 s 11.4 s 10.7 s
avconv.exe win32.libav.org win32 w/pthreads v0.7-2384-gc65dfac 4.5.2 22.3 s 13.5 s 37.7 s* 16.3 s*
avconv.exe win32.libav.org win64 v0.7-2384-gc65dfac 4.5.2 n/a**
* - Note regression in run times with pthreads version.
** - avconv.exe win64 version crashed.


CONVERTING TO WEBM
Command-line options:   -i myfile.mts -threads <n> -s 640x360 -b:v 1250k -qmax 63 -b:a 56k -ar 22050 -acodec libvorbis outfile.webm
Run Times from Dec 26, 2011 Downloads
Command From Type Version gcc ver -threads 1 -threads 2 -threads 3 -threads 4
ffmpeg.exe zeranoe win32 static N-36088-gdd1fb65 4.6.2 24.3 s 17.9 s 18.4 s 18.9 s
ffmpeg.exe zeranoe win64 static N-36088-gdd1fb65 4.6.2 n/a*
avconv.exe win32.libav.org win32 v0.7-2384-gc65dfac 4.5.2 85.0 s 52.2 s 52.7 s 46.0 s
avconv.exe win32.libav.org win32 w/pthreads v0.7-2384-gc65dfac 4.5.2 n/a**
avconv.exe win32.libav.org win64 v0.7-2384-gc65dfac 4.5.2 n/a**
* - ffmpeg.exe win64 version crashed.
** - win32.libav.org pthread and 64-bit versions did not have .webm encoding.


CONVERTING TO OGG/THEORA
Command-line options:   -i myfile.mts -threads <n> -s 640x360 -b:v 1250k -qmax 63 -b:a 56k -ar 22050 -acodec libvorbis outfile.ogv
Run Times from Dec 26, 2011 Downloads
Command From Type Version gcc ver -threads 1 -threads 2 -threads 3 -threads 4
ffmpeg.exe zeranoe win32 static N-36088-gdd1fb65 4.6.2 19.9 s*
ffmpeg.exe zeranoe win64 static N-36088-gdd1fb65 4.6.2 18.4 s*
avconv.exe win32.libav.org win32 v0.7-2384-gc65dfac 4.5.2 n/a**
avconv.exe win32.libav.org win32 w/pthreads v0.7-2384-gc65dfac 4.5.2 n/a**
avconv.exe win32.libav.org win64 v0.7-2384-gc65dfac 4.5.2 n/a**
* - Number of threads seems to have no effect.
** - win32.libav.org versions did not have .ogv encoding.

 

This page last modified
Wednesday, 21-Nov-2012 12:15:20 MST