But all this talk made me really want that side by side comparison, so here it is:
mpeg2 vs x265 at 1920x1080p at 5.5mbps average (I wanted to do 4mbps but mpeg2 simply refused to go lower and even at 5.5 there are clear artefacts):
I upped the bitrate at 8mbps and hevc is basically good enough for everyone at this point, mpeg2 would probably need at least 50% more space to match
You might say but wait, mpeg2 is made for dvd resolution, so I made another test at 480p, this time I halved the bitrate at 2mbps for start (because half resolution = half space used, I think that’s fair, right?)
For me these are both unwatchable, but they are almost similar. I think this is where you would say there’s no reason to use something modern.
BUT, let’s halve this again, at 1mbps we get 50% less space needed and hevc is way above mpeg2.
If you still think mpeg2 is better for basically 30 to 50% more “CPU” work (well, this is actually only true for 1080p, as at 480p my CPU was never at 100% usage doing the export so the final time was pretty much the same).
Also I did not use AV1 for this test (even though it would have made even better quality for the same filesize) as I think it’s a bit early to jump into it and really needs double CPU “work”.