Comparison between:
A) original video, rescale from a HD mpeg2 (upper left);
B) standard Adobe CS3 Sorenson Spark encode (upper right);
C) standard Adobe CS3 On2 VP6 encode (lower right);
D) selected ffmpeg Sorenson Spark from GA evolution (lower left).

Note as A is the reference video; B is natually an old, low quality codec; C is a fine tunning of B; C and D are almost the same quality; usually C is a bit noisier, except on the water sequence in which it's better.

The objective were to make the technology used on B virtually the same quality as the one on D, and it were achieved on C.

VERY IMPORTANT: the vimeo uses vp6 (ffmpeg recognized as ffvp6f), so, the quality is not as the actual original and encoded samples, but can give a good idea about the quality differences. If you want to check the full quality, login on vimeo and download the original video on the bottom of the right column of this page.

PS: black at start, black at end. (maybe I should cut it off,... ohhh if I were not soo lazyyy)