Definitely - this is important as a control. Every test was done using the same core settings (codecs, profiles, resolution, frame rate, bitrates, two-pass enc

Definitely - this is important as a control. Every test was done using the same core settings (codecs, profiles, resolution, frame rate, bitrates, two-pass encoding). Beyond that, CloudHarmony used the default settings at each provider. We'll try to publish each video for visual inspection, but suffice it to say that they all look pretty close, especially three of the four, which use the same core encoder (x264) and the same settings. There may be microversion differences and minor variations in settings, but not much. The fourth uses MainConcept, which isn't a bad encoder itself. You'll probably see a bigger spread in audio quality - Encoding.com and Panda rely on faac, I think, which is an abandoned AAC encoder that isn't very good.