Recompressing some videos, what h264 settings give max compression

[0roo0roo]

..

 

[0roo0roo]

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=147293
best i could find i guess.
seems they go with insane reference/b frame settings lol

 

[theprodigalrebel]

I have tried very hard to understand x264 encoder settings and how to best use them for optimal results (without overdoing something, like doubling encoding time for virtually indistinguishable quality gains). I don't pretend to fully understand it (lol) but I think I found a decent middleground.

I use the DXVA-HD-Balanced profile in MeGUI; for calculating bitrate, I usually do Vres x Hres x fps x .25 (bits/pixel). I remember reading lots of guides once upon a time and most of them stressed on .25 bits/pixel for superior results. For instance, 1280 x 720 x 23.976 x .25 = 5,524,070.4 bps or 5,394 kbps or 5.27Mbps

Having said that, I've seen lots of videos that seem to have just as good results even with something like .15 bits/pixel (resulting in 3.16 Mbps for a 1280x720 file). I tried to find the sweet spot, drove myself crazy and stopped. If you use another front-end for encoding and don't have a base profile to start from, try and duplicate these settings:

1 2 3

And yeah, mousing over each setting in MeGUI gives you a brief description with recommended settings. You can try a few test encodes and check what works best for you.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

And one thing I do remember: for Motion Estimation, do not use the 'exhaustive' setting or above unless you want to waste a couple of hours of CPU time for little-to-nothing.

 

[0roo0roo]

lol no i'm not going to try exhaustive

thats way too hardcore lol

trying ramping up the b/ref frames increases the encode time by multiples already

 

[0roo0roo]

as for the .25bits/pixel, interesting.

botched my first go at it heh, forgot to multiply by fps
seems web mkv are closer to .17 bits/pixel
guess thats why they are so crappy looking

 

[tw1164]

Have you tried just messing w/ const quality? IMHO, Unless you're trying to get a certain file size, CQ is the way to go.

 

[shortylickens]

BUMP!!!!

I have been using the Fair Use Wizard 2 lately for some personal backups of favorite DVD's. Have encoded a few with DivX, some with Xvid and one with H.264. Just looking at them in VLC I cannot tell any difference in quality when they are forced to be 700 meg files. I never choose any other settings, everything else is on Automatic. Some of the DVD's have come out at 576x320, some at 464x256, one at 368x208. I have a one terrabyte hard drive so perhaps I should be forcing them all to 640x480 simply to preserve the original quality.

Does anyone know if H.264 offers superior image quality at a given resolution, compared to the other formats? Or is it just used for smaller file sizes?

 

[Gooberlx2]

I was never a huge fan of how FairUse Wizard handled resolutions. An anamorphic DVD would have a full resolution of 720x480, for a picture at about ~854x480 at the typical aspect (16:9).

Admittedly, I haven't used either FairUse or Handbrake in some time, so maybe things have changed....but I don't remember either offering the option of keeping the native DVD resolution (720x480) and letting the user dial in the proper aspect ratio for the video stream.

Usually only older or weird DVDs have the picture letter-boxed in some way inside the 720x480.

It's usually something I end up taking care of by hand. Encoding anamorphic provides a better picture, and then you let the playback software take care of the aspect.