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H.264/AVC / Please critique my x264 settings!
« on: December 14, 2009, 01:59:02 AM »
OK seeing as there's no 'right' and 'wrong' I'm looking for some areas where I can improve the efficiency of my encoding, while maintaining device compatibility, and I'm looking for some suggestions from people who know better than I.
Some background:
I have a long background with compression technologies, having been involved with companies like Macrovision, Fast, Quadrant, DPS, Darim, Optibase, Sonic Foundry, Canopus, Pioneer. I would have considered myself an expert in MPEG2 and early MPEG4 compression, however I don't have the time professionally to keep up those skills for present methods.
Currently I work with products from Viewcast but the needs for realtime compression are very different to what I am trying to achieve here.
My aim is to create nearly lossless results from fairly poor broadcast MPEG2, for playback either on DXVA or PS3/Xbox360. Primarily I playback on 7MCE, but I often take files to a friend's house who has a PS3. I also have a PSP so I'd like to understand what settings I might have to change to use that (apart from resolution), or whether I can do a one-size-fits-all profile.
Contrary to the above I do store a lot of TV so I want to get the files as small as possible while maintaining the quality. Hence quality-based 3-pass encoding. SD encodes I do at 720 width, HD encodes at 960 width. I've used deblocking 1:1 because the source material seems overly sharp, and I feel 1:1 delivers a very watchable picture.
My GUI is Xvid4PSP which isn't as well known as the others, and also doesn't support the standard preset system.
What I am hoping for is whether changes to things like ref frames or other more complex settings might give me more efficiency without terrible time penalties, and most importantly maintaining compatibility. I'm encoding on a Q6600, I can't wait until I can afford an i7.
So the challenge, give me some feedback. I'm very happy with the results I'm getting. Typically my files are half the size of a "scene" rip with equivalent quality.
Please tell me:
1. Anything you suggest that might realise smaller files
2. Anything I'm using that might be overkill, ie not worth the tradeoff time vs filesize
3. Anything else of relevance?
Some background:
I have a long background with compression technologies, having been involved with companies like Macrovision, Fast, Quadrant, DPS, Darim, Optibase, Sonic Foundry, Canopus, Pioneer. I would have considered myself an expert in MPEG2 and early MPEG4 compression, however I don't have the time professionally to keep up those skills for present methods.
Currently I work with products from Viewcast but the needs for realtime compression are very different to what I am trying to achieve here.
My aim is to create nearly lossless results from fairly poor broadcast MPEG2, for playback either on DXVA or PS3/Xbox360. Primarily I playback on 7MCE, but I often take files to a friend's house who has a PS3. I also have a PSP so I'd like to understand what settings I might have to change to use that (apart from resolution), or whether I can do a one-size-fits-all profile.
Contrary to the above I do store a lot of TV so I want to get the files as small as possible while maintaining the quality. Hence quality-based 3-pass encoding. SD encodes I do at 720 width, HD encodes at 960 width. I've used deblocking 1:1 because the source material seems overly sharp, and I feel 1:1 delivers a very watchable picture.
My GUI is Xvid4PSP which isn't as well known as the others, and also doesn't support the standard preset system.
What I am hoping for is whether changes to things like ref frames or other more complex settings might give me more efficiency without terrible time penalties, and most importantly maintaining compatibility. I'm encoding on a Q6600, I can't wait until I can afford an i7.
So the challenge, give me some feedback. I'm very happy with the results I'm getting. Typically my files are half the size of a "scene" rip with equivalent quality.
Please tell me:
1. Anything you suggest that might realise smaller files
2. Anything I'm using that might be overkill, ie not worth the tradeoff time vs filesize
3. Anything else of relevance?
Code: [Select]
video codec:
x264
video cli:
--pass 1 --crf 24.0 --level 4.1 --deblock 1:1 --direct auto --b-adapt 2 --trellis 2 --qcomp 0.5 --vbv-bufsize 24000 --vbv-maxrate 24000 --partitions all --subme 9 --me esa --rc-lookahead 60
--pass 3 --crf 24.0 --level 4.1 --deblock 1:1 --direct auto --b-adapt 2 --trellis 2 --qcomp 0.5 --vbv-bufsize 24000 --vbv-maxrate 24000 --partitions all --subme 9 --me esa --rc-lookahead 60
--pass 2 --crf 24.0 --level 4.1 --deblock 1:1 --direct auto --b-adapt 2 --trellis 2 --qcomp 0.5 --vbv-bufsize 24000 --vbv-maxrate 24000 --partitions all --subme 9 --me esa --rc-lookahead 60