MeGUI Custom x264/AVC video profiles.

[Synergy37]

Yeah no settings I've been trying have worked. Can someone post a shor clip for me to download along with their settings for me to try?

[CubaMAN]

AFAIK no... however is your mp4box up to date?

Sorry, had problems with my internet connection. I have the version which is available via the MeGUI Update Manager. Where can I get the current version? Is there a guide which deinterlace filter to use for which source? Had a partially interlaced movie and let MeGui choose the filter but the result was ugly.

[acarney]

Using Sharks 5.5G profile without changing ANYTHING should work fine. I have encoded iPod videos using MeGUI with Shark's 5.5G profile output set to mp4. For audio you need to downmix to two channels and make sure it's constant bit rate 160kbps or less (I use 128kbit so try using that first) and ACC-LC setting. Mux these two files using NicMP4Box v1.0, it has a hack which will let you make 640 pixel files that work on the iPod.

Once you get the hang of working with files using those settings you can change the avg. bit rate up to 1500kbps (as far as I know, I have gone as high as 1200 and as low as 800) and I can say that auto two pass and auto three pass work.


Edit: Might I add that I also need to use NiceFPS AviSynth plugin with these files to get them to work in Quicktime or iTunes. If you're testing with a 60 second file or something you'll probably get a working file without NiceFPS but when you move onto a full size (30min, 1 hr, etc) you might run into problems, NiceFPS shouldn't slow things down and is a nice backup just in case so you don't waste encoding twice to get it working.

[Lemonadez]

Which Profile that has better quality? that goes under 60MB below.

[pimpMyHD]

does one of the HQ- profile could be considered as a 'lowcpu' profile ?
if no, what could be a real 'lowcpu' profile ?

[sillKotscha]

what do you mean by 'lowcpu'? Do you mean you want to encode using a given profile and want to decode it with your low cpu without any hazzle?? What do you consider a low cpu?

Speaking for myself I'm used to encode using HQ-Slow -> if I follow your 'lowcpu' phrase I can say, yes, during encoding my cpu usage is really low for other threads (= really high for x264 encoding), even on idle mode BUT with CoreAVC or an up2date build of ffdshow for decoding my cpu is on average demand...

I consider my CPU (= xp2400+) quite old but still adequate even for HDTV resolutions using CoreAVC...

btw, IMO your question deosn't really belong here...

[pimpMyHD]

oh! sorry, i tought this term was common. When i say 'lowcpu' i mean the video need less to be decoded.
I saw this term on a site, but it is maybe just rubbish ?
I understood, reading that, that the video was encoding a way which will allow to be decoding using less cpu.
I am not a specialist at all ... so maybe i am wrong from the beginning. For exemple, if not using some features at encoding, the video should be more easy to decode ? that the way i understood it.

I think the question belong there because it is directly concerning the megui's profiles.

actually, i use the hd-dvd profile.
Thanks a lot for your answer.

[Chainmax]

I have a few questions about the 5.5G iPod AVC profile. First of all, I'd like to know if the 640x480 limit is a pixelcount or width/height limitation (i.é: if I can use, say, 716x416 on a 16:9 source). I'd also like to know if I can use RDO2,No-DCT-Decimation, No-Fast P-Skip, I4x4, P8x8 and B8x8 since they aren't greyed out. Lastly, can the iPod play a 15fps video encoded with these settings?

[Chainmax]

...
For audio you need to downmix to two channels and make sure it's constant bit rate 160kbps or less (I use 128kbit so try using that first) and ACC-LC setting. Mux these two files using NicMP4Box v1.0, it has a hack which will let you make 640 pixel files that work on the iPod.

Will adaptive 192kbps AAC-LC not work for sure? Also, is NicMP4Box compulsory or will the latest MP4Box work as well?


...
Edit: Might I add that I also need to use NiceFPS AviSynth plugin with these files to get them to work in Quicktime or iTunes. If you're testing with a 60 second file or something you'll probably get a working file without NiceFPS but when you move onto a full size (30min, 1 hr, etc) you might run into problems, NiceFPS shouldn't slow things down and is a nice backup just in case so you don't waste encoding twice to get it working.

What kind of issues will I run into if not using NiceFPS?

[simonhowson]

I have a few questions about the 5.5G iPod AVC profile. First of all, I'd like to know if the 640x480 limit is a pixelcount or width/height limitation (i.é: if I can use, say, 716x416 on a 16:9 source). I'd also like to know if I can use RDO2,No-DCT-Decimation, No-Fast P-Skip, I4x4, P8x8 and B8x8 since they aren't greyed out. Lastly, can the iPod play a 15fps video encoded with these settings?

As far as I know, the width MUST be 640, then the vertical resolution varies depending on the aspect ratio of the material.

I'm sorry I can't help you wtih those other settings, I really rely heavily on Sharktooth's profile, the only changes I make is to turn deblocking on, and to use threads 2 because I have a dual core machine.

[Chainmax]

I thought deblocking increased playback requirements, do those files encoded with deblocking enabled play back ok on your iPod?

By the way, I'd like to know the answers to my questions regarding vanilla 5G iPods as well, if possible.

[migrena]

yes, avc encoded videos with deblocking enabled at 640x480 play fine on my old 5G ipod, also 25 fps worked fine so i expect 15 fps to be playable as well (in old 1.1 firmware any fps lower than 30 was palyable)
they changed pixelcount requirement into max width and height (for avc at least)
you may find this topic (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=115917) very helpful, especially page 4

ps 5.5 and 5.0 ipods are exacly the same thing in terms of playback abilities

[Chainmax]

So that means for 16:9 content I'm limited to 640x360+Borders then. Thanks for the info :). As for sound, is 160kbps CBR the maximum or can I use 192kbps adaptive? And did you ever have to include NiceFPS on your scripts?


P.S: I forgot, since RDO2,No-DCT-Decimation, No-Fast P-Skip, I4x4, P8x8 and B8x8 since aren't greyed out can they be enabled?

[anonymez]

I for got, since RDO2,No-DCT-Decimation, No-Fast P-Skip, I4x4, P8x8 and B8x8 since aren't greyed out can they be enabled?

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=835422#post835422

[migrena]

As for sound, is 160kbps CBR the maximum or can I use 192kbps adaptive?
naac gave me very inaccurate results (undershot bitrate), so now i'm using faac 160kbps abr
itunes checks up only average bitrate, right? if so this is probably one of those stupid apple limitations as ipods are able to playback aac at 320kbps

[Chainmax]

anonymez: I can't believe I forgot that :o, thanks for reminding me :).

migrena: I will use 160kbps ABR then, thanks :).

[migrena]

it is always good to check actual bitrate after encoding because 161kbps abr will not transfer to ipod

[TwoToad]

I just upgraded my cell to one that can play *.3gp videos. Which MeGUI profile would I use? Or maybe a better question would be to ask if there are any guides or specs that one would use... I understand that 3gp is a mp4 type file (MPEG-4 SP baseline@level 0??) and supports aac audio.

I must be strange for wanting to watch videos on a 1-2 inch screen LOL!!

[check]

Try the baseline profile and set the vbv maxrate to 250 or so.

[Atak_Snajpera]

PSP profile requires update!!! Below settings which work on my PSP 3.02.

x264.exe "c:\video.avs" --pass 1 --bitrate 384 --stats ".stats" --level 2.1 --ref 2 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 5 --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse all --me umh --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --output "c:\video.mp4" "c:\video.avs"
x264.exe "c:\video.avs" --pass 2 --bitrate 384 --stats ".stats" --level 2.1 --ref 2 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 5 --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse all --me umh --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --output "c:\video.mp4" "c:\video.avs"

As you can see --level 2.1 is required. You can also use --analyse all and --bframes 5 :)
Very important!!! DO NOT USE -thread 2 (or more) because PSP somehow doesn't want to open movies after this.

[Sharktooth]

i will include the changes in the next version.
thanx.

[Sharktooth]

you should post that feature request in the AVC forum...
this is truly not related to megui

[JarrettH]

Does this mean anything?

Just caught it in the log...

x264 [warning]: VBV maxrate specified, but no bufsize.

[check]

nothing important unless you are working with playback systems with a small buffer (ie, a standalone player).

[quake74]

PSP profile requires update!!! Below settings which work on my PSP 3.02.

x264.exe "c:\video.avs" --pass 1 --bitrate 384 --stats ".stats" --level 2.1 --ref 2 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 5 --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse all --me umh --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --output "c:\video.mp4" "c:\video.avs"
x264.exe "c:\video.avs" --pass 2 --bitrate 384 --stats ".stats" --level 2.1 --ref 2 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 5 --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse all --me umh --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --output "c:\video.mp4" "c:\video.avs"

As you can see --level 2.1 is required. You can also use --analyse all and --bframes 5 :)
Very important!!! DO NOT USE -thread 2 (or more) because PSP somehow doesn't want to open movies after this.

Isn't it possible to speed up the first pass? Kinda like the turbo option in xvid? I know it's written somewhere what options are safe to be dropped during the first pass...

[Sharktooth]

MeGUI has a "Turbo" option...

[smuthy]

First of thanks to Sharktooth for his great profiles.

I wanted a constant quality factor profile like CQ-ASP_Q2_eq(crf) but that encoded quicker on my limited hardware.

Therefore, I modified the 1P-Intermediate profile to run at a constant quality crf=21 (determined for my eyes and equipment via experiment on short clips), no other mods made to the profile.

This gives me good results at a higher encoding speed than CQ-ASP_Q2_eq(crf).

Hope this proves useful - if I'm wrong and this is a dumb idea please let me know.

[JarrettH]

Will you be using that deadzone setting in any of your HQ profiles Sharktooth? Or is it one of those subjective settings?

[Sharktooth]

The deadzones settings depend on the source material so i cant include them in the profiles.

[Atak_Snajpera]

[QUOTE=Very important!!! DO NOT USE -thread 2 (or more) because PSP somehow doesn't want to open movies after this.[/QUOTE]

It applies ONLY to old version x264.exe (before rev 610)
With lates you can use how many threads you want. :-)

By the way Is it safe to use Turbo mode in first pass? How does it work?

[check]

turbo will reduce the final quality by a small amount, but gives you a significant encoding boost. Make a test test encodes to compare.

[Sharktooth]

V34:
- Set the number of threads to 0 (auto) on all profiles by default.
- Updated the PD-PSP profile for the new 3.02 firmware.
- Some other minor changes

[experttech]

Can you please tell me what video profile I can use to watch videos on my Blackberry 8100 (Pearl)


Blackberry Pearl
Supported audio formats: MP3, MIDI, AMR-NB, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
Supported video formats: MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile, H.263

[Sharktooth]

none of the included...

[check]

You can try xvid with all options disabled and mp3.

[sugala]

Thanks a lot The searching spend so much time.

[shon3i]

Thanks a lot The searching spend so much time.
XviD aslo with HE-AAC+PS @ 24kbps, much better quality audio than mp3 at same filesize

[SpAwN_gUy]

Is it only Me... or.. I'me Getting "Error File is not a Profile for MeGUI".. for all of v34... (Latest MeGUI) .. v33 - works fine.

[bananacreamandpeca]

Hi, maybe a stupid question sharktooth.
But do each of your megui-profiles also come with a customized matrice inside?

(just wondering)

[elguaxo]

But do each of your megui-profiles also come with a customized matrice inside?

Nope. But there are a couple of nice CQMs with detailed usage descriptions here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96298) and here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=117041). And there is an older thread here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96159).

[Sharktooth]

Is it only Me... or.. I'me Getting "Error File is not a Profile for MeGUI".. for all of v34... (Latest MeGUI) .. v33 - works fine.
Update to the latest megui.

[TwoToad]

Hello Sharktooth,

The iPod 5.5G profile might need to be updated. I haven't run enough tests to make sure yet, though. It seems that iTunes wants a SAR and Level 30 (??? what the heck???) according to Nic's MP4Box. I modified your profile by setting the level to "Unrestricted", and then adding the command line options of "--sar 1:1 --level 30". This fixed a "white frame" issue I had with one movie I had, but I haven't had the time to test it out on other videos that were giving me problems...

Anyway, just a heads up. If other people want to help test this out to be sure?...

[migrena]

there is no need to use "--sar 1:1", also both "--level 30" and "--level 3" can be used (tested)
that profile works fine but you will need to use nic's compilation of mp4box to mux output file instead of the regular one

i dont know what is this "white frame issue", can you clarify this?

[TwoToad]

I do use nic's mp4box. I was just following nic's instructions in his readme file. The --level 30 makes no sense to me, because there is no AVC Baseline Level 30...

The white frames are in Apples ever-so-wonderful iTunes. Sometimes when you load a new video that you encoded with megui iPod 5.5g profile, it will show up in iTunes as a solid white frame. Then when you try to play it, the player window shows nothing (just whatever was behind the window when it opened up). Sound plays though. The video *will* copy over to the iPod and it will actually play normally. I'm not sure what Apple's issue is.

This doesn't happen to every encode, just random ones, when it feels like it =) I've tried enforcing the FPS to 23.976, encoded audio and video separate and muxed manually, and those random videos refuse to show up properly in iTunes...

Anyway, so far I've been having good luck with the --sar 1:1 and --level 30 options.

[migrena]

3.0=3 and cli programs dont like some characters therfore 30=3

i wont comment itunes here because i dont know how to do this in acceptable words, just dont use itunes as multimedia player, drag-and-drop your videos directly to ipod

[TwoToad]

Ah, nevermind... scratch out the whole --sar 1:1 and --level thingy. I still managed to encode a video that plays on the pod but not tunes...

And you are right. Tunes is pretty, but buggy as all get out.

[Hobojobo]

Where can I dl the previous sets of video/audio profiles?

I am running W2k and the 0.2.4.10xx versions reject to work for me so I have to downgrade.
And the lastest profiles don't like the 0.2.3.2193 meGui.

[ScootyPuffJr]

Is there any way to do constant quality recording for the iPod using x264? I like the quality but I'd like to cudt down on the file size. Enabling 2-pass in the profile didn't really seem to do anything to decrease the file size.

[Sharktooth]

Where can I dl the previous sets of video/audio profiles?

I am running W2k and the 0.2.4.10xx versions reject to work for me so I have to downgrade.
And the lastest profiles don't like the 0.2.3.2193 meGui.
i simply dont have them...

[Sharktooth]

Is there any way to do constant quality recording for the iPod using x264? I like the quality but I'd like to cudt down on the file size. Enabling 2-pass in the profile didn't really seem to do anything to decrease the file size.
i think you didnt read the megui guide...
first of all you need to use the bitrate calculator (to set your desired filesize) or manually configure the profile to set your desired bitrate... obviously before encoding...
however you better :readguid:

[SpAwN_gUy]

Update to the latest megui.
Yep, Thanks.. worked Fine..

[ScootyPuffJr]

i think you didnt read the megui guide...
first of all you need to use the bitrate calculator (to set your desired filesize) or manually configure the profile to set your desired bitrate... obviously before encoding...
however you better :readguid:

Actually, I did read the guide (Berrinam's) and 2 others specific to iPod encoding, so maybe I'm just not understanding things correctly. All the guides referece ABR and setting a desired bitrate as you described above. I haven't seen any threads talking about using the Constant Quality setting, which is what I want, not a constant bitrate/filesize. I saw a couple of references to using -2pass to 'optimize' the file size, so I thought I'd try it since the documentation says that 1-pass encouding can have 'unpredictable' results on file sizes.

So I guess my actual question should have been 'Does anyone use the Constant Quality setting in MeGUI?' (especially for iPod Encoding) ... and would anyone give me pros and cons for it since I only see references to ABR in all the guides/posts?

thanks,
- spj

[Hobojobo]

I found a workaround.
I use megui 0.2.3.2193 to crop and set up the jobs and megui 0.2.4.xxxx (turn off avisynth preview) to do the encoding jobs.

:)
Thanks again to the devs of megui and x264.

[migrena]

i have the same problem but im writing scripts by hand so its not an issue, i will try TwoTad solution (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=926762#post926762) tomorrow and check what plugin may be causing troubles

@ScootyPuffJr im using lossless from time to time but thats not for ipod ;)

[check]

@scooty, what exactly is your problem with using cq for the ipod? It should work more or less identically to a 2pass encode as long as the bitrate doesnt' get too high.

[ScootyPuffJr]

@check,

I'm actually not having any problems with cq encoding so far in any of my tests - it's working really well. I was wondering if there were problems with it on the iPod only because all the posts and Guides I had seen referenced only ABR, never any cq. I am getting ready to encode a bunch of stuff, and was hoping to find out if there was some bug I havn't run across in my testing before I started (file compatability issues, etc..). It's try #2, and I'd like to avoid try #3 :D

I'm using cq's of 18-22, so I don't expect the bitrates to be too high - they were fine under ffmpeg, I just had audio sync problems with FF/IVTC'd content in ffmpeg so I switched to x264.

[JarrettH]

Is -2 -1 still recommended for the HQ profiles? They are the defaults still in the ones I have.

[check]

deblocking is heavily influenced by whether your tastes lean towards mosquito noise or smearing. Lower settings reduce smearing, but leave you with more residual crud (because the deblocker is used less), whereas higher settings do the opposite. I usually use values close to 0,0 myself, and when the final quantizers are above 20 it doesn't really make much difference anyway.

[TwoToad]

I don't suppose there is a PD-PSP 3.30+ profile in the works? I'm not sure what all the new firmware supports (or if it's just a resolution change).

[edekba]

I have a question. IN the profile PD-Xbox_Hires, is their a max bitrate?

In meGUI, i set a bitrate at about 1500kb/s i believe. However after the encoding was finished, the filesize corisponded to something like only 1000kb/s.

ie. file should've been 700mb compared to 500mb.

[edekba]

Is there a profile for the new Apple TV? Or do i just use the ipod profiles?

[Deinorius]

The Quicktime Profile up to 720p should be fine because it's Quicktime what Apple uses in AppleTV.

[amix]

Added "Common Encoding" profiles.
Added "Anime Encoding" profiles.
Added "1 Pass Encoding" profiles.
suggestions are welcome.

:thanks:

Hmmm...this is an older thread. Not sure how actual your offer still is. What I would like to see is a profile for different publishing tasks, like

* Webcast (very low size with maximum quality, only a face, moving sparingly, but needs details in the face, audio can be as low as 11KHz/8bit mono)
* Screencast (like Webcast, may be similare to Cartoon/Anime ?)
* and maybe something, that is best choice for later encoding into Flash Video (FLV)

Of course I can do this myself, but I know zero-nada-nothing about all the things behind the scenes and have zero experience. What I have found to be quite ok for Webcasts is a little profile I did with PSP9Video. But it may be even better if some Pro does it right. And since you asked... ;)

Also it is pretty difficult to get information on encoding for Webcasts. I asked on Usenet several times but got no reply.

With all these codecs I'd also be interested, what is the best to find being supported on the web-browsers. I guess x264 is ok, these days ? (decodable by Quicktime or WMP browser plugin ?)

[outlaw55]

I don't suppose there is a PD-PSP 3.30+ profile in the works? I'm not sure what all the new firmware supports (or if it's just a resolution change).
It would have to be a new one, I tried all I could to get an encode out but it wouldn't work, also the 720x480 videos use Level 3 (at least the PSP Video 9 encodes that WORK use Level 3).

EDIT: Found the problem, the PSP will not play files with b-frames at the resolution of 720x480 ;)!

[michaelhill]

Hey Shark,

thanks for the profiles, they helped me to learn the codec and its possibilities. I mostly use HQ slower with if needed 1 or 2 adjustments for your standard profile and it works fine, great results. Is it still not good to encode with 2 treads? My rips look crystal clear with 2 treads so i suppose it is safe to use now?

The other question i have is about the anime profiles. I use them exaclty as you provided them, only i changed the treads to 2. For movies like Cars from pixar, i used the AE good quality profile. I had a very good looking rip on 2cd's. Absolutlty stunning quality. Now i do read somewhere on this forum, forgot where exaclty, that it is advised to use one of the HQ profiles? Why is that? The results I got are good. But will i get better results with the HQ profiles?

thanks again for your work, since i discovered MeGui/x264 and your profiles I have banned xvid/divx for good from my pc.
Encoding takes long, but its worth the wait.:thanks:

[SpAwN_gUy]

thanks for the profiles, they helped me to learn the codec and its possibilities. I mostly use HQ slower with if needed 1 or 2 adjustments for your standard profile and it works fine, great results. Is it still not good to encode with 2 treads? My rips look crystal clear with 2 treads so i suppose it is safe to use now?well,.. as in the source code of meGUI.. it does NOT matter.. what number of threads you use.. 'cause meGUI internally overrides (on Job addition) number of threads, determining(is it coorect in Eng ??? ) the number of Cores by using WinAPI function. and this number does NOT influences quality of the encode, just the speed. (some say in good way, some say it is not so "parralel" -> ELDER )

The other question i have is about the anime profiles. I use them exaclty as you provided them, only i changed the treads to 2. For movies like Cars from pixar, i used the AE good quality profile. I had a very good looking rip on 2cd's. Absolutlty stunning quality. Now i do read somewhere on this forum, forgot where exaclty, that it is advised to use one of the HQ profiles? Why is that? The results I got are good. But will i get better results with the HQ profiles?AE profiles are for anime .. and Pixar's Cars is NOT an Anime ... it is CG (Computer Grafix) .. so it is more like Movie (ex. Star Wars -> tons of CG = Movie)
so HQ - sutes best.. for Cars and Shreck.. and "all.the.Pixar"

anime profiles sute best for something like.. "Aladdin" ;) and "Darkwing Duck" .. oh,.. good old days of.. sorry :) .. and tons of Japanese animation (NARUTO, Howl's moving Castle, Spirited Away)

[michaelhill]

thanks for your reply

I did have good encode with the anime profile for pixar's cars.
I am going to re-encode it with HQ-Slower and see if there is a anvious difference.

[omf]

Found the problem, the PSP will not play files with b-frames at the resolution of 720x480 ;)!

It will play 720x480 with b-frames. My PSP profile has 3 B-frames. Just turn off "B-Pyramid" and "RDO for B-frames"

[Manao]

Just turn off "B-Pyramid" and "RDO for B-frames"If B-RDO has an influence on PSP playback, it's a bug, and should be reported as such. But I really doubt it actually influences the playback.

[omf]

B-RDO is grayed-out when B-Pyramid is disabled, so I'm actually not sure if that makes a difference.

[Manao]

It shouldn't be disable, if it is it's a bug in MeGUI.

[Spilt_milk]

what happens if i chose all of them

[check]

B RDO is not dependant on B Pyramid, and this behavior is correct in MeGUI. Other related dependancies you might be confused with:
B RDO requires Subme >= 6
B RDO requires B frames >= 1
B Pyramid requires B frames >= 2

[Kurtnoise]

Hey,

Does anybody is interested by iPhone & Apple TV Profiles or not ?

[Sharktooth]

Just post them and i will add them ;)

[Kurtnoise]

ok...but before to summit them I've a question. I haven't checked carefully the sources, so forgive me my ignorance. Can we restrict some parameters for the end users by using profiles ? (i.e width & height, bitrate, etc...)

[Sharktooth]

Uhm... not properly. You can set a default bitrate in the profile but the user can always modify it (thru profile config editor or thru bitrate calculator).
Width and Height can be set in a avisynth profile but as for the bitrate, it can be changed by the user

[buzzqw]

the profiles bundled with automkv can set width/height and bitrate limit

BHH

[Kurtnoise]

Just post them and i will add them ;)
meGUI - Apple TV Profile (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L6GS3NHC)
meGUI - iPhone Profile (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I9A8U2P5)
It needs to be tested because I don't have such devices.

Uhm... not properly.
So, it needs to be tuned then. :cool: Let me play with the sources and I'll go back with something in a couple of days.

btw, here some extra infos extracted from here (http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2007/tn2188.html):

Apple TV has the ability to playback Main Profile (up to Level 3.1) H.264 progressive video with B-Frames up to 1280x720 (720p) at 24 fps and AAC-LC encoded stero audio with a maximum sampling rate of 44.1kHz.

iPhone has the ability to playback H.264 Baseline Profile (up to Level 3.0) video, up to 640x480 at 30 fps and AAC-LC encoded stereo audio with a maximum sampling rate of 48kHz. iPhone will also play movies or audio files that can play on an iPod. Note that B frames are not supported in the Baseline profile.

Furthermore, some tweakings are also needed for the muxing (thank you Apple :p) :
For AppleTV :
MP4Box -ipod -brand M4VH:1 -add myvideo.264:fps=xx -add myaudio.m4a outputfile.m4v
For iPhone :
MP4Box -ipod -brand M4VP -add myvideo.264:fps=xx -add myaudio.m4a outputfile.m4v

[Sharktooth]

V35:

- Added HQ-Fast (like HQ-Slow but no RDO)
- Added iPhone and AppleTV profiles by Kurtnoise13

[Deckard2019]

I would like to add Archos 605 (http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_605wifi/index.html?country=global&lang=en&culture=global-en&lang_temp=) profile but I'm lost with all parameters.
To start, the only thing I have is a DivXTest result (http://media.generationmp3.com/gmp3/tests/605wifi/tests-compatibilite-605.html).

As you can notice, it should support :
VID-4A test H264 Main Profil (MPEG4 AVC Main Profil + LC-AAC CBR)
VID-4C test MPEG4 AVC avec multi-bframe (MPEG4 AVC Bframe + LC-AAC CBR)
VID-4D test MPEG4 AVC avec multi-reference frame (MPEG4 AVC Reference Frame + LC-AAC CBR)
VID-4F test MPEG4 AVC avec weighted prediction (MPEG4 AVC weighted prediction + LC-AAC CBR)

CABAC, High Profile and custom matrix are not supported.

Any help to create the profile would be great. I can test it on my 605.
Thanks you !

[Kurtnoise]

@Sharktooh: sorry, I've made a mistake for the AppleTV & iPhone Profiles. Redownload them here (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/misc/).

@Deckard: try the PD-Archos 605 Profile (same link as above).

@foxace : try the PD-PS3 Profile (same link as above).

[Deckard2019]

Thank you Kurtnoise13.

One thing I don't understand in your profile is Baseline profile and no BFrames.
Main profile, BFrame and reference frame should be supported so why don't you select these parameters ?

Thx again !

[Kurtnoise]

It's just for some tests. Feel free to change/improve it.

[JarrettH]

hi sharktooth :p

I have a small change you could make to some of the profiles:

Max Keyframe Interval: 240
Min. GOP Size: 24

Since I understand these should closely match the input framerate which is PROBABLY going to be a DVD. I basically use HQ-Slower with all the Quant options and the parameters above.

[Sharktooth]

that is subjective. PAL = 250/25 while NTSC = 240/24 or 300/30 (depending on the source).

[JarrettH]

I guess it could be PAL too:D

[Sharktooth]

v36:

- Removed p4x4 from most of the profiles since it only hurts quality

[ACrowley]

v36:

- Removed p4x4 from most of the profiles since it only hurts quality

hurts Quality ? so you suggest to disable it ? Never noticed any Problems with analyze all

[Sharktooth]

read my previous post...

[JarrettH]

i thought those analyze options were only beneficial. i haven't read anywhere recommending to disable one of them.

[Terranigma]

i thought those analyze options were only beneficial. i haven't read anywhere recommending to disable one of them.


p4x4 doesn't hurt, it just doesn't help. At large resolutions, individual objects in the movie are bigger than 4x4 pixels, so there's no point in partitioning mvs that small. Typically it might be enabled in 0.5% of macroblocks, and improve compression by 0.1%, making it one of the worst compression-per-cpu tradeoffs.
(Original Post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1032133#post1032133))


My Test:

Test 2:
--trellis 1 --bframes 16 --partitions p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8
SSIM Mean Y:09578236
PSNR Mean Y:38.914 U:41.756 V:42.604 AVG:39.734 Global 38.501 kb/s
(Final ratefactor: 24.07)
(Encode Speed: 3.51 fps)

Test 3:
--trellis 1 --bframes 16 --partitions all
SSIM Mean Y:09578077
PSNR Mean Y:38.906 U:41.752 V:42.602 AVG:39.727 Global 38.494 kb/s
(Final ratefactor: 24.07)
(Encode Speed: 3.52 fps)
(Original Post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1033570#post1033570))

[JarrettH]

what resolution? a dvd? :thanks:

[Terranigma]

what resolution? a dvd? :thanks:

Oh, it looks like I left that tidbit out. Actually, not even a dvd res. That test was made using a VGA res of 640X480; so anything above this should still hold true.

[Sharktooth]

v37:

- HQ-Fast: Lowered the number of reference frames to 1

[yukichigai]

Just tried to encode a 90-minute flick using the iPhone preset. 480x208 @ 23.976fps, three passes instead of two, 450 average bitrate. No other changes made. iTunes claims the video is incompatible with the iPhone, both with and without the audio. I even made sure to manually mux the audio and video myself using mp4box.

Also, now that I think about it I was using the v35 profiles. I'll run another test with v36.

EDIT: Just did a normal automated 2pass using the default iPhone profile: same issue. I'm going to try some other stuff to make sure it's not some weird resolution problem, but as far as I can tell the iPhone profile is broken.

[yukichigai]

After some test renders (nothing but color bars) I've determined that the iPhone profile has some problem in it somewhere. (Not sure where) In contrast, the iPod profile run through Auto Encode produces iPhone-compliant streams with no remuxing necessary.

[Sharktooth]

v38:

- Updated Kurtnoise13 profiles (iPhone, AppleTV, PS3 and Archos 605)
- Readded p4x4 to the PD-Xbox_LoRes profile

[Sharktooth]

Kurtnoise are you sure PS3 supports level 4? or is it 4.1?

[Kurtnoise]

According to some users (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1028270#post1028270), the box supports levels up to 4.1. So,...

[Sharktooth]

V39:

- Updated the PS3 profile with Level4.1. Also renamed it to SA-PS3 coz it's very close to BD. Subject to other changes.

[Sharktooth]

seems PS3 supports High Profile too...

EDIT: Uhm... no

[Sharktooth]

v40:

- Final profile for PS3. *IT WORKS*. The profile name is also changed back to PD-PS3 (BlueRay will need a separate profile). If you have updated to v39 please delete the SA-PS3 profile.

[JarrettH]

Oh, it looks like I left that tidbit out. Actually, not even a dvd res. That test was made using a VGA res of 640X480; so anything above this should still hold true.

Thanks Terranigma :cool:

[nurbs]

seems PS3 supports High Profile too...

EDIT: Uhm... no

It does. At least I8x8 and cqms work without problems.

[Sharktooth]

some ppl reported it doesnt work.

[nurbs]

This is what I normally use for PAL DVDs and it works on the PS3:

--crf 20.0 --level 3.1 --ref 3 --bframes 3 --b-pyramid --weightb --direct temporal --filter -1,-1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --vbv-maxrate 14000 --threads auto --thread-input

CQMs work as well, also better settings for subme, trellis, bime, mixed refs and so on. IIRC there is a max number of refs, but I don't know how many. It works at least up to 5 mixed refs. It won't work if the resolution of the file is higher than the level constraint, but it will play a file with level 3.1 that has p4x4 enabled. Again I only tested SD content.

[Wishbringer]

--crf 18 --level 4.1 --ref 8 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 16 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --filter -2,-1 --subme 7 --trellis 2 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --me umh --merange 24 --threads auto --no-dct-decimate

I have encoded several PAL DVDs with above settings to put onto my 250GB PS3 HDD and all play fine.
For testing I upscaled to 720p and profile still works. Haven't tried 1080p.
PS3 FW 1.90

Level above 4.1 isn't recognized,
more than 8 refs results in visual errors,

Edit:
Just had a high motion, high detail scene in 1080p with above settings and it gave a crash....
Maybe too high vbv buffersize, mean overflow.

[Deckard2019]

It's just for some tests. Feel free to change/improve it.

I just test your profile PD-Archos605. It works fine.
I don't see a lot of differences with CE-Baseline. Could you explain me your changes ?
CE-Baseline files runs fine too.

I try to build my own profile, starting with CE-Mainprofile.
Archos 605 is supposed to handle B frames but it doesn't play smoothly.

Thank you.

[ToS_Maverick]

[CODE]
Edit:
Just had a high motion, high detail scene in 1080p with above settings and it gave a crash....
Maybe too high vbv buffersize, mean overflow.

don't trust x264's VBV check. IIRC Aku said, that VBV doesn't really work in CRF-mode, but correct me if i'm wrong.

[Sharktooth]

V41:

- h.264 High Profile for PD-PS3
- New PD-PS3-Fast
- Slightly faster HQ-Fast (lowered ME Range to 8)

[TheRyuu]

I'm wondering what the specific differences are for the anime/toon profiles compared to the HQ Slowest profile.

I know what the differences are, I guess I'm asking more on the side of why? And what effect do those changes have on the final resulting video?

I gather the change in deblocking settings is to prevent blocking on anime/toon sources, kinda gathered that already (same reason why you use h263 quantization with xvid, so it doesn't block).

But what do the other minor changes have on the effect of the final video. Like the change in the subpixel refinement (tried to look it up, didn't really get that great of an answer) and (I think this also changed) the increase in the number of reference frames (to 16?), and why no "no dct decimation."

Sorry to bother you with all the questions, I tried searching and reading the megui wiki, didn't really get me too far.

Thanks.

[Sharktooth]

more reference frames: anime and toons have lot duplicate frames and static areas.
higher inloop deblocking settings: anime and toons have lot of flat areas and high contrast between edges.
other compression settings: usually who wants to encode anime or toons content wants the smalles possible files. so in the AE-Maxquality profile i also maxed everything that rises compression (expecially subme). no dct decimation increases the bitrate and it's useless on anime and toons.

[TheRyuu]

more reference frames: anime and toons have lot duplicate frames and static areas.
higher inloop deblocking settings: anime and toons have lot of flat areas and high contrast between edges.
other compression settings: usually who wants to encode anime or toons content wants the smalles possible files. so in the AE-Maxquality profile i also maxed everything that rises compression (expecially subme). no dct decimation increases the bitrate and it's useless on anime and toons.

Thanks.

[timeisntreal]

When are you going to add a Xbox 360 profile?

And thank you for your great work!

Attached is what I am currently using.

[l3pyr]

V41:

- h.264 High Profile for PD-PS3
- New PD-PS3-Fast


Quick question. When using the PS3 profiles to reencode a 1080p AVC High Profile 5.1 source, the output is corrupt on both the PS3 (blank screen) and MPC (garbled). If I simply resize to 720p using the AVS script everything is perfect. Doesn't AVC High Profile 4.1 support 1080p content? Is there something I need to specify in the profile options to make it work?

PS - I'm reencoding this content because the good ol' hex edit trick down to 4.1 didn't work, which probably reinforces my idea that 1080p may not work in a 4.1 AVC =(

-Thanks

[check]

The output resolution should not affect the x264 output being valid or not. There's no sane reason I can see why one commandline works with 720p output but not with 1080p. Do you have a strange decoder?

[Sharktooth]

When are you going to add a Xbox 360 profile?

And thank you for your great work!

Attached is what I am currently using.
im waiting for attachment approval.

@l3pyr: level 4.1 supports 1080p. however x264 does not enforce level restrictions.

[TheRyuu]

Since your PM box is full, I'll post it here instead:

Was wondering what you though of these deblocking settings.

The source is an anime stream. In your profiles though you have the deblocking set to 1:1.

However, my personal taste likes sharp encodes, not blurry ones.
So I'm instead using -1:-2

Is there anything wrong with using those settings, like will is cause visual artifacts (I don't care about bitrate, only quality).

mp4 guy said that a trick for anime is to use a lower beta deblocking so the lines don't get destroyed (hence -1:-2).

Should I be using something closer to 0 (like 0:0? -1:-1?). I've been encoding with x264 for a while now (using megui to do it) and I'm just not sure about this. Thought I might ask an expert. :)

Thanks.

If I should like NEVER use negative deblocking settings on anime, please tell me. :)

[Sharktooth]

Well, all i can say is: Try it :)
Encode some frames and select the options you like more.

[deeznuts]

I am a total newbie and all this format stuff confuses the heck out of me, but I have used the PD-PS3 profile and it works streaming from my PC to the PS3. However, it does not play on my PC. Using Nero or WMP, it crashes it, saying "Microsoft C++ Visual Runtime Library: Runtime Error. This application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way."

Is it not made to run on the PC at all? If it can, what codec can I use? Thanks everyone for all your work.

[Sharktooth]

When are you going to add a Xbox 360 profile?

And thank you for your great work!

Attached is what I am currently using.

It's has the same settings as PS3 profile.

P.S.: Dont know what software you used to create the profile but it is seriously broken. Some items in the xml file have wrong names and some tags are never closed. I hope you didnt use MeGUI to create it...

[l3pyr]

The output resolution should not affect the x264 output being valid or not. There's no sane reason I can see why one commandline works with 720p output but not with 1080p. Do you have a strange decoder?

Using meGUI and the PD-PS3 profile, if I try to encode as 1080p @ level 4.1 the file is unplayable by the PS3 and MPC using WinDVD's AVC filter (plays, but its totally screwed up). If I simply change the level to 5.1 the output works fine w/ MPC but obviously not on the PS3.

Using ffmpeg with:

ffmpeg.exe -y -i "test.avs" -threads 2 -an -pass 1 -f mp4 -title "test" -vcodec h264 -level 41 -refs 2 -loop 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -parti4x4 1 -partp8x8 1 -partb8x8 1 -me full -subq 6 -brdo 1 -me_range 21 -s 1920x800 -r 24000/1001 -b 8192k -bt 8192k -bufsize 20000k -maxrate 25000k -g 300 -coder 1 "test.mp4"

ffmpeg.exe -y -i "test.avs" -threads 2 -an -pass 2 -f mp4 -title "test" -vcodec h264 -level 41 -refs 2 -loop 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -parti4x4 1 -partp8x8 1 -partb8x8 1 -me full -subq 6 -brdo 1 -me_range 21 -s 1920x800 -r 24000/1001 -b 8192k -bt 8192k -bufsize 20000k -maxrate 25000k -g 300 -coder 1 "test.mp4"

Gives me a great video that plays back perfectly on the PS3. I don't understand why one way works and one doesn't when they are both using the x264 library?

[l3pyr]

I'm working on a solution right now and will post when I get it. I have found the problem lies somewhere in the b-frames options used in your PS3 profile (again, the problem only materializes at 1080p quality). I am going through step by step to find whats causing it.

Edit: Problem solved. Enabled b-frame pyramid is what causes the problem. I'm not going to pretend to understand why, but I'm happy I've fixed it. I would seriously consider changing that option in your PD-PS3 profile for maximum compatibility.

[Terranigma]

Edit: Problem solved. Enabled b-frame pyramid is what causes the problem. I'm not going to pretend to understand why, but I'm happy I've fixed it.

Maybe because b-pyramid can cause a 2 frame decoder lag? I remember back in the early xbox (xbmc) days, b-pyramid was the culprit that caused avc streams to crash. Since it uses some b-frames as reference frames, what you could do is disable this option and increase the number of reference frames by 2 to get the same amount of reference frames if you'd of chosed the b-pyramid option. Not sure the quality would be the same though.

[Sharktooth]

V42:

- Playstation 3 profiles have been renamed and they now work for the Xbox360 too. The b-pyramid option was also disabled. Please delete the old PD-PS3 and PD-PS3-Fast profiles.

[Terranigma]

B-Pyramid/8 Reference Frames (Total=11)
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/7484/bpyramid8refkz9.png

No B-Pyramid/10 Reference Frames (Total=11)
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/2046/nopyramid10refbg9.png

Ask yourself. Is this small quality difference worth it? Worth the lag?

[TheRyuu]

Well, all i can say is: Try it :)
Encode some frames and select the options you like more.

Just to let you (and everyone else) know. -1:-2 does not produce a good looking video, at least to me.

I'm trying just 0:0 and I have a feeling that will work out just fine.

Also Sharktooth, are you xbox profiles tuned to the newer (faster, by about 5%, don't know if that would be enough to change the profile) version of mplayer the xbox now uses?

[Ronin-7]

Sharktooth just letting you know that the Xbox 360 profile is not 100% compatible it will indeed work when played from local storage like a DVD or USB stick but it wont;
* Generate a video thumbnail or display embedded cover art
* Give the total time length of the video
* Properly display anamorphic encodes
* Be playable over a network connection when streamed from a computer

In order to enable those things you must turn off Adaptive DCT support & the above will work so it might be worth giving it a separate profile from the PS3.

[Sharktooth]

@wizboy: not yet since my xbox 'sploded so i cant test profiles.

@ronin: disabling adaptive DCT will be a major hit for quality. sincerely, M$ should fix that...

[Atak_Snajpera]

I agree with Sharktooth. Let's wait for Microsoft's move

[Wishbringer]

... but I have used the PD-PS3 profile and it works streaming from my PC to the PS3. However, it does not play on my PC. Using Nero or WMP, it crashes it, saying "Microsoft C++ Visual Runtime Library: Runtime Error. This application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way."

What version of Nero do you use? Older than 7.10.1?
Then there is a bug in Showtime and the decode .ax filters.
See:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127706

[check]

@ronin: disabling adaptive DCT will be a major hit for quality. sincerely, M$ should fix that...
It may well be, but as the profile is meant to be compatible, I think you will have to grin and bear it. At least they aren't Apple ;)

[Sharktooth]

yep, but since there are some xbox360 media center devs on this forum i think we can manage this...

[Terranigma]

Also Sharktooth, are you xbox profiles tuned to the newer (faster, by about 5%, don't know if that would be enough to change the profile) version of mplayer the xbox now uses?
You and I can make some. :)
Take the HQ-Insane profile and disable various settings to see what affects the cpu the most. Try disabling B-Pyramid first to see if you can playback 480p files without frame drops.

[timeisntreal]

It's has the same settings as PS3 profile.

P.S.: Dont know what software you used to create the profile but it is seriously broken. Some items in the xml file have wrong names and some tags are never closed. I hope you didnt use MeGUI to create it...

LOL Yes I did use MeGUI to make that Profile. As for the profile that I posted not streaming, It is because it is High Profile. Main and Baseline will stream from Zune and Windows Media Player but the only program that will stream High Profile to the Xbox 360 is Tversity.

What I did to make the Xbox 360 Profiles is take the CE-Baseline/CE-Main/CE-High Profiles and change these settings (if they aren't grayed out):
VBV Maximum Bitrate: From 25000 to 10000
Macroblock Option - P4x4: From Checked to Unchecked
B-Frames - B-Pyramid: From Checked to Unchecked
AVC Level: From Unrestricted to Level 4.1
AVC Profile: Needs to be set to Baseline/Main/High for which ever one you want to create.

I have also noticed that anamorphic encode do not show correctly of course I don't know if Baseline or Main Profiles change that.

-TIR

[deeznuts]

What version of Nero do you use? Older than 7.10.1?
Then there is a bug in Showtime and the decode .ax filters.
See:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127706

I am using an older version yes. Hmm, I'll get the new one and see. Thanks.

[Weltall]

Hi Sharktooth. I use RealAnime to encode my animes and series and megui for my DVD movies. I just wanted to ask you which config is better for animes, RA6's normal (I know you helped sirber with configs, and sirber helped you with some other, so I'm confused) or megui's AE-Goodquality.
Which are the differences between them (for example, I've noticed nofast_pskip is enabled on RA6 profile, I saw this on umain.pas file: "'threads=auto:b_pyramid:nofast_pskip:nopsnr:bitrate='")?
And why b-frames used in RA6 are 5 and only 3 in megui) and why P4x4 macroblock is disabled on megui? Is it disabled on RA6 too?
I have the same doubts about megui's HQ-Slower and RA movie profiles for series and movies.
Hope you understand my doubts :)

Thank you.

[Sharktooth]

p4x4 was recently removed coz at "useful" resolutions (512x*** and over) it will lower the quality.
i was also thinking of rising the number of b-frames and modify the p/b ratio a bit.
the no-fast-pskip is a myth from the past. once akupenguin fixed it there are almost no problems with it.
about the RA6 movie profile, i dont know what settins it uses.

[Weltall]

So you say that disable fast pskip will just make the encode slower and won't give any significant quality boost at all, is that right?

About that p4x4, what about p8x8, it doesn't have the same problem, does it? And how can I disable p4x4 on softwares like mediacoder that use a frontend to show the options?
It has an option: "Enable all macroblock type", key videoenc.x264.allapart, and they say it is recommended only with subpixel refinement >= 5, and only at low resolutions.
This should be the option I have to let disabled to have p4x4 disabled too? I think it matches with your resolution explanation. So...?

Thanks man.

P.S.: Sorry if I misspelled some words, I'm just an english starter edition :)

[foxyshadis]

Yes, that's the one. In extensions->other devices->x264 it's called "8x4, 4x8 and 4x4 subpartitions". Fast pskip can still cause bad decimations and blocking, in my experience, but AQ can totally fix that. It's very source dependent, some are affected by it and some not at all.

Personal opinion: Even if the 360 and PS3 profiles are the same right now, I say keep them separate. Support is bound to change and diverge, and there's always little tweaks to each, like above. The adaptive dct problem needs more splintering though; it's such a big hit in quality that it'd be better to have separate 360 and 360-streaming profiles for now.

(I hope Nintendo puts out a flash 9 for wii... then I can bug you about profiles for that, too. :p)

[ggf31416]

Regarding the HQ-fast profile, I think replacing UHM with HEX and adding trellis 1 gives better quality/speed than the current profile.

[leowai]

Hi, friends. I want to share a working x264 encoding profile for N95 users. It works with my friend's N95. The encoding parameters are not optimized for best quality as I've no N95. I leave this to those who own one and interested to optimize the profile.

For your reference, the N95 playable video clip is converted as following procedure.

01. Resize DVD video from 720x576@25fps to 320x240@25fps (30fps not tested) with Avisynth. It will have a good look in N95 if you know about DAR.

02. Encode the AviSynth Video file (*.avs) with MeGUI & x264 (rev669) using the x264 profile (PD-Nokia N95.xml) attached here. 2-pass is recommended.

03. Encode the 48KHz audio wave file into AAC using Nero Digital with following cmd
=> neroAacEnc.exe -br 48000 -if Input_Audio.wav -of "Output_Audio.m4a"
I assume you know how to get the wav audio input from your video source. :)

04. Mux the video into 3GP container using YAMB (v2.0.0.7) and MP4Box (v0.4.4). Following settings are the settings I've for the output 3GP video clip using YAMB. Make sure you have the setting in BOLD before you mux the video and audio into 3GP container. Or you will end up with a stretched video output using YAMB.

[Video]
Language: English
Brand Name: ND Mobile AVC
Track Name: Video
Pixels Aspect Ration: Custom 1:1

[Audio]
Language: English
Brand Name: ND Mobile AVC
Track Name: Audio

Alternatively, you can mux the video and audio using mp4box cmd line if you know how to do so.

Lastly, transfer the converted 3GP output file to your N95. Your N95 should play it as supported format.

Hope you will enjoy the high quality video clip encoded using x264 in your mobile devices.

[rack04]

Is there a profile for the latest iPod Nano with 320x240 resolution?

[Atak_Snajpera]

iPod Nano is compatible with IPOD profile :)

[tuber99]

Is anyone actually using the PD-AppleTV profile? I just updated MeGUI (0.2.5.1007) and got the latest set of profiles (v42) that included the PD-AppleTV profile. When I select the profile in MeGUI and click Config - I get the error "selected profile exceeds the AVC profile you have specified. P4x4 macroblocks are not allowed in level >3 or in level 3 with B frames."
Does this mean that no one has actually tried to use this profile? Can I volunteer as the hardware guinea pig if someone will help me figure out what I need to change to actually make a *usable* AppleTV profile?

[Adub]

Have you tested the profile as it is, even though it throws the error?
If so, did it work?

If not, try unchecking the P4x4 box and see if that fixes it.

Sharktooth,
As a side note, shouldn't that box be greyed out if the selected profile doesn't allow it?

[tuber99]

Yeah, I did because I assumed it must be a bogus error. I ended up with a stuttery, choppy video that was almost unwatchable (although iTunes let it sync with the @TV)

After that, I started experimenting with the other iPod profiles to get something working. I have a copy of QuickTimePro and I have exported to .mp4 from there, but I think it sacrifices quality for speed of encode.

I considered starting a separate thread on the topic, but are there tools that can analyze a given h.264 video stream and make a best-guess as to what encoder options have been enabled/disabled? That way, it would be very easy to take a QuickTime encoded .mp4 and figure out what encoder options it's using and which x264 options are causing it problems.

[StoneRoses]

I have tried iPhone profile the 480x270 (add letterbox to 320) @ 600kbps look great on the iPhone.

But in order to work you have to set AVC level to level 3 otherwise iTunes won't let you put it in the iPhone.

Thanks

[Adub]

Wait, Tuber99
Did you try unchecking that box like I suggested? And just to be sure, we are talking about the AppleTV, not the "Ipod", correct?
Also, make sure that your AVC level is set for 3.1. I opened up my version of the profile after you had mentioned it and I discovered that MeGUI had saved it as Unlimited after I had screwed around with it. That may be your problem.

You may also want to look at this post.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1034432#post1034432

Specifically about the muxing at the bottom.

[tuber99]

Thanks for the link to the other thread about MP4Box usage, that's definitely been a push in the right direction! I'm still somewhere near the bottom of the learning curve on this stuff and only being able to work on it during "free time" definitely makes it slow going...

My goal for now is to create an H.264/AAC-LC M4V using MeGUI/MP4Box that very closely matches functionality and look/feel of one that is created solely from QuickTime Pro. Currently, there are still two areas of difference that I see:

1) H.264 encoding differences. This is the issue with not knowing which MeGUI profile to use and which settings the AppleTV does not like.

2) MP4 container metadata differences. The most obvious place to see this issue is by looking at the Movie Properties in QuickTime player and comparing the QuickTime generated file with the MeGUI generated. Bitrate and some other values are showing as 'N/A' in QuickTime for the MeGUI generated files. I'm not sure if this is affecting performance/playback in any way, but it's an obvious difference.

Another tool, along with MP4Box that has been helpful is the QuickTime Atom Viewer. This makes it very easy to see the metadata changes that are made using various MP4Box parameters.

So... finally back to the original thread thought. To answer the previous question, if I use the "PD-AppleTV" profile in MeGUI, follow the error's instruction and de-select P4x4 macroblocking, encode and use the correct MP4Box muxing instructions for AppleTV, I end up with a choppy, unwatchable video on the AppleTV. From looking at some other posts, one setting that most agree is not Apple-TV compatible is the B-pyramid setting. If I leave all other settings alone and disable the B-pyramid, the video playback is much smoother and *almost* matches the playback quality of the QuickTime encoded. This is what I'm still working on.

Sorry for the long post.

[Kurtnoise]

First of all, thanks for the feedbacks and tests...I hope Sharktooth will look around.

2) MP4 container metadata differences. The most obvious place to see this issue is by looking at the Movie Properties in QuickTime player and comparing the QuickTime generated file with the MeGUI generated. Bitrate and some other values are showing as 'N/A' in QuickTime for the MeGUI generated files. I'm not sure if this is affecting performance/playback in any way, but it's an obvious difference.
well...you compare apples and oranges. So, this is normal you have several differences. Anyway, this doesn't rely on the playback side.

[Sharktooth]

ill update the profile

[tuber99]

sharktooth - you're free to update the profile as you see fit, but I'm fairly certain I will have other changes to it by the time I'm done...

kurtnoise13 - As far as comparing apples to oranges, I really don't think so. More like comparing fuji to gala :p Seriously, 95% of the metadata (that I've manually compared) is identical between what comes out of QuickTime export to M4V and what comes out of MP4Box using MeGUI-encoded AAC and H.264. Obviously, I can't speak to the content of the actual data streams, but I'm not sure how much that accounts for the properties differences I see in QuickTime player. That's really what I'm trying to determine.

Thanks both for the replies.

[tuber99]

Just so it doesn't appear like I've totally dropped off the map, (and in case anyone else has had the same questions I have) I wanted to follow-up with this issue.

I've discovered that most of the playback issues with AppleTV (that are most annoying to me, at this point) seem to be less to do with the x264 options used to encode the h.264 stream and more with the details around how the final MP4/M4V gets muxed. I had never used handbrake before (http://handbrake.m0k.org/) and I kept hearing about AppleTV profile support, so I downloaded and gave it a try. Someone there has been doing their homework because AppleTV playback is perfect! I have posted questions on one of the Handbrake developer forums to find out if there is a way to duplicate those results using MP4Creator or MP4Box (without mods) and at this point, I think the answer is 'no'. Which leads me to my next effort, which may be to code a custom version of MP4Creator with the HandBrake-specific mux mods...

I just can't believe no one's ever run into this before...:confused: Someone please stop me and tell me they already have the tool I'm looking for.

[Theliel]

I have make a new profile for My iPod Touch. I dont know if work on iPhone or newers iPod classic or nano, if someone can try them on others...

Support ALL Baseline profile and Level 3 features, the only limitation are 6 ref frames, more ref frames corrupt the video.

Work perfectly with pal/ntsc

Up to PAL/NTSC resolution -> 720*576 25fps / 720*480 30fps
Baseline Profile
Level 3
Bitrate up to 10000 -> yes, 10Mb/s ->
I have set the maximun at 10mb/s but only use up to 1Mb/s for 480*320, up to 2Mb/s for 640*48, up to 4MB/s PAL content and Up to 10Mb/s only for testing purpose .
5 Reference Frames
Mixed refs
no-fast-pskip
Deblocking (-2,-1 in my case)
Subme 7
Analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4
Me UMH
No-dct-decimate

[damngod]

Hi,

I have a problem with the 360/PS3 profile. In fact, I doubt the profile is the cause but I need some help on this :

First, I tried both 720p and 1080p (understand, with some cropping, so it's something like 1920x... or 1280x...). 720p encodes only work on the 360 and 1080p's only work on the PS3. Otherwise it's said that the files are not compatible.

My 360 is connected in 720p to a CRT (which accept only 720p and 1080i) and the PS3 is connected in 1080p to a FullHD LCD (in the PS3 settings, 720p, 1080i and 1080p are all activated).

So what's the problem ? Is the 360 not capable of downscaling 1080p x264 encodes to 720p ? Is the PS3 not capable of upscaling 720p encodes to 1080p ? Should I need to unchecked 1080i and 1080p in the PS3 settings (can't test until tonight). Or is there something else ?

Thanks in advance.

[Sharktooth]

v43:
- too much changes to be listed.

[morphx2]

What is everyone using for HD-DVD settings? Sharktooth said he is going to remove the HD-DVD profile (which I agree with since it is taking me a looooooong time encoding it).

Anyone have any other settings or guides out there to setup MeGUI to back them up?

Thanks!

[Sharktooth]

actually i added another one... and faster...
keep in mind you need the nal hrd patched x264 build to have a compatible hd-dvd video stream...

[sazoki]

theliel,
i try u're profile for my ipod clasic 5.5, and itunes refuse it,

--pass 2 --bitrate 5000 --stats ".stats" --level 3 --ref 6 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --filter -2,-1 --no-cabac --subme 7 --analyse none --qpmin 16 --vbv-maxrate 10000 --me umh --merange 12 --threads auto --thread-input --progress --no-dct-decimate --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "output" "input"

[Theliel]

ipod classic dont equal to ipod 5.5
ipod classic is the newer ipod (80 and 160Gb), called now c"lassic". So if yo have a 5.5 you need use 5.5 profile.

[sazoki]

i try 5.5 profile for my ipod 80 Gb
and also not working with itunes after last ubdate 7.4.3.1

[Theliel]

if your ipod are a newer classic 80Gb and my profile dont work, then ipod touch and classic use different decoder and my profile are only valid for touch and maybe iphone.

Sorry then and thank for your test :)

one ask. itunes refuse to upload into your ipod?

maybe your problems are mp4 uui.
with the latest itunes you dont need uui changes anymore, but sometimes itunes refuse to load anyway
try demux your video with yamb (for example) and remuxing again. In first time compliance=standard, and second time compliance=ipod

[sazoki]

yes refuse to upload into ipod,
So,what the best profile in my case, other how , i try the Xvid4psp the 640ipod profile and it working good

[Theliel]

try demux-remux with yamb and tell me. (first with 5.5 profile, and if work, try your profile)

its very possible that Xvid4psp use a diferent muxer.
and if you need more info or problems, send me MP and talk by IM for example, and no more off topic :)

[morphx2]

actually i added another one... and faster...
keep in mind you need the nal hrd patched x264 build to have a compatible hd-dvd video stream...

Well, it won't be on an HD-DVD. It is just a backed up copy to play on zoomplayer if that matters for anything or if it is still the same.

So when will the new profile be out to try? :D I hope it is a lot faster too :D

And what is a nal hrd patched x264 build?

[Atak_Snajpera]

yes refuse to upload into ipod,
So,what the best profile in my case, other how , i try the Xvid4psp the 640ipod profile and it working good

Did you try floola (http://www.floola.com/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=WiwiHome)?

[Sharktooth]

Well, it won't be on an HD-DVD. It is just a backed up copy to play on zoomplayer if that matters for anything or if it is still the same.

So when will the new profile be out to try? :D I hope it is a lot faster too :D

And what is a nal hrd patched x264 build?
The dev version (0.2.6.x) has the new profiles and yes, there is a fast profile...

hrd+pulldown: https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125568&highlight=x264+nal+hard

[sazoki]

well,thanks for help
the problem was in the mp4 muxer,i forgot to use the nic mp4 muxer with the ipod5.5 profile
it's working now
thanks

[JarrettH]

why do all the "Slow" profiles default using 16 b-frames now?:cool:

[Sharktooth]

why not?:)

[morphx2]

Ill let ya know how the new HD-DVD profile works; I am running it now. Seems faster at around 8 fps on 2nd pass. But that could be due to my fixing of my computer. Turned out not enough power was going throw my HTPC with a new videocard and slowed things down somewhat.

[Sharktooth]

the HD-DVD_Fast is definatly FASTER than the other one...

[morphx2]

I wanted to let you know Shark that it came out wonderful! I did not use the patched file like you said though..would that really change anything?

[Sharktooth]

it wont be HD-DVD compatible.
however h264info (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=138139&package_id=225029) may come handy...

[morphx2]

Well, I dont need HD-DVD compatible. Just look the best in x264/mkv format to playback from my harddrive.

After watching parts of Riddick and comparing it to the HDDVD, it looks grainer in a lot of scenes instead of being sharp.

I am going to go test it via another method and compare to the 2 and see what looks better to my eye.

[decayed.cell]

Just an observation: I'm running iTunes 7.4.1.2 and using the stock MP4Box that comes with MeGUI, neither the PD-iPod-5G nor the PD-iPod-5.5G profile works with a 320x240 encoded clip i.e. transfer onto iPod using iTunes.

However with NicMP4Box, the PD-iPod-5G profile works but the 5.5G profile still doesn't work. 640x480 video does not work in both cases.

[Taxidermista]

What about a Blu-Ray profile based on the Blu-Ray HD AVC profile in Elecard Converter Studio 2.0? These are its default options:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f391/Taxidermista/elecardblurayprofile1.png

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f391/Taxidermista/elecardblurayprofile2.png

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f391/Taxidermista/elecardblurayprofile3.png

[halpern]

What is the recommended profile for encoding x264 for HD TV shows?

[gnutellafan]

What would be the best profile for transparent encoding of HD content to the lowest possible bitrate? How about DVD content?

My goal is to transcode HD and DVD content to the lowest bitrate that still preserves as much of the original as possible while saving as much space as possible. They will be viewed on large screen high resolution HDTVs.

Its my understanding that much of the HDDVD and BR content is way over size to prevent copying. I want to bring these down to a reasonable size while preserving the HD quality for a home/private media server.

[Adub]

1. Don't ask what is best. Especially in this situation as it varies from source to source.

2. It varies from source to source. Try starting out with some of the HD profiles or even better the HQ profiles. They are designed to squeeze the most out of every bit in a video encode.

Also, it is arguably "impossible" to get a transparent encode while shooting for the lowest possible bitrate. However, you should run a few test runs using the HQ profiles at bitrates varying from 2000kbps or so on up to maybe 8-10k. Again, it varies with your source, plus what kind of filtering and deinterlacing you are doing.

[halpern]

Sharktooth,
Is there anyway you can post descriptions for the Xvid profiles that come with MeGUI? I'd be interested in learning more about them. Thank you.

[Adub]

You can find descriptions in the Xvid section. If it is not on the first page, then use search.

[Chainmax]

I have a question about the PSP profile. Can the following settings:

* Deblocking @ > 0/0
* RDO Level 2 (S.R 7)
* Trellis = 2
* No DCT Decimation
* No Fast P-Skip

be enabled and still have smooth playback?


[edit]I forgot, what about B-Pyramid, can it be enabled too?

[Sharktooth]

those settings do not affect the decoding complexity except for deblocking which is already enabled in the profile... so, basically, yes.

[SpAwN_gUy]

What is the recommended profile for encoding x264 for HD TV shows?

some info could be found here (http://www.google.com/search?hl=ru&client=opera&rls=ru&hs=IpJ&q=x264+rules+scene&btnG=%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA&lr=)... but.. but i reeeealy don't like it.. ;) ..

try something around HQ profiles or HD (i prefer HQ's..) try some search about custom martices.. and.. "start diggin' " ;)

[Adub]

spawn_guy, that is a weird site. It seems more for illegal dvd ripping and distribution more than anything else.

[SpAwN_gUy]

spawn_guy, that is a weird site. It seems more for illegal dvd ripping and distribution more than anything else. //link modified ;)
well. it has some "rules" and info about how to do it "right" .. yes, in quotes.. written by someone (i may think he or they are also here, somewhere..)
and also has.. some x264 comLines.. like some sort of "Profiles", i guess..
this site (http://nwgat.net/) also has something.. about encoding (btw,.. the first profile for HD-Encode i took from there)..
it is somehow like a "tutorial"...

sorry for my offtop.. i quit it..

i do have some questions... but not here, sorry for that..

[Chainmax]

Thanks for the clarification, Sharktooth :).

SpAwN_gUy, I didn't visit your link but I'm curious. Is it anthing like the old TDX rules?

[SpAwN_gUy]

Is it anthing like the old TDX rules?what is TDX?

anti-offtop: Sharktooth about.. "profiles"... i wonder.. do i need to ask, when i made some meGUI mod (for x264farm) (and sent code to berrrinam)... in my mod(or "add") i use x264profiles for generating comLine for x264farm..

do i need to ask you for allowance to use your profiles?
(sorry, for a stupid question, but i have not made any of profiles, or anything)

[Sharktooth]

you can use and abuse my profiles in any ways :)

[fleon]

hi sharktooth, sorry if someone have asked before but right now I have dialup so I cant search everything, can you confirm wich of your two ipod profiles: pd-ipod and pd-ipod 5.5 works better with the new ipod nano 3rd gen?

[Sharktooth]

eh... i really dont know coz i have no ipods to test but the 5.5 profile should be ok for the nano. do some test encodings and choose the one which is better. if someone has the ipod 3rd gen exact specs i can make a new one though.

EDIT: I just saw the nano has almost the same specs as the 5.5. So you can safely use the 5.5 profile.

[fleon]

So the ipod 5.5 have the same specs as the classic and also as the nano? well in any case here are the specs of the nano

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

EDIT: also I used to use Staxrip for encoding but it have old profiles and doesnt have the 5.5 profile and well, if you sharktooth actually create a new profile based of the specs above it wont have that profile, so that's why I'm changing (and least for ipod enconding) but is way too different so I dont know what to do I tried some things but I need a guide so I searched and I found this one http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/Main_Page but when i put on the part of ipod conversion guide on the part encoding video it just says No such action The action specified by the URL is not recognized by the wiki so maybe you can help me thanks

[redfordxx]

Hello,
I have question...
I'd like to backup my digicam videos with sort of two pass at constant quality level:
First pass on quality I decide...let's say qp=25...and then improve the quality with second pass.

In fact it should be normal two pass, only the bitrate I will learn from the cq pass... but I cannot make it using any profile am i right?

Well, related question is, how much better is the quality of the 2pass...if it is worth it..

[Adub]

Yeah, the wiki is down temporarily, but hopefully it will be up some time this month.

Redfordxx, there is no such thing as two pass cq. That is the very definition of CQ, "Constant Quantizer". Or CRF for constant quality. Doesn't matter, as those two forms of encoding do not have a 2 pass.

2 pass bitrate encoding is usually best used if you are shooting for a specific file size and want to squeeze as much quality out while still hitting the file size.

[redfordxx]

Redfordxx, there is no such thing as two pass cq. That is the very definition of CQ, "Constant Quantizer". Or CRF for constant quality. Doesn't matter, as those two forms of encoding do not have a 2 pass.
Yeah, I know. The CQ helps me only to decide the bitrate for the two pass, coz every video has different compressibility.

So let's say:
I'd run CQ compression at qp=25...it results in 1500kbit bitrate video.
Then I run 2pass @ 1500kbit

So, question is: has the second pass better quality than CQ? More and more I think about it, I think has not, has it?

But

[Sharktooth]

you would better run a CRF 25 pass instead of a CQ 25 pass.
however, running a 2 pass @ the same bitrate as your CQ or CRF pass is quite useless...

[rack04]

Which avs profile is the least processor extensive? I want to view x264 using CorePlayer on my Axim X51V. Thanks.

[saint-francis]

Which avs profile is the least processor extensive? I want to view x264 using CorePlayer on my Axim X51V. Thanks.

Do you mean which x264 profile?
I use the HQ insane profile and I play the movies on my x51v all the time. So you can use any you want. :)

[rack04]

Do you mean which x264 profile?
I use the HQ insane profile and I play the movies on my x51v all the time. So you can use any you want. :)

What bitrate and resolution are you able to play using HQ-Insane? Also, what media player do you use on your X51V?

[Adub]

You mean the one requiring the least amount of processing power? Try the ipod profiles, or create you own using the baseline profile with a low level, something like 2.1 or 3.1.

[saint-francis]

What bitrate and resolution are you able to play using HQ-Insane? Also, what media player do you use on your X51V?

I generally use crf 18 and 480p. I use coreplayer. The newer versions of coreplayer also support HE AAC nicely too.
On aximsite there are a bunch of guides for encoding to a size that is designed for the ax but I'm not about to make two copies of every movie (one for the PDA and one for the PC).

[kumi]

I'm trying to modify the "CQ-ASP_Q2_eq(crf)" profile to gain a speed up, like the boost you get going from "HQ-Slower" to "HQ-Slow". But I'm not sure which options are safe to change. I took a diff between the "HQ-Slow" profile (which has an acceptable per-pass speed for me) and the "CQ-ASP_Q2_eq(crf)" profile (too slow for me):

3c3
< <Name>CQ-ASP_Q2_eq(crf)</Name>
---
> <Name>HQ-Slow</Name>
5,6c5,6
< <EncodingMode>9</EncodingMode>
< <BitrateQuantizer>18</BitrateQuantizer>
---
> <EncodingMode>4</EncodingMode>
> <BitrateQuantizer>1000</BitrateQuantizer>
11c11
< <Turbo>false</Turbo>
---
> <Turbo>true</Turbo>
22c22
< <QuantizerCRF>18</QuantizerCRF>
---
> <QuantizerCRF>1000</QuantizerCRF>
28,29c28,29
< <MixedRefs>true</MixedRefs>
< <X264Trellis>0</X264Trellis>
---
> <MixedRefs>false</MixedRefs>
> <X264Trellis>1</X264Trellis>
33c33
< <SubPelRefinement>0</SubPelRefinement>
---
> <SubPelRefinement>5</SubPelRefinement>
36c36
< <BframePredictionMode>1</BframePredictionMode>
---
> <BframePredictionMode>3</BframePredictionMode>
40c40
< <MERange>16</MERange>
---
> <MERange>12</MERange>
60c60
< <biME>true</biME>
---
> <biME>false</biME>


Which of these options are safe to change in the "CQ-ASP_Q2_eq(crf)" profile? Any pointers would be most helpful, I'm a newb to x264.

[Sharktooth]

except turbo, quantizer and encoding mode, you can change everything else.

[bguenthe]

Hello,

I use MeGui to convert my recorded television movies to mpeg4 (h264). I tried the relative new archos 605 profile in combination with the nero ndaac audio profile.
It works fine for me except this:

When I move the movie forward to e.g. skip the advertisement the picture is froozen and the sound is way behind the movie. The sound is still playing and when it matches the picture all is synchronized and plays well. But I have to wait for ca. a minute for synchronizsation. I have xvid movies without this problem. Has anybody an explanation/solution for this?

[Sharktooth]

xvid is not h.264...
they're 2 completely different codecs.
try updating your player firmware to the latest version

[fleon]

It seems that a new profile for the ipod nano is needed 'cause the new nano have some video specs differences compared with the ipod 5.5 as you can see:

Ipod 5.5

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Low-Complexity Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Ipod nano 3rd gen

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

they do in fact have some differences, look well..
or you can see them on the sites
http://support.apple.com/specs/ipod/iPod_Fifth_Generation_Late_2006.html

http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/specs.html

I read here that the 5.5 profile is compatible, but maybe it will be better to do a profile for the nano to take advantage of the differences between the 5.5 and the nano

[Sharktooth]

there's no reason to create a nano profile... it will be identical to 5.5G

[Adub]

Yes, there are a few subtle differences, but not enough to go an create a new profile, just modify your (fleon) 5.5gen profile to match the specs above and you should be golden.

Most of the difference is bitrate, but the Level Changes as well. No biggy.

[fleon]

there's no reason to create a nano profile... it will be identical to 5.5G

OH, I didnt knew that, well that's because I dont know too much about the technical video specs and everything I just assumed that because it was in some parts different a profile was needed, but hey you know way more than me so you are right
thanks for clearing that up

[bguenthe]

xvid is not h.264...
they're 2 completely different codecs.
try updating your player firmware to the latest version
Hey Sharktooth,

I know that there is a difference between xvid and h264. But my question was: Has anybody an idea why I have the the problems with h264.

[AkumaX]

Sorry if this has been asked before; but is there a program that tells you what AVC level your *.mp4 is?

Ex: I d/l say, One Piece-200.mp4, but it doesn't play with quicktime. Obviously its using a different AVC profile, but what?
Ex2: I d/l say, Gundam 00-1.mp4. It plays in QuickTime and PSP new, but not PSP old (PSP and PS3's AVC Levels are changing), but I still want to know whether the file is Main Profile Level 3.1 or whatever. Thanks in advance!

[Sharktooth]

@AkumaX: :search:

@bguenthe: have you tried upgrading the firmware?

[migrena]

avc support in archos 605 is provided by plugin (purchased separately), unlike asp support, which is provided in normal software (according to specs on archos website). so i would blame that plugin.

[orangedude]

Furthermore, some tweakings are also needed for the muxing (thank you Apple :p) :
For AppleTV :
MP4Box -ipod -brand M4VH:1 -add myvideo.264:fps=xx -add myaudio.m4a outputfile.m4v
For iPhone :
MP4Box -ipod -brand M4VP -add myvideo.264:fps=xx -add myaudio.m4a outputfile.m4v

Hi, I've been having trouble getting MeGUI encoded videos to transfer to my Ipod Touch. Just wondering, does MeGUI automatically do these tweaks when muxing MP4 files under Iphone profile, or do you have to do these manually from outside MeGUI?

[Kurtnoise]

For the moment, you need to do this outside from MeGUI. It will be added in it soon.

[orangedude]

So is that the reason why videos encoded on Xvid4PSP work while the MeGUI ones do not? The muxing is the problem rather than encoding? If so, I'd really appreciate if it's added soon, thanks.

[Sharktooth]

yes. it's the muxing.

[3r1c]

are the SA-HD-DVD profiles correct?

--pass 2 --bitrate 8000 --stats ".stats" --level 4.1 --keyint 15 --min-keyint 1 --ref 3 --mixed-refs --bframes 2 --bime --weightb --direct auto --filter -3,-2 --subme 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --vbv-bufsize 9781 --vbv-maxrate 29400 --threads auto --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "output" "input"

seems to be missing required commands to produce valid hd-dvd stream such as
--vbv-init 1.0 --vbv-bufsize 14745 --mvrange 511 --nal-hrd

is threre a reason why these commands are not used when almost every other guide says they are required?
and which is right for bufsize 14745 or 9781?

has this profile been tested or is it just guess work?
ie. has been authored with scenarist (or similar tool) and burned to a disc which plays back on some hardware player.

[Sharktooth]

the profile is experimental and since the nal hrd x264 patch is experimental too, it wont work. a proper support for hd-dvds will be added when the nal hrd patch will be committed to the x264 svn.

EDIT: Just a note... --mvrange 511 is no longer necessary with latest x264 builds

[migrena]

@orangedude
you can replace mp4box that comes with megui with nic's hacked one that uses "-ipod" switch as default.
http://nic.dnsalias.com/

[bguenthe]

@AkumaX: :search:

@bguenthe: have you tried upgrading the firmware?

Yes, I have the latest firmware. Recently I tried Nero Recode. And for the first time I hava a h254 running on my Archos without problems. But I have to wait long for this. This peace of software is slow.

[Meilo]

The Xbox 360 Profiles don't use B-Pyramid. Is there some specific condition that it causes troubles for the Xbox? I've been doing a lot of encodes with them on and videos play without problems.

[JarrettH]

I sort of understand why you made b-frames=16 for all the HQ profiles now. I thought you just went nuts and I left my own profile at 3. I did a little looking around the other night and it turns out adaptive b-frames "allows" x264 to use up to 16 right?

Gosh x264 is getting extremely fast. I did 1st pass of Blade Runner Final Cut in 50min and 2nd pass in under 3hrs w/

Job commandline: --bitrate 1400 --stats --keyint 240 --min-keyint 24 --ref 5 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 16 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --filter -2,-1 --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --me umh --threads auto --thread-input --sar 1:1 --progress --no-dct-decimate --no-psnr --no-ssim --output

:eek:

[Sharktooth]

exactly. b frames are adaptive by default. so why not let x264 choose how many of them to put in sequence? ;)

[XolocoTuxmaster]

Sharktooth,

What are the PS3 profiles' x264.exe command lines?

[Schrade]

Sharktooth,

What are the PS3 profiles' x264.exe command lines?

PD-PS3-Xbox360:
--pass 2 --bitrate 1000 --stats ".stats" --level 4.1 --ref 3 --mixed-refs --bframes 3 --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --vbv-bufsize 9000 --vbv-maxrate 25000 --me umh --merange 12 --threads auto --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "output" "input"

PD-PS3-Xbox360_Fast:
--pass 2 --bitrate 1000 --stats ".stats" --level 4.1 --bframes 3 --weightb --direct auto --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --vbv-bufsize 9000 --vbv-maxrate 25000 --threads auto --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "output" "input"

You can get these command lines from meGUI itself when you select a profile and click on the "config" button.

Edit: Woops. Those are for v42, not Sharktooth's latest v43. But in any case, you can get the command lines yourself pretty easily via meGUI.

[XolocoTuxmaster]

Thank you very much, but that's not the answer I was looking for. I should have explained myself better.

I knew what you say, but I actually wanted to know if first pass is just the same but changing --pass 2 to --pass 1

[Ranguvar]

Just did a LOT of testing with the Archos 605, and found its profile can be enhanced.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1079602#post1079602

Enjoy :)

[Sharktooth]

@Ranguvar: will do as soon as i find some free time.

@XolocoTuxmaster: usually the commandlines used between passes are different, but only if "Turbo" is enabled. otherwise they're exactly the same (obviously except for the --pass option)

[buzzqw]

i would suggest to set --level to 4.1 for all profile that not need lower or bigger annex level

so.. don't change ipod profiles.. but general pourpose profile can be level 4.1 without hassle

the 5.1 requisite are far from common

BHH

[Kurtnoise]

doesn't make sense...unrestricted level is the way to go imo except profiles which require this feature.

[buzzqw]

unrestrincted level don't make sense too :rolleyes:

many user will simply encode with the profile that's "sound" (as name) better.

only after encoding they will complain about hw device not decoding videos

my suggestion is only due to fact that is much better a signaling level then not signal any level
non signaling level mean 5.1.

if you look at annex table (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264#Levels) you will see that difference between 4.1 and 5.1 are just about bitrate (over 62.5mbps) and very high resolution (over 2048x1024)

just my opinion

BHH

[Kurtnoise]

unrestrincted level don't make sense too :rolleyes:
it makes sense...levels restrictions are due to the hardware materials not softwares.


many user will simply encode with the profile that's "sound" (as name) better.

only after encoding they will complain about hw device not decoding videos
then, it's because the profile used is not well tuned...

my suggestion is only due to fact that is much better a signaling level then not signal any level
non signaling level mean 5.1.
contradiction...

[buzzqw]

yes... but 5.1 is the max level.. and is put by x264 because a level must be present

i just want to say that difference between 4.1 and 5.1 are quite insignificant for "normal" encoding.

So i would prefer to use a level well accepted by several hw device. Not segnaling it (and so let 5.1) is ignoring it

BHH

[Chainmax]

the profile is experimental and since the nal hrd x264 patch is experimental too, it wont work. a proper support for hd-dvds will be added when the nal hrd patch will be committed to the x264 svn.

EDIT: Just a note... --mvrange 511 is no longer necessary with latest x264 builds

Does that mean that after that patch is commited the HD-DVD profile-encodes should be playable on any standalone?


Also, I have seen a few posts in this forum that seem to point that the PSP can handle level 3. I am currently doing some encodes for my PSP and will try that for further confirmation (I also use subme7, trellis2, no dct decimation, and no fast pskip).


[edit]Mmm...modifying the AVC level in the PSP profile gives an error message saying that P4x4 is not allowed on levels higher than 3 or on level 3 itself with B-frames. What should give better quality, 2.1 with BFrames or 3 without BFrames?

[valnar]

Is there a spreadsheet or chart somewhere that lists all these profiles in a table so I can compare the differences between them all? 'Just curious.

Robert

[Kurtnoise]

Is there a spreadsheet or chart somewhere that lists all these profiles in a table so I can compare the differences between them all?
nope...but open xml files shouldn't be to hard with some text editors or something.

[Ranguvar]

Also, I have seen a few posts in this forum that seem to point that the PSP can handle level 3. I am currently doing some encodes for my PSP and will try that for further confirmation (I also use subme7, trellis2, no dct decimation, and no fast pskip).


[edit]Mmm...modifying the AVC level in the PSP profile gives an error message saying that P4x4 is not allowed on levels higher than 3 or on level 3 itself with B-frames. What should give better quality, 2.1 with BFrames or 3 without BFrames?

Level 3 works fine. Just disable P4x4. It helps very little compared to inreased time to encode, anyways.

FYI (just about as good as PSP supports max for most options): --pass 2 --stats .stats --bitrate 1024 --ref 3 --mixed-refs --bframes 3 --direct auto --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4 --subme 6 --me umh --b-rdo --bime --weightb --trellis 1 --threads 1

I've been using that CLI for months now on every one of my PSP encodes, and its worked every time. So I assume you don't even need the --level option. just make sure you still use an allowed resolution.

[alexVS]

Please, help me to understand some of the points:

1. For now there are no stand-alone players, that can play *.MP4 file (h264-AVC, AAC), encoded with x264.exe. Is that right?

2. The manual to my stand-alone player (XORO DVD player) says that it can play MP4 (nero-digital). Which profile from the first post of this thread is compatible with it?

3. Which profiles (HQ, CE, 1P, CQ) will be compatible with future players (HD-DVD, BLUE-RAY or DVD with support of h264) according to some standarts. And which of them will be played on the computer only?

[Atak_Snajpera]

1. For now there are no stand-alone players, that can play *.MP4 file (h264-AVC, AAC), encoded with x264.exe. Is that right?

How about PS3 :)

2. The manual to my stand-alone player (XORO DVD player) says that it can play MP4 (nero-digital). Which profile from the first post of this thread is compatible with it?

Probably PSP level 3.0 profile

3. Which profiles (HQ, CE, 1P, CQ) will be compatible with future players (HD-DVD, BLUE-RAY or DVD with support of h264) according to some standarts. And which of them will be played on the computer only?

PS3 Level 4.1 should be compatible with future players
Everything above will play only on PC (without hardware acceleration)

[Chainmax]

Level 3 works fine. Just disable P4x4. It helps very little compared to inreased time to encode, anyways.

FYI (just about as good as PSP supports max for most options): --pass 2 --stats .stats --bitrate 1024 --ref 3 --mixed-refs --bframes 3 --direct auto --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4 --subme 6 --me umh --b-rdo --bime --weightb --trellis 1 --threads 1

I've been using that CLI for months now on every one of my PSP encodes, and its worked every time. So I assume you don't even need the --level option. just make sure you still use an allowed resolution.

You should talk to Sharktooth and see if he could update MeGUI's PSP profile accordingly then, that would be a very nice addition.

[Atak_Snajpera]

--ref 3 does not work on my psp (video cannot be played). Only 2 works.

[Ranguvar]

--ref 3 does not work on my psp (video cannot be played). Only 2 works. *headdesks* I knew that off the top of my head, but apparently I typoed. Sorry!

[Inventive Software]

Can anybody recommend a profile that works with the newer PSP Slim 'n' Lite? And what H.264 level and x264 options does the PSP SnL support?

[Atak_Snajpera]

PSP level 3.0. You are asking strange question.

[Inventive Software]

Thanks. What I meant was video specs, a la iPod, but I assume Sony won't publish them. :(

[alexVS]

I need an advice.
When I encode video (captured as 25 interlaced FPS), to preserve smoothness of motion I encode it as 50 FPS.
For this I do separate fields and bob deinterlace.

Do I have to douple the bitrate to get the same quality of picture as deinterlaced 25p? Or I have to set some special parameters?

Logically thinking, I receive more frames (50), but the difference between frames are less, so it should take less information to encode p and b frames. Am I right?