Key frames and zones in the x264 codec?

[nhyone]

Does the x264 codec supports key frames and zones? I like this feature very much from the Xvid codec.

[Daodan]

Yes, of course. It's hard to imagine a modern codec without keyframes. And as for zones, I know the cli supports it, and the VFW doesn't (unless someone implemented it recently, check the VFW thread). Anyway, using the VFW is not recommended for other reasons as well.

[Doom9]

He probably means the combination of zones and keyframes.. like you can make a zone start with a keyframe in XviD. If that's what is meant here, x264 doesn't have that. It's not such a good idea to force keyframes anyway.. better let the codec make the choice. And no, jumping to timecode x is not an issue either, any halfway properly done filter can do that and any halfway reasonable standalone player can do that as well... oh, there's no standalone player that plays x264 or any AVC content.. so only pc playback matters and there you can save yourself the keyframe trouble. You're probably doing a lot more harm than good by forcing keyframes at specific locations.

[nhyone]

Doom9 is right, I'm asking about the feature that's available in the Xvid codec.

Zones is useful for intros, ending and previews where you may want to assign lesser quality.

I use the (forced) key frame functionality to workaround a VirtualDub bug. VirtualDub can only cut a stream (starting) at key frames, thus I need to specify key frames at specific places to extract the parts that I want.

There's a re-derive key frames option, but VirtualDub crashed everytime I used it.

[Dreassica]

Then again, streams created with the cli version of x254 can't be opene3d in vdub anyway, so u wont have much use for that keyframe inserting feature anyway.

[Doom9]

Only being able at keyframe postions isn't a bug.. it's the nature of non intra frame coding in every codec. And that's the reason why people should keep their sources if they ever need them again.. you're loading up a lot of restrictions by converting a source to MPEG-4 ASP, and even more for AVC.. cutting after encoding is one of those things that's better left out.

[nhyone]

The VirtualDub bug I'm referring to is not the inability to cut at non-key frames, but that the re-derive key frames feature will crash it.

According to the docs/help, this feature will allow cutting at any frame.

[Caroliano]

Cut the video before encoding if possible.

But still good to have keyframes at chapter points, for make the seeking faster. For that use x264 cli or some GUI for it, as Megui. They have zones, and I think keyframes adition too. It is not in VFW interface yet, and as most developers don't want to touch in it, it can never be there.

[squid_80]

The VirtualDub bug I'm referring to is not the inability to cut at non-key frames, but that the re-derive key frames feature will crash it.

According to the docs/help, this feature will allow cutting at any frame.
I don't know where you're getting that information from. Re-derive keyframe flags is only useful if the index of the avi file is corrupted, and it runs a test by decompressing each frame of the input as a keyframe - if it succeeds the frame is marked as a key frame; if it fails, it isn't. It's (fairly) impossible to simply create keyframes without re-encoding.