MPEG-4.2 vs MPEG-4.10 (H.264) at high bitrates

[SicMX]

I've been encoding my movies in good quality because i'm hoping Apple TV will play anything iTunes will.

So far i've encoded all movies from DVD to H.264 (.mp4), with an app called MediaFork (and some with Handbrake). I set the size from 1.5gb to 2gb depending on length and amount of dark scenes.

I've noticed that i need around 2500-3000kbps with H.264 to get results i'm happy with, because in dark scenes macroblocking is otherwise too obvious.

My question is should i be ripping with regular MPEG-4 instead of H.264 because of the high bitrates/filesizes?

Thanks

[Theliel]

the eternal question. what its the best??

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=110328

xvid or h264 for high bitrates?

you can read a lot in that thread.

In first time, you should use others tools for h264 enconder. X264 (encoder) and Megui (gui) are the best tools for video/audio encoder (in my point of view of course) and they are free.

I have ripped a lot of DVD movies for Ipod 5.5G to 1500kbps and 640 res and the IQ are nearby to be perfect.

[SicMX]

Are there any good encoders like X264 and Megui available for OSX?

[Manao]

x264 is available on Windows, Linux & Mac. Megui is just a GUI, which make it easier to use, that's all.

[Theliel]

yes, anyway if you have any problem with CLI, you always can post here about optimal settings

[RadicalEd]

Mediafork/Handbrake uses x264 for its H.264 encoding. It combines the best encoding libraries from the OSS world and puts them under a nice, easy to use interface. As far as I can tell, it's the best tool for this sort of thing on OS X.

[giandrea]

As far as I can tell, it's the best tool for this sort of thing on OS X.

Yes, if you don't know how/don't want to control the encoding settings. For maximum control I recommend mencoder from the command line, output to raw video and then mux to MP4 with MP4Box. Then add your audio, I suggest compressed with QuickTime.

[Theliel]

exactly. Not "all All in one" or "Just a click" are bad, but in my opinion, always are much better configure your own settings. H264 are very configurable. Sometimes, you need a higher control in the enconder

[SicMX]

I would like to be able to control more stuff, but i don't wanna get into terminal stuff. Aren't there any apps like MediaFork with a GUI which have more settings to play with?

Btw, i gotta say i've never ever seen a 700mb (around 1000kbps) xvid or divx rip that would have been close to the quality i want. In scenes where there is alot of light these can look really good, but dark/black scenes always have macroblocking. If I could fix the dark scenes i could probably get away with 1500kbps (H.264). Is there a way to reduce the macroblocking in dark scenes?

[check]

with x264, try using a build with haali's adaptive quantization patch and specifying --aq-strength 0.3. I'm not aware of any mac build that includes this patch however, you might need to compile your own/ask someone to do it for you.