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View Full Version : x264 (SUPER) vs CyberLink PowerEncoder: Need help!


Nazgulled
5th July 2007, 23:37
Here's the thing, my digital camera can record video at 640x480 @ 30fps but the saved files are in AVI container and the files are way too large and I decided to convert them to H.264.

First, I tried x264 with SUPER with the settings:
- Container: mov
- Use DirectShow: Yes
- VideoScale: NoChange (640x480)
- Aspect: 4:3
- Framerate: 30
- Bitrate: 6000
- Hi Quality: Checked
- AVC Profile: Main 3
The file outputted has 27.6Mb.

Second, I tried CyberLink PowerEncoder with the settings:
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/751/powerdirectordv3.th.jpg (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=powerdirectordv3.jpg)

The outputted file was in .MPG container and with 17.1Mb. Almost 10Mb smaller. And the quality was even better(*read above). My question is: How?

I tried 3000bitrate in SUPER, but the file was always bigger and with lower bitrates, the file was always bigger too and the quality didn't seem to get lower, it was like it was always the same. I even tried to uncheck the "Hi Quality" thing, but didn't work.

I'm note sure I liked the mpg container of PowerEncoder but I'm not able to change another one and I also can't choose the framerate so I would to select between PAL or NTSC and I selected NTSC cause it's bitrate is almost 30 like the AVIs from my camera. But this introduced a bit of audio/video skew.

Am I doing something wrong in x264/SUPER? I would like to know which codec/encoder should I use for my videos and right now, I'm not liking x264/SUPER, due to the lack of quality(*also read above) and the big file size; I'm also not liking PowerEncoder cause it created files in mpg and doesn't allow me to change it, my player couldn't open the file (*more on this below too) and I couldn't select the correct framerate for my videos, I need 30, choices were PAL or NTSC.

Please advise...


* I don't know if it was exactly better, but it was at least the same with a lower bitrate. Why I'm saying this? Well, I use GOMPlayer to view most of my videos, but for some reason, GOMPlayer couldn't open the mpg file created by PowerDirector and I had to view the video on Windows Media Player and the quality was better than the video created with x264/SUPER that I saw on GOMPlayer, I don't know if GOMPlayer has any setting not configured properly that could make the videos look bad. If it was and if I had the full package of QuickTime Alternative installed (I have the lite package) I would probably see the same quality. Either way, the file created by PowerDirector, had better or the same quality, with a lower bitrate and in a smaller file size.

audyovydeo
6th July 2007, 14:00
Here's the thing, my digital camera can record video at 640x480 @ 30fps but the saved files are in AVI container and the files are way too large and I decided to convert them to H.264.

Hello

You should clarify with yourself a few things before you proceed :

1. do you want to edit your videos now or in the future ?
if so, you should choose a lossless codec to store your videos, not h264.

2. AVI is a container. What codec is your original video ? DV ?

3. is the video interlaced ? Did you deinterlace it before encoding ?
Encoding interlaced material has unexpected results (ie could explain the difference in the two results).


Regarding the two programs, the only thing I'll say is that with these two you cannot be certain you used the exact same settings for each encode, so you cannot easily explain away the differences in results.

cheers
audyovydeo

Nazgulled
6th July 2007, 14:46
I think the AVIs produced by my camera are encoded with Motion JPEG (or something like that). And no, I don't intend to edit my movies in the future, if I edit them, it will be before converting them to H264. I don't believe the video (the original AVI) is interlaced, at least, while viewing it in any player, I don't see any horizontal black lines through the movie...