Filmized/Intentional Noised Sources

[Lorek]

What kind of settings should I use when encoding filmized sources or sources that were intentionally made to look like they were done on film. These typically have high grain / noise but it was done intentionally for a film effect. I haven't had much luck with the encodes i've done using various settings of AQ. Any recommendations? I had some success with CQ but I'd rather not use it as the compression is almost nonexistant (~70-90mb 13sec/clip).

[Dark Shikari]

What kind of settings should I use when encoding filmized sources or sources that were intentionally made to look like they were done on film. These typically have high grain / noise but it was done intentionally for a film effect. I haven't had much luck with the encodes i've done using various settings of AQ. Any recommendations? I had some success with CQ but I'd rather not use it as the compression is almost nonexistant (~70-90mb 13sec/clip).I'd suggest you use the Variance AQ (see this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=132760) ); it tends to be much more effective with grain.

[J_Darnley]

Other suggestions usually include using lower deadzone settings instead of trellis. If you post the cmd line you are using then we could give you some tips.

You could also try Dark Shikari's Grain Optimiser filter for AviSynth. It stabilises the grain in a temporal way making it easier to compress. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=130611

The other rate control methods, --crf and --qp, can achieve just as much compression as --bitrate but the point of these is for constant quality (or constant quantiser fir --qp). This means that you cannot predict the final file size. The usual recommendations for --crf range from 15 to 24 where the larger numbers result in more compression.

[Lorek]

Normally my cmdline is

--pass 2 --bitrate 1400 --stats ".stats" --ref 7 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 16 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --filter 1,1 --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --me umh --threads 3 --thread-input --progress --no-dct-decimate --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "output" "input" --aq-strength 0.5 --aq-sensitivity 10.0

but that wasn't cutting it so I downloaded the x264 build Dark Shikari suggested. It seems to be a little better than it was but not good enough for my purposes.

Oh, just a side question for Dark. Is the cmd line below supposed to crash your build of x264 on the second pass on windowsxp?

--pass 2 --bitrate 1400 --stats ".stats" --ref 7 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 16 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --filter 1,1 --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --me umh --threads 3 --thread-input --progress --no-dct-decimate --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "output" "input" --aq-strength 0.5 --aq-sensitivity 10.0 --crf 18.0

[J_Darnley]

You can't use --bitrate and --crf together. They are two different rate control methods so only one can be used. I don't recall x264 crashing because of this, I thought it showed a warining and said which will be used.

About the crashing, what does it say when it crashed if anything? Does it say something about not being able to find pthreadGC2.dll? If you're not sure then download pthreadGC2.dll from Dark Shikari's link and place it in the same folder as x264.

Do you want to use crf? Are you using MeGUI? If so then you need to change the method used in the x264 config and tell it to use the Constant Quality mode.

[Lorek]

yeah i'm using Megui.

As for the error when it starts up on pass 2 of shikari's build it immediately closes with a please send error report to microsoft.

Error signature
AppName:x264.exe Offset 00061944

I can pull up the technical information if you'd like but I don't see any easy way to copy it from the windows error window as it doesn't allow highlighting for copy/paste.

Log Post

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 2/1/2008
Time: 5:02:01 AM
User: N/A
Computer: Censored
Description:
Faulting application x264.exe, version 0.0.0.0, faulting module x264.exe, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00061944.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 78 32 36 ure x26
0018: 34 2e 65 78 65 20 30 2e 4.exe 0.
0020: 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 69 6e 0.0.0 in
0028: 20 78 32 36 34 2e 65 78 x264.ex
0030: 65 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e e 0.0.0.
0038: 30 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 0 at off
0040: 73 65 74 20 30 30 30 36 set 0006
0048: 31 39 34 34 0d 0a 1944..

[lexor]

If you using Dark Shikari's own builds, did you download the pthreads dll that Dark Shikari linked in the first post of his AQ thread? Last I checked Dark doesn't static link pthreads. (bobor's builds don't need this separate dll)

[Dark Shikari]

Techouse's builds (http://x264.tk/) are statically built and fprofiled.