Blu-ray compliants settings for VC-1 and MPEG-2

[Jan Marijniszoon]

Hello all!

I have been searching and browsing the forum for a while now but I couldn't find the exact settings/profiles to use when I would like to encode to a fully blu-ray compliant mpeg-2 stream (with hc encode for example) or vc-1 stream (with windows media encoder for example).

Could someone please provide me with the correct settings? I know that mpeg-2 and vc-1 are worse solutions compared to h.264, but I still would like to play around with them.

Thanks!

[Eric69]

Which encoder are you using? Windows Media Encoder doesn't output a compliant stream for BD. Who told you MPEG2 and VC-1 are worse solutions?

[Jan Marijniszoon]

I am not using anything yet.
For MPEG-2 I guess I would be using HC Encoder.
For VC-1 I have no idea besides something from Microsoft?

MPEG-2 and VC-1 are not worse solutions at high bitrates, but when compression matters they are worse don't you agree?
I even think that it would be best to use MPEG-2 with huge bitrate on BD-50 to achieve best visual quality, but that is another discussion.

[EPiPH0NE]

I even think that it would be best to use MPEG-2 with huge bitrate on BD-50 to achieve best visual quality, but that is another discussion.

I have to agree, when space doesn't matter, good old MPEG-2 does quite nice. Crank BluRay is a prime example of this theory :)

[Eric69]

Here's a link to Net Blender's site. It's a fairly comprehensive list of valid Encoders.

http://dostudio.netblender.com/wikipapers/Encoders1.asp

I firmly believe the quality of your source and the quality of your encoder is number 1. If you have a pristine source and a quality encoder, MPEG 2 is just as good as AVC or VC-1. When you get to lower bitrates, then AVC and VC-1 shine....IMO

[Sagittaire]

Here's a link to Net Blender's site. It's a fairly comprehensive list of valid Encoders.

http://dostudio.netblender.com/wikipapers/Encoders1.asp

I firmly believe the quality of your source and the quality of your encoder is number 1. If you have a pristine source and a quality encoder, MPEG 2 is just as good as AVC or VC-1. When you get to lower bitrates, then AVC and VC-1 shine....IMO

I read that:

Sonic Cinevision
Product Website
VC-1 - $30k / AVC - $30k / Mpeg-2 $20k
Cinevision is a high quality encoder that outputs all three formats. You can purchase the output options a-la-carte or as a package.

MainConcept Reference
Product Website
AVC - $2,500
Many DoStudio customers are trying MainConcept Reference due to its attractive price. MC Reference creates AVC strems that will mux in DSA but we have discovered that there are errors in the video streams that cause faulty playback behavior such as video stuttering, sync issues with audio and sometimes the video will be squished to only a fraction of the screen size. At this time, NetBlender can not support the use of the MainConcept Reference Encoder.

It's not really serious comparative because:

1) Sonic use the Mainconcept/Elecard SDK codec. If Cinevision is able to produce compliant stream then Reference will able too.

2) Reference is able to produce MPEG2, H264 and VC1 stream.

[Sagittaire]

Could someone please provide me with the correct settings? I know that mpeg-2 and vc-1 are worse solutions compared to h.264, but I still would like to play around with them.

Thanks!

MS SDK VC1 encodeur can produce BD compliant stream and it's a free codec.

Here setting for HCEnc:

*INFILE d:\mes dossiers\codec\hcenc\encodage_hd_ntsc_1080p.avs
*OUTFILE d:\mes dossiers\codec\hcenc\azerty.m2v
*BITRATE 6900
*MAXBITRATE 40000
*FRAMES 0 3600
*PROFILE best
*AUTOGOP 18
*AQ 2
*DC_PREC 10
*PROGRESSIVE
*LASTIFRAME
*MPEGLEVEL MP@HL
*MATRIX notch
*COLOUR 1
*PRIORITY normal

[Jan Marijniszoon]

Thanks for the settings.

Doesn't the VC-1 encoder require certain parameters then?

[Sagittaire]

@REM -----------------------------------------------------------
@REM
@REM Profil BluRay 1080p23.976 2 passes extra high quality
@REM
@REM -----------------------------------------------------------


@REM Source file name (suffit de mettre la source ici)
set E_SRC=Encodage_HD_NTSC_1080p.avs

@REM Set of bitrates (ici le bitrate)
set E_BR=6900

@REM Set of max bitrates (ici le bitrate max)
set MAX_BR=20000

@REM Set of Buffer (ici le buffer)
set BUF_BR=3750000

@REM Profil (ici le nom des fichiers de sortie)
AVS2ASF.exe -i %E_SRC% -o azerty.vc1 -rate %E_BR% -peakrate %MAX_BR% -vbv %BUF_BR% -framerate 23.976 -ratecontrol 3 -profiletype 2 -maxkeydist 24 -bframes 1 -bdeltaqp 1 -adaptiveGOP -keyPop 1 -inloop 1 -overlap 0 -complexity 5 -motionsearchlevel 2 -mesearchmethod 1 -mbcost 1 -mvcost 1 -mvrange 4 -adaptivequant 1 -dquantoption 1

pause

max bitrate can be 40000 for video stream

[Golgot13]

Hi Sagitaire,

about errors from "some" encoder software use on "some" authoring software:
Sometime the problem come from incompatibility between muxer and encoded files.

I can give a exemple:
I said at Trahald to put the PPS feature on H264info tool because
without some muxer and player can not use H264 elementary file.
This PPS is not mandatory on HDDVD or BD specification...

It's not limited at H264 codec (for Ben) because I saw some problem with VC1.
But it was more easy with VC1: there was only one software which encode VC1 file
for authoring software.


Last, I recommand H264 for BD use because it's more efficient than VC1 and MPEG2.
x264 is really the best example of H264 implementation.

[Jan Marijniszoon]

Le Sagittaire, merci beaucoup monsieur!