MeGUI x264 presets. [Archive] - Page 4

axlrose26

30th July 2009, 03:47

Hi Sharktooth,

I am pretty new to encoding. I have a lot of vids (scenes and movies) on my HDD, and my motive is to save hard disk space by converting the wmv, avi, and mpeg files to mkv. At the same time I would like to retain 90-95% of the quality of the original files.

I downloaded meGUI and the x264 presets from one of your threads. All the vids that I am planning to convert to mkv are intended for viewing only on my computer, and hence I assume that the "Unrestricted" presets would be the best.

I have a few questions.

Unrestricted 2pass Fast
Unrestricted 2pass Balanced
Unrestricted 2pass HQ
Unrestricted 2pass Extra Quality
Unrestricted 2pass Insane

1. What is the difference among the 5 presets mentioned above in terms of output quality and the size of the output file?

2. Which preset would give the BEST quality output and which one would reduce the file size the MOST and at the same time maintain 90-95% of the original vid quality??

3. The "Extra Quality" preset is better than "HQ" in terms of quality??

If my assumption of using "Unrestricted" presets is wrong, then kindly inform what presets shall I use in order to convert the wmv and avi files to mkv format. Please remember, the objective is to maintain 90-95% of the original file quality and save the max hard disk space.

Thanks,
Axl.

j8ee

30th July 2009, 07:32

Those presets compresses more in the order you wrote them, and should give better and better video quality starting from fast down to insane. Extra Quality is slower/better quality than HQ (confusing naming, I agree). Regarding quality and size, it's actually impossible to say - you have to try for yourself and see what works for you. It seems like a bad idea to re-encode your videos though, you will probably be disappointed in the result. In my opinion what you want to do is impossible. But don't ask in this thread about those things, this thread is only about the presets. In fact, you probably don't need to ask at all, just search and read, it's very very unlikely that you will ask something that haven't been answered many times already. Read the forum rules again, rule 1,2,3 and 12 especially.

m3mbran3

30th July 2009, 17:15

I was just comparing the unrestricted EQ and DXVA EQ settings and noticed that the only differences were no b-pyramid, no p4x4 and a VBV buffer size set. From reading varying threads it seems as if b-pyramid caused trouble with older video cards but that seems to be fixed now. I'm not sure about p4x4 and I assume the VBV buffer size is so that the video remain within its profile limits.

I was just wondering what settings would maintain dxva compatibility in most scenarios (ps3, xbox360, pc gpu playback etc.)? From my limited testing on my pc with ATI 4850 and ps3 the unrestricted EQ settings seem to work fine on both. Do you think the DXVA profiles could be updated to include b-pyramid and/or p4x4?

tetsuo55

30th July 2009, 17:38

Not all decoders support B-pyramids, i doubt Sharktooth will ever add this (but nothing prevents you from adjusting the profile locally)

juGGaKNot

30th July 2009, 17:46

p4x4 is harder to decode and encode with small benefit.

Betsy25

30th July 2009, 19:04

Unrestricted 2pass Fast
Unrestricted 2pass Balanced
Unrestricted 2pass HQ
Unrestricted 2pass Extra Quality
Unrestricted 2pass Insane

Perhaps to give clearer idea, i would be better to change 2pass Extra Quality into 2pass Extra HQ.
Unrestricted 2pass Fast
Unrestricted 2pass Balanced
Unrestricted 2pass HQ
Unrestricted 2pass Extra HQ
Unrestricted 2pass Insane

Dark Shikari

30th July 2009, 19:08

p4x4 is harder to decode and encode with small benefit.Decode? Not really.

Also, the presets should really be renamed in a more intuitive way.

Fastest
Fast
Medium
Slow
Slowest

or something like that.

juGGaKNot

30th July 2009, 19:49

Decode? Not really.

Really ? partitions all it is then.

Forteen88

18th August 2009, 08:37

Because x264 don't support slices yet, shouldn't L4.0 be set for the Blu-ray profiles, as L4.0 doesn't require slices?! Maybe a check for the allowed Blu-ray compliant resolutions should be done too?! Thanks

Grossmeister

19th August 2009, 22:35

Can someone tell which of these profiles is the most similar to StaxRip 1.1.1.3 "Quality"? Or, maybe, there is same profile written in MeGUI XML structure?

Underground78

20th August 2009, 17:16

Hello,

I've seen v86 and v87 of the profiles but I can't find the changes. Have they been published somewhere ?

Forteen88

1st September 2009, 16:58

Now with x264 r1242+ (multi-slice support, thanks for that DS!), MeGUI should set --slices 4 in the Blu-ray profiles..

rack04

1st September 2009, 16:59

Now with x264 r1242+ (multi-slice support), MeGUI should set --slices 4 in the Blu-ray profiles..

Not until there is a x264 build available with NAL HRD.

Kurtnoise

1st September 2009, 17:53

imho, megui presets should be rewritten from scratch from now within the new x264 features.

and yes, I'm lazy to do that myself...Any volunteers ?

Hint: using megui 0.3.1.1055 or higher to create them is highly recommended.

j8ee

1st September 2009, 18:15

Sharktooth said he's working on that some time ago - http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1305914#post1305914 - I hope he's still on to it. Probably he just have other things to do under the summer, but that's only a guess. I don't think it's necessary with a rewrite, that would imply most commands and switches have changed, and they haven't. There's only need for a few changes and additions, but still these things usually takes a lot longer than expected.

Kurtnoise

1st September 2009, 20:44

several settings in almost current presets are not suitable anymore within the current x264. That's why I said "rewrite from scratch"...Each targets also should be redefined.

Underground78

3rd September 2009, 19:40

Will new presets be based on x264's internal presets ? For exemple DeviceX - Very Fast, DeviceX - Fast, DeviceX - Slow, ... with only changes needed to achieved DeviceX compatibility and maybe a distinction between SD and HD sources ?

Kurtnoise

4th September 2009, 05:59

Will new presets be based on x264's internal presets ?
yes...

For exemple DeviceX - Very Fast, DeviceX - Fast, DeviceX - Slow, ... with only changes needed to achieved DeviceX compatibility and maybe a distinction between SD and HD sources ?
Distinction should be made when you select the output target not from input source...

Underground78

4th September 2009, 07:25

Distinction should be made when you select the output target not from input source...

Yes of course. I wasn't clear enough but in fact what I wanted to know was if some presets would need to have two "versions", one for SD target, another for HD target ...

So in fact it will be something like this :
--> device [--> SD or HD target] --> Encoding speed/Quality (ultrafast, veryfast, faster, fast, medium, slow, slower, veryslow, placebo) ?

For example : DVXA - SD - Medium, DVXA - HD - Medium, DVXA - HD - Slow ...

Kurtnoise

4th September 2009, 08:38

I wasn't clear enough but in fact what I wanted to know was if some presets would need to have two "versions", one for SD target, another for HD target ...
In my point of view, this is meaningless and may introduce some confusions but might be useful for some other people ?

Underground78

4th September 2009, 08:59

This only interest of this distinction is to use higher settings for SD, isn't it ? But is it really useful ?

florinandrei

4th September 2009, 17:12

Dark Eiri

4th September 2009, 18:01

When encoding in the CQ mode, there seems to exist different --qp optimal levels depending on whether the target is SD or HD. At least that's how it seems to me, but I could be wrong (the end result depends on so many factors).

If that is correct, then obviously different profile versions need to be created for SD and HD. But otherwise I see no reason.

Talking about Const. Quality mode, yes, 720p @ CRF 21 looks great, but for SD (let's say 640x480) content, you would need as least CRF 18 to "match visually" the 720p@21. For 1080p, you can increase to 22, or more. Of course it depends on your source, these are only estimatives. I believe it's the same for Const. Quantizer.

That's probably because the complexibity of the frame doesn't scale linearly with the resolution increase. (Now that's bad english, I hope you can understand it). I don't think that would require two presets, though. You can change it yourself, as you would change the bitrate for every file you encode, or just save it as another preset with the values you consider appropriate.

I also think there are too many presets. For example, are the DXVA specific ones really required now that DXVA can play almost anything?

Dark Shikari

4th September 2009, 18:06

Talking about Const. Quality mode, yes, 720p @ CRF 21 looks great, but for SD (let's say 640x480) content, you would need as least CRF 18 to "match visually" the 720p@21. For 1080p, you can increase to 22, or more. Of course it depends on your source, these are only estimatives. I believe it's the same for Const. Quantizer.No, that's just because you watch them all on the same size screen (upscaled), so artifacts are more noticable in smaller videos than in larger ones, since the artifacts get upscaled along with the rest of the video.

sat-jokar

26th September 2009, 12:29

Sharktooth > I have been use HQ Slower Before , but now i can see you Remove the Profile , What is the Alternative to HQ Slower now ?

szabi

26th October 2009, 14:25

Hi

Does anyone know why it is not updated anymore?
Last profile version v85 which is from july when x264 version was r1183.

Now last x264 version is r1310 but no new profile for it.

I am not so good at setup x264 that is why I really like this profile collection.
Also i do not see Sharktooth here since a month.
Has he finished this profile job?

Bye
szabi

stax76

26th October 2009, 14:44

Somebody should ask Sharktooth if he has any MeGUI plans, seems he didn't make any statement, I hope he is well, currently Kurtnoise is working on it alone.

Adub

26th October 2009, 23:25

There are new profiles on the development build. Run a search on the MeGUI Development thread for a link.

BlackPrince

27th October 2009, 18:48

no preset is working.....

LigH

12th November 2009, 14:12

I believe all those profiles won't work anymore with x264 since the new defaults and generic presets/profiles/tunings were introduced (r1177 - 1st July 2009).

rapscallion

12th November 2009, 15:51

There are new profiles on the development build. Run a search on the MeGUI Development thread for a link.
Searched....nothing that I could find since July, when ST went MIA.

Carpo

16th November 2009, 10:40

I think the new presents are a little confusing compared to the older ones, i can see what they are trying to do. i guess the new p6 profile is the old x264 HQ profile or something, is there i link where we can compare the new profiles to the old

rapscallion

16th November 2009, 13:34

The "old" profiles" are on the first post of this thread. Where are the "new" ones you're referring to ?

Carpo

16th November 2009, 14:25

when i update megui i get different profiles in the drop down box

LigH

18th November 2009, 13:05

Those are profiles related to the mentioned "new" x264 native presets and tunings.

But they are not anymore related to those in the beginning of this thread.

If you now need e.g. an XBox360 or PS3 compatible (e.g. Level 4.1 and Ref/B restricted) profile based on the "slower" preset with "film" tunings ... make it yourself (until someone uses his leisure time to make them for you).

quantum5uicid3

18th November 2009, 14:53

here's some help ;)

http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=149711

djesteban

19th November 2009, 19:28

when i update megui i get different profiles in the drop down box

Huh? Which version of meGUI are you using... mine won't find updates for months, and I use 0.3.1.1056 which is suppose to be the latest. How did you get those profile listed?

btw... is the meGUI project dead? Is anyone still working on it?

mozzle

19th November 2009, 19:42

btw... is the meGUI project dead? Is anyone still working on it?

With all the heavy-hitters on this forum, you think we'd at least be able to get some kind of status update, even if it's "project is on hold indefinitely". I've got megui in a state where I can use it with the latest x264 so I'm happy but it's just weird that it borked and now there's just silence (apart from frustrated users.) I love this application and have been using it for over a year. I know kurtnoise is on his own but would somebody just tell us what is going on?

Carpo

20th November 2009, 12:31

Huh? Which version of meGUI are you using... mine won't find updates for months, and I use 0.3.1.1056 which is suppose to be the latest. How did you get those profile listed?

btw... is the meGUI project dead? Is anyone still working on it?

What i did was to install 3002 - then select development server, untick 1057 from the update list, and let it update the rest, should work if you installed 1056 from sourforge too.

Warbucks81

20th November 2009, 21:44

I believe all those profiles won't work anymore with x264 since the new defaults and generic presets/profiles/tunings were introduced (r1177 - 1st July 2009).

http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1338462&postcount=4915

Read that post for a link to new profiles. I'm using 1057 with those profiles and the latest build of x264(from x264.nl) without any issues.

You will need to delete any jobs and old profiles in your existing installation before upgrading to 1057. Then install the new profiles.

audioffile

8th January 2010, 15:34

Thanks Sharktooth. I've been using your profiles ever since I started using x264. A great help for folks who don't want to have to learn everything in order to encode their first video. Do you have any recommendations for where to start learning a little more about the various settings as I start to tweak things? I only use Unrestricted CQ profiles.

Another question, what is the difference between the various CQ profiles? Just speed of the encoding?

However the Unrestricted CQ preset is quite good. There are very few other options to tweak to rise compression/quality. Just set your preferred CRF and let it go... ;)

When I set crf=23 in my MeGUI One-Click Encoder, the crf=23 actually drops out of the command line. Is crf=23 some type of a default or is this a bug?

Finally, how come no linky to this thread in your sig? :)

RunningSkittle

8th January 2010, 15:53

audioffile: megui presets are outdated and should no longer be used. Use the new preset and tuning system instead. This should be included in the new patched megui and also makes running from the CLI much easier. more info here: http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings
example:

x264.exe --preset slow --tune film --crf 20 --level 4.1 --output "output.mkv" input.avs

Also CRF 23 is a default, so of course it "disappeared" it was a redundant option!

Remicade

8th January 2010, 18:32

Why is so big the differences between x264 DXVA HD HQ and x264 (DXVA)Unrestricted High Quality ? First preset is 2x fast.

easy2Bcheesy

14th January 2010, 20:55

Anacletus

14th January 2010, 22:34

I've installed MeGUI on Windows 7 and it seems that the Two-Pass Unrestricted Insane profile has been changed significantly. On my i7, previously it would encode 720p at around 1.5fps. Now it encodes at 25fps and the quality level doesn't appear to be anywhere near as good.

Can any one tell me how to get the "old" Insane profile back?

man just look at the commandline of the insane profile, they are all but "insane" hehe. Its only the crf value that changes between the DXVA profiles, insane gets 18,5 :p

I suggest you to make the necessary modifications into the profile to fit your needs. I also suggest you and others to not use insane settings as they are simply.. useless in terms of final quality but very very time consuming, a command line like this should fit the average encoder imho:

pass1:
x264.exe --profile high --level 4.1 --preset slower--tune film --pass 1 --bitrate BBBB --stats "X:\xxx.stats" --thread-input --deblock
-1:-1 --ref 5 --bframes 3 --keyint 240 --min-keyint 24 --vbv-bufsize 40000 --vbv-maxrate 40000 --b-pyramid normal --no-dct-decimate
--no-fast-pskip --output NUL "X:\yyy.avs"

pass2:
--profile high --level 4.1 --preset slower --tune film --pass 2 --bitrate BBBB --stats "X:\xxx.stats" --thread-input --deblock -1:-1
--ref 5 --bframes 3 --keyint 240 --min-keyint 24 --vbv-bufsize 40000 --vbv-maxrate 40000 --b-pyramid normal --no-dct-decimate
--no-fast-pskip --output "X:\xxx.mkv" "X:\yyy.avs"

cheers
anac

quantum5uicid3

14th January 2010, 23:04

He's using the old profiles, the "insane" profile now is just crf 17, not a 2pass.

There have been many changes to x264 since Sharktooth did those profiles and their use is strongly discouraged. The megui profiles as they exist now are more or less simple device presets with crf going from 17-23 in 1.5 increments and a 2 pass for each device. 2pass is only needed now when you need an exact target bitrate.

So on all presets you're encouraged to change the speed to your preference and use the bitrate calculator to find bitrate. Then just save them as you like them.

easy2Bcheesy

15th January 2010, 07:59

So, how do I change the new Insane preset to give me the same quality as the old one? I realise that its use may be "discouraged", but the bottom line is that I am encoding 720p on an extremely tight bitrate. The old preset took a long time to encode but the results were worth it. The new preset doesn't give me the quality I need.

I'd be happy to a straight A to B comparison, but right now I can't, since I don't have the old preset any more!

lucamark

15th January 2010, 08:28

So, how do I change the new Insane preset to give me the same quality as the old one?

Try with 1pass crf=17 preset= more slower as you can..

MuLTiTaSK

15th January 2010, 09:12

@easy2Bcheesy

import my attempt to duplicate it x264_dp_ iNSANE2.xml (bit.ly/8I4E5l)

let me know how the project comes out i just might duplicate all of them to the new switches;)

easy2Bcheesy

15th January 2010, 20:28

That is an enormous improvement on the new Insane - many thanks :)

MuLTiTaSK

15th January 2010, 21:05

@easy2Bcheesy

your welcome i'am glad you liked it;)
alot has changed with x264 since ST created those older presets the lastest presets are mainly using x264 defaults with specific tweaks for devices rather then quality reason you noticed the quality loss

carlo_0000

16th January 2010, 20:30

hello
i update megui today and the profils

but

it that normal that 1 st pass is 2 times slower than before ?

i olways use best quality insane dxva profils

and when i start the queud jobs it take some long time before cpu is used (i see only disk acces)

i olso notice that x264 use more that 1 gigas of the pagefile.sys and slowdown the computer performance

with the old megui the 1st pass starded immediatly (using the cpu)

QuadraQ

17th January 2010, 01:38

Just updated megui and got the new profiles (they look good). I've used the AVCHD in the past, and it was a two pass encode. The new one "AVCHD (DVD5/9) - High Quality" seems to be running as a one pass. Are you using some new magic in x264 to accomplish this?

Another question: The unrestricted profiles and the DXVA profiles seem to have been consolidated. Does this mean that I can take advantage of my DXVA compatible system (for greater encoding speed) while still creating an unrestricted x264 MKV?

nurbs

17th January 2010, 08:09

Depends on the hardware you have. If you want to be 100% sure it plays you should restrict it to level 4.1 and set the appropriate vbv parameters. As long as you don't manually enter the number of reference frames the --level setting will automatically restrict the number.

rtjnyoface

17th January 2010, 08:31

You could use mediainfo on some of the files you used your preferred configuration on and it will at least give you some ideas as to what new preset could be considered the same. Mediainfo will give you a couple of things such as the # of reference frames, the level of subpixel refinement, trellis use, I'm not sure what else ATM.

So, how do I change the new Insane preset to give me the same quality as the old one?

So increase the amount of analysis, reference frames, motion estimation and such.

I'd be happy to a straight A to B comparison, but right now I can't, since I don't have the old preset any more!

You might have to if you aren't able to have a final product similar to what you had prior to the changes.

Hope it helps somewhat. (Ha, put it on placebo ;)).

Poutnik

17th January 2010, 12:43

I have found than in my MeGUI "Unrestricted (DXVA)" X264 profiles is everywhere Trellis disabled.
I am confused - either something is wrong either I do not understand it well.

I always thought Trellis does not affect decoding, at least not to corrupt HW compatibilty.
I have also always thought at least Trellis=1 is needed for SubME 6+ for RD optimization.

ZEXEL

17th January 2010, 14:28

I've been update to new MegUI version & find all new preset profile also I really happy with that, but could you tell me where is the same/better quality picture profile for "x264: Standalone-HD-DVD" since it gone... cheers...

ShadowVlican

21st January 2010, 21:15

hm.. i guess someone should edit the first post of this thread to notify newcomers that the profiles are now obsolete

and perhaps remove them from MeGui altogether

iko417

22nd January 2010, 02:52

remove them, never used them

Wikke

22nd January 2010, 18:34

I just updated to new presets in Megui. I have always used Standalone AVCHD presets and I was satisfied with the results. Normal speed for:
720p encoding was first pass 115 FPS and second pass 85 FPS. Needed time for encoding the whole film was 1 hour.
1080p encoding was first pass 55 FPS and second pass 45 FPS. Encoding time for the whole film was 2 hours.

Now with new updated presets the whole encoding is taking much more time to finish the job.

I am now encoding 1080p material with Standalone AVCHD presets and the framerate for first pass is only 15 FPS!!! I guess the second pass will be only 5 FPS.
Are the others facing the same problem, or is there something wrong with my updates?

Is the quality with new presets really so much better that it is taking 3 times more time to finish the job?

blsbball

24th January 2010, 22:49

Anyone else notice any downgrade in quality from the older unrestricted const quality insane x264 and the new dxva unrestricted? I feel like the older profile, although it produced a larger file, produced much better results.

Poutnik

26th January 2010, 06:51

J-Wo

27th January 2010, 06:46

I'm trying out these presets with MeGUI to convert my DVD rips to MKV for better playback compatibility with my WDTV Live. I want to preserve quality so I'm thinking of using the DXVA-SD-Extra Quality preset. How does this differ from Standalone-PS3-Xbox360? I know the WDTV Live is less restrictive than PS3 or Xbox360, so maybe I should try Unrestricted 2pass Extra Quality? I'm not sure what file size/bitrate I should aim for but will ~2000 kbps (2cd file size) yield good results? Thanks.

nurbs

27th January 2010, 07:18

Reformulated question - is Trellis safe to use for DXVA ( and evantually HW players ?

Trellis is purely an analysis option and therefore doesn't influence hardware players.

Beak

28th January 2010, 23:58

Hi. I hope one of the devs will confirm or assist the slowdown in encoding speeds. I am crawling now at about 2 frames per second with the X264 Unrestricted 2 pass Extra Quality Preset.

The commandline reads

program --profile high --preset fast --tune film --pass 2 --bitrate 12228 --stats ".stats" --thread-input --b-adapt 2 --ref 3 --rc-lookahead 40 --me umh --direct auto --subme 7 --partitions all --trellis 2 --output "output" "input"

I would prefer to have the speed back as it looked quite good to me before.

Can anyone tell me what the arguments used to be for this preset?

Is there anyplace one can download the previous version of Megui and its updates?

quantum5uicid3

29th January 2010, 02:59

unfortunately the sharktooth presets are now illogical. just select the unrestricted (dxva) 2-pass preset and put the preset slider on fast. very fast or ultra fast would probably even be transparent at 12228.

jace112

30th January 2010, 15:31

I am a bit lost too :-(

Is there somewhere a comprehensive guide for the new presets?

Chainmax

7th February 2010, 23:24

Sorry for the crosspost, but I was not able to get bond to move my post here. My question was this:

I really like the way presets are laid out now, even with the amount of them it's easy to navigate through the list and select what you want. However, I do miss the PC-only profiles. I assume that the unrestricted DXVA ones would be the replacement for the live action ones (would that be correct?), but what about the AE-something ones? Could those be included back?

cmw

8th February 2010, 00:14

eugenio

21st February 2010, 07:27

I'm a bit confused about the new presets. I deleted the old ones and forced reupdate so I assume I have the most recent ones. Besides the many device specific presets there are also the Unrestricted/DXVA ones and besides changing the crf, the presets are the same, having the built-in x264 preset set to medium no matter which one I choose. I realise that I can set the slider to another value, but what is the purpose of megui presets then if they don't do that for you based on their purpose? It just doesn't make sense to me so I though I better ask, maybe theres just something wrong with my presets...

Hmm also every device preset has the x264 slider set to medium... is it really supposed to work this way now? You choose a preset and then select an additional preset level? It just seems a bit odd...

I was intrigued by this too, so I take action to discover this misteriuos behavior, heres what I found.
When you want to encode only the video alone, choose ¨enqueue¨, you can choose the preset bar, very fast, ultrafast fast medium slow slower very slow placebo. the same for audio then mux.
When u want to encode both video and audio u choose the ¨encoder settings¨of both then autoencode chossing the container filesize or bitrate,
now u got it or dont.

FirstBorg

21st February 2010, 14:15

Hi!

Can you recommend a x264 profile or settings to convert a dvd to mkv?

Im backing up my dvds and created thus far several mkvs, with 2 audiotracks, each an mp3 stream with around 200 mb, and a final size of 1.46 gb, so it leaves around 1 gb for video data, but Im still not happy with the video quality, even with 2 pass. maybe Im doing something wrong.

Any advice? Im always using one click encode, and in there a x264 profile, two pass and thats all the settings I can remember :)

akby

24th February 2010, 16:48

i have a question about the presets

if i want to do an encode based on quality, such as crf 21, then shouldnt technically any preset i use give me the same "quality" of a movie. i mean choosing between a "medium" or a "placebo" should give me the same result quality-wise as long as i dont change the crf quantity. or is there something that i'm not getting here?

so my question basically is, do the presets matter in an encode session wherein the bitrate or final size doesnt matter?
also if i choose a higher preset such as placebo, should it reduce the size of my final encode?

just a few queries. hope someone can answer them

nurbs

24th February 2010, 17:08

It will give you the same quality in as far as the rate factor can be considered a measure of quality. So it's not constant quality, but the best approximation we currently have. You'll always get the rate factor you requested and slower settings will give you better quality per bitrate, but different options also change the meaning of the rate factor. Slower options don't necessarily mean a smaller final size and faster option, like maybe turning of the psy optimizations, can result in quality loss that is not compensated or in the worst case might be amplified by the change in the resulting filesize.

akby

24th February 2010, 17:55

right. i think i get it. thank you

Takie

24th February 2010, 19:57

I own a Pioneer BDP-LX71 bluray player and use MeGui to re-encode movies to be AVCHD compliant(DVD5 disk) on my player.

This used to work great but I forgot to save my presets when I recently did a fresh OS install. I now use an adjusted "AVCHD insane" preset but get no picture on my bluray player with these settings:

cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=34 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=2 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=17.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=14000 / vbv_bufsize=14500 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00 / pulldown=0 / nal_hrd=1

I first taught b_pyramid=1 was causing the problem but this was changed in the above presets and still no picture. Any ideas what could be the problem? I don't want to burn DVD after DVD with different settings to trail and error correct it. Thx

pelle412

24th February 2010, 20:33

Takie

24th February 2010, 21:00

I always make sure that resolution is 1280x720, so that's not the issue

quantum5uicid3

26th February 2010, 05:24

x264 version? tsmuxer options? burning with udf 2.5?

Takie

26th February 2010, 11:10

Latest x264 version trough Megui development update server (right now rev. 1442). Tsmuxer with "AVCHD disk" output and burned with nero using udf 2.5.

I'm pretty sure it is some x264 preset that's causing the problem. I just don't know which one.

rapscallion

26th February 2010, 14:55

@takie...these are the new presets that you should be using for avchd:

heres new preset with bluray and avchd updated for new hrd switch. i added a "max compatibility (Dxva)" with level 4.1 and vbv 40000 too. if it don't work with all cards support avc acceleration plz post.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zeyydehngrm

FirstBorg

26th February 2010, 16:08

how is that with the constant quality? the higher the number, the better the quality?

lucamark

26th February 2010, 18:13

how is that with the constant quality? the higher the number, the better the quality?

lower CQ for better quality...

quantum5uicid3

27th February 2010, 13:08

oops forgot u said that. plz post your command line. i have to think about what's what with the mediainfo stuff. :)

Takie

27th February 2010, 13:40

I downloaded and used your presets from a few posts earlier but without results. AVCHD disk is detected but upon play screen stays black. Command line output from the MeGui re-encode:

vfw4x264.exe" --crf 18.5 --thread-input --profile high --level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 4 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --vbv-maxrate 14000 --vbv-bufsize 14500 --sar 1:1

I do have a few working AVCHD disks from before my format. I checked them with Mediainfo but for some reason they don't list the used x264 presets under "encoding settings".

quantum5uicid3

27th February 2010, 14:53

this may or may not be true, but i think i read at one point that u must output to ".264" for avchd, so i always did it this way, that's one suggestion. ive tested files from komisar 1442 on a samsung BD-P1590 and no prob here, so i'm confused. do you have easy access to another standalone? it could be some quirk unique to that model? post all the mediainfo for the stream. here's one that i just tested as working.

ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Muxing mode : Container profile=Unknown@4.1
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 6mn
Bit rate : 3 893 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 3 982 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.176
Stream size : 3.45 GiB (84%)
Writing library : x264 core 85 r1442kMod 781d300
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=64 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=6 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=2 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=3982 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=17300 / vbv_bufsize=17000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=4:1.00 / pulldown=0 / nal_hrd=1

rapscallion

27th February 2010, 15:12

@quantum
I notice from the above that there are a number of variances from your latest (and previous) avchd presets.

Without doing a side by side comparison, I see the following, at first glance :

Deblock 1:-1-1 vs 1:0:0
Ref Frames 5 vs 3
Subme 10 vs 7
Trellis 2 vs 1
b_pyramid=1 vs strict
nal_hrd=1 vs vbr
vbv maxrate/bufsize =17300 /1700 vs 14000/14500

I'm sure there are others but just curious about them vs the presets.

quantum5uicid3

27th February 2010, 15:30

deblock is a personal proeference thing

you can use higher refs when resolution is lower, the megui included preset was really made for 1080p compatibility.

subme 10 and trellis 2 will both be set if u put preset slider on placebo i believe.

bpyramid=1 is strict and nal_hrd=1 is vbr

the max bitrate of a avchd on a dvd including the audio is 18 Mbps, 14000/14500 is the reported highest possible setting to work on all standalones(from scouring the forum, i think i got it from the multiavchd author, which is a fine prog btw). so using a single 640ac3 track assumes 17300 would be ok.

here's my actual AVCHD DVD5/9 preset for 720p:

program --tune film --pass 2 --bitrate 5277 --stats ".stats" --slow-firstpass --thread-input --b-adapt 2 --rc-lookahead 24 --merange 64 --me umh --direct auto --subme 10 --partitions all --trellis 2 --no-fast-pskip --aq-mode 4 --profile high --level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 6 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --vbv-bufsize 17000 --vbv-maxrate 17300 --output "output" "input"

now that aq-mode 4 has been commited, it will soon change back to aq-mode 2 though. i think i could set ref higher, but "quality increase is marginal greater than 5" or something like that

rapscallion

27th February 2010, 15:43

Thanks for the explanation ! I almost always encode @ 720p.

sniarn

7th March 2010, 09:58

I'm about to do some encoding using megui and I want to maximize compatibility with various devices. I'm currently playing the files using a Popcorn Hour, but that may change in the future and I don't want to risk having to reencode all my files. So which preset group should I pick from? AVCHD or Blu-ray? What is the difference between the two?

forum king

13th March 2010, 17:08

guys i have noticed that in the newer build with the slider options, i am having too much confusion , so much so that i have stopped encoding for now..
i have posted my queries at no of places but haven't been able to get any satisfactory answer ( which a person with limited knowledge and info like me can understand )..
i would like to ask something here as well coz i feel this is the most appropriate section.

1.. which profile/ profiles are good for low bitrate (i have a quad core with 8GB ram ) encodes, this is kinna passion of mine to compress my dvd collection to the smallest , and also try same things on a few of HD stuff.

2.. if we see in breakup then what should be good value/s for following
subme :
trellis:
b frames :
ref frames:
b adept :
deblocking :
MV prediction
trellis:
ME range:
Partitions:
(please suggest all these not withstanding the quality of SOURCE at all - just a single factor i want to be detrimental and that is the bit rate )

i used to use unrestricted 2 pass HQ till about 4 months back as back then the updates were unstable and lots of issues were there but recently i have updated my megui totally , but am totally lost with the new profiles. and encodes are coming so blocky and crappy when i am using the slider to slow settings.

nurbs

13th March 2010, 18:11

The slider controls almost all the options you listed. Slower slider settings will give you higher quality at a give bitrate, but will take more time to encode. The slider settings were selected in a way that the settings that give the most quality gain for the least speed loss are applied first when you move it to the right, and the settings that give most speed gain for the least quality loss when you move it to the left.
There is also the tuning dropdown menu were you can choose a source type like "film" or "animation". This will influence deblocking and some other settings.
You can look at the options applied for the different slider presets and tuning by typing "x264 --fullhelp" in a CLI window when you are in the directory where x264 is.

I don't use the presets that come with megui, but IIRC they all use the normal speed and only use different CRF values. The CRF lets you choose an output quality, but you won't know the resulting bitrate. The preset slider and tunings mentioned above will change the bitrate you get at a certain CRF, because they change the meaning of CRF. What you should do is two things.
First you do a couple of encodes with the preset slider in different positions to determine what speed you are comfortable with. Then you do encodes with different CRF values, but the same preset slider setting to see what output quality is acceptable for you. You can then encode all your files with these settings and you won't be wasting bitrate on less complex files and more complex files will automatically get the bitrate you need.

The above is a bit oversimplified, but should give you at least an idea.

disklib

13th March 2010, 20:44

Thanks for that suggestion nurbs. It's very helpful.

I'm one of the users who got stranded when the various updates broke the functionality of Sharktooth's presets. While I always appreciated the work he and others did, I never realized how dependent I was on them until last Sept(?). A few weeks ago I finally just jumped in and started doing tests to see what I could figure out. Your suggestion helped confirm I'm on the right path.

You mentioned you don't use the MeGUI presets, but can you comment on this observation? It seems that I need to decrease the CRF rate by 1 to get similar results to what I was getting 6 months ago.

Specifically, these are the old settings (based on Sharktooth's old "Unrestricted HQ preset):

program --profile high --crf 17.0 --ref 5 --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --deblock -1:-1 --subme 6 --trellis 2 --partitions all --me umh --thread-input --output "output" "input"

The new settings that seem comparable in output are this:

program --profile high --preset slower --tune film --crf 16.0 --thread-input --ref 3 --output "output" "input"

Is this a matter of the x264 CRF reference point changing over the last 6 months? Or is this based on something else that I'm not yet understanding?

Dark Shikari

13th March 2010, 20:50

program --profile high --preset slower --tune film --crf 16.0 --thread-input --ref 3 --output "output" "input" --profile high, --thread-input, and --ref 3 are redundant.Is this a matter of the x264 CRF reference point changing over the last 6 months? Or is this based on something else that I'm not yet understanding?No, nothing has changed. --crf 17 is still --crf 17.

disklib

13th March 2010, 21:47

Thanks Dark Shikari. Your reply made me realize that my settings were based on tweaks to one of the new MeGUI presets. My goal is to become independent of them so I don't find myself "stranded" again as you and the other developers continue your work.

Based on that, can you answer these 2 questions please:

1 - In MeGUI's "x264 configuration dialog", is the "scratchpad" preset the equivalent of x264's default settings? In other words, is it a neutral point for me to start adjusting the CRF, Tunings and Presets slider from?

2 - Regarding the "--profile high" command being redundant, is it rec to leave the "AVC Profiles" pull-down set to "Autoguess"?

nurbs

14th March 2010, 00:19

1)
The defaults will look like
program --output "output" "input"
possibly with a --thread-input because IIRC megui always puts that in the command line.
2)
Yes.

disklib

14th March 2010, 19:50

Thanks nurbs. I guess I'll have to manually get to that as the "scratchpad" preset currently looks like this:

program --b-pyramid none --vbv-maxrate 31250 --output "output" "input"

Regarding "vbv-maxrate" - Is that setting ignored if "vbv-bufsize" is set to "0"?

Shevek

1st April 2010, 15:23

I'm returning to x264 encoding using MeGUI after a break of about a year and having read through the last few pages of this thread I've just about got to grips with the new profiles, this being my current cmd line for a 720p encode, based on Unrestricted (DXVA) - 2-pass with preset and bitrate changed:

program --preset faster --pass 2 --bitrate 3000 --stats ".stats" --output "output" "input"

However I still have one question - does the old rule of updating the Max & Min GOP for the frame-rate still apply?

i.e. 240/24 for film, 250/25 for PAL, 300/30 for NTSC

TIA

priyank123

3rd May 2010, 13:12

hey Can u plz help me i am a new bee i just wanted to convert a dvd rip movie to mkv so tell me the settings with the help of which i can get the best quality output i have done some conversions with ur profile but still not satisfied with the quality and also tell me about how we can use the avisynth profiles :helpful::helpful::helpful::helpful:

Inspector.Gadget

3rd May 2010, 14:22

priyank123: Use search, post in the correct thread, don't cross-post, use standard English, don't spam emoticons, and above all read the rules.

vassie

30th June 2010, 10:01

Does anyone know where I can get the older presets from? The insane, HQ, balanced etc.

Thanks

Underground78

30th June 2010, 10:07

Does anyone know where I can get the older presets from? The insane, HQ, balanced etc.

Thanks

Why not just use the new ones with different quality preset (insane would be placebo, balanced medium and HQ slow or slower) ?

vassie

30th June 2010, 10:15

Why not just use the new ones with different quality preset (insane would be placebo, balanced medium and HQ slow or slower) ?

I'll give that a go, haven't used MeGUI in a while, just wondered where they had gone

Thanks

Sharktooth

30th June 2010, 13:31

devs implemented presets directly into x264 and they are even better than the old insane, hq, balanced...etc. megui presets.
so, just open the x264 config window and you will find the preset slider... Medium (default) is more or less the old Balanced preset... Insane is called Placebo...etc.
that way you even have more choices ;)
remeber that if you set advanced settings AFTER setting the preset you will change the preset values to what you set (or at least it should be that way...)
happy encoding :)

hardkorn

13th October 2010, 17:09

program --tune film --pass 2 --bitrate 5277 --stats ".stats" --slow-firstpass --thread-input --b-adapt 2 --rc-lookahead 24 --merange 64 --me umh --direct auto --subme 10 --partitions all --trellis 2 --no-fast-pskip --aq-mode 4 --profile high --level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 6 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --vbv-bufsize 17000 --vbv-maxrate 17300 --output "output" "input"

Thanks for posting your custom profile.

Is it neccessarry for 6 reference frames(as I've read somewhere it breaks bluray/1080 compatibility - "If you want the target to be Bluray/AVCHD compatable, Ref Frames must be 4.") ?
Also the nb of frames to lookahead you've set it to 24 instead of the 40-50 default value. Is there a reason you did that? Will it not decrease the video quality?

Also the merange value you've set it to 64. Any reason ?

Thank you.

kaid

3rd November 2010, 14:21

I've confirmed these settings to work on Several BD-players (Samsung, Sharp, Pioneer) and the PS3, muxed with TSmuxer to both AVCHD and Bluray:
x264 --crf <quality level> -r (4 for 1080p, 9 for 720p) --b-adapt 2 --me umh --direct auto --subme 10 --level 4.1 --b-pyramid strict

All the rest is defaults of the current x264 snapshot.

The only players it did not work were a Sony BDP-S370 and a Philips BDP-3000, which are rather cheap and should be supported. anyone knows why these two showed huge macroblock errors for most moving stuff?

This one (based on the ffmpeg libx264 slow preset, under /etc/local/share/ffmpeg!) also works on the PS3, but I didn't get a chance to test it with the Bluray-Players:
x264 --crf <quality level> -r (4 for 1080p, 9 for 720p) --b-pyramid strict --b-adapt 2 --direct auto --min-keyint 25 --rc-lookahead 50 --ratetol 20 --me umh --subme 8 --chroma-qp-offset -2

When x264 became Bluray-compliant, just why did they refuse to tell us just HOW to encode properly for Bluray (or AVCHD)? The only settings I found linked from Shikari's blog entry were "don't use these settings, they're compliant but very bad quality!"-grade settings. Those are the things I just don't understand...

Dark Shikari

3rd November 2010, 14:22

When x264 became Bluray-compliant, just why did they refuse to tell us just HOW to encode properly for Bluray (or AVCHD)?Putting example settings IN THE COMMIT MESSAGE is "refusing"? Seriously? :rolleyes:

Also, the commandlines you're putting together show you have absolutely no idea what you're doing. Read the bloody documentation before you complain about a lack of documentation.

x264 --crf 16 --preset veryslow --tune film --weightp 0 --bframes 3 --nal-hrd vbr --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --b-pyramid strict --slices 4 --aud

See? Look how hard that was. Now let's break this down.

x264 --crf WHATEVERYOUWANT --preset WHATEVERYOUWANT --tune WHATEVERYOUWANT --weightp 0 --bframes 3 --nal-hrd vbr --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --b-pyramid strict --slices 4 --aud

Even further, there's a guide in this very forum (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=154533) covering this very topic. Read the stickies before complaining!

kaid

3rd November 2010, 16:13

Putting example settings IN THE COMMIT MESSAGE is "refusing"? Seriously? :rolleyes:

Well, maybe I did understand you wrong, but "Finally, also note that the encoding settings given as an example are not a good choice for general-purpose encoding: they are intentionally crippled by Blu-ray restrictions" doesn't sound to me like we should be using these settings. From what i read into that, the settings were only meant for compliance testing...

Also, the commandlines you're putting together show you have absolutely no idea what you're doing. Read the bloody documentation before you complain about a lack of documentation.

I checked every bit of documentation that came with x264, fullhelp, longhelp, all the stuff in /doc... You know how many hits on "bluray" there are in there when i grep for it? two (with --b-pyramid and --open-gop). You know how many for "AVCHD"? None! ;-)

That's my only gripe with x264, which is btw a fantastic piece of software and a showcase example of great OSS projects, amazingly managing to join amazing speed with amazing quality for zero price... Thanks for all your work on it, you did one hell of a job! I just wish one of these countless GPU people would finally come through and port ME to OpenCL/CUDA for x264! ;-D

x264 --crf 16 --preset veryslow --tune film --weightp 0 --bframes 3 --nal-hrd vbr --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --b-pyramid strict --slices 4 --aud

See? Look how hard that was. Now let's break this down.

I did use hardkorn's settings from #859:
--tune film --pass 2 --bitrate 5277 --stats ".stats" --slow-firstpass --thread-input --b-adapt 2 --rc-lookahead 24 --merange 64 --me umh --direct auto --subme 10 --partitions all --trellis 2 --no-fast-pskip --aq-mode 4 --profile high --level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 6 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --vbv-bufsize 17000 --vbv-maxrate 17300

The result wouldn't play in the PS3 when I muxed it to AVCHD or Bluray with TSmuxer... So i reduced these settings until i had something that would play!

But thanks for these settings, would be great if you could include these as examples in the x264 documentation! ;-) Or add a tune-preset?
What about the --vbv settings? IIRC TSmuxer does something to the VBV as well, will this cause any problems?

Even further, there's a guide in this very forum (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=154533) covering this very topic. Read the stickies before complaining!

Thanks, that's exactly the thread I was looking for! ;-) I did search a lot on the forums, but i only searched for AVCHD, not Bluray, which is probably why I missed it...

prOnorama

3rd November 2010, 16:33

Even further, there's a guide in this very forum (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=154533) covering this very topic. Read the stickies before complaining!

About that guide: I remember reading somewhere files need to be be outputted as .x264 for Blu-ray compliance and not .mkv, which isn't in the guide (at least not in the first post). Now that might seem logical but for someone who is used to encoding to .mkv this might not be obvious, especially when it's not specifically mentioned in the guide.

kaid

3rd November 2010, 17:17

About that guide: I remember reading somewhere files need to be be outputted as .x264 for Blu-ray compliance and not .mkv, which isn't in the guide (at least not in the first post). Now that might seem logical but for someone who is used to encoding to .mkv this might not be obvious, especially when it's not specifically mentioned in the guide.

.264 you mean? I just tried that, let's see if this new encode also works on the BDP-s370 and the Philips...

And yeah, i second the motion that this should be in both the guide as well as the --fullhelp! ;-)

BTW: It's weird that TSmuxer was able to tell the framerate from the .264 elementary stream - i thought stuff like framerate was not in an elementary stream? At least that's what MKVmerge has been claiming for years! Or is the TSmuxer default just always 24fps?

An interesting factoid that I gathered from the guide is that apparently the max ref-frames for 720p is 6 and *not* 9 like the Wikipedia page on H.264 levels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264#Levels) says... yet another inconsistency between the official H.264 spec and Bluray, just when you thought Level 4.1 was all that it took...

I've done 720p encodes with 9 ref-frames before and they always worked...

P.S: Shikari, I just had an idea: Why not make "Speed, Quality, Price - choose any three!" the official x264 slogan? ;-D

nurbs

3rd November 2010, 18:13

Well, maybe I did understand you wrong, but "Finally, also note that the encoding settings given as an example are not a good choice for general-purpose encoding: they are intentionally crippled by Blu-ray restrictions" doesn't sound to me like we should be using these settings. From what i read into that, the settings were only meant for compliance testing...
You read it wrong. What it says is:
These are the settings you need for Blu-ray. Blu-ray restrictions make encoding less efficient, so don't use Blu-ray settings if you aren't encoding for Blu-ray.

AVCHD has by and large the same restrictions as Blu-ray. The difference is more restricted VBV.

By the way since this is the MeGUI presets thread, MeGUI already contains working AVCHD and Blu-Ray presets so you could just use those or read the mandatory settings out of them.

prOnorama

4th November 2010, 00:18

.264 you mean? I just tried that, let's see if this new encode also works on the BDP-s370 and the Philips...

Yes that's what I meant, slip of the tongue (it's not strange as the term "x264" is used a zillion times on this board while .264 rarely)

By the way since this is the MeGUI presets thread, MeGUI already contains working AVCHD and Blu-Ray presets so you could just use those or read the mandatory settings out of them.

So MeGUI outputs valid .264 files for further processing (muxing) by default using the Blu-ray profile? I'm asking because the "File Format" drop box still let's you choose from "MP4", "MKV" and "RAWAVC" (is this the same as .264 ???) when selecting the BluRay profile. So I'm a bit confused.

(Haven't tried it yet but getting a Blu-ray burner for Christmas so I'm doing some homework on how encode for BD-25 iin the future)

kaid

4th November 2010, 00:22

Nurbs: yeah, now that I re-read the comment, i do get what he meant. I was thinking "general purpose" referred only to encoding for bluray, not to h.264 encoding in general...

No MeGUI for me, sorry, I only work on *nix! ;-)

Capsbackup

4th November 2010, 01:44

So MeGUI outputs valid .264 files for further processing (muxing) by default using the Blu-ray profile? I'm asking because the "File Format" drop box still let's you choose from "MP4", "MKV" and "RAWAVC" (is this the same as .264 ???) when selecting the BluRay profile. So I'm a bit confused.

If I understand it correctly, MP4, MKV, M2TS,TS, etc... is the container. The codec is .264. The file format selection is for you to choose your desired finished encode which could/should include the audio as well. So if you want a Blu-ray or AVCHD, the container needs to be .M2TS. Apple Ipod would be MP4, etc... But the RAWAVC is .264 for all of these containers. :cool:

prOnorama

4th November 2010, 03:58

If I understand it correctly, MP4, MKV, M2TS,TS, etc... is the container. The codec is .264. The file format selection is for you to choose your desired finished encode which could/should include the audio as well. So if you want a Blu-ray or AVCHD, the container needs to be .M2TS. Apple Ipod would be MP4, etc... But the RAWAVC is .264 for all of these containers. :cool:

I was talking about intermediate encoding stages not Schmapple Ipodz downsized crap, go away. I know what the final output format should be, I'm not retarded.

No .264 is not a codec, x264 is. And my question was about the specific Blu-ray compatibility for encoding streams to .264 for Blu-ray output.

Sharktooth

4th November 2010, 04:03

to be blu-ray compatible, the encoding format in the video part should be raw stream (.264) since both .mp4 and .mkv will screw up access unit delimiters.
so if you want to encode for blu-ray, just select .264 as x264 output and then process the raw stream muxing both audio and video into a .m2ts file.

kaid

16th November 2010, 15:17

Okay, just some quick feedback: I tested an AVCHD/BD encoded with Shikari's suggested settings (-r 4 --crf 22 --preset slow --tune film --weightp 0 --nal-hrd vbr --vbv-maxrate 15000 --vbv-bufsize 15000 --aud --keyint 24 --bframes 3 --slices 4 --level 4.1 --b-pyramid strict) on a multitude of BD-Players.
It worked like a charm on all the ones I could test in the 30 minutes that I had: Panasonic DMP-BD45/65, Sony BDP-S370/S570/PS 3, Pioneer BDP-120, Samsung BDC-6900, LG BX 580, Philips BDP-3000 and Sharp BD-HP90S.

sneaker_ger

17th November 2010, 18:10

Are you using tsMuxerR?
Are you're outputting to H.264 ES (not mkv or mp4) as suggested by Sharktooth? You might also want to uncheck "Add picture timing info" and "Continually insert SPS/PPS". (IIRC)

Sharktooth

9th December 2010, 14:44

are you running megui with admin privileges? if not, it can't delete the presets unless it's installed in an user owned directory.
an alternate way to do that is to delete all the files in the megui\allprofiles\x264 and reinstall the presets from options->update (right click on the Tx264 entry and select "force (re)install").
the avchd presets and the BD5/9 presets are very slightly different. check the commandline options.

rapscallion

9th December 2010, 14:57

Thanks ST, actually I had deleted the post before you posted your answer because this morning I was able to delete the X264 profiles that I wanted to, permanently this time.

I did see that there were small differences between AVCHD and BD-5/9, namely the vbv-maxrate/bufsize.

So, if BD5/9 are also avchd, under what circumstances would you use the plain AVCHD profile ?
(it apears to me that AVCHD is redundant to BD-5) :confused:

Sharktooth

9th December 2010, 16:24

AVCHD is a different standard from Bluray. you can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD
keep in mind the max data rate on those specs includes the audio stream.

rapscallion

9th December 2010, 17:00

I realize that they are different. However, in the case of these profiles, a bd-5 is a single layer dvd (4.3gb) and a bd-9 is a dual layer 8.4gb dvd.
So they are both standard dvd's not capable of the Blu-ray spec. So aren't they both AVCHD profiles?

All 3 profiles vbv-maxrate out @ 15000 or less :

BD-5/9

--level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 4 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2
--vbv-maxrate 15000 - --vbv-bufsize 15000 --weightp 0 --colorprim "bt709" --transfer
"bt709" --colormatrix "bt709"</CustomEncoderOptions>

AVCHD

--level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 4 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 -
]-vbv-maxrate 14000 ---vbv-bufsize 14500[/COLOR] --weightp 0 --colorprim "bt709" --transfer
"bt709" --colormatrix "bt709"</CustomEncoderOptions>

I don't mean to nit pick re this, but it just seems to me that the AVCHD profile is redundant to the BD-5.

Sharktooth

13th December 2010, 01:03

AVCHD is a different standard. I mean, the format is different. It's a sort of sub-set of blu-ray formats.
--pass 2 --bitrate 4000 --stats ".stats" --open-gop bluray --level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 4 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --vbv-maxrate 14000 --vbv-bufsize 14500 --weightp 0 --colorprim "bt709" --transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --output "output" "input"
--pass 2 --bitrate 4000 --stats ".stats" --open-gop bluray --pic-struct --level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 4 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --vbv-maxrate 15000 --vbv-bufsize 15000 --weightp 0 --colorprim "bt709" --transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --output "output" "input"
even if similar i dont have the "hardware" to test if the BD5 preset is completely compatible with AVCHD coz of the "--pic-struct" option.

rapscallion

13th December 2010, 02:27

I do have the hardware so I'll test it out and let you know..

From what I've read, in a search of the forum, your posts re this seem to indicate that the option is for "interlaced" sources, but can be used for progressive with no harm : http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1415797&highlight=--pic-struct#post1415797

Also, the first post of that thread makes the same statement :

"Quote:--pic-struct
Need only when fake interlaced is used, and it's default on with interlaced and pulldown. It's fine with progressive aslo, and some BD verification tools request to be present in stream."

Logically, I would deduce that BD-5/9 (standard dvd's) are avchd because they can't be Blu-ray compatible.

It would seem that the "--pic-struct" option isn't really necessary for BD-5/9.

Also, thank you so much for taking the time to make these presets !! I'd be totally lost without them.

Edit: BTW, what does that option do/affect?

Capsbackup

13th December 2010, 15:09

After updating the presets, I notice the x264 configuration dialog has tunings set to default for these new presets. Since my iPod converts are DVD / Blu-ray movies, is it safe to change the tunings to film?
If left at default is there a difference visually for these type of conversions?

rapscallion

13th December 2010, 21:23

AVCHD is a different standard. I mean, the format is different. It's a sort of sub-set of blu-ray formats.....snipped
even if similar i dont have the "hardware" to test if the BD5 preset is completely compatible with AVCHD coz of the "--pic-struct" option.
Apparently it's completely compatible.

I encoded a 15 min clip, from The Thin Red Line, using profile x264:BD5 1080p-720p.

Used 9000kbps bit rate, automated 2 pass. Muxed with the audio (Tsmuxer) to AVCHD format and then burned to a DVD+RW.

When loaded into my Pioneer BDP-51, the player displayed "DVD+RW AVCHD" on the tv screen and "AVCHD" on the player's display. Just as it has always done on my AVCHD encodes.

Playback was flawless.

Of course, YMMV in other brands of players. My Samsung BDP1200, for example, will not play any AVCHD discs whatsoever, since the 2nd firmware update. (their intention)

Sharktooth

14th December 2010, 01:31

@rapscallion: then it's safe to assume avchd preset is redundant.

@Capsbackup: you should look in the h.264/avc forum. almost all x264 tuning/presets are expained somwhere there or have a look here: http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings

rapscallion

14th December 2010, 01:52

@rapscallion: then it's safe to assume avchd preset is redundant.

I would say so.

lintran

24th January 2011, 06:28

Hello,
Does DXVA-HD-HQ and Unrestricted 2pass HQ (setting with same bitrate and source is HD) will give same video quality? The defference is just only DXVA-HD-HQ will give DXVA hardware playback compatibility?
Thanks all.

LigH

24th January 2011, 12:20

TwoToad

28th January 2011, 18:47

Which profile should I use for AppleTV 2nd Gen? It isn't included in the new batch of presets (been hanging on to the old one). There's iPod (5G, 5.5G), iPhone 3GS - iPod Classic/Nano/Touch, and iPhone. Or would AppleTV2 be able to use one of the other presets, like PS3?

Shevek

28th January 2011, 19:23

For DXVA compatibility, x264 needs to be restricted in several options regarding referential complexity. Therefore, if the targeted bitrate is tight, a DXVA compatible preset may conserve less quality than an unrestricted preset. But test for yourself if you would notice that at all.

Just how much does DXVA restrict quality?

I run an HTPC which has an ATI Radeon 3200 chipset.

As I understood it, DXVA is the way to go to ensure that the GPU is handling the decoding.

Is that correct?

Am I limiting the quality of my encodes needlessly?

Is there another preset which I can use which will ensure GPU decoding?

For playback of the files I mostly use Windows 7 Media Center but also have PowerDVD 10, Media Player Home Cinema or VLC.

TIA

Shevek

5th February 2011, 15:12

Apologies for the repost, just wanted to make sure this didn't get missed because of the recent server down-time.

For DXVA compatibility, x264 needs to be restricted in several options regarding referential complexity. Therefore, if the targeted bitrate is tight, a DXVA compatible preset may conserve less quality than an unrestricted preset. But test for yourself if you would notice that at all.

Just how much does DXVA restrict quality?

I run an HTPC which has an ATI Radeon 3200 chipset.

As I understood it, DXVA is the way to go to ensure that the GPU is handling the decoding.

Is that correct?

Am I limiting the quality of my encodes needlessly?

Is there another preset which I can use which will ensure GPU decoding?

For playback of the files I mostly use Windows 7 Media Center but also have PowerDVD 10, Media Player Home Cinema or VLC.

TIA

lintran

22nd February 2011, 03:30

Hi!
For normal film (exam Taken, 2012..) i usually use Unrestricted 2pass HQ Preset. And for Anime (exam Astro Boy, A Christmas Carol..) i used Unrestricted 2pass Anime_Toons HQ Preset.
But I just want to know, with films that have both person and Anime ( exam Alvin and the Chipmunks..), which preset should i choise?
Thanks all.

LigH

22nd February 2011, 09:39

"Anime" means "line drawings" (like Chihiro), not "computer generated" (like Toy Story).

lintran

22nd February 2011, 12:38

"Anime" means "line drawings" (like Chihiro), not "computer generated" (like Toy Story).
Oh, i see. You mean Anime_Toons Presets
should only use for film that "line drawings" like Chihiro, Lion King..?
P/S: How do i know exactly a film that "line drawings" or "computer generate"?
Does "line drawings" mean it draw by hand (like almost old cartoon film)?
And almost new cartoon film are "computer generated"? (like toy story, rango, despicable me, tangled, megamind...)

lintran

22nd February 2011, 14:18

Other question: If i use 2 computers with difference hardware system, and use Megui to encode 1 movie with same Preset, same bitrate on both 2 computers (exam Unrestricted 2pass HQ at 3000kbps). So does these give same result (quality,filesize..) ? ( i dont talk about encode processing time, ofcource it will difference)
Thank you

nurbs

22nd February 2011, 14:35

Depending on the settings you use you won't necessarily get the same encode, but they'll be very similar at least. Some settings, like VBV, make x264 non-deterministic, so even if you do the same encode on the same computer the result isn't always the same.

lintran

7th March 2011, 09:14

Shevek

7th March 2011, 19:34

When using one of these preset in this topic (exam Unrestricted 2pass HQ Preset). Do I have to configure GOP Size in x264 advanced setting? If yes, could you plese tell me GOP Size setting for 23.976 and 24.000 fps.
Thank you.

I asked exactly the same question last April:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1388069#post1388069

I didn't get an answer!:(

Shevek

7th March 2011, 20:00

How much does DXVA restrict quality?

I run an HTPC which has an ATI Radeon 3200 chipset.

As I understood it, DXVA is the way to go to ensure that the GPU is handling the decoding.

Is that correct?

Am I limiting the quality of my encodes needlessly?

Is there another preset which I can use which will ensure GPU decoding?

For playback of the files I mostly use Windows 7 Media Center but also have PowerDVD 10, Media Player Home Cinema or VLC.

TIA

LigH

8th March 2011, 10:49

@ lintran / Shevek:

Limiting the GOPs to ~10 seconds max / ~1 second min is a suggestion for convenience, a compromise between compression efficiency (the longer GOPs, the more efficient the encoding can be, because I-frames have the biggest sizes) and reliability and seekability (the longer GOPs, the longer decoding errors are visible as they are only reset on I-frames, and the less smooth seeking may be as you can start decoding only on I- or even IDR-frames).

If your playback device does not demand a further limitation of GOP sizes (like the Blu-ray specs), then you can set up almost any GOP size range (there may be an MPEG4-AVC specific "hard limit", though, which I don't know). If you are generous regarding bitrate, you may reduce the GOP lengths for more reliable playback. According to the internal help text, the maximum GOP size is defaulted to 250, not to "10 seconds, depending on the framerate"; but as already mentioned, it is a compromise, a suggestion only. Feel free to decide on your own, as long as the playback device does not limit you further.
__

DXVA compatibility indeed restricts the complexity of the video stream. Furthermore, it usually requires the video dimensions to match a few specific presets exactly. So i.e. "thou shalt not crop", keep it at 1920x1080 or 1280x720 or 720x576|480 exactly, possibly including some black letterbox bars.

All that limits the quality only if you also need to restrict the bitrate. If you use a quality based encoding mode (CRF), then the output size may get bigger with DXVA restrictions than without, but the quality can stay more or less the same. In other words: It limits the efficiency, the quality per size.

Shevek

8th March 2011, 10:56

Many thanks for both responses LigH.

TwoToad

29th March 2011, 02:38

I found the answer to my question from a few months past. It appears that all Apple devices are gravitating towards the same specs. The iPhone4, 4th gen iPod Touch, iPad2, and AppleTV2 appear to have the same specs from Apple's website. So to answer my question about which profile to use for an AppleTV2, I would use the "iPhone" preset.

There does appear to be an error in this profile. In the configuration window, under the Misc tab, the Custom Command Line specifies "--level 3" when in fact these devices support Level 3.1, per Apple's website. Can this be fixed, or do I need to go to sourceforge and make a ticket?

Also, why are the --vpv-buffsize, --vbv-maxrate, --profile, and --level specified in the custom command line, when they are supported by the various options of the configuration window? Should/could these be moved out? I may be missing something here like preventing knob twisting idiots, like me :), from messing the profile up too much?

hopstiii

8th April 2011, 15:29

Hi

What settings are best for supreme smooth playback (on c2d e4500) for higher bitrate encodings like 5MB/sec (720p, 1080p).

I usually encode 3000 kbit/s but now i need higher for one short RAW clip.

smok3

8th April 2011, 17:22

Furthermore, it usually requires the video dimensions to match a few specific presets exactly. So i.e. "thou shalt not crop", keep it at 1920x1080 or 1280x720 or 720x576|480 exactly, possibly including some black letterbox bars.

Any links/references to confirm that statement? (From my experience with the brother of DVXA, that is VDPAU anything goes)

meshaun

7th May 2011, 17:39

I use Megui but I get some audio encoding error all the time.
so I switched to Handbrake, any idea of how to use the above presets in Handbrake? I tried to import, but says unsupported format.
or even to see the Option Strings so that I can manually input those?

Zathor

8th May 2011, 01:35

Sorry, I cannot help you with handbrake. You can see the MeGUI command line at the bottom of the profile window

I use Megui but I get some audio encoding error all the time. Please post the log file or more information about this problem.

meshaun

8th May 2011, 05:54

I would like to use Handbrake, instead of Megui as it's easy and all.
Is it possible to find the options used in a profile so that I can manually input into the Handbrakes option strings box?

lintran

1st July 2011, 14:43

I have 8 Core CPU, when using Megui to encode, the total CPU used is only 20-30%, is there anyway to use 100% of 8 core? I heard about avisynth and x264 bit but seem these are unstable :(
Thanks so much.

ramsmart

3rd July 2011, 14:28

now a days i see many movies in 400mb that to high quality 720p brrips

i want to know what settings they use and which persists they use to achieve 720p brrip in just 400mb

ramsmart

6th July 2011, 19:53

where HQ slow i updated many times but i did not get this HQ slow plez somebody tell me how to download HQSLOW

LigH

7th July 2011, 08:04

You don't need that anymore. Use x264 speed preset "slow" and chose a quality factor small enough to provide high quality for your taste (~20 or less, probably). Save it as your new "HQ slow" if you really need any profile.

ramsmart

8th July 2011, 07:44

may be there is any update version of HQ slow

NoX1911

11th July 2011, 04:47

If i choose the 'x264: standalone: ps3/xbox360' profile and move the preset slider (medium->slow) or set a tuning option several switches vanish from the config line. Should i better leave it untouched or is it not important?

LigH

11th July 2011, 08:50

Different speed presets include different options as defaults. Read about it in "x264 --fullhelp".

Additional options which become default after switching the speed preset are optimized out of the command line by MeGUI.

NoX1911

11th July 2011, 15:07

Thx. I have dropped the presets and will try built-in target strategy settings instead.

vale25

26th August 2011, 16:46

As newbie in x264 conversions I would kindly ask you to help me finding the best profile suited to my avi files. I tested the recommended "Unrestricted 2pass HQ" with V85.

In attachment is the comparison between the raw avi file (created by merging several .mov files of the camera, no compression, only join) and the result obtained with the aforementioned "Unrestricted 2pass HQ"

I "guess" that it is somehow ever-engineered, at least watching that I start with a Baseline@L5.0 and end-up with a High@L5.0. Another doubt is related to the selected bitrate, from 33.8 down to 12 Mbps (but this was my selection, and may be wrong!)

To hope in receiving a good answer I must define my priorities, which were:

- To not degrade the quality of the image when seen on a normal full HD home TV (32-40 inches)

- To decrease if possible the size (from a 16 GB/h perhaps to less than 8 GB/s, recordable on a dual DVD).

Note that I will remove the raw files and keep only these mkv results for future usage (such as making a movie with some editor)

I thank you in advance for the time spending with me

Shevek

23rd September 2011, 21:50

I just had to do a re-format of my PC and have now reinstalled MeGUI.

The updater is not listing any x264 profiles any more, am I missing something?

TIA

hello_hello

24th September 2011, 22:07

Shevek, I'm pretty sure the target device option is intended to replace the old profiles, which is why they're not included any more. You'll find it under the x264 encoder configuration dialogue. Once you've selected a target device, along with any other encoder options, you can save the settings as a new preset.

Shevek

25th September 2011, 01:12

Ookamichi

2nd October 2011, 09:46

I appreciate the hard work! and fuck you ntfs for deleting your files lol honestly :) Okay now on to my question. i been using your old presets for a few years now there great! i mostly encode for my PSP so i was wondering if the new PSP profile is any better then the old one?

Graal_CPM

8th October 2011, 08:49

Right after MeGUI last automated update, I have notices that MP3 encoding was broken. Whatever the preset, a 32Kbps encoding was produced.

Checking xml profile files, I see that the line <AbrBitrate>0</AbrBitrate> stands at the end of each MP3 profile.

Replacing 0 by the desired bitrate (112, 128, etc) has solved the issue. I am still a bit puzzled by this and have planned to backup my presets before accepting the next update.

:) BTW, I have been playing around with encoding for quite some times now and MeGUI is by far the best software I have ever used. Open, multi-format, loaded with functionnalities, flexible in so many ways, and, and... with full automation!! Thank you to all contributors for this amazing work.

Zathor

8th October 2011, 11:57

i mostly encode for my PSP so i was wondering if the new PSP profile is any better then the old one?

There should be no changes in the final output when using the PSP device setting - they have just been moved from external profiles to internal ones. But as for every change problems may occur and as I do not have a PSP I cannot test if the files can still be played on a PSP.

Right after MeGUI last automated update, I have notices that MP3 encoding was broken. Whatever the preset, a 32Kbps encoding was produced. Checking xml profile files, I see that the line <AbrBitrate>0</AbrBitrate> stands at the end of each MP3 profile.
I will check that. Thanks for the hint. I do not use the MP3 output myself.

Betsy25

8th October 2011, 19:43

Is there *anyone* in this world who knows what would be the best quality settings possible for PS3 ?

Nowhere on the official playstation pages could I find anything related to which x264 settings the PS3 supports....

So, to sum it up, is the current PS3 profile in MeGUI the best setting (quality wise) to use for it, or are some settings included which increase encoding speed at the cost of final quality ?

sake42

10th October 2011, 09:53

I want to ask which is better
x264 DXVA HD extra quality ?
or
x264 DXVA HD HQ ?
thank you

LigH

10th October 2011, 10:15

@ sake42:

Your question makes no sense. "Better" is "the result which appears to have less annoying loss". That's completely subjective. Try both, check both - and decide for yourself.

tebasuna51

10th October 2011, 11:05

Now don't exist official external 'Encoder settings', was replaced by internal settings selected with 'Target Playback Device' in Configuration Dialog.

The custom external 'Encoder settings' are allowed, but we can't know the parameters in your custom settings 'x264 DXVA HD extra quality' and 'x264 DXVA HD HQ'.
I have a set of external 'Encoder settings' but none with these names.

To know the differences you can copy the parameters in bottom window of Configuration Dialog when you select these 'Encoder settings'.
For instance, I have 2 DXVA external settings:

x264: DXVA-Standard Def.
program --level 3.1 --crf 20 --vbv-bufsize 14000 --vbv-maxrate 17500

x264: DXVA-High Def.
program --level 4.1 --crf 20 --vbv-bufsize 50000 --vbv-maxrate 50000

But, if I select DXVA in 'Target Playback Device', I have only:
program --level 4.1 --crf 20

Then, please, put the parameters of your external 'Encoder settings' to see the differences.

LigH

10th October 2011, 13:22

In addition to ^: The speed "preset" and the content "tuning" (and some day also the playback "device"...) options alter the default settings inside the x264 encoder. MeGUI optimizes the command line to omit options which are equal to current defaults.

Additional options in your "outdated" encoder profiles would change the behaviour in relation to previous default values based on preset and tuning; an option which may increase the efficiency in relation to one preset+tuning, may decrease the efficiency in relation to another preset+tuning, make or break compatibility to target playback devices. No chance to rate them generally, regardless of presets or tunings.

ramsmart

8th November 2011, 13:07

now a days i see many movies in 400mb that to Bluray quality 720p brrips

i want to know what settings they use and which persists they use to achieve 720p brrip in just 400mb

LigH

8th November 2011, 13:55

Oh, really? Show me links to such 400 MB 720p movies. Or at least full MediaInfo reports. Let's discuss their quality together.

Zathor

8th November 2011, 14:14

now a days i see many movies in 400mb that to Bluray quality 720p brrips

i want to know what settings they use and which persists they use to achieve 720p brrip in just 400mb

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=161037
Please continue the discussion there.

Groucho2004

8th November 2011, 14:24

i want to know what settings they use and which persists they use to achieve 720p brrip in just 400mb

You're posting in the wrong place. I'm sure there are places where these scene "gurus" hang out and discuss this stuff.

vrpatilisl

28th November 2011, 10:43

hi
what is exact difference between unrestricted HQ AND EXTRA quality.
Thanxs

LigH

28th November 2011, 11:56

"Unrestricted" means that there are no compatibility restrictions considered, so the result may play only on PCs with sufficiently complete decoder software, but playback on consumer players is not certain.

The difference between a "High" and "Extra" quality template is mostly placebo: More efforts to find redundancies and similarities in the video, taking more time to calculate, but hardly giving noticably better quality at the same filesize, and making hardware player compatibility even less certain.

If you want to know the exact differences, load both XML files of these templates in a tool which highlights source code differences (e.g. windiff, Beyond Compare, etc.).

But I doubt it is worth the efforts. Templates in general are a concept ready for deprecation for the x264 encoder — because the trinity of speed "preset", content "tuning", and playback "device" options is sufficient in most cases. Less experienced users may not know all the advanced parameters good enough to take responsibility for their own changes; more experienced users may have contributed to the device option instead.

ACrowley

19th December 2011, 13:54

Ive a question abou the x264 BluRay 1080p 24p Profile

Why is weight=0 ? Is it incompatible with x264 and BluRay encoding?
I mean Mainconcept Reference 2.2 can use for the Bluray Profiles and my Standalone Players plays those encodes without any Problem ?

I bet its to avoid Problems with some SA Players right ?

Thank you

rapscallion

19th December 2011, 15:24

Where are you seeing that it's zero. This from that profile :

<CustomEncoderOptions>--level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 4 --slices 4 --aud
--nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --vbv-bufsize 30000
--vbv-maxrate 40000 --weightp 1 --colorprim "bt709"
--transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709"</CustomEncoderOptions>

vrpatilisl

22nd December 2011, 07:38

hi
I encoded small video clip with 1pass hq and extra quality preset but i get more bitrate in Hq than extra quality. Is it okay. I thought extra quality>HQ.

LigH

22nd December 2011, 08:40

How can you believe that bitrate would be trivially equal to quality? An assembly worker who finishes simply more products than another is not better if half of them are culls.

Profiles may be designed to take more or less efforts (and encoding time) for finding and removing "redundancies". But the bitrate depends on both the efficiency (ratio between necessary information and unnecessary redundancy) and the quality loss (amount of necessary information missing to recreate the original data). A more efficient encoding profile can reduce the "waste" by redundancies (with the cost of a longer encoding time) and keep enough relevant data. A less efficient profile has redundancies and needs to reduce the overall bitrate - so it loses relevant data too.

Groucho2004

11th February 2012, 10:54

tell me the best profile or settings in megui for anime SD 360p

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
I suppose this also applies to some extent to megui profiles and settings.

Also, have a look at forum rule #12.

tonyymmao

1st March 2012, 08:32

so will there any more updates or will this be the newest version

Galgofa

14th March 2012, 16:48

Any advice or ready preset for Camcorder DV encoding, pls share your experience as i have no much knowledge about encoding and always in doubts about quality limit :)

LigH

15th March 2012, 07:24

Do you want to encode from DV or to DV?

I doubt that creating DV video would be preferable using MeGUI. Any VfW AVI editor (like VirtualDub) and an installed DV VfW codec would be sufficient. But DV has its limits, and the codec shall know them. Regarding audio multiplexing, either DV Type 1 or 2 may be required.

But if you want to convert from DV to e.g. MP4 with AVC, then I see no reason to be concerned about any details, except that NTSC DV uses 4:1:1 chroma subsampling, that might use some filtering before encoding.

Galgofa

15th March 2012, 09:23

I would like to create compressed film from DV file which is much larger for storage on hd, thus wandering if there additional filters or tricks maybe to make home video looks betters (like for anime presets) ?

HMJ

28th March 2012, 22:37

Could you please do a preset for the new Retina Display iPad?

LigH

30th March 2012, 07:12

That won't have any relation to the used display. Only to the limits of the decoder (processor and software) used.

HMJ

3rd April 2012, 15:24

That won't have any relation to the used display. Only to the limits of the decoder (processor and software) used.

Actually it has everything to do with the "used display". Because the display has 4x the number of pixels as that of the iPad 2, and the GPU is only 2x faster, there is a performance hit even on supported formats, and especially on non-standard formats like mkv, in even the best current players that support other formats. There are many complaints about this at various forums. In any case, we do not have any presets for even the iPad 1, so there is a definite need for an iPad preset in general, and an iPad 3 preset specifically, because of the performance issues. Will Sharktooth please respond.

LigH

3rd April 2012, 15:39

Well, of course ... it will depend on the relation between CPU speed and display resolution.

But not depend too much on the display technology ... that's what I meant.

So I would guess that a set of options with limited complexity will support a "fast decode" behaviour (check the similarly named tuning). But it will limit the quality per bitrate as well.

Eventually, only practice will show. But that would require owning a "New iPad" — which has, in contrast to the monetary, no big productive value for me; I have no use for tablets...

HMJ

3rd April 2012, 17:07

Well, of course ... it will depend on the relation between CPU speed and display resolution.

But not depend too much on the display technology ... that's what I meant.

Hmmmm. Well I don't see any way to separate the display technology from the resolution really. The resolution is a function of the technology.

So I would guess that a set of options with limited complexity will support a "fast decode" behaviour (check the similarly named tuning). But it will limit the quality per bitrate as well.

Maybe but I am looking for a detailed preset like the other ones.

Eventually, only practice will show. But that would require owning a "New iPad" — which has, in contrast to the monetary, no big productive value for me; I have no use for tablets...

That's what I said until the new iPad came out. That changed everything. The new display is so fantastic that I find it difficult to go back to anything less, including this 24" monitor. It really raises the bar on all display technology. Go and try one. I think you might just change your opinion. ;)

BTW, are you Sharktooth?

LigH

4th April 2012, 07:11

BTW, are you Sharktooth?

Who are you to deny my human right of expressing my opinion? :rolleyes: — Have a cookie. :cool:
__

May it have a pixel density beyond 300 dpi, but after all, the Retina Display is a TFT LCD display like many others, not a miracle.

If you know whether it uses TN, IPS, AFFS, VA, or whichever specific matrix technology, may have an impact on the response times of the display cells, so to some degree it may have a slight impact on the display performance. But I doubt it will be remarkable, because:

The video is decoded to the RAM, not to the display. Displaying the video RAM should hardly delay writing it with the next frame content. If the video RAM is updated while the displaying is in progress, an effect called "tearing" happens.

Twitch29

7th April 2012, 02:02

hello_hello

7th April 2012, 05:03

Actually it has everything to do with the "used display". Because the display has 4x the number of pixels as that of the iPad 2, and the GPU is only 2x faster, there is a performance hit even on supported formats, and especially on non-standard formats like mkv, in even the best current players that support other formats. There are many complaints about this at various forums. In any case, we do not have any presets for even the iPad 1, so there is a definite need for an iPad preset in general, and an iPad 3 preset specifically, because of the performance issues.

Isn't the old system of presets long dead and gone? They're no longer installed when you install MeGUI and according to the file dates the presets linked to in the first post of this thread are 3 years old. If you're using the old presets they're probably outdated and should be deleted, and the first post in this thread probably should be updated to indicate the old preset system is dead.

If you open MeGUI's x264 configuration and select the ipad as the target playback device (maybe reset x264 to defaults first), I'd be thinking that qualifies as a preset for the ipad1. Mind you the only thing it seems to enforce is an AVC Level of 3.1 while everything else is x264 defaults. Now according to the specs for the ipad3, it supports:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
"H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats"

So as long as you're using High Profile Level 4.1 then, according to Apple at least, you should be fine. You're officially restricted to stereo AAC audio which is a little "sad", but I'd hope the video specs are at least accurate because for a new device in the ipad price range to require the use of specific encoder restrictions in order for it to play video would be fairly mental. Stereo audio, assuming the specs are accurate, is embarrassing enough. ;)

Ipad3 MPEG-4 specs:
"MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats"

No HD MPEG-4 support at all? Not even 720 pixel wide standard definition?

Anyway... you mentioned MKV and using third party software players. I'd be willing to offer a theory.....
Because the ipad3 only seems to support hardware decoding in the usual Apple formats (m4v, mp4 and mov), when playing other file types such as mkv with a third party player you may be restricted to CPU, rather than hardware decoding, in which case you may have to experiment to see what the CPU can cope with. I could be wrong, I've never owned an iDevice, but maybe even third party players can only use hardware decoding for officially supported formats, hence the difficulty with MKV video at times? It may depend on the player you're using.
As an example (Android-land), when I play video using my smartphone, the third party player I have installed will use both hardware decoding for audio and video, but if hardware decoding isn't supported for a particular type of video or audio it'll switch to software decoding for either just the audio, or for both. What an ipad player can and can't do I don't know, but maybe if the audio isn't supported by the hardware decoder it's forced to use software decoding for both audio and video.... it may depend on how clever the third party player you're using is..... I've no idea how things work in ipad-land so I'm just theorizing.

The question is, I guess, if you encode video using High Profile level 4.1 and stereo AAC audio and stick it in an Apple approved container as per the specs will it play correctly? If so, then that's all you should need to do. To create an appropriate preset using MeGUI you just need to open the x264 configuration, load the defaults, select DXVA as the target playback device (which will change the AVC level to 4.1), set your desired quality, speed preset and tuning, and save the setup as your own ipad3 preset.

hello_hello

7th April 2012, 05:12

I'm currently using the Unrestricted 1pass Const. Quality HQ preset with CRF 18 and am very happy with the results. Around 15 min encode time and can't spot visual differences unless comparing static frames. I stopped storing movies on optical media years ago so targeting file size makes no sense to me. I would however like guaranteed Xbox360 compatibility. Is this possible with 1 pass, and how would I go about it? The advanced settings are a mystery to me, can I just select 360 profile and change encoding mode to targeting quality? Any chance of a profile specifically for this. I'm sure it would be extremely popular.

And a big thank you for all the hard work you put into this!!!

Well as I deleted all those old presets a long time ago.....

Open the x264 configuration dialog. Reset it back to the default settings. Select the Xbox 360 as your target playback device. Change the CRF value (quality) to 18 (specify a tuning and change the speed preset if you like), save the setup as a new Xbox 360 preset and you're done.

PS The old preset you were using seems to be the equivalent of using Tuning "film", while I'm pretty sure the advanced settings would be basically the same as using Xbox 360 as the target playback device while setting the x264 speed preset to "slower" (it'll also add the required Xbox VBR settings).

Zathor

10th April 2012, 11:25

HMJ

10th April 2012, 16:02

Isn't the old system of presets long dead and gone? They're no longer installed when you
install MeGUI and according to the file dates the presets linked to in the first post of this thread are 3 years old. If
you're using the old presets they're probably outdated and should be deleted, and the first post in this thread probably
should be updated to indicate the old preset system is dead.

If you open MeGUI's x264 configuration and select the ipad as the target playback device (maybe reset x264 to defaults
first), I'd be thinking that qualifies as a preset for the ipad1. Mind you the only thing it seems to enforce is an AVC
Level of 3.1 while everything else is x264 defaults.

Since this is my first time using it, I don't know if the presets were ever installed automatically, but the existence
of a file to download and then manually install implies otherwise. In any case they show up in the dropdown when you do
install them. They may be almost 4 years old but they are fairly detailed compared to the presets in the built-in
configuration device dropdown. e.g., iPod 5.5G device:

program --profile baseline --level 3 --pass 2 --bitrate 1000 --stats ".stats" --ref 1 --weightp 2 --qpmin 16
--qpmax 51 --vbv-bufsize 1500 --vbv-maxrate 1500 --merange 12 --me umh --direct none --subme 5 --trellis 0 --output
"output" "input"

That's the type of preset that I think would be valuable for the new iPad.

Now according to the specs for the ipad3, it supports:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
"H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz,
stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats"

Yeah, I know, but not enough detail. There are certain parameters that still need to be tweaked I imagine.

So as long as you're using High Profile Level 4.1 then, according to Apple at least, you should be fine. You're
officially restricted to stereo AAC audio which is a little "sad", but I'd hope the video specs are at least accurate
because for a new device in the ipad price range to require the use of specific encoder restrictions in order for it to
play video would be fairly mental. Stereo audio, assuming the specs are accurate, is embarrassing enough. ;)

Well any device is going to have restrictions so that's not surprising. I agree that limiting GPU support for such a
small range of containers and codecs is ridiculous, but what about the company is not ridiculous? It is what it is so
the best tack is to optimize encodings for the restrictions. The incredible resolution of the display makes it all
worthwhile. I suggest you go and check it out.

Ipad3 MPEG-4 specs:
"MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160
Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats"

No HD MPEG-4 support at all? Not even 720 pixel wide standard definition?

I really don't care about MPEG-4, just h.264.

Anyway... you mentioned MKV and using third party software players. I'd be willing to offer a theory.....
Because the ipad3 only seems to support hardware decoding in the usual Apple formats (m4v, mp4 and mov), when playing
other file types such as mkv with a third party player you may be restricted to CPU, rather than hardware decoding, in
which case you may have to experiment to see what the CPU can cope with. I could be wrong, I've never owned an iDevice,
but maybe even third party players can only use hardware decoding for officially supported formats, hence the difficulty
with MKV video at times? It may depend on the player you're using.

I think the player uses a combination of CPU and GPU when playing unsupported formats so that is the bottleneck. I was
hoping that sharktooth might have some experience with this problem and offer his expertise at choosing parameter
settings.

The question is, I guess, if you encode video using High Profile level 4.1 and stereo AAC audio and stick it in
an Apple approved container as per the specs will it play correctly? If so, then that's all you should need to do. To
create an appropriate preset using MeGUI you just need to open the x264 configuration, load the defaults, select DXVA as
the target playback device (which will change the AVC level to 4.1), set your desired quality, speed preset and tuning,
and save the setup as your own ipad3 preset.

Absolutely. If I transmux an mkv into an mp4 container, re-encoding the audio to 160kbps AAC, if necessary, it usually
plays much better than the original because then it is completely GPU accelerated. But I want to avoid that if I come
across an already encoded mkv, and I still would like to know the best settings for transcoding say, a BD, to mp4.
That's all.

hello_hello

10th April 2012, 20:27

Since this is my first time using it, I don't know if the presets were ever installed automatically, but the existence
of a file to download and then manually install implies otherwise.

True. Which is why I said if they're no longer maintained or required, the original post probably should be updated to indicate it. Zathor (who maintains MeGUI) seems to agree with me.

In any case they show up in the dropdown when you do
install them. They may be almost 4 years old but they are fairly detailed compared to the presets in the built-in
configuration device dropdown. e.g., iPod 5.5G device:

program --profile baseline --level 3 --pass 2 --bitrate 1000 --stats ".stats" --ref 1 --weightp 2 --qpmin 16
--qpmax 51 --vbv-bufsize 1500 --vbv-maxrate 1500 --merange 12 --me umh --direct none --subme 5 --trellis 0 --output
"output" "input"

That's the type of preset that I think would be valuable for the new iPad.

I don't think it's necessary. The ipad is officially capable of playing anything covered by using High Profile level 4.1. There's no other bitrate restrictions mentioned in the specs.
To be honest, I'd be kind of surprised if any further restrictions are needed as hardware decoders in most devices are pretty good these days. Even the hardware decoder in my Motorola Razr seems capable of playing anything the video card in my PC can decode.

Yeah, I know, but not enough detail. There are certain parameters that still need to be tweaked I imagine.

The only other things which I'd imagine might need to be tweaked would be bitrate or VBR settings, but unlike the ipod, Apple don't list any bitrate limitations in the ipad3 specs.

Well any device is going to have restrictions so that's not surprising. I agree that limiting GPU support for such a
small range of containers and codecs is ridiculous, but what about the company is not ridiculous? It is what it is so
the best tack is to optimize encodings for the restrictions.

Agreed, which seems to involve using High Profile level 4.1 when encoding and MP4.

I really don't care about MPEG-4, just h.264.

Yeah, the CPU should be able to decode it anyway.

Absolutely. If I transmux an mkv into an mp4 container, re-encoding the audio to 160kbps AAC, if necessary, it usually
plays much better than the original because then it is completely GPU accelerated. But I want to avoid that if I come
across an already encoded mkv, and I still would like to know the best settings for transcoding say, a BD, to mp4.
That's all.

That doesn't quite make sense to me. All the presets in the world aren't going to make an already encoded mkv you might come across play smoothly, but you should be able to determine if it's High Profile level 4.1 and remux it into an MP4 container if that's what's required to get it to play correctly, and according to the specs High Profile level 4.1 and MP4/M4V is all that's required when encoding. For MKVs you come across, a third party player which can use hardware decoding for MKVs (which I'd hope is possible) would be the only other solution, but even then, I'd imagine the encoder specs wouldn't be any different.
If video plays correctly using High Profile level 4.1 and MP4, isn't that what you wanted in a preset? If you encode using High Profile level 4.1 and stereo AAC audio and stick it in an MP4 does it play correctly, or just better as you described? If it's the latter and it's still not playing perfectly smoothly, then I guess that's a different story.

300watt

11th April 2012, 04:30

I'm new to MeGUI, but what I would like to do is to convert a bunch of old videos in WMV2 to h264 in order to save space. I don't wanna lose any quality however, so I need a lossless-profile. I see there is one, but why does it only do 1 pass?

Processing time is not an issue for me.

Atak_Snajpera

11th April 2012, 10:23

LigH

11th April 2012, 10:32

I really don't care about MPEG-4, just h.264.

:o H.264 is the kernel of MPEG-4 Part 10 (Advanced Video Coding). :p

You probably only don't care about MPEG-4 Part 2 ([Advanced] Simple Profile, as implemented in e.g. DivX or Xvid).

Well - it's not primarily your fault. Manual authors have no clue about tech and specs, usually.

tebasuna51

11th April 2012, 11:55

Agreed. But only Sharktooth or a moderator can change the text or add at least a warning.
Warning added. Please say me if is correct/enough.

300watt

11th April 2012, 13:58

lossless h.264 will be ALWAYS larger than your original wmv files.

oh ok. I guess I don't need a technically lossless profile, but rather one that will reduce the size, while not losing any quality. Basically, if I take a screenshot of any one frame in the h264 it should be just as good a picture as when taken in the wmv2 original.

I'm assuming this should be possible while getting a smaller file size due to h264 having more advanced compression technology?

LigH

11th April 2012, 14:05

one that will reduce the size, while not losing any quality.

Technically impossible. Each lossy compression will discard a certain amount of information. But you may not notice it – then you may call it "transparent quality".

In general, always the same rules apply:

If the target size matters, use 2-pass encoding.
If it doesn't, use 1-pass quality-based encoding with your personal CRF value.

The bitrate or the CRF value are always the most important constraint. The choice of preset, tuning, or hardware device compatibility, are secondary options. Do not try to substitute bitrate by compression efforts, the result is not guaranteed to satisfy.

300watt

11th April 2012, 14:41

So what you're saying then is that the lossless compression algorithms of wmv2 are as good as the ones in h264 and that h264 is only better at lossy compression?

Atak_Snajpera

11th April 2012, 14:49

Remember going from one lossy format to another lossy format will always decrease quality unless source has very high bitrate like BD.
For example. Compressing strongly compressed JPEG to JPEG-XR also does not make sense.

LigH

11th April 2012, 14:58

In general, lossless compression algorithms differ only slightly. They have a typical compression ratio, compared to an uncompressed video, of less than 1:5 (even if compared to RGB; video compression is usually based on YV12 though, which already uses only half the size due to chroma subsampling, so it's more exactly "quasi-lossless").

I have no idea if WMV3 / VC-1 has a lossless mode at all.

Modern lossy algorithms can have compression ratios close to 1:1000 and still offer transparent quality, depending on the material. One key dependency is the efficiency of B-frame motion prediction. The better the similarity between several sequent frames can be used to reduce redundancies, the more efficient the compression can be without losing too much original quality. But the harder (more time consuming) it is to compress and to play back. Blu-ray video has to limit the compression efficiency due to limited hardware buffer sizes, related to the wish to be able to quickly seek and scan through the video.

300watt

11th April 2012, 16:28

So if the efficiency of lossy compression comes from the majority of the frames only containing info regarding the changes from a previous frame, couldn't you have something that's visually-lossless then if all the pixels you see on the screen are as good as the source, while still discarding unnecessary static picture information?

I guess I should just try the unrestricted presets for my purposes. Anyone that could recommend one to try if I don't wanna lose any quality and having a long processing time is no problem for me?

LigH

12th April 2012, 07:30

Well, as already mentioned: If you spend enough bitrate, you'll get so little differences that you won't notice them. How little they have to be to become "transparent" for you depends on your personal experience. Some are satisfied with an amount of artefacts ("WOAH! Top quality!!1!"), another viewer would get annoyed about ("Eye cancer")... You will possibly have to do your own tests to decide. x264, fortunately, has a very convenient feature to discover your personal annoyance threshold: the CRF value, which describes the acceptable amount of difference between input and output video. The encoder will use as much bitrate as necessary to ensure a degree of similarity.

Create a series of copies with CRF values between about 18 and 24 (fractional numbers are allowed, but integers may be sufficient for the test) of a few different short high-quality videos (preferably not web trailers, they will already contain compression artefacts, so getting good material may be the most complicated part about it; downloading and processing the PNG image sets of the Blender movies is possible, but quite complex and time consuming). Many average viewers will probably be satisfied with the quality of CRF values around 21-22. CRF 15 may already be taken as "archival grade".

But the smaller the CRF is, the more bitrate will be spent, the bigger the file gets. Possibly even bigger than the original, if that was already compressed. And already compressed original videos will probably already contain compression artefacts (usually blocking and edge ringing). And encoding such artefacts even further requires even more bitrate because they are unnatural details.

If you insist in a specific target bitrate and output file size, using 2-pass encoding, x264 will calculate the required CRF value after the 1st-pass analysis, and apply it during the 2nd-pass encoding.

Apart from the bitrate (target average bitrate for 2-pass, or resulting bitrate via CRF in 1-pass), the other encoder options do not primarily increase the amount of kept quality (only indirectly in a 2-pass encoding, via the more efficient compression). The (speed) "Preset" controls the efforts to find similarities to use to increase efficiency. The (content) "Tuning" mainly controls features to make quality loss less obvious. And the "Target Playback Device" option limits the efficiency to maintain compatibility with decoders which have limited features, compared to an all-purpose PC with GHz CPU and GB RAM to run a more or less complete decoder software.

Use the trinity of (speed) "Preset", (content) "Tuning", and "Target Playback Device" compatibility. x264 has a very elaborately tuned and tested set of options which will give you nearly optimal results for most cases. A slower preset than "Slower" is probably not necessary, you won't get much more efficient compression despite wasting a lot more time. Find your personal CRF threshold. Select the hardware compatibility matching your player. And from here, save your personal "Encoder settings / presets" with a few probable tunings. If you insist in a maximum file size, switch to 2-pass encoding. Done.

Change the advanced options only if you know their meaning at least as good as the x264 developers.