Encoding CGi content with EE3

[Max of S2D]

Hello there,

I've been encoding "Machinima" content with Expression Encoder; but I'm beginning to wonder if I could squeeze more quality out of the — generally high — bitrates that I use. Here's a WMV (http://www.machinima.com/film/download&id=39326), and two screenshots of typical content:

http://imgkk.com/i/8wDyMX.png

http://imgkk.com/i/HBM8Iw.png

Two things to be aware of:


Using some fancy techniques, motion blur is almost perfectly reproduced. I guess this avoids the WMV + Animated content problem (look at Dark Shikari's anime comparison and be amazed by EE3's horrible performance due to the 8x8 partitions on I-frames or whatever)
Film grain is added via the NLE (although not too much; 0.050 to 0.1 depending on the feeling I want to get)


Here's the options I've been using so far:


VBR Constrained; peak is 2x the Average Bitrate, never goes above 12,000kbps
Peak Buffer Window and Key Frame Interval at 4
Size goes from 640*480 to 1280*720 (the latter being often upscaled from 960*540, or else my NLE takes up to a day to render, thanks to my intensive use of effects and average CPU)
Square pixels are always forced
Video Complexity: 4
Adaptive Dead Zone: Conservative
Dquant: IBP Frames
In-loop / Overlap filters on
B-frames number: 3
Adaptative GOP: on
Motion Chroma Search: Full True Chroma
Motion Match Method: Adaptive
And for audio (not really the topic here): WMA Pro, VBR Constrained with totally different bitrates depending on content


Questions:


Is "IBP Frames" in Dquant a good choice?
Does the denoise filter remove ALL grain or all destructive, compression-killing noise?
If the former is true, is there a way to spend "spare bitrate" on grain?
I don't know anything about B-frames and GOPs. As I usually don't have epilepsy-tackling flashes in my movies, are the current settings okay?


:thanks:

[benwaggoner]

Here's the options I've been using so far:


VBR Constrained; peak is 2x the Average Bitrate, never goes above 12,000kbps
Peak Buffer Window and Key Frame Interval at 4
Size goes from 640*480 to 1280*720 (the latter being often upscaled from 960*540, or else my NLE takes up to a day to render, thanks to my intensive use of effects and average CPU)
This is for YouTube transcoding workaround? It breaks my heart to ever have to upsample, but it's something.
Square pixels are always forced
Video Complexity: 4
3 is nearly as good quality as 4, and quite a bit faster. I only use 4 when I'm not in a rush.

Adaptive Dead Zone: Conservative
Dquant: IBP Frames
Your bitrates are high, so you're probably okay, but in general you'd never use DQuant on B-frames; IP is what you'd use if you needed to use it. For lower rate filmlike stuff, I normally just use it on I-frames in EEv3, since the DQuant implementation there is tuned for higher bitrates, and tend to starve the textured blocks a little too much at lower rates. Most of the time where you get annoying background blocking, it's relatively static, and so just getting the I-frame right will propogate forward throughout the GOP.

In-loop / Overlap filters on
B-frames number: 3
That's unsually high, particuarly if you've got film grain in there. A 1 is generally the appropriate default for film/video style content.

Adaptative GOP: on
Motion Chroma Search: Full True Chroma
Motion Match Method: Adaptive
And for audio (not really the topic here): WMA Pro, VBR Constrained with totally different bitrates depending on content


Questions:


Is "IBP Frames" in Dquant a good choice?
As said above, I or IP.
Does the denoise filter remove ALL grain or all destructive, compression-killing noise?
It's an edge-preserving denoiser, and can help quite a bit with noisy sources. But it'll hit grain just like anything else; if you need lower grain, you probably should add less grain in the first place :). Since this is CGI, you really shouldn't need this on.
If the former is true, is there a way to spend "spare bitrate" on grain?
More bits :)? Other improvements that improve compression efficiency and thus drive down QP will improve grain retention, and DQuant will help as well.
I don't know anything about B-frames and GOPs. As I usually don't have epilepsy-tackling flashes in my movies, are the current settings okay?


:thanks:
Turn off denoise, try I-frame Dquant and 1 B-frame, and see how that looks.

As always, it's good to try a variety of settings and see what works best with your source.