Compressability Check Suks

[Dr. Nick]

I've encoded about 70ish movies now with the DivX 4.01 and 5.02 codecs and only 4 have gone a-stray on me, every time i use the compressability check, the file size is way too small...if i concern myself with just the Bits/Pixle*Frame --.20 for one CD and .25-.27 for two-- then i will hit the mark every time....Thats just me though! From what I hear reading the forums, alot of encoders really benifit form this test!

The problem lies I think that I don't really know what percentage value to choose after the test is done...I have tried the 50-60% with very poor results, and also tried 90-100%with poor results, but when i set B/P*F to .20(roughly) PERFECTION!!!

So wef, whats the story with it and why am I the only one not able to benifit from this?

The Dr.

[theReal]

With 90-100%, your files will get too small with Divx 5 and b-frames, stay below 80%, that's common knowledge.
With 50-60%, the files might not be perfect, why don't you try between 60 and 70%, for example?

The bits/pixel values are an estimation based on a majority of movies. Have you ever encoded some DV homevideo that will just start to look ok at .45 bits/pixel? The compress. test will tell you before you encoded the whole movie...

btw. if you set the bit/pixel value to about 0.2 and the final movie looks good, the compress test value is definitely somewhere between 50 and 80% depending on what you think looks good, and that is a matter of personal taste. My personal preference is 60% and up (and only with resolutions that are not too low)

[Trahald]

exactly.. with your average movie i shoot for .20 maybe at the least .18 .. compression test is really great for stuff filmed on camcorders.. also really bright films tend to need a lot of bitrate.. if in my opinion the movie is average i dont even bother.. when im concerned about brightness and/or heavy motion then i do test