[Jawed]

This is how I do it:

--preset medium --rd 5

versus

--preset medium

To compare encodes I use a script like:

a=FFVideoSource() # original before encoding
b=FFVideoSource() # encoded

c=subtract(a,b)
c=c.lumalevels(133,149)

interleave(a,b,c)

return last

function LumaLevels(clip source, int "black", int "white", float "sat")
{ 
black=default(black,16)  # PCLevels
white=default(white,235) # PCLevels
sat  =default(sat,1)     

Cont   = 255/float(white-black)
Bright = -int(float((black-16)*Cont+16.5))
Tweak(source,bright=Bright, cont=Cont, coring=false, sat=sat)
}

This helps me to identify where in the frame there are differences. I can then decide whether I care about those differences.

For my own encodes I'm currently using:

--crf 20 --preset medium --output-depth 10 --rd 6

--crf 24 --preset medium --output-depth 10 --bframes 2 --rd 6

--crf 28 --preset medium --output-depth 10 --bframes 2 --rd 6

I think medium with --rd 6 is better than slow and it's the same encode speed or a little faster than slow. Slow uses --rd 4. Medium uses --rd 3. So --rd 6 is a significant difference for the medium preset.

Yes, I know that --rd 6 is currently the same as 5 - when 6 arrives, I'm ready!

I decided to focus on --rd due to:

http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?...postcount=4237