QuEnc 0.59 [BETA]

[dragongodz]

#include "avformat.h"

you need to do a cvs checkout of ffmpeg for such files.

[Koepi]

Ok, I lack ffmpeg sources then.Thank you for the hint!

Cheers,
Koepi

[DarkFoon]

@Nic
I'm using TMPEG, I have never seen CCE, but I have heard about it often in this forum. Anywhere I could get a trial or something?
Keep up the good work! I look forward to the next Quenc version all the time.

[the viking]

DarkFoon,you can get trial of CCE here:http://www.cinemacraft.com/eng/index.html

[EpheMeroN]

@Nic: I simply cannot reproduce the error again. I tried a simpler script using 4:3 AR, and then 16:9 AR. I also tried the same, more complex, full script again using both 4:3 and 16:9 AR options and they all encoded the audio to MP2 and muxed it perfectly.

I'm gonna say for whatever reason, it was simply a fluke the first time the error happened because I cannot reproduce it. But while I'm on the topic of audio within QuEnc, what are you using to encode the audio to MP2? Is it MP2Enc or tooLAME? tooLAME IMHO yields the best MP2 quality.

[Peter Cheat]

Originally posted by Nic
You were right about QuEnc swallowing a frame. I don't understand why, just added the number of frames to encode by 1 and all seems well....Hmmm. I'll keep testing.

I put this down to an FFMPEG issue. What seems to happen is b-frames get chopped off at the end if they can't reference a future i or p frame.

So what should be IBBPBBPBBPBBPB actually encodes as IBBPBBPBBPBBP, chopping off a frame (or two). Well, I think this was the problem. My computer blew up (literally, yes really), so I can't exactly confirm this right now, but I did have a go at fixing it.

[lithoc]

It's been very quiet week for QuEnc. I'm sure Nic is busy coding.

Nic, is there any chance you will setup a CVS server for the public?
So that, anyone will get access to your codes.

[freelock7]

Suprised to see the quality improvement of this new update!
The great softness of the image is astonishing! Fabulous! All frames and background are very clean and picture looks very well

test report from DVD player:

-QuEnc0.59Alpha works better in high motion scenes than 0.56 & 0.57
-quantization scale optimized (beautiful)!
-1Pass VBR produces great quality (>5000kbs) but the prediction average can be wrong (oversized or downsized) (1)
-DVD player freezes sometimes -very quickly-when scene changes. B frame or I frame inserted?(treillis & scene change disabled).
-2Pass is very high quality >3000kbs
-constant quant=7 seems to be DVD compliant(2)
-faster
(1)Fixed. Just limit the max bitrate at 8000 or less (9800 by default produces too many high bitrate peak) to avoid oversized file.
(2) constant quant [1 to 5]: high bitrate exeeds 10.000kbs.
No limit(?)

Great job Nic!

[Nocturno]

hmzz.. i just did another avi --> dvd conversion and set the max bitrate to 7000, to reduce spikes.

this time it didn't spike that much,so mplex multiplexed perfectly.
i authored the dvd with dvdauthor and played it with powerdvd..
no problems there.. but after burning it and putting it in my player, much to my surprise i had no video, just audio.. my Kiss dp500@508 gave me a black screen! that's really strange..

i'll investigate some more if i get a chance.
and try to remember what settings i used this time

it can also be a dvdauthor problem.. i'll try and find out.

[lithoc]

The bitrate spike mostly affect when there's too many I-frames inserted too closely.
I think PeterCheat's NuEnc already workout the solution by preventing too many I-frames in a sequence.

[DarkFoon]

I'm not sure what kind of bug this is, but when I use extreme and slow with certain custom QMs, I get really wierd blocking on objects that are mostly luma (little to no chroma), such as white text on black background.
Examples:


This is an I-frame. This thing only happens one I-Frames.

Some QM's that it does this to:

Maximum

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16

A DCTuned matrix (0.33, 1.0)

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8 16 16 16 16
8 8 8 8 16 16 16 24
8 8 8 8 16 24 24 24
8 8 8 8 16 24 24 32

16 16 16 16 16 16 16 24
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 24
16 16 16 16 16 16 24 24
16 16 16 24 24 24 24 32
16 16 16 24 24 48 56 40
16 16 16 24 48 80 104 104
24 16 24 32 80 96 160 255
32 24 32 40 72 104 136 255

and Bulletproof's High Quality Matrix.

This happens with a few other QMs, but I cant remember them.

My AVS is:

loadplugin("C:\plugins\ReInterpolate411.dll")
loadplugin("C:\plugins\DCTfilter.dll")
loadplugin("C:\plugins\blockbuster.dll")

a = avisource("IJ-001.avi").trim(5228,0).fadein(50).converttoYUY2(interlaced=true).reinterpolate411()
b = avisource("credits(YUY2).avi")
c = avisource("IJ-002.avi").converttoYUY2(interlaced=true).reinterpolate411()
d = avisource("IJ-003.avi").converttoYUY2(interlaced=true).trim(0,32842).fadeout(100).reinterpolate411()
e = avisource("ending(YUY2).avi")
f = Blankclip(length=29, width=720,height=480, pixel_type="YUY2", fps=29.97, audio_rate=0, stereo=true)
g = avisource("utp(YUY2).avi").doubleweave().changefps(29.97)

video = b++a++c++d++e++f++g

audio = wavsource("IJ-audio(Final).wav")

audiodub(video,audio)

blockbuster(method="noise", variance=0.3, seed=1)

coloryuv(levels="PC->TV")

My Quenc settings were:

MPEG-2: yes
bitrate: 6400
Use VBR: on
High Quality: on
Gop size: 18
Max B-frames: 2
Extreme and Slow: on
Scene Detection: on
Interlaced Encoding: on
DC Precision: 10
Max Bitrate: 8000
Audio: No MUX

When I turned off "Extreme and slow" the problem went away. So, I think it's isolated to that.
By the way, what does "Extreme and Slow" turn on?
I hope I have provided enough info for a fix (unless this problem is well known, and I'm just in the dark).

[Bogalvator]

There is a well known bug in avcodec which affects trellis when used with high definition CQM's at low quants (overflows, which cause blocking)

From the QuEnc_settings.txt from version 0.54 package:

"Extreme & Slow" Settings
-------------------------
This is experimental, not recommended, but turns on many settings that can increase quality
but slow down the encoding alot.
The settings it turns on are as follows:

Trellis Quant
HQ
CBP Rate Distortion
MV0 (always try a MB with MV=<0,0>)
Change MB dicisions from SAD to SATD
luma elimination threshold = -4
chroma elimination threshold = -7
ratecontrol qsquish = 1

(These are subject to change )

So it seems that would answer that. From my experience (admittedly limited), "Extreme & Slow settings" is just not worth the effort. Just stick to "Enable HQ", and don't use trellis when using a high-def matrix (e.g. Didee 6 of 9)

Also, don't raise DC precision above 9 (waste of bitrate otherwise. 8 is usually just fine)

[DarkFoon]

so all it really is, is just the well-known trellis bug? Seems kinda silly to have a trellis option, and then have another option that enables trellis also. Maybe Nic should fix that sometime.
I use extreme and slow just because I have the time, and the speed difference isnt too bad. I have a lot of space for the encode I'm currently working on (1 hr movie onto 4GB DVD) so I have been using DC precision 10, but mainly for compatability.

[Nic]

@DarkFoon: Not as silly as you may think CBP Rate Distortion requires Trellis Quant. But, i'll make it so "extreme" doesn't turn Trellis on. But if it is on, it turns CBP RD on too....how's that?

-Nic

[Nic]

http://nic.dnsalias.com
Changes:

• B-Frame strategy should always produce uniform B-Frame placement
• Fixed mono audio encoding
• When GOP=0 means GOP size will be infinitely large
• Now has encode only audio or video options
• Fixed last frame not encoding when using B-Frames
• Added -silent option (loads QuEnc minimized)
• "Extreme" Settings don't automatically turn on Trellis

I haven't made any huge changes. Trying to stabilze everything, before moving on to working on either ratecontrol or SNOW.

Cheers,
-Nic

[lithoc]

Thanks NIC,

Encode few trailers,

First, B-frames works but I think the Scene Change is broken.
It can't detect scene change while B-frames is used(or something like that).

I think QuEnc 0.59 Alpha is better in detecting Scene Change.

Cheers,

[dragongodz]

just did a quick test and scenechange with B frames works fine.

[DarkFoon]

@Nic
Nice compromise!
Does 'HQ' turn on mb_decision=2 (rate distortion)?

I think it would be cool to have maybe an 'expert' button on the advanced menu where the user could pass their own arguments to LAVC; to me, it looks like a list of the variables with a text box next to each one for the value. Probably not needed or maybe even too complicated, but it would allow the user to have the same (or close to) ammount of control available through Nuenc (I don't like Nuenc ). Or is the user already able to pass arguements to LAVC through the command-line interface?

[dragongodz]

@DarkFoon - the idea is to not have every option because the simple fact is that people who dont know what they are doing(even if they belive they do) or what should be changed or why will screw it up. they will then turn around and blame QuEnc for their mistakes.
ok some people like to control every single thing they can but when there is a 90% chance of screwing it up for a potential 1% quality or speed increase why would a programmer want to give those options ?

[DarkFoon]

*bows to dragongodz*
I stand corrected, and what a well put argument too. I understand now; I never really think of the (stupid) people who don't know what they are doing (and possibly think they do). I like to experiment, so I don't mind messing things up in the search for higher quality (and smaller sizes if I am lucky).
[OT]
On another note, how does one take mono audio and convert it to stereo within AviSynth? My script posted higher up on this page is the one that I need to convert mono -> stereo. (Just in case anybody needs to see how I have it set up).
Thanks!

[EDIT]
Maybe the 'expert' button or whatever should be hidden, like the SNOW mode. Just for reference, I haven't figured that one out (not that I have been trying to )