HCenc 025

[Fishman0919]

Originally Posted by zambelli

Also, has anyone done quality comparisons of HCEnc vs x262 encoder?

Yes... HC

x262 is not there yet.

[OtonVM]

I'm trying to encode video with HC but the resulting DVD doesn't work. I wonder if I'm using some incompatible settings but if I am I'm not getting a warning.
In any case, I encode the avs with these settings (HCenc 0.26 btw):

*INFILE           d:\videos\to dvd\hc test\test.avs
*OUTFILE          d:\videos\to dvd\hc test\test.m2v
*LOGFILE          d:\videos\to dvd\hc test\test.log
*BITRATE          5500
*MAXBITRATE       9200
*FRAMES           0 4999
*PROFILE          best
*AUTOGOP          12
*DC_PREC          10
*PROGRESSIVE
*PROG_SEQ
*TFF
*BIAS             10
*AVSMEMORY        500
*PULLDOWN
*INTRAVLC         2
*CUSTOMMATRIX
   8   8   8  10  12  14  16  18
   8  10  12  14  16  18  20  20
   8  12  14  16  18  20  22  22
  10  14  16  18  20  22  24  24
  12  16  18  20  22  24  26  26
  14  18  20  22  24  26  28  28
  16  20  22  24  26  28  30  32
  18  20  22  24  26  28  32  64
 
  16  16  16  18  20  22  24  26
  16  18  20  22  24  26  28  28
  16  20  22  24  26  28  30  30
  18  22  24  26  28  30  32  32
  20  24  26  28  30  32  34  34
  22  26  28  30  32  34  36  36
  24  28  30  32  34  36  48  56
  26  28  30  32  34  36  56 128
*LUMGAIN          1
*PRIORITY         high
*CHROMAFORMAT     422

Then I import the m2v as asset in adobe encore which doesn't complain. But when I mux the file into a DVD structure and I try to play that in various players I get different results: MPC-HC with it's own decoder produces only a grey checkerboard (I guess macroblocks?), using ffdshow works fine, on the mac (see screenshot) the apple dvd player produces only a pink checkerboard (that can't be picked up by the screenshot), mplayer only a grey picture and VLC works fine. They all show subtitles.
And the main problem: my hardware player doesn't work or rather, like these software players it only shows subtitles.


Any ideas?

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by OtonVM

*MAXBITRATE 9200

Max bitrate is usually 8000.

Technical Info for DVD-Video

Total bitrate including video, audio and subs can be max 10.08 Mbit/s (10080 Kbit/s)

So with subs, and audio, I think you've gone over.

[poisondeathray]

Originally Posted by OtonVM

*CHROMAFORMAT 422[/CODE]


Any ideas?

422 for DVD ? Or was that a typo/ copy/paste error ?

[OtonVM]

Originally Posted by poisondeathray

422 for DVD ? Or was that a typo/ copy/paste error ?

Ha! That would be a typo wouldn't it?

No, I have no idea why I set that option, probably while I was testing different settings... Anyway, that was it, obviously...

Thank you!

[colinhunt]

Can anyone help me find (and remove) the bottleneck in my set-up?

I'm using HCenc to create DVD-compliant MPEG-2 streams from ProRes HD .mov files. Using high image quality settings my encoding rig does 16fps in both passes -- but CPU usage never goes above 10%.

Here's an example of a Avisynth script I load into HCenc:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\QTSource.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\ColorMatrix.dll")
QTInput("X:\HDProRes.mov")
Spline36Resize(704,576)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)
ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601",Clamp=false)

I've also tested with ffms2:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\ffms2.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\ColorMatrix.dll")
FFVideoSource("X:\HDProRes.mov", threads=1)
Spline36Resize(704,576)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)
ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601",Clamp=false)

but fps and CPU usage remain the same.

Is there anything I can do to squeeze a faster encoding speed out of the system?

[Groucho2004]

Originally Posted by colinhunt

Can anyone help me find (and remove) the bottleneck in my set-up?

I'm using HCenc to create DVD-compliant MPEG-2 streams from ProRes HD .mov files. Using high image quality settings my encoding rig does 16fps in both passes -- but CPU usage never goes above 10%.

Here's an example of a Avisynth script I load into HCenc:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\QTSource.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\ColorMatrix.dll")
QTInput("X:\HDProRes.mov")
Spline36Resize(704,576)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)
ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601",Clamp=false)

I've also tested with ffms2:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\ffms2.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\ColorMatrix.dll")
FFVideoSource("X:\HDProRes.mov", threads=1)
Spline36Resize(704,576)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)
ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601",Clamp=false)

but fps and CPU usage remain the same.

Is there anything I can do to squeeze a faster encoding speed out of the system?

Things to check:
- How fast is the script itself? (test with AVSMeter)
- Have you enabled multithreading in HC?

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by colinhunt

Can anyone help me find (and remove) the bottleneck in my set-up?

Try using the lossless intermediate file.

It's probably lower res than your source, so the 2nd pass encode to MPEG should be faster. Anyway, it won't be slower.

It needs 10 or 20 GB per hour of video for the temp lossless file, see the settings if you need to specify where it goes.

[colinhunt]

Originally Posted by Groucho2004

Things to check:
- How fast is the script itself? (test with AVSMeter)
- Have you enabled multithreading in HC?

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply!

Gotta love this forum; one gets to learn new things every day

AVSMeter says my scripts are slooooooow. ffms2:

Frames processed: 436 (0 - 435)
FPS (min | max | average): 10.54 | 23.76 | 17.19
CPU usage (average): 5%
Thread count: 18
Physical Memory usage (peak): 201 MB
Virtual Memory usage (peak): 202 MB
Time (elapsed): 00:00:25.358

QTSource:

Frames processed: 362 (0 - 361)
FPS (min | max | average): 9.67 | 27.65 | 17.36
CPU usage (average): 7%
Thread count: 11
Physical Memory usage (peak): 245 MB
Virtual Memory usage (peak): 249 MB
Time (elapsed): 00:00:20.851

Of course, those are only a small sample from the start of the file.

As for HCenc multithreading... I have some reading to do.

[Groucho2004]

Please post the complete script you used for this test:

Originally Posted by colinhunt

ffms2:

Frames processed: 436 (0 - 435)
FPS (min | max | average): 10.54 | 23.76 | 17.19
CPU usage (average): 5%
Thread count: 18
Physical Memory usage (peak): 201 MB
Virtual Memory usage (peak): 202 MB
Time (elapsed): 00:00:25.358

Also, which version of Avisynth are you using?

[colinhunt]

Originally Posted by Groucho2004

Please post the complete script you used for this test:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\ffms2.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\ColorMatrix.dll")
FFVideoSource("X:\HDProRes.mov", threads=1)
Spline36Resize(704,576)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)
ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601",Clamp=false)

Also, which version of Avisynth are you using?

It's 2.58, the non-MT one.

[Groucho2004]

Weird. I don't understand why 18 threads are utilized even though you specified only 1 thread for FFVideoSource.

Anyway, your bottleneck is clearly the decoding. Have you tried with "threads=4" or similar for FFVideoSource?

[colinhunt]

Originally Posted by Groucho2004

Anyway, your bottleneck is clearly the decoding. Have you tried with "threads=4" or similar for FFVideoSource?

I'm kinda sick of FFVideoSource because it bloody well re-indexes the 138GB source file *every* time I try to run an encode -- even with a .ffindex file visibly present in the same directory.

As for HCenc multithreading, I tried adding *SMP into HC.ini and reloading the .ini... but looking at "Current HC.ini" in "Settings 1" tab I don't see it there. Oh, hang on, could this be because I'm running the latest beta version, dated 16-06-2011?

[colinhunt]

I ran AVSMeter again, this time on a FFVideoSource script which had "threads=16":

Frames processed: 373 (0 - 372)
FPS (min | max | average): 20.73 | 23.74 | 21.26
CPU usage (average): 6%
Thread count: 18
Physical Memory usage (peak): 191 MB
Virtual Memory usage (peak): 193 MB
Time (elapsed): 00:00:17.547

And yet it pulls 18 threads out of somewhere on its own. Huh?

But notice how min FPS doubled compared to "threads=1" script, although max FPS remained the same.

[Groucho2004]

Originally Posted by colinhunt

ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601",Clamp=false)

Your version of ColorMatrix is horribly outdated. The change from bool to int for "Clamp" took place 6 or 7 years ago. That might also explain the strange threading behaviour.

[colinhunt]

Originally Posted by Groucho2004

Your version of ColorMatrix is horribly outdated. The change from bool to int for "Clamp" took place 6 or 7 years ago. That might also explain the strange threading behaviour.

Hmm, very possible. I downloaded it from http://avisynth.org/warpenterprises/ and the file is titled colormatrix_20070828.zip. I'll search for a newer one.

OK, found and installed v2.5, changed the script to "clamp=0" and ran it through AVSMeter: no change in FPS and # of threads AVSMeter reports.

[Groucho2004]

Originally Posted by colinhunt

Hmm, very possible. I downloaded it from http://avisynth.org/warpenterprises/ and the file is titled colormatrix_20070828.zip. I'll search for a newer one.

Here.

Just for testing, remove the ColorMatrix line and run AVSMeter again.

[colinhunt]

Originally Posted by Groucho2004

Just for testing, remove the ColorMatrix line and run AVSMeter again.

Ran two tests:

1) raised threads to 32: AVSMeter reports 34 threads. FPS and CPU usage remain the same.
2) threads at 32, commented out ColorMatrix line, ran AVSMeter: thread count 33, no change in FPS or CPU usage.

One more: Threads=32, commented out ColorMatrix, Spline36Resize and Padding:

Frames processed: 922 (0 - 921)
FPS (min | max | average): 18.17 | 54.40 | 29.34
CPU usage (average): 4%
Thread count: 33
Physical Memory usage (peak): 272 MB
Virtual Memory usage (peak): 274 MB
Time (elapsed): 00:00:31.429

[colinhunt]

Script:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\QTSource.dll")
QTInput("X:\HDProRes.mov")


AVSMeter:

Frames processed: 1036 (0 - 1035)
FPS (min | max | average): 11.07 | 93.67 | 30.59
CPU usage (average): 13%
Thread count: 10
Physical Memory usage (peak): 432 MB
Virtual Memory usage (peak): 435 MB
Time (elapsed): 00:00:33.864

[Groucho2004]

Originally Posted by colinhunt

ProRes HD .mov files

Any chance you can cut a sample from that file?