MeGUI Custom x264/AVC video profiles.

[Sharktooth]

most of them will be trashed in the next megui version.
the new profiles will be hardware-oriented and with clearer names. HQ-Insane will still be around (with a new name)... and it will be REALLY INSANE (a torture test for your CPU and your patience!)... and obviously not compatble with HW devices (it will be stated in the profile name).

[Seraphic-]

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

most of them will be trashed in the next megui version.
the new profiles will be hardware-oriented and with clearer names. HQ-Insane will still be around (with a new name)... and it will be REALLY INSANE (a torture test for your CPU and your patience!)... and obviously not compatble with HW devices (it will be stated in the profile name).

How far off is the next version of megui?

[Sharktooth]

actually, not too far. i and the other devs just need some time to code.

[Seraphic-]

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

actually, not too far. i and the other devs just need some time to code.

Hi Sharktooth,

Alright, I'll wait for the next version before I start full production on my videos. Sounds like it offers some improvements.

Why is it that 4:2:2 is not supported with x264? I guess it is how the codec was designed, but it unfortunate to have sacrifice 1/6 of the raw color levels. I mean, you can see a good bit of color difference in these two samples. Is there anyway to retain the true color levels?

Also, what inloop filter setting would you suggest for 480p/720p console game-play (3d rendered graphics - fast motion)? I'm using HQ-Slowest as a base (would HQ-Insane be worth the extra encode time?).

Last, can you ever use too high of a bit-rate? Is 7,500 for 480p/720p too much or is more always better if you can deal with the extra file size?

Demo 720p Capture - 100MB

Thanks

Here is a another console game demo using HQ-Slowest as a base but at 10,000 bit rate.

137MB Download

[pelle412]

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

your guesses are right but i dont remember why i lowered the qcomp. there is definatly a reason... but i just cant remember right now.

Then why does the SA-Blu-Ray profile use vbv-bufsize 30000 and vbv-maxrate 38000?

[#2]

Hi all. What do you think of this as a profile for video coaching dv archiving? I need it to be clear as possible and allow smooth frame stepping forwards and backwards preferably with smooth progress bar mouse dragging while paused.

Freel free to hack it up. I'm not an expert with x264 profiles.

Thanks in advance

[Weltall]

Originally Posted by Atak_Snajpera

No.
In my opinion above profiles should removed because they are not compatible with anything except software decoders like FFDShow and CoreAVC.

Really!? Which should I use, how can I know which settings I cant use, like number of b-frames or number of ref frames, m.e. range (I'm using 16), subpel ref. and everything? Could you help me pls? I want to run my files after conversion on hware. Thank you in advance, thx God I didnt delete the original files

[Atak_Snajpera]

HQ-DXVA profile

[Weltall]

Thank you! DXVA-SD-HQ has the exact same settings I used before! On this profile, b-frames number is 3 and subpel ref is 6. Can't these numbers be raised? Like 16 b-frames, subpel 7 or 16 ref frames (at least 10 for anime content)??? I presume 16 ref frames and subpel 7 are dumb then? But what about 16 b-frames? Cause Shark said is better

Btw, what about anime content? Should I use the same profile?

P.S.: At least my previous encodings will play, I was worried

Edit.: What about fast p-skip, can it be disabled, or shouldn't I disable this at all?

[Atak_Snajpera]

Don't touch ref frames! Unless you want to break compatibility with DXVA! subpel 7 is very slow so it is up to you.

[Sharktooth]

b-frames and ref-frames influence the hardware compatibility. so if you care about it, dont touch them.

[Ittipol02]

Can I use DXVA-SD-HQ profile with constant quality mode?

I have a lot short-vob files like music video, (idol)event tour, .. So I don't want to specific file size. CQ-ASP_Q2_eq(crf) is great but I need more compatibility.

Thanks

[Dark Shikari]

Originally Posted by Seraphic-

Hi Sharktooth,

Alright, I'll wait for the next version before I start full production on my videos. Sounds like it offers some improvements.

Why is it that 4:2:2 is not supported with x264? I guess it is how the codec was designed, but it unfortunate to have sacrifice 1/6 of the raw color levels. I mean, you can see a good bit of color difference in these two samples. Is there anyway to retain the true color levels?

Color subsampling does not affect what colors can be accurately represented, only blurring on the edges of sharp objects/etc as is normally caused by color subsampling. If the colors aren't accurately represented, there's a problem in your color conversion.

x264 doesn't support other color spaces because it would take a lot of code to do so and ffmpeg (AFAIK) doesn't support it either.

[Weltall]

Ok, then I'll stick with 3 b-frames and 8 ref frames for both movie/tv show and anime content.

What about fast p-skip, shoud it be always enabled? Not using it would give me hw incompatibility?

[Dark Shikari]

Originally Posted by Weltall

Ok, then I'll stick with 3 b-frames and 8 ref frames for both movie/tv show and anime content.

What about fast p-skip, shoud it be always enabled? Not using it would give me hw incompatibility?

Fast P-skip is an analysis option; it doesn't affect the playability of the output stream.

[saint-francis]

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

most of them will be trashed in the next megui version.
the new profiles will be hardware-oriented and with clearer names.

Why the stress on the hardware compatibility? While this is nice for people with old computers, I tend to think that many of them don't have graphics cards that can support DXVA. And most of the people who do have an ATI 3870 or an 8600 GTS will probably have the processing power to make the need for DXVA trivial. And probably anyone who has the processing power to back up their movies with x264 has the processing power to play them back with FFDShow (unless we get into the realm of piracy where anyone can download a 1080p x264 video and may not have the hardware to have encoded it). Personally I have tested a 30 MB/s 1080p movie encoded with HQ Insane and my cpu usage only went to about 16%. Granted I do have a Q6600, but these days even that is becoming a little old. Soon processors will be much faster and much more affordable. So I think that many of the profiles which don't afford hardware compatibility should be left in the list. Personally there are so many restrictions in using DXVA that I will never use it. It is a cool idea though isn't it? Maybe for encoding; every last bit of help you can get there is great. But I (and and probably most of the other people who have a CPU powerful enough to actually use x264) don't need hardware acceleration. Support for stand alone players is a good thing to have for those who don't use some kind of HTPC though.

Originally Posted by Dark Shikari

Fast P-skip is an analysis option; it doesn't affect the playability of the output stream.

How are ref frames not only an analysis option? Or maybe I should say, how do they have any bearing on playback? I thought that they were only for the encoder to seek backwards and forwards during encoding?

[cweb]

Originally Posted by saint-francis

Why the stress on the hardware compatibility? While this is nice for people with old computers, I tend to think that many of them don't have graphics cards that can support DXVA.

Old computers? Aren't we talking devices, such as hand-helds, PDA's, mobiles here too?

[saint-francis]

Originally Posted by cweb

Old computers? Aren't we talking devices, such as hand-helds, PDA's, mobiles here too?

Yes. And I address that at the end of the paragraph. But, several of the preceding posts were discussing DXVA in particular and since this topic has personal interest for me I chose to pontificate on it.

[#2]

What would be a minimum gop size for the b-frame setting in the HQ insane profile?

[tetsuo55]

Originally Posted by saint-francis

Why the stress on the hardware compatibility? While this is nice for people with old computers, I tend to think that many of them don't have graphics cards that can support DXVA. And most of the people who do have an ATI 3870 or an 8600 GTS will probably have the processing power to make the need for DXVA trivial. And probably anyone who has the processing power to back up their movies with x264 has the processing power to play them back with FFDShow (unless we get into the realm of piracy where anyone can download a 1080p x264 video and may not have the hardware to have encoded it). Personally I have tested a 30 MB/s 1080p movie encoded with HQ Insane and my cpu usage only went to about 16%. Granted I do have a Q6600, but these days even that is becoming a little old. Soon processors will be much faster and much more affordable. So I think that many of the profiles which don't afford hardware compatibility should be left in the list. Personally there are so many restrictions in using DXVA that I will never use it. It is a cool idea though isn't it? Maybe for encoding; every last bit of help you can get there is great. But I (and and probably most of the other people who have a CPU powerful enough to actually use x264) don't need hardware acceleration. Support for stand alone players is a good thing to have for those who don't use some kind of HTPC though.





How are ref frames not only an analysis option? Or maybe I should say, how do they have any bearing on playback? I thought that they were only for the encoder to seek backwards and forwards during encoding?

DXVA is being used a lot in posts, this does not mean the posts are only about pc-acceleration, the DXVA settings guarantee playback on all hardware based devices.

the fact that you can select out of spec settings for encoding a video does not mean you should, as software decoders become more and more true to the standards so does the need for videos encoded with a standard.

According to a lot of tests, going beyond the limits of hardware compatibibily have little to no effect on the percieved quality of the resulting file (with the exception of ref frames with animated low detail full hd content)

Now anyone that want's to use different setting can always manually do so, these profiles are not hardcoded into x264 with no way around them.

finally, even you're q6600 can have some minor frame-drops when it comes to high bitrate encodes that are on the edge of hardware compatibility (especially original blu-ray discs that add the overhead of decrypting), that said there are no discs out there yet that are unwatchable on a system like your's

personally i am one of those persons with a slow pc, and a dxva videocard, i eventually intend to buy a standalone player so personally i have 2 reasons to use DXVA compatible settings. As x264 is going to be the standard for a very long time there is a big chance that anyone with a fast enough pc will one day come eye to eye with a hardware decoder, it's for those moments that you'll be glad you encoded with DXVA settings.