x264 presets, profiles, and tuning system

[Audionut]

Originally Posted by Selur

- I think it is a bad idea to have 'changing' defaults.

There's a difference between changing defaults. ie: being changed on a regular basis, and, changed, ie: being changed after how many years?

Originally Posted by Dark Shikari

Logic behind this change: x264 should be by default High Profile and generate relatively high quality, but not entirely max itself out; it should be a reasonable speed/quality tradeoff.

[Selur]

with 'changing' defaults like when you would use the presets to just overwrite the defaults, which would be possible on a regular basis; think you misunderstood me there, or I'm not getting you here

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Originally Posted by Selur

Did you miss:
"I would prefer them to override not just the defaults and throw an error if some one added a parameter which tries to change them. This would also notify one if one presets changes in a manner that it covers a new variable."
or did you ignore it on purpose?

I think I made quite clear that it should be possible to select a preset and still customize single parameters.

Whether x264 simply ignores all parameters that are already covered by the preset or whether it throws an error when I try to explicitly change a parameter that is already covered by the preset, I just don't like the idea that the preset doesn't allow me to customize any parameters. It would lead to the situation where I would like to use preset X, but there's one parameter I need to adjust. Then I would have to completely drop the preset and specify ALL parameters explicitly. That's really not very convenient...

Originally Posted by Selur

I my option:
- I think it is a bad idea to have 'changing' defaults.
- I think such syntactic sugar should not be included in the cl interface

I you like it better, you can think of it the following way:

First of all we start with the x264 defaults (always). Then we apply a preset (optionally). Finally we apply all custom parameters.

That's basically how any x264 GUI works. For example: In MeGUI you can select a preset first and then you can adjust single options in the configuration window

So we basically don't change the default, but we provide "shortcuts" for popular parameter combination. You can call it however you like.

Still we should give the user the opportunity to change single parameters when needed, even when a preset was selected...

[Selur]

That's basically how any x264 GUI works.

and that's probably why I don't like it in a CL(I)

So we basically don't change the default, but we provide "shortcuts" for popular parameter combination. You can call it however you like.

I leave that job to you.

I think I made quite clear that it should be possible to select a preset and still customize single parameters.

No, you just made clear that you like it to be possible and like I mentioned int the part that you didn't take into account was that I don't.

I wanted to suggest that, in my opinion, --presets should like --profiles "override all other options no matter what,.." and/or complain then one changes an option that is already specified by the preset.
I got it that you don't share that opinion and we both have different ways we think about it, plain and simple.

Cu Selur

[elguaxo]

How about a "slowest" preset? Something between slower and placebo. Thanks

[tph]

Originally Posted by elguaxo

How about a "slowest" preset? Something between slower and placebo. Thanks

"Slowest" would imply the slowest settings possible, i.e. even worse than placebo, otherwise it wouldn't be slowest.

[popper]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurtnoise
That's cool...

May I suggest to add several devices presets (basically for PMPs & SAPs) ?

Originally Posted by Dark Shikari

Maybe later.

that being the case, can we finally have a 360 device preset ASAP too?.

that currently stands at, and plays without stutter is a max of 10Mbit/s H@L4.1, ref 3 for 1920×1080 at 30 fps (confirmed as the max for 25fps PAL 360 playability too, 11Mbit,ref3 was bad on beetlejuice dvd , as was 10Mbit,ref4) in a generic mp4 container.

http://support.xbox.com/support/en/u...aybackfaq.aspx
"...
Q: What does the Xbox 360 console support for H.264?
A: The Xbox 360 console supports the following for H.264:

File extensions: .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, .mov, .avi
Containers: MPEG-4, QuickTime
Video profiles: Baseline, main, and high (up to level 4.1)
Video bit rate: 10 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
Audio profiles: AAC, 2-channel, Low Complexity
Audio max bit rate: No restrictions. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
..."

[Selur]

here's a suggestion for
ultrafast:

--ref 1 --scenecut 0 --partitions none --me dia --mvrange 64 --merange 4 --subme 0 --no-mixed-refs --no-chroma-me --no-8x8dct --aq-mode 0 --trellis 0 --threads auto --no-cabac --no-deblock --no-psnr --no-ssim --non-deterministic

[buzzqw]

X264;1;Ultra Fast;--keyint 250 --bframes 1 --trellis 0 --ref 1 --deblock 0,0 --subme 2 --direct spatial --me hex --no-ssim --merange 8 --b-adapt 0 --no-chroma-me --aud

X264;2;Very Fast;--keyint 250 --bframes 2 --trellis 0 --ref 2 --deblock 0,0 --subme 3 --direct spatial --me hex --no-ssim --merange 10 --b-adapt 0 --no-chroma-me --aud

X264;3;Fast;--keyint 250 --bframes 3 --trellis 0 --ref 3 --deblock -1,-1 --subme 4 --direct auto --me hex --no-ssim --merange 12 --weightb --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --partitions p8x8,i8x8 --8x8dct --aud --aq-mode 1 --aq-strength 1 --psy-rd 1.0:0.0

X264;4;High Performance;--keyint 250 --bframes 3 --trellis 0 --ref 3 --deblock -1,-1 --subme 5 --direct auto  --me dia --no-ssim --merange 14 --weightb --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --partitions p8x8,i8x8 --8x8dct --aud --aq-mode 1 --aq-strength 1 --psy-rd 1.0:0.0

X264;5;Balanced;--keyint 250 --bframes 3 --trellis 0 --ref 3 --deblock -1,-1 --subme 5 --direct auto --me dia --no-ssim --weightb --b-adapt 1 --partitions p8x8,b8x8,i8x8 --8x8dct --aud --aq-mode 0 --aq-strength 0

X264;6;Better Quality;--keyint 250 --bframes 5 --mixed-refs --trellis 1 --ref 4 --deblock -1,-1 --subme 6 --direct auto --me umh --no-ssim --weightb --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --partitions p8x8,b8x8,i8x8 --8x8dct --aud --aq-mode 1 --aq-strength 1 --psy-rd 1.0:0.0

X264;7;Extreme Quality;--keyint 250 --bframes 4 --mixed-refs --trellis 0 --ref 4 --deblock -1,-1 --subme 9 --direct auto --me umh --no-ssim --weightb --b-adapt 2 --no-chroma-me --8x8dct --aud --aq-mode 1 --aq-strength 1 --psy-rd 1.1:0.0

X264;8;Insane Quality;--keyint 250 --bframes 6 --mixed-refs --trellis 2 --ref 6 --deblock -1,-1 --subme 7 --direct auto --me umh --no-ssim --merange 20 --weightb --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --partitions p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --aud --aq-mode 1 --aq-strength 1 --psy-rd 1.0:1.0

X264;9;Slug;--keyint 250 --bframes 8 --mixed-refs --trellis 2 --ref 8 --deblock -2,-1 --subme 8 --direct auto --me esa --no-ssim --merange 24 --weightb --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --partitions p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8,p4x4 --8x8dct --aud --aq-mode 1 --aq-strength 1 --psy-rd 1.1:1.0

X264;10;Placebo;--keyint 250 --bframes 16 --mixed-refs --trellis 2 --ref 16 --deblock -2,-1 --subme 9 --direct auto --me tesa --no-ssim --merange 24 --weightb --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --partitions all --8x8dct --aud --aq-mode 1 --aq-strength 1 --psy-rd 1.1:1.0

that's my 0.02€

BHH

[kumi]

Thanks Dark Shikari.

How about a new DV preset? In most of the prosumer camera footage I've seen, --deblock -1:-1 is too weak (0:0 works better for me). That makes me wonder if the other film preset parameters such as psy-rd are also in need of adjustment for DV. I'm no expert, so I can't say.

[nakTT]

Originally Posted by Dark Shikari

slower:

--me umh --subme 9 --ref 8 --b-adapt 2 --direct auto --partitions all --trellis 2

placebo:

--me tesa --subme 9 --merange 24 --ref 16 --b-adapt 2 --direct auto --partitions all --no-fast-pskip --trellis 2 --bframes 16

Forgive me for this noob question,

Is that mean for "Slower" profile I should turn the "merange" from 24 (as in Placebo profile) to 0 (Zero) ?

[kemuri-_9]

Originally Posted by nakTT

Is that mean for "Slower" profile I should turn the "merange" from 24 (as in Placebo profile) to 0 (Zero) ?

No, if the preset doesn't mention the particular parameter, then it remains the default, in merange's case that is 16

[nakTT]

Originally Posted by kemuri-_9

No, if the preset doesn't mention the particular parameter, then it remains the default, in merange's case that is 16

Many thanks for clear things up.

[10L23r]

cool, this sounds great

i think we should do something similar to msu's x264 preset comparison thing to find optimal combinations of options

@buzzqw- "high performance" is kinda ambiguous... and why does the 7th preset have subme9??

i think threads=1 should be added to the placebo preset

[Forteen88]

Originally Posted by juGGaKNot

Slower should have merange 24, placebo 32.

I think that x264 should set recommended merange automatically (but it should be possible to change), the higher resolution the higher merange. Around merange 28 for 1080p video.

[Yoshiyuki Blade]

I'm curious about the absence of b-pyramid anywhere in the settings. Is it insignificant, or problematic?

[Audionut]

Originally Posted by Yoshiyuki Blade

I'm curious about the absence of b-pyramid anywhere in the settings. Is it insignificant, or problematic?

Originally Posted by Dark Shikari

B-pyramid has a small enough benefit and large enough number of problems with some hardware devices that I don't want to deal with the bug reports.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...46#post1301846

[Yoshiyuki Blade]

Originally Posted by Audionut

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...46#post1301846

D'oh! I can't believe I missed that. Thanks

[juGGaKNot]

Originally Posted by Forteen88

I think that x264 should set recommended merange automatically (but it should be possible to change), the higher resolution the higher merange. Around merange 28 for 1080p video.

What about

64 for slow
128 for placebo

at 1920.

24 for slow
32 for placebo

at 720p.

LE : what about auto --keyint and --min-keyint aproximated for the fps ?

Now i use ffmpeg to get the fps and this script for 24-60 FPS :

set kint=240
set mint=24
if %myfps% GEQ 25 GOTO A1
:A1
if %myfps% LEQ 26 GOTO set1
if %myfps% GEQ 29 GOTO A2
:A2
if %myfps% LEQ 31 GOTO set2
if %myfps% GEQ 34 GOTO A3
:A3
if %myfps% LEQ 36 GOTO set3
if %myfps% GEQ 39 GOTO A4
:A4
if %myfps% LEQ 41 GOTO set4
if %myfps% GEQ 44 GOTO A5
:A5
if %myfps% LEQ 46 GOTO set5
if %myfps% GEQ 49 GOTO A6
:A6
if %myfps% LEQ 51 GOTO set6
if %myfps% GEQ 54 GOTO A7
:A7
if %myfps% LEQ 56 GOTO set7
if %myfps% GEQ 59 GOTO A8
:A8
if %myfps% LEQ 61 GOTO set8
:set1
set kint=250
set mint=25
GOTO END
:set2
set kint=300
set mint=30
GOTO END
:set3
set kint=350
set mint=35
GOTO END
:set4
set kint=400
set mint=40
GOTO END
:set5
set kint=450
set mint=45
GOTO END
:set6
set kint=500
set mint=50
GOTO END
:set7
set kint=550
set mint=55
GOTO END
:set8
set kint=600
set mint=60
GOTO END
:END
x264.exe --keyint %kint% --min-keyint %mint% blah blah blah

[Forteen88]

Originally Posted by juGGaKNot

What about
64 for slow
128 for placebo

at 1920.

What I've read, there's no reason/gain to have a merange over ~32 for 1080p, and IIRC, having a too high merange-value can be bad.