MeGUI Custom x264/AVC video profiles.

[Sharktooth]

V31: Updated VBV parameters, quantization and GOP parameters in HD-DVD profile. This profile should be compatible with 25FPS encodings.

[Chainmax]

Are the HD-DVD profile settings still guesses or did you find some official info?

[Sharktooth]

Still guesses.

[Chainmax]

I don't understand why is it taking so long for those specs to be released. After all, HD-DVD/BluRay/AVCHD standalones are being developed right now which means specs are final, right?

[Lemonadez]

---------------------------
AviSynth error
---------------------------
AviSynth script error:

Script error: there is no function named "DirectShowSource"
---------------------------
OK
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[Adub]

I am sure that the specs must be somewhere. I will do some research this weekend and report back if I find anything.

@Lemonadez
What versions are you using of a) AviSynth and b) the Megui Profiles?
Also, make sure you have the plugin in your plugin folder, just incase you deleted it by accident or something.

[Sharktooth]

there are specs but not available for free

[Chainmax]

That sucks :(.

I recently started a thread in the AVC subforum asking what did "No DCT Decimation" do and it seems to be somewhat similar to Fast P-Skip and was advisable to enable when using Trellis. Could the highest quality profiles be modified to reflect that?

[Sharktooth]

Ok, ill add it to HQ-Insane, HQ-Slowest and AE-Maxquality

[check]

I've heard it's bad for animated content (#x264 on IRC). Some testing seems to be in order :)

[Hobojobo]

Hi,
what is the difference between these two profiles: cq-asp_q2_aquiv and cq-asp_asp_q2_eq(crf) ?

I guess it is the "constant rate factor". I'm good. ;)

What exactly does that mean?

I like one pass encoding and the idea of constant quality.

[check]

crf attempts to provide a more perceptually constant quality, whereas cq provides a constant quantizer, which is somewhat less perceptually constant but mathematically constant. crf is probably what you are looking to use - the filesize will be lower and visual quality (theoretically) identical.

[Sharktooth]

I've heard it's bad for animated content (#x264 on IRC). Some testing seems to be in order :)
any news?

[iMaGe]

Sharktooth, is there a reason why you've limited the HighRes XBOX profile's Minimum Quantizer to 18? I've been experimenting with a minimum of 10 with 1.5Mbps bitrate which plays perfectly on my regular softmodded xbox.

[Sharktooth]

Yes, coz sometimes (depending on the source) Q18 gives too-high bitrates resulting in dropped frames during playback.
However Q18 has excellent quality (similar to xvid Q2) and there's really no need to risk your encode wont play back correctly coz of the lower quantizer.

[migrena]

apple added this to video specs for ipods:
"H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Low-Complexity Profile"
but i have no idea what low-complexity means

[Sharktooth]

They rised the max bitrate from 768 to 1.5mbps...
low complexity maybe is the apple "re-definition" of Level 1.3...

[Taxidermista]

They rised the max bitrate from 768 to 1.5mbps...
low complexity maybe is the apple "re-definition" of Level 1.3...

I don't think so. There are 2 different h.264 profiles and one mpeg4 sp profile:

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Low-Complexity Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Maybe baseline LC profile is a new avc profile defined by Apple. :)

[Sharktooth]

well, dunno but i think it has something to do with their Level 1.3 and 1.5Mbps... or with Baseline+Bframes thing...

[migrena]

old profile with 640x480 clip wont work on ipod (tested)
is there a possibility that this may be an issue with container not codec settings? this video (http://www.eugbanana.com/EverythingApple/Movies/Cornell-640-7.1.3.mov) in mov container works but when remuxed to mp4 it wont play anymore

[check]

have you tried muxing to mp4 with a hint track?

[Sharktooth]

V32:
HQ-Insane is even more "insane"... (removed fast first pass, added no-dct-decimation)
Added iPod 5.5G profile.

[migrena]

have you tried muxing to mp4 with a hint track?
if you are talking about timecodes then no, i did this with yamb and there is no such option in yamb
i could remux mov to mkv and extract timecodes then but i still dont know how to mux them to mp4

ps that new profile doesnt work on 5g with 1.2 software, no idea why...

[anonymez]

and there is no such option in yamb

options-->general-->enable import settings :)

[Sharktooth]

if you are talking about timecodes then no, i did this with yamb and there is no such option in yamb
i could remux mov to mkv and extract timecodes then but i still dont know how to mux them to mp4

ps that new profile doesnt work on 5g with 1.2 software, no idea why...
EDIT: Uhm, i have no iPod to test it...

[migrena]

this profile is perfectly fine, it should work if apple specs were complete...
is it possible that only movies encoded with apple avc codec will play on ipod? i dont like the idea of either buying movies from itunes store or buying quicktime to export movies to ipod format

[Taxidermista]

Added iPod 5.5G profile.

I did a little test on my iPod 5G with firmware 1.2. I've encoded the World Trade Center HD trailer (from Apple) to a mp4 file with the new iPod 5.5G profile.

iTunes rejects this clip (that stupid tag thing (http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2006-September/045391.html)) but you can place it on the iPod with the richardsj dummie trick (http://www.ipodwizard.net/showthread.php?t=15015).

Trailer specs:

Resolution: 640x380
fps: 23.976
Video: x264 baseline profile level 3 (Sharktooth's iPod 5.5G profile)
Video bitrate: 1200 Kbps
Audio: AAC LC stereo
Audio bitrate: 128 Kbps
Length: 2:29.05
Size: 24 MB

If someone wanna try it can be downloaded from here (http://www.2shared.com/file/1624703/32225486/worldtradecentertrailerx264ipod.html).

The video plays fine on my iPod, the quality is ok but it looks better in Windows (Media Player Classic + CoreAVC). The video pixelates in some places, specially in scene transitions.

Maybe a mpeg4 sp vs h.264 @1.5Mbps challenge is in order. :)

[Sharktooth]

V33:
Updated HQ-Slowest with no-dct-decimate and PD-iPod 5.5G profile: disabled deblocking and all macroblock paritions (it will reduce quality but will save batteries...).

[Taxidermista]

V33:
Updated HQ-Slowest with no-dct-decimate and PD-iPod 5.5G profile (disabled deblocking and all macroblock paritions).

Ups, bad timing! :D

The WTC trailer is encoded with your "old" 5.5G profile.

[Sharktooth]

Well, the new profile will have a bit less quality but will save batteries for longer movies ;)

[Adub]

Should we maybe have 2 profiles then? One for battery and one for quality? I just know that some people care more about quality than battery life. Just a thought.

[Sharktooth]

I'll add it in the next version.

[Adub]

great! Thanks Sharktooth.

[CubaMAN]

I tried your Quicktime Profile but unfortunately playing with current Quicktime Player shows only a white frame. Audio works.

[Sharktooth]

Can you be more precise on the encoding setup?

[simonhowson]

Should we maybe have 2 profiles then? One for battery and one for quality? I just know that some people care more about quality than battery life. Just a thought. Does the deblocking filter make a significant difference on battery life? Have there been any tests, or is this just an expectation? Will the difference be significant, i.e. will deblocking off double the battery life?

I have a new 80 GB iPod, and so I want do tests, but I'm still figuring out exactly how to encode something properly. :o

[check]

deblocking adds around 20% to CPU requirments, so I would expect disabling it to lead to a 20% boost in battery life - assuming bitrate was the same of course.

[CubaMAN]

Can you be more precise on the encoding setup?

I chose your CE-Quicktime MP4 Profile ....didn't change anything and audio aac lc variable bitrate Q=0,5. Filters: deinterlace, resize, noise filter (minimal) and mpeg2 deblock. I can upload an example file if you wish.

[Sharktooth]

Weird... i just did an encode and it works.
Just a question... How many FPS?

[CubaMAN]

Weird... i just did an encode and it works.
Just a question... How many FPS?

PAL 25fps. If I just encode video everythings fine, but audio and video produces a white frame playing only audio. Don't really know if the mp4muxer produces a corrupt file. Is the Quicktime Version on Mac different to the version on Windows?

[Sharktooth]

AFAIK no... however is your mp4box up to date?

[Synergy37]

I followed the info found in this thread:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=880122#post880122

and I still can't get this to work. When I add it to iTunes it plays fine and then it won't transfer to the iPod because it says a bad bit rate.

[Sharktooth]

what bitrate did you set?

[Synergy37]

1000, 1112, and 700

[check]

have you tried something lower, like <500?

[simonhowson]

1000, 1112, and 700 Is it possible that the average is set below 1500, but the maximum is going over 1500? So the -Vbv maxbitrate switch should be on?

I'm using the iPod 5.5 profile and nicmp4box to mux the video and audio together, and it is working fine. The profile targets 1000 Kbps as the average for the video, but features the --vbv maxbitrate 1500 setting so the bitrate doesn't go too high.

[Synergy37]

I think it was becuase I was fooling around with the profiles. I'm gonna redo my profiles so they are how Sharktooth sets them and then I'll reencode tonight. Hopefully this works.

[Synergy37]

Alright so I tried the Shark Tooth profile at 1000 kbps and it idn't work. Now I'm trying 768 kbps and if that doesn't work I'll wait for a program with a preset profile to encode. Any other ideas?

[check]

From what's going on in the ipod thread it sounds like the maximum is 768kbits - try setting the vbvmaxrate to 768 and the bitrate below that.

[simonhowson]

Alright so I tried the Shark Tooth profile at 1000 kbps and it idn't work. Now I'm trying 768 kbps and if that doesn't work I'll wait for a program with a preset profile to encode. Any other ideas? Is it possible that you are using a width other than 640? To use the 1500 Kbps bitrate I am pretty sure the resolution must be 640 wide, it can't be anything else.