MeGUI Custom x264/AVC video profiles.

[Sharktooth]

V39:

- Updated the PS3 profile with Level4.1. Also renamed it to SA-PS3 coz it's very close to BD. Subject to other changes.

[Sharktooth]

seems PS3 supports High Profile too...

EDIT: Uhm... no

[Sharktooth]

v40:

- Final profile for PS3. *IT WORKS*. The profile name is also changed back to PD-PS3 (BlueRay will need a separate profile). If you have updated to v39 please delete the SA-PS3 profile.

[JarrettH]

Oh, it looks like I left that tidbit out. Actually, not even a dvd res. That test was made using a VGA res of 640X480; so anything above this should still hold true.

Thanks Terranigma :cool:

[nurbs]

seems PS3 supports High Profile too...

EDIT: Uhm... no

It does. At least I8x8 and cqms work without problems.

[Sharktooth]

some ppl reported it doesnt work.

[nurbs]

This is what I normally use for PAL DVDs and it works on the PS3:

--crf 20.0 --level 3.1 --ref 3 --bframes 3 --b-pyramid --weightb --direct temporal --filter -1,-1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --vbv-maxrate 14000 --threads auto --thread-input

CQMs work as well, also better settings for subme, trellis, bime, mixed refs and so on. IIRC there is a max number of refs, but I don't know how many. It works at least up to 5 mixed refs. It won't work if the resolution of the file is higher than the level constraint, but it will play a file with level 3.1 that has p4x4 enabled. Again I only tested SD content.

[Wishbringer]

--crf 18 --level 4.1 --ref 8 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 16 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --filter -2,-1 --subme 7 --trellis 2 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --me umh --merange 24 --threads auto --no-dct-decimate

I have encoded several PAL DVDs with above settings to put onto my 250GB PS3 HDD and all play fine.
For testing I upscaled to 720p and profile still works. Haven't tried 1080p.
PS3 FW 1.90

Level above 4.1 isn't recognized,
more than 8 refs results in visual errors,

Edit:
Just had a high motion, high detail scene in 1080p with above settings and it gave a crash....
Maybe too high vbv buffersize, mean overflow.

[Deckard2019]

It's just for some tests. Feel free to change/improve it.

I just test your profile PD-Archos605. It works fine.
I don't see a lot of differences with CE-Baseline. Could you explain me your changes ?
CE-Baseline files runs fine too.

I try to build my own profile, starting with CE-Mainprofile.
Archos 605 is supposed to handle B frames but it doesn't play smoothly.

Thank you.

[ToS_Maverick]

[CODE]
Edit:
Just had a high motion, high detail scene in 1080p with above settings and it gave a crash....
Maybe too high vbv buffersize, mean overflow.

don't trust x264's VBV check. IIRC Aku said, that VBV doesn't really work in CRF-mode, but correct me if i'm wrong.

[Sharktooth]

V41:

- h.264 High Profile for PD-PS3
- New PD-PS3-Fast
- Slightly faster HQ-Fast (lowered ME Range to 8)

[TheRyuu]

I'm wondering what the specific differences are for the anime/toon profiles compared to the HQ Slowest profile.

I know what the differences are, I guess I'm asking more on the side of why? And what effect do those changes have on the final resulting video?

I gather the change in deblocking settings is to prevent blocking on anime/toon sources, kinda gathered that already (same reason why you use h263 quantization with xvid, so it doesn't block).

But what do the other minor changes have on the effect of the final video. Like the change in the subpixel refinement (tried to look it up, didn't really get that great of an answer) and (I think this also changed) the increase in the number of reference frames (to 16?), and why no "no dct decimation."

Sorry to bother you with all the questions, I tried searching and reading the megui wiki, didn't really get me too far.

Thanks.

[Sharktooth]

more reference frames: anime and toons have lot duplicate frames and static areas.
higher inloop deblocking settings: anime and toons have lot of flat areas and high contrast between edges.
other compression settings: usually who wants to encode anime or toons content wants the smalles possible files. so in the AE-Maxquality profile i also maxed everything that rises compression (expecially subme). no dct decimation increases the bitrate and it's useless on anime and toons.

[TheRyuu]

more reference frames: anime and toons have lot duplicate frames and static areas.
higher inloop deblocking settings: anime and toons have lot of flat areas and high contrast between edges.
other compression settings: usually who wants to encode anime or toons content wants the smalles possible files. so in the AE-Maxquality profile i also maxed everything that rises compression (expecially subme). no dct decimation increases the bitrate and it's useless on anime and toons.

Thanks.

[timeisntreal]

When are you going to add a Xbox 360 profile?

And thank you for your great work!

Attached is what I am currently using.

[l3pyr]

V41:

- h.264 High Profile for PD-PS3
- New PD-PS3-Fast


Quick question. When using the PS3 profiles to reencode a 1080p AVC High Profile 5.1 source, the output is corrupt on both the PS3 (blank screen) and MPC (garbled). If I simply resize to 720p using the AVS script everything is perfect. Doesn't AVC High Profile 4.1 support 1080p content? Is there something I need to specify in the profile options to make it work?

PS - I'm reencoding this content because the good ol' hex edit trick down to 4.1 didn't work, which probably reinforces my idea that 1080p may not work in a 4.1 AVC =(

-Thanks

[check]

The output resolution should not affect the x264 output being valid or not. There's no sane reason I can see why one commandline works with 720p output but not with 1080p. Do you have a strange decoder?

[Sharktooth]

When are you going to add a Xbox 360 profile?

And thank you for your great work!

Attached is what I am currently using.
im waiting for attachment approval.

@l3pyr: level 4.1 supports 1080p. however x264 does not enforce level restrictions.

[TheRyuu]

Since your PM box is full, I'll post it here instead:

Was wondering what you though of these deblocking settings.

The source is an anime stream. In your profiles though you have the deblocking set to 1:1.

However, my personal taste likes sharp encodes, not blurry ones.
So I'm instead using -1:-2

Is there anything wrong with using those settings, like will is cause visual artifacts (I don't care about bitrate, only quality).

mp4 guy said that a trick for anime is to use a lower beta deblocking so the lines don't get destroyed (hence -1:-2).

Should I be using something closer to 0 (like 0:0? -1:-1?). I've been encoding with x264 for a while now (using megui to do it) and I'm just not sure about this. Thought I might ask an expert. :)

Thanks.

If I should like NEVER use negative deblocking settings on anime, please tell me. :)

[Sharktooth]

Well, all i can say is: Try it :)
Encode some frames and select the options you like more.

[deeznuts]

I am a total newbie and all this format stuff confuses the heck out of me, but I have used the PD-PS3 profile and it works streaming from my PC to the PS3. However, it does not play on my PC. Using Nero or WMP, it crashes it, saying "Microsoft C++ Visual Runtime Library: Runtime Error. This application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way."

Is it not made to run on the PC at all? If it can, what codec can I use? Thanks everyone for all your work.

[Sharktooth]

When are you going to add a Xbox 360 profile?

And thank you for your great work!

Attached is what I am currently using.

It's has the same settings as PS3 profile.

P.S.: Dont know what software you used to create the profile but it is seriously broken. Some items in the xml file have wrong names and some tags are never closed. I hope you didnt use MeGUI to create it...

[l3pyr]

The output resolution should not affect the x264 output being valid or not. There's no sane reason I can see why one commandline works with 720p output but not with 1080p. Do you have a strange decoder?

Using meGUI and the PD-PS3 profile, if I try to encode as 1080p @ level 4.1 the file is unplayable by the PS3 and MPC using WinDVD's AVC filter (plays, but its totally screwed up). If I simply change the level to 5.1 the output works fine w/ MPC but obviously not on the PS3.

Using ffmpeg with:

ffmpeg.exe -y -i "test.avs" -threads 2 -an -pass 1 -f mp4 -title "test" -vcodec h264 -level 41 -refs 2 -loop 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -parti4x4 1 -partp8x8 1 -partb8x8 1 -me full -subq 6 -brdo 1 -me_range 21 -s 1920x800 -r 24000/1001 -b 8192k -bt 8192k -bufsize 20000k -maxrate 25000k -g 300 -coder 1 "test.mp4"

ffmpeg.exe -y -i "test.avs" -threads 2 -an -pass 2 -f mp4 -title "test" -vcodec h264 -level 41 -refs 2 -loop 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -parti4x4 1 -partp8x8 1 -partb8x8 1 -me full -subq 6 -brdo 1 -me_range 21 -s 1920x800 -r 24000/1001 -b 8192k -bt 8192k -bufsize 20000k -maxrate 25000k -g 300 -coder 1 "test.mp4"

Gives me a great video that plays back perfectly on the PS3. I don't understand why one way works and one doesn't when they are both using the x264 library?

[l3pyr]

I'm working on a solution right now and will post when I get it. I have found the problem lies somewhere in the b-frames options used in your PS3 profile (again, the problem only materializes at 1080p quality). I am going through step by step to find whats causing it.

Edit: Problem solved. Enabled b-frame pyramid is what causes the problem. I'm not going to pretend to understand why, but I'm happy I've fixed it. I would seriously consider changing that option in your PD-PS3 profile for maximum compatibility.

[Terranigma]

Edit: Problem solved. Enabled b-frame pyramid is what causes the problem. I'm not going to pretend to understand why, but I'm happy I've fixed it.

Maybe because b-pyramid can cause a 2 frame decoder lag? I remember back in the early xbox (xbmc) days, b-pyramid was the culprit that caused avc streams to crash. Since it uses some b-frames as reference frames, what you could do is disable this option and increase the number of reference frames by 2 to get the same amount of reference frames if you'd of chosed the b-pyramid option. Not sure the quality would be the same though.

[Sharktooth]

V42:

- Playstation 3 profiles have been renamed and they now work for the Xbox360 too. The b-pyramid option was also disabled. Please delete the old PD-PS3 and PD-PS3-Fast profiles.

[Terranigma]

B-Pyramid/8 Reference Frames (Total=11)
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/7484/bpyramid8refkz9.png

No B-Pyramid/10 Reference Frames (Total=11)
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/2046/nopyramid10refbg9.png

Ask yourself. Is this small quality difference worth it? Worth the lag?

[TheRyuu]

Well, all i can say is: Try it :)
Encode some frames and select the options you like more.

Just to let you (and everyone else) know. -1:-2 does not produce a good looking video, at least to me.

I'm trying just 0:0 and I have a feeling that will work out just fine.

Also Sharktooth, are you xbox profiles tuned to the newer (faster, by about 5%, don't know if that would be enough to change the profile) version of mplayer the xbox now uses?

[Ronin-7]

Sharktooth just letting you know that the Xbox 360 profile is not 100% compatible it will indeed work when played from local storage like a DVD or USB stick but it wont;
* Generate a video thumbnail or display embedded cover art
* Give the total time length of the video
* Properly display anamorphic encodes
* Be playable over a network connection when streamed from a computer

In order to enable those things you must turn off Adaptive DCT support & the above will work so it might be worth giving it a separate profile from the PS3.

[Sharktooth]

@wizboy: not yet since my xbox 'sploded so i cant test profiles.

@ronin: disabling adaptive DCT will be a major hit for quality. sincerely, M$ should fix that...

[Atak_Snajpera]

I agree with Sharktooth. Let's wait for Microsoft's move

[Wishbringer]

... but I have used the PD-PS3 profile and it works streaming from my PC to the PS3. However, it does not play on my PC. Using Nero or WMP, it crashes it, saying "Microsoft C++ Visual Runtime Library: Runtime Error. This application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way."

What version of Nero do you use? Older than 7.10.1?
Then there is a bug in Showtime and the decode .ax filters.
See:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127706

[check]

@ronin: disabling adaptive DCT will be a major hit for quality. sincerely, M$ should fix that...
It may well be, but as the profile is meant to be compatible, I think you will have to grin and bear it. At least they aren't Apple ;)

[Sharktooth]

yep, but since there are some xbox360 media center devs on this forum i think we can manage this...

[Terranigma]

Also Sharktooth, are you xbox profiles tuned to the newer (faster, by about 5%, don't know if that would be enough to change the profile) version of mplayer the xbox now uses?
You and I can make some. :)
Take the HQ-Insane profile and disable various settings to see what affects the cpu the most. Try disabling B-Pyramid first to see if you can playback 480p files without frame drops.

[timeisntreal]

It's has the same settings as PS3 profile.

P.S.: Dont know what software you used to create the profile but it is seriously broken. Some items in the xml file have wrong names and some tags are never closed. I hope you didnt use MeGUI to create it...

LOL Yes I did use MeGUI to make that Profile. As for the profile that I posted not streaming, It is because it is High Profile. Main and Baseline will stream from Zune and Windows Media Player but the only program that will stream High Profile to the Xbox 360 is Tversity.

What I did to make the Xbox 360 Profiles is take the CE-Baseline/CE-Main/CE-High Profiles and change these settings (if they aren't grayed out):
VBV Maximum Bitrate: From 25000 to 10000
Macroblock Option - P4x4: From Checked to Unchecked
B-Frames - B-Pyramid: From Checked to Unchecked
AVC Level: From Unrestricted to Level 4.1
AVC Profile: Needs to be set to Baseline/Main/High for which ever one you want to create.

I have also noticed that anamorphic encode do not show correctly of course I don't know if Baseline or Main Profiles change that.

-TIR

[deeznuts]

What version of Nero do you use? Older than 7.10.1?
Then there is a bug in Showtime and the decode .ax filters.
See:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127706

I am using an older version yes. Hmm, I'll get the new one and see. Thanks.

[Weltall]

Hi Sharktooth. I use RealAnime to encode my animes and series and megui for my DVD movies. I just wanted to ask you which config is better for animes, RA6's normal (I know you helped sirber with configs, and sirber helped you with some other, so I'm confused) or megui's AE-Goodquality.
Which are the differences between them (for example, I've noticed nofast_pskip is enabled on RA6 profile, I saw this on umain.pas file: "'threads=auto:b_pyramid:nofast_pskip:nopsnr:bitrate='")?
And why b-frames used in RA6 are 5 and only 3 in megui) and why P4x4 macroblock is disabled on megui? Is it disabled on RA6 too?
I have the same doubts about megui's HQ-Slower and RA movie profiles for series and movies.
Hope you understand my doubts :)

Thank you.

[Sharktooth]

p4x4 was recently removed coz at "useful" resolutions (512x*** and over) it will lower the quality.
i was also thinking of rising the number of b-frames and modify the p/b ratio a bit.
the no-fast-pskip is a myth from the past. once akupenguin fixed it there are almost no problems with it.
about the RA6 movie profile, i dont know what settins it uses.

[Weltall]

So you say that disable fast pskip will just make the encode slower and won't give any significant quality boost at all, is that right?

About that p4x4, what about p8x8, it doesn't have the same problem, does it? And how can I disable p4x4 on softwares like mediacoder that use a frontend to show the options?
It has an option: "Enable all macroblock type", key videoenc.x264.allapart, and they say it is recommended only with subpixel refinement >= 5, and only at low resolutions.
This should be the option I have to let disabled to have p4x4 disabled too? I think it matches with your resolution explanation. So...?

Thanks man.

P.S.: Sorry if I misspelled some words, I'm just an english starter edition :)

[foxyshadis]

Yes, that's the one. In extensions->other devices->x264 it's called "8x4, 4x8 and 4x4 subpartitions". Fast pskip can still cause bad decimations and blocking, in my experience, but AQ can totally fix that. It's very source dependent, some are affected by it and some not at all.

Personal opinion: Even if the 360 and PS3 profiles are the same right now, I say keep them separate. Support is bound to change and diverge, and there's always little tweaks to each, like above. The adaptive dct problem needs more splintering though; it's such a big hit in quality that it'd be better to have separate 360 and 360-streaming profiles for now.

(I hope Nintendo puts out a flash 9 for wii... then I can bug you about profiles for that, too. :p)

[ggf31416]

Regarding the HQ-fast profile, I think replacing UHM with HEX and adding trellis 1 gives better quality/speed than the current profile.

[leowai]

Hi, friends. I want to share a working x264 encoding profile for N95 users. It works with my friend's N95. The encoding parameters are not optimized for best quality as I've no N95. I leave this to those who own one and interested to optimize the profile.

For your reference, the N95 playable video clip is converted as following procedure.

01. Resize DVD video from 720x576@25fps to 320x240@25fps (30fps not tested) with Avisynth. It will have a good look in N95 if you know about DAR.

02. Encode the AviSynth Video file (*.avs) with MeGUI & x264 (rev669) using the x264 profile (PD-Nokia N95.xml) attached here. 2-pass is recommended.

03. Encode the 48KHz audio wave file into AAC using Nero Digital with following cmd
=> neroAacEnc.exe -br 48000 -if Input_Audio.wav -of "Output_Audio.m4a"
I assume you know how to get the wav audio input from your video source. :)

04. Mux the video into 3GP container using YAMB (v2.0.0.7) and MP4Box (v0.4.4). Following settings are the settings I've for the output 3GP video clip using YAMB. Make sure you have the setting in BOLD before you mux the video and audio into 3GP container. Or you will end up with a stretched video output using YAMB.

[Video]
Language: English
Brand Name: ND Mobile AVC
Track Name: Video
Pixels Aspect Ration: Custom 1:1

[Audio]
Language: English
Brand Name: ND Mobile AVC
Track Name: Audio

Alternatively, you can mux the video and audio using mp4box cmd line if you know how to do so.

Lastly, transfer the converted 3GP output file to your N95. Your N95 should play it as supported format.

Hope you will enjoy the high quality video clip encoded using x264 in your mobile devices.

[rack04]

Is there a profile for the latest iPod Nano with 320x240 resolution?

[Atak_Snajpera]

iPod Nano is compatible with IPOD profile :)

[tuber99]

Is anyone actually using the PD-AppleTV profile? I just updated MeGUI (0.2.5.1007) and got the latest set of profiles (v42) that included the PD-AppleTV profile. When I select the profile in MeGUI and click Config - I get the error "selected profile exceeds the AVC profile you have specified. P4x4 macroblocks are not allowed in level >3 or in level 3 with B frames."
Does this mean that no one has actually tried to use this profile? Can I volunteer as the hardware guinea pig if someone will help me figure out what I need to change to actually make a *usable* AppleTV profile?

[Adub]

Have you tested the profile as it is, even though it throws the error?
If so, did it work?

If not, try unchecking the P4x4 box and see if that fixes it.

Sharktooth,
As a side note, shouldn't that box be greyed out if the selected profile doesn't allow it?

[tuber99]

Yeah, I did because I assumed it must be a bogus error. I ended up with a stuttery, choppy video that was almost unwatchable (although iTunes let it sync with the @TV)

After that, I started experimenting with the other iPod profiles to get something working. I have a copy of QuickTimePro and I have exported to .mp4 from there, but I think it sacrifices quality for speed of encode.

I considered starting a separate thread on the topic, but are there tools that can analyze a given h.264 video stream and make a best-guess as to what encoder options have been enabled/disabled? That way, it would be very easy to take a QuickTime encoded .mp4 and figure out what encoder options it's using and which x264 options are causing it problems.

[StoneRoses]

I have tried iPhone profile the 480x270 (add letterbox to 320) @ 600kbps look great on the iPhone.

But in order to work you have to set AVC level to level 3 otherwise iTunes won't let you put it in the iPhone.

Thanks

[Adub]

Wait, Tuber99
Did you try unchecking that box like I suggested? And just to be sure, we are talking about the AppleTV, not the "Ipod", correct?
Also, make sure that your AVC level is set for 3.1. I opened up my version of the profile after you had mentioned it and I discovered that MeGUI had saved it as Unlimited after I had screwed around with it. That may be your problem.

You may also want to look at this post.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1034432#post1034432

Specifically about the muxing at the bottom.