MeGUI Custom x264/AVC video profiles.

[Backflip]

Interesting time I'm having encoding a short clip I have. It has some film grain, and even under the latest CQ profiles it is unpleasantly blocky, same with Insane mode. I would really like x264 to encode the grain as it looks instead of smoothing it out. Have tried loop turned off and on. The CQ-ASP_Q2_eq(crf) encode looks very decent even compared to the Insane and other CQ ones. Maybe Lossless is the only way to make the video look good on the film grain parts.

The part that's blocky is light Blue + has film grain. Maybe it's not hooking onto that part of the video so much.

Why do they put this film grain in movies btw?

Anyhow nice work with the profile updates and MeGUI too :)

[Sharktooth]

Nah, a clip I was encoding earlier showed some extremely erratic motion and I wanted to know if that was caused by the lack of this option. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
extremely erratic motion? like flickering blocks?

[Sharktooth]

Interesting time I'm having encoding a short clip I have. It has some film grain, and even under the latest CQ profiles it is unpleasantly blocky, same with Insane mode. I would really like x264 to encode the grain as it looks instead of smoothing it out. Have tried loop turned off and on. The CQ-ASP_Q2_eq(crf) encode looks very decent even compared to the Insane and other CQ ones. Maybe Lossless is the only way to make the video look good on the film grain parts.

The part that's blocky is light Blue + has film grain. Maybe it's not hooking onto that part of the video so much.

Why do they put this film grain in movies btw?

Anyhow nice work with the profile updates and MeGUI too :)
Ensure you have the latest v19a profiles... for some reason the no-fast-pskip option was disabled in insane mode. it should help with the sky issue.

[Chainmax]

extremely erratic motion? like flickering blocks?

Not at all, I can't really describe it but you can download a sample encode I made here (http://www7.rapidupload.com/d.php?file=dl&filepath=5249).

[Sharktooth]

Is it possible to aim for a specific filesize when encoding with MeGUI?
For example: I wanna encode a transport stream to dvd size using the HQ-Insane profile and have a 250mb ac3 file...
So in the end the video filesize should be 4220mb. If possible at all where could i adjust this?
Yes, select the source and the output file. Select the profile you want to use then click on Tools -> Bitrate Calculator menu.
Go to the audio track and specify the size or the bitrate of the audio stream or even better, if you have the audio altready encoded, click on select and load the file.
The calculator will recalculate the video bitrate accordingly to the size you specified.

[Sharktooth]

Not at all, I can't really describe it but you can download a sample encode I made here (http://www7.rapidupload.com/d.php?file=dl&filepath=5249).
What build produced that encode? And with what settings?

[Chris Benoit]

Sharktooth,isn't the bitrate (1000) on your psp profile a little too much for psp too handle on avc?

Will the video run smooth,or is there any chance that it will lag?HAve you tested it?

[Sharktooth]

Before starting encoding set the bitrate or quantizer (manually or thru the calculator) and adjust the inloop filter accordingly to your needs/taste: keep it 1;1 or higher for anime/toons (max 3;3) and not higher than x264 defaults (0;0) for movies.
it's in the first post...

[Backflip]

Indeed :)

Ensure you have the latest v19a profiles... for some reason the no-fast-pskip option was disabled in insane mode.

Yip, I'm using v19a. About the only mode I haven't tried is Lossless. I really thought CQ-ASP profiles would keep the film grain on the light blue background.

Encodings are around 103MB vs original which is 108MB (4:3 music video).

[Shinjite]

Just to confirm, the deblocking filter, anything lower than 0 (-x) is for sharpness and anything higher than 0 is for smoothness right?

[Doom9]

Yup, the lower the value, the less strong the filter, the higher the value the stronger the filter. And stronger filtering means smoother output (and less detailed).

[Sharktooth]

Indeed :)



Yip, I'm using v19a. About the only mode I haven't tried is Lossless. I really thought CQ-ASP profiles would keep the film grain on the light blue background.

Encodings are around 103MB vs original which is 108MB (4:3 music video).
Uhm... i smell there are still some problems with low luma blocks...

[Chainmax]

What build produced that encode? And with what settings?

Like I said, that doesn't fit with the description you gave me of possible problems that could be caused by x264. The filterchain used in this was trying to decimate the source to 12fps and then use motion compensated FPS conversion back to 23.976fps which is likely what caused this. x264 performed flawlessly on a slightly different filterchain, so don't worry.

[bdogg]

Is it just me or is files.x264.nl down? I've tried for a couple of days to download the link in the first post but it just hangs...

Can anyone point me to a mirror or maybe upload the package to some free hosting provider?

Thanks!

[Sharktooth]

yeah, the server is down.
however the profiles are now included in my x264-full builds (sticky thread). the mirror should work...

[bdogg]

Ah, yes, the mirror to the full x264-full build works fine.

Thanks for the quick response, and all your contributions in general, Sharktooth! :D

[CrAcKo]

I have a few questions about using the profiles, how exactly do I load a video file?
I can now only open AviSynth files, I have no idea what these are either.

Will I also be able to merge with audio?

[SenorKaffee]

Download and install AVISynth - it´s basically a scripting engine. Documentation how to use it is included.

[smok3]

iam just using my old bat file and replacing the x264.exe with newer versions, would something like this still be valid:

x264 --pass 1 -B 500 --ref 1 --bframes 1 --filter -2,-2 --subme 7 --weightb --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --stats "%video%.stats" --progress --output NUL "%gentemplateext%"
x264 --pass 2 -B 500 --ref 1 --bframes 1 --filter -2,-2 --subme 7 --weightb --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --stats "%video%.stats" --progress --output "%videoext%.mp4" "%gentemplateext%"

with x264 core:42 svn-389M (built by Sharktooth) ?
(or is there a faster way getting same quality, or would you suggest something else?)

edit2: i replaced that with sharktooth's qt ce profile:

x264 --pass 1 --bitrate %bitrate% --stats "%video%.stats" --bframes 1 --subme 1 --analyse none --me dia --progress --no-psnr --output NUL "%gentemplateext%"
(should i call that 'turbo 1st pass'?)

x264 --pass 2 --bitrate %bitrate% --stats "%video%.stats" --ref 5 --bframes 1 --subme 6 --b-rdo --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --progress --no-psnr --output "%videoext%.mp4" "%gentemplateext%"

----

also, was there a huge quality boost with latest versions of x264.exe or am i just imagining things?

----

edit: another thing: could 'we' get a -ver switch or something that would spit out some oneliner like 'x264 core:42 svn-389M (built by Sharktooth)' ?

[CrAcKo]

wow things are getting too complicated for me, I think I'm better off setting the configuration manually, instead of trying to use scripts.

I think I successfully managed to encode a videoclip which duration is 1:15 minutes, and is 8.44 mb of size. The quality looks good so far...

[DigitalDivide]

I'm tying to figure out what profile I should be using to encode my movies. Currently I use HQ-Slower and go for a target size of between 2 - 2.2GB. I notice that the avg between rate usually varies between 2000-2500 depending on the movie. The reason I do this is to get 2 movies per DVD. I'm just wondering if I should be selecting something like a Constant Quality 1-Pass and just enter in the desired bitrate of say 2000. Would I be better off? I'm a little confused as to which would actually give me a better encoded movie? I'm assuming with the Constant Quality pass, I have no control over the filesize and would expect a filesize of over 2GB for most 2hr movies say for example Cinderella Man?

Would I see much of a difference between HQ-Slower and HQ-Slow at these file sizes?

[Sharktooth]

2000-2500 kbps? well, you can use xvid then...

[Sharktooth]

iam just using my old bat file and replacing the x264.exe with newer versions, would something like this still be valid:

x264 --pass 1 -B 500 --ref 1 --bframes 1 --filter -2,-2 --subme 7 --weightb --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --stats "%video%.stats" --progress --output NUL "%gentemplateext%"
x264 --pass 2 -B 500 --ref 1 --bframes 1 --filter -2,-2 --subme 7 --weightb --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --stats "%video%.stats" --progress --output "%videoext%.mp4" "%gentemplateext%"

with x264 core:42 svn-389M (built by Sharktooth) ?
(or is there a faster way getting same quality, or would you suggest something else?)

edit2: i replaced that with sharktooth's qt ce profile:

x264 --pass 1 --bitrate %bitrate% --stats "%video%.stats" --bframes 1 --subme 1 --analyse none --me dia --progress --no-psnr --output NUL "%gentemplateext%"
(should i call that 'turbo 1st pass'?)

x264 --pass 2 --bitrate %bitrate% --stats "%video%.stats" --ref 5 --bframes 1 --subme 6 --b-rdo --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --progress --no-psnr --output "%videoext%.mp4" "%gentemplateext%"

----

also, was there a huge quality boost with latest versions of x264.exe or am i just imagining things?

----

edit: another thing: could 'we' get a -ver switch or something that would spit out some oneliner like 'x264 core:42 svn-389M (built by Sharktooth)' ?
I thought this was the MeGUI Custom x264/AVC video profiles thread...

[smok3]

i have focused on 'Custom x264/AVC video profiles' only, sorry if thats completely ot.

[DigitalDivide]

2000-2500 kbps? well, you can use xvid then...

Well I like quality, and I definitely see a difference in quality between XVID and x264. So assuming I want to stick with what I now am using, would there be much of a difference between HQ Slow and HQ Slower at filesizes of approx 2GB? Right now using HQ Slower a movie takes about 18hrs to encode on my P4 2.8. If I can bring that time down but with roughly the same quality I'd be happy.

[Sharktooth]

There's definatly some difference but that's not so big.
HQ-Slower uses 10 reference frames, mixed references and b-rdo while HQ-Slow only 5 refs, no mixed refs and no b-rdo.
You should do a test encode and see if you're satisfied by the HQ-Slow quality.

[Sharktooth]

v20: Updated profiles with the new --bime x264 option.

I also moved the archive to another server.

[dvbm]

hi,

been testing some x264 (latest build) with megui and QT7 (non pro) and i'am having some difficulties getting a stream working properly with QT7..

I'm testing a video only stream using CE-Baseline and the other one QT7 compatible and all QT can do is decode one frame from times to times or usually no frames at all showing a nice brown background..

Are there any other things i should take care of in order to make QT7 compatible streams ? Don't know if it comes from the encoder or muxer, i haven't updated my mp4box for a few months

thx

[Sharktooth]

well... update mp4box then... :)

[bond]

quicktime is a damn slow decoder, it also doesnt really work fine here (slow, choppy, crappy)

[dvbm]

well... update mp4box then... :)


well note sure i'm doing any muxing with mp4box, in fact i think i don't, x264 outputs the stream packaged in mp4 transport right ?

besides my mp4box version seems to be the latest one so i don't really know what's wrong but i'll probably stop trying making h264 QT7 compatible content with x264 coz it really seem to be something hard to achieve as far as i could read..

[bond]

whats your cpu? maybe your system is simply not fast enough for qt's slow decoder

i mean if you dont change any settings in sharktooths qt profile for megui things should work fine

[BlackSharkfr]

Hello.
I have got an IPod Video. So i tested your profile but it didn't worked (refused by ITunes)
Then i noticed in the Megui thread that the AVC level wasn't added in the command line.
So i added the command "--level 1.3" and it worked.
As long as Megui isn't updated, you should add the command to the custom commands for the IPod profile.

About Megui and AVC-level validation :
And the AVC level validator doesn't seems to work, it always wants to use level 5 and aven if you say you don't want to change the avc level, it still does it, and if you checked all macroblocks it makes the profile crash because there is a macroblock forbidden in level5 (i don't remember which one) but allowed in level 1.3.

[berrinam]

Then i noticed in the Megui thread that the AVC level wasn't added in the command line.
This was added in version 0.2.3.1026, from 29 Dec 2005. You probably don't have the newest build.

About Megui and AVC-level validation :
And the AVC level validator doesn't seems to work, it always wants to use level 5 and aven if you say you don't want to change the avc level, it still does it, and if you checked all macroblocks it makes the profile crash because there is a macroblock forbidden in level5 (i don't remember which one) but allowed in level 1.3.All bugs should be fixed now.

[CruNcher]

@berrinam
are you sure everything is ok with profiles handling now ?
for example i getting this error "P4x4 macroblocks are not allowed in level > 3 or in level 3 with B frames" if i try High Profile @ Level4 with P4x4 analyse enabled
in Sharktooths 0.2.3.1031 build that comes with x264-full 395. But in the standard you can't find that P4x4 isn't allowed with High Profile settings @ Level 4 ?

[berrinam]

@berrinam
are you sure everything is ok with profiles handling now ?For me, they are.
for example i getting this error "P4x4 macroblocks are not allowed in level > 3 or in level 3 with B frames"That, in itself, is not a bug. For some reason (don't ask me, ask akupenguin), that is part of the levels requirements.

in Sharktooths 0.2.3.1031 build that comes with x264-full 395. Alas, v0.2.3.1031 is a work in progress, so I don't know whether that build includes my changes.

[dvbm]

whats your cpu? maybe your system is simply not fast enough for qt's slow decoder

i mean if you dont change any settings in sharktooths qt profile for megui things should work fine


It's not a fast cpu, athlon xp1700 but i was only trying to encode some 720x576 pal mpeg to 720x576 h264 at 700kbps and 1000kbps..

do you really think QT player can't play that kind of file ?

well i've got my answer, the CPU just hangs at 100% when playing those encodes !! this is crazy..

but i was deceived by my first tests because the muxing is not working properly, the muxed stream lasts almost twice longer than the original audio/video files and when i hit the overtime part then QT player goes wack and won't play anything back..

Unfortunately those mux won't work in VLC either, i got no sound and the muxed stream length is also wrong..

Anyways i've got my QT playback answer that's already something..

[jmk]

sharktooth, i read that you don't have much time right now, but would it be possible for the next edition of your wonderful "megui custom video profiles" to add some to the "CE" part like: "best possible quality at good/high/highest speed" with two passes?
the reason i am asking is, i like the "highprofile" quality wise, but speed wise it is a real bummer on my athlon xp 2500+ (first pass ~22fps / second pass ~5 fps). so i would like to know which part of it should i deactivate to get higher speed without losing to much quality (if there even is such a part).
thank you for your profiles in the first place, though, they have helped me alot!

jmk

[Sharktooth]

Well, i dont think it's possible. If you want quality, speed will be low...

@berrinam: MeGUI 0.2.3.1031 is now released.

[berrinam]

@Sharktooth: With the addition of OneClick profiles, my intent was to create an absolute no-brainer way for creating video for iPods and the like. I've attached a set of profiles which really allow the OneClick mode to operate very simply: open the input, select playback device, and press go.

These profiles are designed for the iPod, based on the arstechnica settings, and the video profile is just the one you distribute. I've attached two different oneclick profiles, because I don't know whether the resolution should be 320x240 or 320xanything.

Could you have a look at what I've attached, and see if this sort of thing is worth continuing?

The profiles are attached and on rapidshare: http://rapidshare.de/files/10545301/iPod_OneClick.zip.html

[Sharktooth]

iPod Video can support MPEG4 file formats up to 480x480 at 30 frames per second.

[JarrettH]

Thanks SOOOO much sharktooth! I'd go mental if I had to research every single H264 setting. I enjoyed toying around with XviD but this is just way to comprehensive for my tastes :D

Today's accomplishments:
- ac3 ---> aac
- realizing TV is 29.97 thus i can use forced film since i won't be watching it on one

I'm still scratching my head as to why the interlacing disappears when using forced film though.:confused:
I'm going to compare HQ-Slow and HQ-Slowest tomorrow on the movie Broken Flowers, anyone see it? :0

[berrinam]

[Feature-promotion]
@JarrettH: Regarding interlacing and forced film, etc: Just because it is 29.97 doesn't mean you can used forced film. This only works if the source is actually film, which isn't necessarily the case. If all the interlacing disappears, that's fine, but you're lucky, in that case. If you're not sure about what to do, why don't you try using MeGUI full version (get it from sourceforge: https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=156112), and the AviSynth script creator now has automatic deinterlacing.
[/Feature-Promotion]

[JarrettH]

Ah neat thanks, I see they added that on Jan 13 (today). I'll have to update!
I forgot to input 16:9 AR last night, but fortunately I discovered the encode only took 5hrs for both passes! So I can run Slow and Slowest overnight ;)

Where is this script creator you are talking about?

[berrinam]

Heh, the 'they' who added it was me. No wonder I'm promoting it.

Anyway, you need the full version of MeGUI, and you go to Tools->Avisynth Script Creator.

[The Link]

Do I need a special avisynth plugin to use the automatic deinterlacing analyzer because when I load a movie and press the analyze button megui crashes (also happens when ticking "crop" which is probably another issue). MeGUI version is 0.2.3.2017.

[berrinam]

Aah, yes you do.... sorry. Download Decomb and put it in your AviSynth plugins directory: http://neuron2.net/decomb/decomb522.zip

[The Link]

Ah ... thanks! Works great now. Should I report the crop bug in the MeGUI bug report thread separately or is it enough that you know of it now (it should be perfectly reproducable)?

[berrinam]

Report it, as it isn't reproducible as you have told me. It works fine for me.

[The Link]

Hmm ... i just found out why you couldn't reproduce it: It seems that you have to leave the preview window open to use crop in the avisynth script generator. I didn't know that this is neccessary (i already had the crop values so i tried to simply insert these after having closed the preview window). Probably not a bug but it would be nice if cropping would also work when the peview window is closed (in the end it's jut a line in a text script that gets inserted).