Some Weird Nero Digital Experiences

[siddharthagandhi]

I have been using ND AVC for a long time with no problems. Originally i thought it had a contrast problem, bc whenever i played a file in Quicktime the contrast was screwed, but then i found out that contrast problems were player problems, not codec problems. So i played all the files in Nero Showtime and it worked perfectly fine. Now today all of a sudden, after every other encode, files either have contrast problems in one of the two players I just mentioned. 1st time i encoded today it had contrast problem in Nero Showtime...so i played it in Quicktime and it played well. The 2nd time i encoded another vid of similar content it looked bad in Quicktime but good in Nero Showtime. I'm upto my fifth encode and the pattern repeats. WTH is going on?

My second problem is also equally as weird. I never used the ASP Nero Digital codec, only once, but that was for high bitrate encodes just to see the quality, not as a comparison. Today I encoded the same clip in AVC and ASP of Nero Digital. To my shock, ASP looked almost the same in terms of quality as AVC. Isn't the AVC supposed to look better for the same bitrate?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

What about MPC+CoreAVC or MPC+ffdshow? And what about MPlayer or VLC? Try some more players...

[siddharthagandhi]

I know I can try more players, but I posted because I want to know why this is happening.

[foxyshadis]

AVC looks significantly better below 800 or so, and somewhat better below 1200-1500, but above that there isn't much visual difference unless you have eagle eyes. And that's for high, main profile might even be below that.

As for contrast problems, well, maybe the original movie had them? Hard to say. Are they the same sort of contrast problem (greyish blacks and whites) in both, or is one grey and the other blown out?

[siddharthagandhi]

Yea I did some testing and found that out. I normally encode at 2 mbps so according to your scale that would mean I would not see a difference. And also, I examined the two videos, and as slight as it is, the AVC still has a slight bit of detail higher than the ASP. Also, ASP didn't seem to work well with high-motion scenes. In fact the ASP high motion defect was so evident that I'm deciding to stick with the LOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNG encoding time of AVC instead of ASP, which is a lot faster.

The contrast problem still puzzles me. It doesnt happen anymore, but that might be because I changed my source clips. The previous clips were very dark and in low light scenes. It doesnt matter that much, but still wondering why that could happen..

and the contrast problem is a lighter screen....
the original movie definetly did not have them...

[Limobar]

The contrast problem occurs when you're using the decoder twice at the same time. For example, in Nero, whenever you see a video screen in the GUI (see picture), it means that the decoder is active. Starting a video at the same time, will give you the contrast problem.

http://i2.tinypic.com/vhxdlj.jpg

When the problem occurs and it is not obvious that the decoder is already active, check the system processes. It could be possible that the decoder is 'hanging'.

[siddharthagandhi]

I get the contrast problem all the time, with or without another video playing in the background. I did check the system processes but the decoder isnt hanging. And the problem seems to have solved itself after formatting my computer for a problem unrelated to this one. Nero Showtime plays everything correctly, Quicktime still doesn't.

[DarkZell666]

Quicktime still doesn't.
Quicktime never will, dump it ! xD