Nero Recode Cinema and HDTV

[PuzZLeR]

I've been experimenting with Nero Recode's "Cinema - AVC" and "HDTV - AVC" profiles of late. It would be nice to get my video more compliant for future HD and BD/HD-DVD formats if I could do it today instead of tomorrow.

I notice however, that these higher profiles only have a few new features that can be enabled.

A. You can increase the Motion vector range interval to -256 to 255.75 instead of just -128 to 127.75.

B. You can enable 8x8 Transform.

C. You are allowed up to 3 Multiple Reference Frames (MRFs) in the Cinema profile and up to 4 Multiple Reference Frames in the HDTV profile (as opposed to only 2 in the Standard profile).

I understand the latter (C) slows encoding and has an effect on decoding with playback among certain players. Even Nero's own ShowTime doesn't accept this video over a certain amount of MRF's.

What about A and B? They play fine in ShowTime but I'm still concerned about these profiles. Other than encoding, and maybe better quality, do A and B have any effect on decoding? Do they slow it down or affect compatibility in some way in general?

Or, what's the difference between Main and High anyway in AVC? Or, what's the difference between Level 3, 5, etc.?

(BTW - Only the Nero HDTV AVC profile outputs in High Profile, Level 3)

Thanks in advance. I appreciate any input as much of the info on this is rather confusing.

[writersblock29]

You might find many of the answers you seek in the user's manual. Here's the link:

ftp://ftp6.nero.com/user_guides/nero7/recode/NeroRecode_Eng.pdf

I'm sorry that it won't address every question you have, but it might clear up at least a few things.

[PuzZLeR]

Hey writersblock29,

It's amazing how this info is so difficult to find on the 'Net. I guess it's part of having a newer technology such as AVC. Decoding compatibility standards are probably still a work in progress.

Yup, been through the manual. Yes it touches on some concepts, but I definitely feel, like most tech manuals for larger companies, that the writers were writers only, and really had nothing to do with the development work to begin with.

But it does have some info nevertheless. Thanks.

I would love to know what most Recode users have as settings.