VFW vs CLI for x264 and x264 guide

[mjr4077au]

Hello, I am new here and already the IVTC guide on doom9 has helped me encode dodgy NTSC DVDs better.

I am not a n00b to XviD Encoding but I am to x264 and I cannot seem to get the quality settings good and my x264 encodes don't look as good as my XviD encodes.

I am using Gordian Knot ATM for all my encoding. Would I be better off just using GK for XviD and MeGUI for x264 so I can use the CLI version?

And about a x264 guide, I Was looking at the Doom9 guide and while it provides great explanations about settings, the pictures don't resemble what Gordian Knot shows me for x264 settings and it doesn't give optimal values (unless defaults are best but then again, not looking better than XviD with defaults).


DVD's I am trying to encode that dont look good are "Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Requiem for a Dream. It as if as soon as it see's anything that is dark enough for the user not to notice, it just doesn't give any bits to that area and I have tried deblocking but that only makes it worse. I also try to keep the bits per pixel above 0.230 to keep quality nice.

Any help would be very much appreciated, Cheers, Mitch.

[Dark Shikari]

Your settings must be really screwed up if your x264 looks worse than your Xvid; they're not even in the same league quality-wise. What are your settings?

[mjr4077au]

Here are some screencaps from some Movies i've ripped. XviD seems to roll off better than x264 does when to comes to awkward or black areas.

All movies had a bit to pixel ratio of atleast 0.230

[mjr4077au]

Here are my x254 settings. Could the version that comes in K-Lite be dodgy?

[themostestultimategenius]

Try using Shartooth's HQ-Insane profile with his eqm avc hr matrix or M4G's High Detail Matrix.

[mjr4077au]

I can't see anywhere in Gordian Knot's x264 config panel to load a profile or a custom matrix. So now the first question comes in, Should I be using MeGUI (CLI) rather than VFW for encoding with x264? I can load both with MeGUI

[mjr4077au]

Try using Shartooth's HQ-Insane profile with his eqm avc hr matrix or M4G's High Detail Matrix.

I'll re-rip Requiem for a Dream in MeGUI with the recommendations from themostestultimategenius and report back in 6 hrs.

EDIT: Where can I find this profile?

[mjr4077au]

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!!

Using M4G's High Detail Matrix and my own custom settings in MeGUI results in a PERFECT rip. The difference is night and day, the ground and the sky, the 386 in my closet and the QX6700 I sold at work the other day. It's fantastic.

If you ABX the first 2 pictures with the other ones I posted, you'll see the difference. There might be some room for improvement as in the third picture, there is some nasty blocking going on in the right hand top corner. That is probably my fault as I screwed the Subpixel refinement setting and had it one 1 by mistake

[Tack]

One can spend an awfully long time tweaking x264 options to taste. I went through the whole process a few weeks ago, doing blind tests on myself, trying to determine what improved subjective quality and what hurt it.

You might also look at the prestige matrix (search doom9), which I prefer over *.mp4 guy's HD matrix. His HRM matrix is better still, but is really bit-demanding.

Adaptive quantization was the final nail in the xvid coffin for me. AQ pretty much eliminated my remaining complaints about x264. Not that x264 is perfect, but I find it's now on average much better than xvid.

Here are the settings I use:

crf=20:frameref=10:partitions=all:bframes=4:threads=0:ssim:psnr:subq=7:mixed_refs:bime:nodct_decimate:weight_b:nofast_pskip:me=umh:me_range=24:cqm=prestige.matrix:brdo:b_pyramid:aq_strength=0.8:aq_sensitivity=17:8x8dct

[mjr4077au]

One can spend an awfully long time tweaking x264 options to taste. I went through the whole process a few weeks ago, doing blind tests on myself, trying to determine what improved subjective quality and what hurt it.

You might also look at the prestige matrix (search doom9), which I prefer over *.mp4 guy's HD matrix. His HRM matrix is better still, but is really bit-demanding.

Adaptive quantization was the final nail in the xvid coffin for me. AQ pretty much eliminated my remaining complaints about x264. Not that x264 is perfect, but I find it's now on average much better than xvid.

Here are the settings I use:

crf=20:frameref=10:partitions=all:bframes=4:threads=0:ssim:psnr:subq=7:mixed_refs:bime:nodct_decimate:weight_b:nofast_pskip:me=umh:me_range=24:cqm=prestige.matrix:brdo:b_pyramid:aq_strength=0.8:aq_sensitivity=17:8x8dct



Thanks, I will give your settings a go after I finish re-ripping Requiem for a Dream (Like the 5th time!!)

[mjr4077au]

I haven't given those settings mentioned a try yet but I have played around with my own abit more and I have it rather perfect at the moment. Definetly better than XviD, though XviD is alot faster to encode. The way I have it now, it took nearly 12hrs on a AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (XviD is 4-5hrs).