Suggested Filters for The Simpsons

[HartleySan]

I encode several episodes and they look okay, but I think I can do better. Basically, I encoded in Gordian Knot, ran IVTC on the clip and also added the cpu=6 argument to the mpeg2source() function. Other than that, I didn't change any of GK's settings. The output's pretty good, but a little blocky at spots. Also, I'm encoding to 512x? (4:3) at 175 MB per episode. Any suggestions to make it look better and/or filters I can add? Thank you.

[Dr.Khron]

I've encoded the first 8 seasons of The Simpsons...
However, I use MeGUI and x264 inside MKV.

I would NOT recomend using the deblocking option inside of mpeg2source() ... Most of the blockiness is from faint noise in solid color areas: the encoder thinks its seeing a gradient when its not. Therefore, you need to tweak the encoder settings, not just the AVS. x264 has an "Adaptive Quant" feature that helps; I do not know if Divx or Xvid has something that works the same way.

Here is my "master" AviSynth script:

#import Mpeg video
DGDecode_mpeg2source("source")

edeintted = AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEven().EEDI2(field=-1)
tdeintted = TDeint(edeint=edeintted,order=1)
tfm(order=1,clip2=tdeintted).tdecimate(hybrid=1)

crop( 8, 0, -8, 0)

undot()

spline36resize(640,480)

FluxSmoothST(7,7)

hqdn3d(2)

LimitedSharpenFaster(strength=80)

#VMToon(strength=36, sharpen=false)


The heavy denoising does wonders for the blockiness.
They only two that I customize for each episode is LSF and VMtoon... Some episodes need line darkening, and others don't. They pretty much all need LSF, but I tweak the amount of sharpening for each episode.

Note that I'm using VMToon strictly as a line-darkener, since I am sharpenign with LSF. There are faster and "better" options for line-darkening, but I like VMToon.

Hope that helps.

[HartleySan]

I don't completely understand everything in your master script, but nevertheless, I will try and understand it and it's very helpful. Thank you.

[HartleySan]

I see that you're encoding to 640x480. What's your average file size per episode? Also, where can I get VMToon? Always hearing about it. Thank you.

[Guest]

Also, where can I get VMToon? Google.com

[buzzqw]

download latest masktools (v2.0a32.zip) and look at documentation

BHH

[Dr.Khron]

What's your average file size per episode?

Well, when I started, I was using 2-pass encodes at ABR = 1250 BPS, which produced files of around 210 MB each (video only).
Around season 4, I switched to using CRF (constant quality mode), so my file sizes vary a lot more...

CRF is not available in Xvid or Divx... Frankly, I think its one of the major advantages of x264. Now that I'm a CRF believer I'll never go back. I encourage you to give x264 a try.

[HartleySan]

Thank you for the recommendation. I've heard a lot about x264, but know nothing about it. I will look into it though. Is it basically just another codec, like DivX and Xvid, but better? Thank you very much.

[HartleySan]

Also, what's MeGUI and MKV?