DVD to AVC level

[Daryn]

I am about to archive all my DVD’s and have a question in relation to levels that I would really appreciate an answer to. I have searched the forum and could not find an answer.

What is the lowest level I can use when encoding a 480p DVD into an AVC file without affect quality or breaking compatibility with the level concept??

The reason I ask is I know the default is generally level 5.1 which creates compatibility issues with devise such as PS3. You may say just set it to what the device requires. Sure but I may get my hands on a different piece of hardware that has different requirements and I don’t wont to keep encoding DVD’s for specific hardware. I wont to get it right the first time and find hardware accordingly.

[foxyshadis]

2.1, you can see the chart on several websites with the maximum resolution/framerate/bitrate of each level. That's all a level defines though - devices also support all kinds of different bitstream capabilities, far more than just the profiles, so it's still worthwhile to encode targeting a device if you need all the quality you can get.

[Selur]

according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264#Levels you probably need Level 3 (or up), but see for yourself.

[Daryn]

foxyshadis and Selur. Thank you for your swift replies. I have already looked at the various websites such as the wiki site pasted above. On those sites I understood the Max video bit rate and the max resolution at frame rate and figured level 3.0 was probably designed for DVD, but the other specs such as Max microblocks per second, Max frame size, Max decode picture buffer size etc I have no idea about. Which was why I asked my question. Dose any one know if Level 3.0 is the intended level for a DVD rip. If I am looking to deep into a simple problem please feel free to tell me.

foxyshadis you feel level 2.1 will do the trick. Please correct me if I am wrong but I thought that level 2.1 will only allow 480x352 at 25 fps and a DVD is 480x720 at 25fps. So is level 2.1 not to low for DVD???

[Sagekilla]

Max macroblocks, frame size, and resolution all go hand in hand. Maximum macroblocks allowed determines maximum resolution so don't really worry about it. If you're trying to encode DVD, you'll probably want level 2.2, 3 or 3.1 since those fit the DVD resolution of 720x480/576 if anamorphically encoded. Otherwise, if it's resized to get rid of non-square pixels (i.e. 720x480 --> 848x480) you'll need to use 3.1 or higher since those exceed 3 and 2.2's max res.

Edit: You'll want to use either 3 or 3.1 actually, 2.2 has a really low frame rate.

[nurbs]

Since you are encoding for the PS3 I wouldn't worry too much about the level restrictions. Not all of the restrictions are enforced. For instance you can do a level 3.1 encode with p4x4 enabled and it will still play. Just use 3 or 3.1 and don't worry much about the rest.

[Daryn]

I had not even thought about the anamorphic effect on the width. Think I will go with level 3.1 and that will cover all my DVDs using the anamorphic option in handbreak.

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate your time.