MeGUI x264 presets.

[quantum5uicid3]

He's using the old profiles, the "insane" profile now is just crf 17, not a 2pass.

There have been many changes to x264 since Sharktooth did those profiles and their use is strongly discouraged. The megui profiles as they exist now are more or less simple device presets with crf going from 17-23 in 1.5 increments and a 2 pass for each device. 2pass is only needed now when you need an exact target bitrate.

So on all presets you're encouraged to change the speed to your preference and use the bitrate calculator to find bitrate. Then just save them as you like them.

[easy2Bcheesy]

So, how do I change the new Insane preset to give me the same quality as the old one? I realise that its use may be "discouraged", but the bottom line is that I am encoding 720p on an extremely tight bitrate. The old preset took a long time to encode but the results were worth it. The new preset doesn't give me the quality I need.

I'd be happy to a straight A to B comparison, but right now I can't, since I don't have the old preset any more!

[lucamark]

So, how do I change the new Insane preset to give me the same quality as the old one?

Try with 1pass crf=17 preset= more slower as you can..

[MuLTiTaSK]

@easy2Bcheesy

import my attempt to duplicate it x264_dp_ iNSANE2.xml (bit.ly/8I4E5l)

let me know how the project comes out i just might duplicate all of them to the new switches;)

[easy2Bcheesy]

That is an enormous improvement on the new Insane - many thanks :)

[MuLTiTaSK]

@easy2Bcheesy

your welcome i'am glad you liked it;)
alot has changed with x264 since ST created those older presets the lastest presets are mainly using x264 defaults with specific tweaks for devices rather then quality reason you noticed the quality loss

[carlo_0000]

hello
i update megui today and the profils

but

it that normal that 1 st pass is 2 times slower than before ?

i olways use best quality insane dxva profils

and when i start the queud jobs it take some long time before cpu is used (i see only disk acces)

i olso notice that x264 use more that 1 gigas of the pagefile.sys and slowdown the computer performance

with the old megui the 1st pass starded immediatly (using the cpu)

[QuadraQ]

Just updated megui and got the new profiles (they look good). I've used the AVCHD in the past, and it was a two pass encode. The new one "AVCHD (DVD5/9) - High Quality" seems to be running as a one pass. Are you using some new magic in x264 to accomplish this?

Another question: The unrestricted profiles and the DXVA profiles seem to have been consolidated. Does this mean that I can take advantage of my DXVA compatible system (for greater encoding speed) while still creating an unrestricted x264 MKV?

[nurbs]

Depends on the hardware you have. If you want to be 100% sure it plays you should restrict it to level 4.1 and set the appropriate vbv parameters. As long as you don't manually enter the number of reference frames the --level setting will automatically restrict the number.

[rtjnyoface]

You could use mediainfo on some of the files you used your preferred configuration on and it will at least give you some ideas as to what new preset could be considered the same. Mediainfo will give you a couple of things such as the # of reference frames, the level of subpixel refinement, trellis use, I'm not sure what else ATM.

So, how do I change the new Insane preset to give me the same quality as the old one?

So increase the amount of analysis, reference frames, motion estimation and such.

I'd be happy to a straight A to B comparison, but right now I can't, since I don't have the old preset any more!

You might have to if you aren't able to have a final product similar to what you had prior to the changes.

Hope it helps somewhat. (Ha, put it on placebo ;)).

[Poutnik]

I have found than in my MeGUI "Unrestricted (DXVA)" X264 profiles is everywhere Trellis disabled.
I am confused - either something is wrong either I do not understand it well.

I always thought Trellis does not affect decoding, at least not to corrupt HW compatibilty.
I have also always thought at least Trellis=1 is needed for SubME 6+ for RD optimization.

[ZEXEL]

I've been update to new MegUI version & find all new preset profile also I really happy with that, but could you tell me where is the same/better quality picture profile for "x264: Standalone-HD-DVD" since it gone... cheers...

[ShadowVlican]

hm.. i guess someone should edit the first post of this thread to notify newcomers that the profiles are now obsolete

and perhaps remove them from MeGui altogether

[iko417]

remove them, never used them

[Wikke]

I just updated to new presets in Megui. I have always used Standalone AVCHD presets and I was satisfied with the results. Normal speed for:
720p encoding was first pass 115 FPS and second pass 85 FPS. Needed time for encoding the whole film was 1 hour.
1080p encoding was first pass 55 FPS and second pass 45 FPS. Encoding time for the whole film was 2 hours.

Now with new updated presets the whole encoding is taking much more time to finish the job.

I am now encoding 1080p material with Standalone AVCHD presets and the framerate for first pass is only 15 FPS!!! I guess the second pass will be only 5 FPS.
Are the others facing the same problem, or is there something wrong with my updates?

Is the quality with new presets really so much better that it is taking 3 times more time to finish the job?

[blsbball]

Anyone else notice any downgrade in quality from the older unrestricted const quality insane x264 and the new dxva unrestricted? I feel like the older profile, although it produced a larger file, produced much better results.

[Poutnik]

I have found than in my MeGUI "Unrestricted (DXVA)" X264 profiles is everywhere Trellis disabled.
I am confused - either something is wrong either I do not understand it well.

I always thought Trellis does not affect decoding, at least not to corrupt HW compatibilty.
I have also always thought at least Trellis=1 is needed for SubME 6+ for RD optimization.

Reformulated question - is Trellis safe to use for DXVA ( and evantually HW players ?

[J-Wo]

I'm trying out these presets with MeGUI to convert my DVD rips to MKV for better playback compatibility with my WDTV Live. I want to preserve quality so I'm thinking of using the DXVA-SD-Extra Quality preset. How does this differ from Standalone-PS3-Xbox360? I know the WDTV Live is less restrictive than PS3 or Xbox360, so maybe I should try Unrestricted 2pass Extra Quality? I'm not sure what file size/bitrate I should aim for but will ~2000 kbps (2cd file size) yield good results? Thanks.

[nurbs]

Reformulated question - is Trellis safe to use for DXVA ( and evantually HW players ?

Trellis is purely an analysis option and therefore doesn't influence hardware players.

[Beak]

Hi. I hope one of the devs will confirm or assist the slowdown in encoding speeds. I am crawling now at about 2 frames per second with the X264 Unrestricted 2 pass Extra Quality Preset.

The commandline reads

program --profile high --preset fast --tune film --pass 2 --bitrate 12228 --stats ".stats" --thread-input --b-adapt 2 --ref 3 --rc-lookahead 40 --me umh --direct auto --subme 7 --partitions all --trellis 2 --output "output" "input"

I would prefer to have the speed back as it looked quite good to me before.

Can anyone tell me what the arguments used to be for this preset?

Is there anyplace one can download the previous version of Megui and its updates?

[quantum5uicid3]

unfortunately the sharktooth presets are now illogical. just select the unrestricted (dxva) 2-pass preset and put the preset slider on fast. very fast or ultra fast would probably even be transparent at 12228.

[jace112]

I am a bit lost too :-(

Is there somewhere a comprehensive guide for the new presets?

[Chainmax]

Sorry for the crosspost, but I was not able to get bond to move my post here. My question was this:

I really like the way presets are laid out now, even with the amount of them it's easy to navigate through the list and select what you want. However, I do miss the PC-only profiles. I assume that the unrestricted DXVA ones would be the replacement for the live action ones (would that be correct?), but what about the AE-something ones? Could those be included back?

[cmw]

I'm a bit confused about the new presets. I deleted the old ones and forced reupdate so I assume I have the most recent ones. Besides the many device specific presets there are also the Unrestricted/DXVA ones and besides changing the crf, the presets are the same, having the built-in x264 preset set to medium no matter which one I choose. I realise that I can set the slider to another value, but what is the purpose of megui presets then if they don't do that for you based on their purpose? It just doesn't make sense to me so I though I better ask, maybe theres just something wrong with my presets...

Hmm also every device preset has the x264 slider set to medium... is it really supposed to work this way now? You choose a preset and then select an additional preset level? It just seems a bit odd...

[eugenio]

I'm a bit confused about the new presets. I deleted the old ones and forced reupdate so I assume I have the most recent ones. Besides the many device specific presets there are also the Unrestricted/DXVA ones and besides changing the crf, the presets are the same, having the built-in x264 preset set to medium no matter which one I choose. I realise that I can set the slider to another value, but what is the purpose of megui presets then if they don't do that for you based on their purpose? It just doesn't make sense to me so I though I better ask, maybe theres just something wrong with my presets...

Hmm also every device preset has the x264 slider set to medium... is it really supposed to work this way now? You choose a preset and then select an additional preset level? It just seems a bit odd...

I was intrigued by this too, so I take action to discover this misteriuos behavior, heres what I found.
When you want to encode only the video alone, choose ¨enqueue¨, you can choose the preset bar, very fast, ultrafast fast medium slow slower very slow placebo. the same for audio then mux.
When u want to encode both video and audio u choose the ¨encoder settings¨of both then autoencode chossing the container filesize or bitrate,
now u got it or dont.

[FirstBorg]

Hi!

Can you recommend a x264 profile or settings to convert a dvd to mkv?

Im backing up my dvds and created thus far several mkvs, with 2 audiotracks, each an mp3 stream with around 200 mb, and a final size of 1.46 gb, so it leaves around 1 gb for video data, but Im still not happy with the video quality, even with 2 pass. maybe Im doing something wrong.

Any advice? Im always using one click encode, and in there a x264 profile, two pass and thats all the settings I can remember :)

[akby]

i have a question about the presets

if i want to do an encode based on quality, such as crf 21, then shouldnt technically any preset i use give me the same "quality" of a movie. i mean choosing between a "medium" or a "placebo" should give me the same result quality-wise as long as i dont change the crf quantity. or is there something that i'm not getting here?

so my question basically is, do the presets matter in an encode session wherein the bitrate or final size doesnt matter?
also if i choose a higher preset such as placebo, should it reduce the size of my final encode?

just a few queries. hope someone can answer them

[nurbs]

It will give you the same quality in as far as the rate factor can be considered a measure of quality. So it's not constant quality, but the best approximation we currently have. You'll always get the rate factor you requested and slower settings will give you better quality per bitrate, but different options also change the meaning of the rate factor. Slower options don't necessarily mean a smaller final size and faster option, like maybe turning of the psy optimizations, can result in quality loss that is not compensated or in the worst case might be amplified by the change in the resulting filesize.

[akby]

right. i think i get it. thank you

[Takie]

I own a Pioneer BDP-LX71 bluray player and use MeGui to re-encode movies to be AVCHD compliant(DVD5 disk) on my player.

This used to work great but I forgot to save my presets when I recently did a fresh OS install. I now use an adjusted "AVCHD insane" preset but get no picture on my bluray player with these settings:

cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=34 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=2 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=17.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=14000 / vbv_bufsize=14500 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00 / pulldown=0 / nal_hrd=1

I first taught b_pyramid=1 was causing the problem but this was changed in the above presets and still no picture. Any ideas what could be the problem? I don't want to burn DVD after DVD with different settings to trail and error correct it. Thx

[pelle412]

I own a Pioneer BDP-LX71 bluray player and use MeGui to re-encode movies to be AVCHD compliant(DVD5 disk) on my player.

This used to work great but I forgot to save my presets when I recently did a fresh OS install. I now use an adjusted "AVCHD insane" preset but get no picture on my bluray player with these settings:

cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=34 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=2 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=17.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=14000 / vbv_bufsize=14500 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00 / pulldown=0 / nal_hrd=1

I first taught b_pyramid=1 was causing the problem but this was changed in the above presets and still no picture. Any ideas what could be the problem? I don't want to burn DVD after DVD with different settings to trail and error correct it. Thx

What's the resolution of your video? Remember it has to be specific such as 1920x1080 or 1280x720 and can't be something in between.

[Takie]

I always make sure that resolution is 1280x720, so that's not the issue

[quantum5uicid3]

x264 version? tsmuxer options? burning with udf 2.5?

[Takie]

Latest x264 version trough Megui development update server (right now rev. 1442). Tsmuxer with "AVCHD disk" output and burned with nero using udf 2.5.

I'm pretty sure it is some x264 preset that's causing the problem. I just don't know which one.

[rapscallion]

@takie...these are the new presets that you should be using for avchd:

heres new preset with bluray and avchd updated for new hrd switch. i added a "max compatibility (Dxva)" with level 4.1 and vbv 40000 too. if it don't work with all cards support avc acceleration plz post.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zeyydehngrm

[FirstBorg]

how is that with the constant quality? the higher the number, the better the quality?

[lucamark]

how is that with the constant quality? the higher the number, the better the quality?

lower CQ for better quality...

[quantum5uicid3]

oops forgot u said that. plz post your command line. i have to think about what's what with the mediainfo stuff. :)

[Takie]

I downloaded and used your presets from a few posts earlier but without results. AVCHD disk is detected but upon play screen stays black. Command line output from the MeGui re-encode:

vfw4x264.exe" --crf 18.5 --thread-input --profile high --level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 4 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --vbv-maxrate 14000 --vbv-bufsize 14500 --sar 1:1

I do have a few working AVCHD disks from before my format. I checked them with Mediainfo but for some reason they don't list the used x264 presets under "encoding settings".

[quantum5uicid3]

this may or may not be true, but i think i read at one point that u must output to ".264" for avchd, so i always did it this way, that's one suggestion. ive tested files from komisar 1442 on a samsung BD-P1590 and no prob here, so i'm confused. do you have easy access to another standalone? it could be some quirk unique to that model? post all the mediainfo for the stream. here's one that i just tested as working.

ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Muxing mode : Container profile=Unknown@4.1
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 6mn
Bit rate : 3 893 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 3 982 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.176
Stream size : 3.45 GiB (84%)
Writing library : x264 core 85 r1442kMod 781d300
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=64 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=6 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=2 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=3982 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=17300 / vbv_bufsize=17000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=4:1.00 / pulldown=0 / nal_hrd=1

[rapscallion]

@quantum
I notice from the above that there are a number of variances from your latest (and previous) avchd presets.

Without doing a side by side comparison, I see the following, at first glance :

Deblock 1:-1-1 vs 1:0:0
Ref Frames 5 vs 3
Subme 10 vs 7
Trellis 2 vs 1
b_pyramid=1 vs strict
nal_hrd=1 vs vbr
vbv maxrate/bufsize =17300 /1700 vs 14000/14500

I'm sure there are others but just curious about them vs the presets.

[quantum5uicid3]

deblock is a personal proeference thing

you can use higher refs when resolution is lower, the megui included preset was really made for 1080p compatibility.

subme 10 and trellis 2 will both be set if u put preset slider on placebo i believe.

bpyramid=1 is strict and nal_hrd=1 is vbr

the max bitrate of a avchd on a dvd including the audio is 18 Mbps, 14000/14500 is the reported highest possible setting to work on all standalones(from scouring the forum, i think i got it from the multiavchd author, which is a fine prog btw). so using a single 640ac3 track assumes 17300 would be ok.

here's my actual AVCHD DVD5/9 preset for 720p:

program --tune film --pass 2 --bitrate 5277 --stats ".stats" --slow-firstpass --thread-input --b-adapt 2 --rc-lookahead 24 --merange 64 --me umh --direct auto --subme 10 --partitions all --trellis 2 --no-fast-pskip --aq-mode 4 --profile high --level 4.1 --bframes 3 --ref 6 --slices 4 --aud --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --vbv-bufsize 17000 --vbv-maxrate 17300 --output "output" "input"

now that aq-mode 4 has been commited, it will soon change back to aq-mode 2 though. i think i could set ref higher, but "quality increase is marginal greater than 5" or something like that

[rapscallion]

Thanks for the explanation ! I almost always encode @ 720p.

[sniarn]

I'm about to do some encoding using megui and I want to maximize compatibility with various devices. I'm currently playing the files using a Popcorn Hour, but that may change in the future and I don't want to risk having to reencode all my files. So which preset group should I pick from? AVCHD or Blu-ray? What is the difference between the two?

[forum king]

guys i have noticed that in the newer build with the slider options, i am having too much confusion , so much so that i have stopped encoding for now..
i have posted my queries at no of places but haven't been able to get any satisfactory answer ( which a person with limited knowledge and info like me can understand )..
i would like to ask something here as well coz i feel this is the most appropriate section.

1.. which profile/ profiles are good for low bitrate (i have a quad core with 8GB ram ) encodes, this is kinna passion of mine to compress my dvd collection to the smallest , and also try same things on a few of HD stuff.

2.. if we see in breakup then what should be good value/s for following
subme :
trellis:
b frames :
ref frames:
b adept :
deblocking :
MV prediction
trellis:
ME range:
Partitions:
(please suggest all these not withstanding the quality of SOURCE at all - just a single factor i want to be detrimental and that is the bit rate )

i used to use unrestricted 2 pass HQ till about 4 months back as back then the updates were unstable and lots of issues were there but recently i have updated my megui totally , but am totally lost with the new profiles. and encodes are coming so blocky and crappy when i am using the slider to slow settings.

[nurbs]

The slider controls almost all the options you listed. Slower slider settings will give you higher quality at a give bitrate, but will take more time to encode. The slider settings were selected in a way that the settings that give the most quality gain for the least speed loss are applied first when you move it to the right, and the settings that give most speed gain for the least quality loss when you move it to the left.
There is also the tuning dropdown menu were you can choose a source type like "film" or "animation". This will influence deblocking and some other settings.
You can look at the options applied for the different slider presets and tuning by typing "x264 --fullhelp" in a CLI window when you are in the directory where x264 is.

I don't use the presets that come with megui, but IIRC they all use the normal speed and only use different CRF values. The CRF lets you choose an output quality, but you won't know the resulting bitrate. The preset slider and tunings mentioned above will change the bitrate you get at a certain CRF, because they change the meaning of CRF. What you should do is two things.
First you do a couple of encodes with the preset slider in different positions to determine what speed you are comfortable with. Then you do encodes with different CRF values, but the same preset slider setting to see what output quality is acceptable for you. You can then encode all your files with these settings and you won't be wasting bitrate on less complex files and more complex files will automatically get the bitrate you need.

The above is a bit oversimplified, but should give you at least an idea.

[disklib]

Thanks for that suggestion nurbs. It's very helpful.

I'm one of the users who got stranded when the various updates broke the functionality of Sharktooth's presets. While I always appreciated the work he and others did, I never realized how dependent I was on them until last Sept(?). A few weeks ago I finally just jumped in and started doing tests to see what I could figure out. Your suggestion helped confirm I'm on the right path.

You mentioned you don't use the MeGUI presets, but can you comment on this observation? It seems that I need to decrease the CRF rate by 1 to get similar results to what I was getting 6 months ago.

Specifically, these are the old settings (based on Sharktooth's old "Unrestricted HQ preset):

program --profile high --crf 17.0 --ref 5 --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --deblock -1:-1 --subme 6 --trellis 2 --partitions all --me umh --thread-input --output "output" "input"

The new settings that seem comparable in output are this:

program --profile high --preset slower --tune film --crf 16.0 --thread-input --ref 3 --output "output" "input"

Is this a matter of the x264 CRF reference point changing over the last 6 months? Or is this based on something else that I'm not yet understanding?

[Dark Shikari]

program --profile high --preset slower --tune film --crf 16.0 --thread-input --ref 3 --output "output" "input" --profile high, --thread-input, and --ref 3 are redundant.Is this a matter of the x264 CRF reference point changing over the last 6 months? Or is this based on something else that I'm not yet understanding?No, nothing has changed. --crf 17 is still --crf 17.

[disklib]

Thanks Dark Shikari. Your reply made me realize that my settings were based on tweaks to one of the new MeGUI presets. My goal is to become independent of them so I don't find myself "stranded" again as you and the other developers continue your work.

Based on that, can you answer these 2 questions please:

1 - In MeGUI's "x264 configuration dialog", is the "scratchpad" preset the equivalent of x264's default settings? In other words, is it a neutral point for me to start adjusting the CRF, Tunings and Presets slider from?

2 - Regarding the "--profile high" command being redundant, is it rec to leave the "AVC Profiles" pull-down set to "Autoguess"?

[nurbs]

1)
The defaults will look like
program --output "output" "input"
possibly with a --thread-input because IIRC megui always puts that in the command line.
2)
Yes.