Megui's advanced settings. Need more info.

[sebazvideo]

Recently I came across this great tool, which I use mostly for encoding from Vegas 8.0c to x264, using a plugin called Debug Frameserver in Vegas and a simple Avisynth script just to load the frameserved avi into Megui. My goal is to produce avc or h.264 elementary video streams from home videos shot in 1080i from an AVCHD camcorder. I'm encoding these videos in the "automated 2 pass" mode to 20480 bitrate to be able to author BD5s or BD9s, obviously because of a matter of price, being real BD-Rs still too expensive for saving everything in them except for really memorable events. 20 mbps seems to be about the highest bitrate at least my blu-ray player will accept, a little higher than that and it chokes on BDs played from regular DVD media.

What I would like to know is more about the Megui advanced settings inside the profiles. I've been using a slightly modified version of the standalone Blu-Ray profile and it looks pretty good but I would like to learn as much as I can about the advanced settings and what do they do, because I have better-than-basic knowledge about some of these things but some others are way over my head. I'm used to encoders from the commercial video software from Apple, Adobe, etc, that normally don't give the user so many options. I would like to know if I'm actually using the best settings for the type of encode that I'm doing.

I've searched for information on this but I've only found bits and pieces all over the place in forums mostly, but I don't have a lot of time to sit down and read gigantic threads to get to what I need. Can somebody point me to, or maybe write a complete guide to all the advanced settings and what they do? I'm especially interested in learning how do they improve video quality, and if any particular setting can provide better quality even if it takes much longer to encode.

It would be great for me to find a profile that would be accepted by DVD Architect 5.0b without forcing to re-encode, because so far every single encode I've done (and I've done about fifty) is accepted by this software but it says it will need to re-encode it. When I import into Adobe Encore CS4, it accepts the file without any re-encoding, and it plays just fine. Encore doesn't natively output to BD5 or BD9 but I can simply build to a folder or an image file and burn that to DVD with ImgBurn.

I really will appreciate any replies that can help me with this.

[chuck67]

Hope this helps.

http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings

[Dark Shikari]

Just use the presets/tunings. They'll give better results than any of MeGUI's presets.

(You'll need to ensure that you enable the appropriate options for Blu-ray compatibility though.)

[sebazvideo]

Just use the presets/tunings. They'll give better results than any of MeGUI's presets.

(You'll need to ensure that you enable the appropriate options for Blu-ray compatibility though.)

I like to know what each setting is for, and how it may increase or decrease picture quality.
Also, there is something broken between Megui and x264 because if I use the presets slider to anything that is not medium, encoding doesn't even start and the log shows this error:

Standard error stream: C:\Program Files (x86)\megui\tools\x264\x264.exe: unrecognised option `--rc-lookahead'

So that has to go on Medium each and every time.

One thing I'm specifically trying to avoid is extra blurring. I noticed that when I encode 1080i AVC video from my AVCHD camcorder to the same format, it introduces more movement blurring than if I encode to a very high bitrate in MPEG2. is there a setting to be applied for that purpose?

[Dark Shikari]

I like to know what each setting is for, and how it may increase or decrease picture quality.Just use the presets and tunings--they're there for a reason. You can read the wiki to learn about the various other settings, but you should generally trust that the developers know more about the settings than you do...Also, there is something broken between Megui and x264 because if I use the presets slider to anything that is not medium, encoding doesn't even start and the log shows this error:

Standard error stream: C:\Program Files (x86)\megui\tools\x264\x264.exe: unrecognised option `--rc-lookahead'

So that has to go on Medium each and every time.That's because MeGUI is currently broken and probably shouldn't be used until the devs fix their update server. Not to mention their commandline generator is completely utter broken and throws around all sorts of weird options for no reason whatsoever.

Until they fix it, use something that sucks less.One thing I'm specifically trying to avoid is extra blurring. I noticed that when I encode 1080i AVC video from my AVCHD camcorder to the same format, it introduces more movement blurring than if I encode to a very high bitrate in MPEG2. is there a setting to be applied for that purpose?Raise the bitrate. x264 already biases very heavily towards detail retention--we don't believe in the concept of "magic options" that make everything good but are off by default.

[sebazvideo]

Just use the presets and tunings--they're there for a reason. You can read the wiki to learn about the various other settings, but you should generally trust that the developers know more about the settings than you do...

That's not my point. Of course the developers know more than I do, but I like to learn more and know what each setting is for, rather than just take already made presets.

That's because MeGUI is currently broken and probably shouldn't be used until the devs fix their update server. Not to mention their commandline generator is completely utter broken and throws around all sorts of weird options for no reason whatsoever. Until they fix it, use something that sucks less.

What other GUI for x264 would you use instead? If you can name one that works and can use the 64 bit build of x264 that would be perfect.

[Dark Shikari]

That's not my point. Of course the developers know more than I do, but I like to learn more and know what each setting is for, rather than just take already made presets.That's what the wiki is for ;).What other GUI for x264 would you use instead? If you can name one that works and can use the 64 bit build of x264 that would be perfect.Don't know to be honest--haven't looked at GUIs since we introduced the preset system (except for MeGUI). I just use standalone x264.

[Keiyakusha]

sebazvideo
Take a look at Simple x264 Launcher (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=144140). All that you need to work with x264 is there.