[Poll] Which x264 preset are you using?

[asarian]

i'm lolling at the "i don't use presets" folks - seems like an e-stroking exercise for me. i trust the x264 devs to choose the most "sensical" options over something i read in a cli help page. only options i tweak are necessary in specific applications. i also suggest some folks look up the meaning of "placebo", as this preset is placed well within the "diminishing returns" plateau, and has never been suggested for credible encoding work.

I don't think mocking and/or discussing or questioning people's settings is very helpful to this poll. Way I see it, this was just an open invitation to gather what people are using, not why they are doing so (or why you think they should not be using something).

If I mnisunderstood the OP's intent, then I'm sorry.

[Soichiro]

i'm lolling at the "i don't use presets" folks - seems like an e-stroking exercise for me.
Of course. I only use custom settings so I can tell people I don't use presets and am superior to them because of it. I mean, why else would I do it? For actual practical reasons?

i trust the x264 devs to choose the most "sensical" options over something i read in a cli help page.
There's a reason these are defaults--they're intended to be good to use for the beginner, but can be tweaked by experienced encoders. I use a custom command line for two reasons. First, because I don't know when one of the presets is going to change, and I want to be sure that my settings stay the way I want them. Second, because I know what kinds of encodes I do, and I know what settings work best on those encodes. 99% of what I encode is anime, so I use specially tuned settings to give the best speed-to-quality ratio for MY needs. What if I like most of the settings in --preset veryslow, but I don't feel like --ref 16 helps any more than --ref 8? Well, I just turn it down to --ref 8. And what if I use filters like gradfun2dbmod to add dithering to my encodes? Then the default psy-rd and aq-strength settings for --tune animation won't be optimal for my encodes. I'll need something a bit stronger, though not quite as strong as --tune film or --tune grain. So now do you still think everyone who uses custom settings just "read [them] in a cli help page" and uses them as an "e-stroking exercise"?

[nm]

I don't use presets, but what I use is probably somewhere between slower and veryslow:

--keyint 400 --min-keyint 12 --ref 8 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --b-adapt 2 --bframes 8 --b-pyramid normal --weightb --direct spatial --subme 10 --trellis 2 --partitions all --psy-rd 0.8:0.1 --aq-strength 0.8 --me umh --merange 24 --open-gop normal --fade-compensate 0.5

--mixed-refs, --b-pyramid normal, --weightb and --direct spatial are defaults, so you could drop them from the command line. You don't explicitly set all the other defaults either.

--no-fast-pskip is a placebo-level setting. I'd say that --ref 16 would be a better choice with a similar speed penalty. Especially when you're encoding anime.


Personally, I'd simply use --preset veryslow and override/add the tunings that I like. If the presets are changed, there will be a very good reason for that and chances are that I'd need to adjust my settings in the same way. So, how about this:

--preset veryslow --keyint 400 --min-keyint 12 --direct spatial --psy-rd 0.8:0.1 --aq-strength 0.8
--open-gop normal --fade-compensate 0.5

[unmei]

I encode mostly anime from DVD using

--preset veryslow --ref 8 --aq-mode 2 --psy-rd 0.8:0.0 --aq-strength 0.8 --no-fast-pskip

It's funny how i seem to use almost the same "mods" to --veryslow as Soichiro.

Well, since i do a lot less with video lately than years ago and these are are mostly based on what i found years ago, it's maybe a good time to try out --ref 16 (read, the preset) instead of --no-fast-pskip, as nm suggests.

Oh, and this with --crf usually around 17, but can go from 15 to 20, depending on source and mood.

[Wishbringer]

--profile high --preset veryslow --tune film --slices 4 --level 4.0 --keyint 48 --min-keyint 2 --aq-mode 2 --aud --b-pyramid strict --nal-hrd vbr --open-gop bluray --vbv-bufsize 31250 --vbv-maxrate 15000 --direct auto

around --crf18 or --bitrate fitting to DVD5/9
it's my preset I use in RipBot264 for creating AVCHDs

With an Q9650 at 4.2GHz and 1200er Ram I need around 14 hours for an 2pass encode

[Soichiro]

--no-fast-pskip is a placebo-level setting. I'd say that --ref 16 would be a better choice with a similar speed penalty. Especially when you're encoding anime.]

I did some limited testing with --no-fast-pskip, and found that the speed penalty was actually negligible. Of course, the compression improvement was also very small, but with the speed difference my testing showed (exactly 0.0 fps), I figured it was okay to keep it in. I may have also been screwing up the tests somehow though. :p

And yes, I could take out some of those things that are on by default. I think the reason I still have them is because I haven't bothered taking them out of my batch script since they were made defaults (which was a long time ago, lol).

[nm]

I did some limited testing with --no-fast-pskip, and found that the speed penalty was actually negligible.

Ah, so it seems. I got less than 1 % speed difference too in a few quick tests. Somehow I remember it used to be much heavier..?

[Dark Shikari]

Ah, so it seems. I got less than 1 % speed difference too in a few quick tests. Somehow I remember it used to be much heavier..?Fast p-skip won't have much of a speed effect on extremely high bitrates.

[Soichiro]

Fast p-skip won't have much of a speed effect on extremely high bitrates.

You're right. I did a test at DVD resolution at 200 kbps (ABR), and the speed difference was much larger (15% difference vs. <1% at medium to high bitrates). However, the compression improvement was also much larger at the lower bitrate. It makes me wonder if perhaps --no-fast-pskip should be moved to another preset such as veryslow. It's clearly much more optimized than it used to be.

[Nephilis]

For example in my last encoding i used this values

[input was 1080p with DTS Audio and the output was 576p with 6CH AAC Audio]

x264 --profile high --bframes 8 --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid 1 --ref 8 --deblock -3:-2
--bitrate 2806 --rc-lookahead 50 --qpmin 15 --qpmax 25 --chroma-qp-offset -2 --aq-mode 1
--aq-strength 0.90 --pass 1 --stats "x264.stats" --no-mbtree --zones 124245,129455,q=25
--partitions all --direct auto --me umh --merange 32 --subme 9 --psy-rd 1.0:0.1
--trellis 2 --no-fast-pskip --output NUL input.avs --threads 6

x264 --profile high --level 4.1 --bframes 8 --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid 1 --ref 8 --deblock -3:-2
--bitrate 2806 --rc-lookahead 50 --qpmin 15 --qpmax 25 --chroma-qp-offset -2 --aq-mode 1
--aq-strength 0.90 --pass 2 --stats "x264.stats" --no-mbtree --zones 124245,129455,q=25
--partitions all --direct auto --me umh --merange 32 --subme 9 --psy-rd 1.0:0.1
--trellis 2 --no-fast-pskip --output output.mkv input.avs --threads 6

[J_Darnley]

--preset WTF! is right. What a mashed up selection of options.

[bob0r]

x264 --download-source :sly:

Ofcourse i download Elephant Dreams, every day.

[Caroliano]

I encode mostly anime. For HQ encodes I use:
--preset veryslow --tune animation --crf 16~22 --qcomp 0.75 --psnr --ssim

For --crf 26~35 I tune down AQ and psy-rdo. I'm thinking about add --no-fast-pskip to my encodes based on this thread. Sometimes I also change the deblocking strenght a little, 1 up or down.

For temporary lossless encoding, I usually use:
--preset veryfast --tune fastdecode --qp 0 --keyint 50

I defined this before the --preset superfast was created, so I don't know if it is an better choice now.

[Lathe]

There are many people who don't know what a console is, not to mention a batch file.

Consequently, they are being spoon-fed with GUIs by people who stumble upon Visual Studio Express, download it and throw some dialogs together in Visual Basic. As a side note, it's quite amusing how these guys anxiously advertise themselves as 'Developers'.

Sorry about this rant but I've been programming in C/C++ for 15 years and it sometimes turns my stomach when I look at the code of some of these 'GUIs'.

SEE... I TOLD you that you were very 'experienced'! :)

[Groucho2004]

SEE... I TOLD you that you were very 'experienced'! :)
Geez, how long did you have to search to dig that out? :eek:

[Lathe]

Geez, how long did you have to search to dig that out? :eek:

Heh heh... No, no... I was reading the thread anyway :)

Besides, you are on almost ALL of them anyway; an amoeba with a stump could find one of your posts...