(renamed): Encoding Results & Feedback

[osgZach]

Edit:

Ok I've ditched the idea of ffdshow, but made lots of progress. new posts below!

[thewebchat]

I'm pretty sure there's a big difference (in quality and speed) between

#EDI=NNEDI2(Field=-2)
#YadifMod(EDeint=EDI, Mode=1)

and plain old Yadif. Aside from that, most ffdshow filters are clones of AVS filters or MPlayer filters.

[osgZach]

Yeah I was thinking that too.

It did however come out VERY nicely, forgot to mentioned I also threw some Warpsharp in there too. Not quite as clean as the straight Avisynth script, however but very close and very respectable. Took care of a lot of the noise I was previously worried about so will maybe have to tweak the settings I used. Other than that, the only major flaw was very minor aliasing on edges in motion.

Only problem seemed to be using SRestore this time.. tiny stutters here and there, and visible blending artifacts during real time playback. Going to bed now, so for the hell of it will see what nixing SRestore does as far as a playable 30p file goes.

[osgZach]

I have a sample clip of the final encode result I thought I would share. I think its really good, using the lossless source for this encode it even looks excellent in Full Screen on my 19" 1280x1024 LCD.

I have learned a lot these past few days and I finally feel like I am getting somewhere. I've made quite a bit of progress in my overall quality goals but I am still stuck trying to figure out what I think is some Rainbowing that won't go away; It doesn't bother me at this point but if I can clean it up more then why not? In particular pay attention in the beginning where the camera is zooming in from the corridor, on the entryway to the Star Leaf's Bridge. The frame of the entryway goes through color shifting especially on the bottom half.

Click here for the ORIGINAL Source (Deinterlaced only) (http://www.oldskoolgames.com/videos/gfes/x264-Original-Source.mkv)
Source Details:
720x480, 23.976 Progressive, same encoding settings as sample below

Click here for the FILTERED download (http://www.oldskoolgames.com/videos/gfes/x264-Post-Cleanup.mkv)
Sample details:
Length: 8m:17s
Fps: 23.976 Progressive.
Codec: x264.
Settings: MeGUI Profile - DXVA-SD-Insane-Anime @ 1500kbps, Automated 2-Pass.
Audio: AC3 192Kbps, Stereo - English.
Container: MKV
Size: 105MB

Original Source:
720x480, IVTC'd & SRestore to 23.976p. Otherwise unfiltered.
Format: ffdshow/HuffYV12.AVI, Size: 3.141GB
Length: 8:17, Encode Time: 47m

EDI=NNEDI2(Field=-2)
YadifMod(EDeint=EDI, Mode=1)
SRestore(FRate=23.976)



Filtered Source, Filter Stage 1:
720x480 @ 23.976p
Format: ffdshow/HuffYV12.AVI, Size: 2.832GB
Length: 8:17, Encode Time: 1h:13m:42s

This was produced with the following code, imported into TMPGenc 4 Xpress, to apply its Noise Reduction filter. I just wasn't satisfied with other noise filters and TMPGenc's is so easy to use and tweak w/real-time feedback. The filters are also GPU accelerated via CUDA. Initially this was a two step process using the Avisynth script first, and then importing the AVI for just the filtering. But combining them seems like it will save some time since my GPU can keep up in real-time and the script is the real drain on performance.


d2vpath = "Eternal Story.d2v"
mpeg2source(d2vpath)
bifrost(interlaced=true)
EDI=NNEDI2(Field=-2)
YadifMod(EDeint=EDI, Mode=1)
SRestore(FRate=23.976)
Stab()
SSIQ(interlaced=false)
# Stab seems to have helped a lot with jittery lines and that kind of stuff. Almost to the point where AA isn't needed but not quite.

#TMPGenc Nose Filter Settings:
Still Picture Strength: 25 of 100, Range: Max
Time Strength: 100 of 100, Range: Max


Filtered Source, Filter Stage 2:
640x480 @ 23.976p
Format: ffdshow/HuffYV12.AVI, Size: 2.522GB
Length: 8:17, Encode Time: about 45 Minutes

I chose to make this the last step and insert Noise Filtering between because it seemed to look better than doing a single encode all in one script and then running it through TMPGenc. Plus it gives me pauses in long encoding runs so I can do other stuff on the PC if I get bored and want to play a game for a while or something.

AviSource("Eternal Story - First Cleanup.avi")
Undot()
aWarpSharp(8,2)
Crop(10,2,-10,-2)
Spline64Resize(640,480,0,0)
SharpAAMCmod


I feel pretty happy with the filter chain, but I'm wondering what anyone elses thoughts are. I have compared using Anti-Aliasing code both before and after the resize operation. Subjectively it looks a bit better after a resize and it also gave me a small performance boost.

My biggest problem is I cannot seem to get rid of some obvious rainbowing, and I'm not sure what to do at this point. I am legitimately happy with the quality of the encode as it is, but if there is something that can be changed in the First Filtering Stage then I'm open to suggestions.

Also I noticed something odd and I don't know if its a fluke or the fact that I am encoding without including any audio stream. I originally was gonna use an MP3 for my sample clip however I noticed that after I muxed them together the video started to produce very minor stuttering in some sections. There are parts where there is a bit of stutter as it is (it's very forgiving and I'm happy overall with it) but it seemed like the Mp3 caused new parts to sutter in a minor way and also amplified areas that already stuttered.

The video is 8:17.622 or something like that, however I haven't found a tool to let me exactly cut an audio section by entering precise start and end times, so I am wondering if that may be why. In any case I switched to using AC3 instead and those artificial stutters seemed to clear up quite a bit. For the AC3 cut I used Audacity and selected the range as best I could from a WAV file (8:17.6 something) and it seems I'm only left with stutters that were already there. I'm curious if this sounds like a real issue or is it in my head? ( don't see how as I can clearly tell a difference?).

last minute idea
One thought I have is that combining the first filtering w/TMPGenc is just too much and the program itself is causing the stuttering. Because looking at a previous encode the stuttering is not there from what I can tell. I will have to do another test and Filter THEN import the Avi into TmpGenc for Noise Reduction, hopefully this will prove correct on the stuttering issue..


Anyhow thanks for the help so far, really satisfied with the amount I've been able to clean everything up.

[Gavino]

Edit:
Ok I've ditched the idea of ffdshow, but made lots of progress. new posts below!
It might be a good idea to change the thread title then...

[osgZach]

I wanted to, but forgot how to do it on Vbulletin until I accidentally discovered how to do it just now.