Quality preservation tips?

[n0an]

Hello,

I am and trying to understand the XViD/x264 settings to preserve the details from the movies. I am trying to backup some material on my HDD, so I wanted to know the settings to alter to preserve max. details when encoding. I do not have much HDD space, so I am making 1CD and 1/3DVD size backups.

What is a good way to preserve quality besides sharpening? :confused:

[Blue_MiSfit]

Don't sharpen (!!!!)

You will only increase the complexity of the image, and make the encoder's job much harder! Sharpen on playback, if you must!

Just keep the filters to a minimum, unless you're trying to fix a specific problem :)

Other than that - (in rough order of importance):

1) Use x264. Forget about Xvid, unless you really need to be compatible with a piece of hardware that doesn't support H.264.
2) Use the slowest possible preset you can stand. The slower you run, the better the quality.
3) If you have a very grainy / noisy source, experiment with denoising. A good fast choice is FFT3DGPU if you have a decent video card. If not, DeGrainMedian is extremely fast, and gives a big compressibility boost (but can cause some damage)
4) At these bitrates, you need to be using AAC audio. I'd suggest HE-AAC at ~96kbps for 2ch, and 192kbps for 6ch. Do your own testing of course, but you'll probably be very impressed by the results of Nero's AAC encoder. eac3to is a fantastic tool for automating conversions. For example:

eac3to.exe input.ac3 output.mp4 -192

Will output a 5.1ch 192kbps HE-AAC file (assuming a 5.1ch AC3 source)

~MiSfit

[n0an]

I am actually looking for tips on overall improving the quality. I use more of XviD due to compatibility issues with players. I can degrain or tweak colors in a video, but want to minimize the quality loss in encoding. For example, at same bitrate, XviD preserves less big details compared to x264. Is there a setting/matrix that can preserve the big, noticeable details in my encodes?

I own a HDTV, so the details further blur on the big screen. Any suggestions?

http://i47.tinypic.com/2mcsmt1.jpg

What do the settings in the red box do?

[Ghitulescu]

I am trying to backup some material on my HDD
COPY/PASTE.
I do not have much HDD space, so I am making 1CD and 1/3DVD size backups.
Why the studios still market DVD with the old and ineffective MPEG-2 format? Why not directly xvid*? Why do they pay more for DL disks when everyone is happy with DVD Shrink?
You can't maintain quality by increasing the compression. Already by transcoding you have a quality lost.

It happened once to see a commercial divx movie. Awfull!! especially because the distributor was forced to fit the movie to a CD, and despite the distributor had access to the original material (I mean he didn't transcode from DVD to divx like you but from studio material). Well, H.264 is better than divx/xvid, but don't count on that - better keep your DVDs as DVDs.

[n0an]

Yea, I got in touch with Blue_Misfit over MSN and he explained me the detailed difference. I am probably sticking to x264 for most stuff, but still XviD is nice when you don't have the latest player in your home ;).

[Remicade]

For resize: Lanczos or Spline ???

[Asmodian]

I like spline

[Blue_MiSfit]

Well, H.264 is better than divx/xvid, but don't count on that - better keep your DVDs as DVDs.


Ummm.... have you ever used x264? I absolutely guarantee that for all but the most pathological content (field blended garbage etc), you can get at least a 50% reduction in bitrate over MPEG-2 while being completely transparent. Much more in many cases.

MPEG-4 ASP isn't really capable of perfect transparency IMO, though it can be quite close with high bitrate matrices and so forth.

BluRay sources make this even more apparent!

~MiSfit

[Ghitulescu]

Ummm.... have you ever used x264?
BluRay sources make this even more apparent!
Not x264 but ProCoder and not for DVDs but for HDTV sources (mainly sat), ie H.264 -> H.264 recodings (to reduce the REF below 2 and/or the frame size to 1080). I was never in need to convert my DVDs, as a DVDR is about 0.5€, even less if noname, but I experienced two Nirvanas concerning hundreds of GB of documentaries that I'll never be able to obtain again (on not even 3 months old, occasionally used HDDs; my old SCSIs work almost non-stop for 6-7 years now). So HDD stockage, which normally included the conversion to a "spacewiser" format, is not an option for me.