ATI Video Encoder

[ViciousXUSMC]

Hey guys, came across a new encoder a couple of weeks ago that is included in the ATI 8.74 drivers leak.

I just gave it my first try tonight on a FRAPS file I recorded of a Starcraft II replay. The main reason I wanted to give it a try is to see how good the hardware accelerated feature is.

I must say at first glance it is simply amazing! I took a 4gb FRAPS file and encoded it to a 150MB H264/AAC encoded MP4 in only about 2 1/2 minutes on my Laptop!

This is probably almost 5-10x faster than the time it would have taken me with MeGUI using x264 and NeroAAC and it was easier it just automated the entire process.

My laptop is a Asus G73 it uses a core i7 720QM CPU and has a ATI Mobility 5870 GPU.

Here are the screen shots of the encoder I took.

Driver Information Screen of the ATI CCC
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/S9VLuC9mgmI/AAAAAAAADPg/QQHHGv435BM/ati%20driver.png

Hardware Information Screen
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/S9VLuQGtRaI/AAAAAAAADPk/qXqaEZK9WOQ/ati%20driver2.png

Video Converter option from the menu drop down
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/S9VLu-CrCbI/AAAAAAAADPs/6u0CBZoxQQI/ativc2.png

Main Converter Dialog
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/S9VLueJnQ2I/AAAAAAAADPo/qG031qypruU/ativc.png

Step 1 Select File
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/S9VLuz99sLI/AAAAAAAADPw/HWxJ9HRl5CM/ativc3.png

Step 2 Select Preset
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/S9VLxg2fXEI/AAAAAAAADP0/uBKhL9Hofmk/ativc4.png

Thats all there is too it, after you pick the preset (no tweaking to the presets) it starts the process.

It was so fast I couldn't believe it, I expected some low quality result but the results are identical or better than what I produce with high quality settings in MeGUI.

These were leaked drivers, no current official release of the ATI drivers includes this encoder but I hope it does soon, alternatively I hope my favorite GUI's like MeGUI find a way to use hardware acceleration like this.

So that concludes the "review" section.

Now I have a question, and thats the reason I visit this forum usually since you guys know more than me.

The primary reason I encode videos is usually FRAPS stuff, and it breaks it down into several files 4GB in size. This one replay was made up of 6 files.

I found the best way to handle this with the MeGUI route is to create my AVISynth script that combines all the files together (avisource="file1") ++ (avisource="file2") and so on.

I tried to use my avisynth script with the ATI converter and sadly it does not recognize it and so it wont work.

So for now I still have to do it the older/slower way. I was hoping you guys maybe have an alternative for me.

Is there a way I can encode all the files individually and then splice them together at the end without having to encode them all again?

Can I just use a Avisynth script and upload it to youtube with the script?

I hope ATI finds a way to let us use AVISynth scrips with their encoder that would just be the best, however for now any work around you can give me I will give it a shot.

I cant wait to see how fast this encodes on my desktop that has an even faster cpu/gpu.

[Gser]

Can I just use a Avisynth script and upload it to youtube with the script?
http://ghostisland.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/lolwut.jpg
The avs file is just a plain old text file. What on earth do you think Youpipe would do with it?

PS. How much did Ati pay you to promote their crappy products?

[Atak_Snajpera]

Ati encoder is probably the worst h.264 encoder ever released!

[ViciousXUSMC]

Nobody paid me... jeese why bother with meaningless responses like that when I really do have a question.

If you have to get into quality debates you probably didnt even take the time to knock together two of your braincells and read my post. My primary use of this encoder is for speed and for youtube.

Why would I want to spend all day encoding with insane settings to send it off to youtube to be butchered?

The other thing is how can you know how good the encoder is when its not released? Unless you also have gotten the newest leaked drivers and tried it yourself on a 5000+ series ATI card.

Speaking of quality though, it came out looking great to me, the file size is larger than what I had gotten with MeGUI (150mb for 1 4gb file, MeGUI was 500mb for 6x4gb files) but the speed was way faster and quality looked just as good without taking the time to compare the two directly.

[Atak_Snajpera]

The other thing is how can you know how good the encoder is when its not released? Unless you also have gotten the newest leaked drivers and tried it yourself on a 5000+ series ATI card.
Ati encoder is officially available from long time!

If you have to get into quality debates you probably didnt even take the time to knock together two of your braincells and read my post. My primary use of this encoder is for speed and for youtube.
Youtube will always re-encode your video. This means that source MUST be in the best quality you can achieve.

Why would I want to spend all day encoding with insane settings to send it off to youtube to be butchered?

No need to use insane settings. x264 delivers excellent quality at medium preset. Also you can improve quality by using lower CRF value.

Speaking of quality though, it came out looking great to me, the file size is larger than what I had gotten with MeGUI (150mb for 1 4gb file, MeGUI was 500mb for 6x4gb files) but the speed was way faster and quality looked just as good without taking the time to compare the two directly.
I have r4850 and I will show you later how terrible Ati encoder is!

[Dark Shikari]

This is probably almost 5-10x faster than the time it would have taken me with MeGUI using x264 and NeroAACShock! An encoder on super-fast settings is faster than an encoder on slow settings!

Next, at 11, rainclouds produce falling water.

[ViciousXUSMC]

The settings I used for my test were similar in quality, the hardware acceleration is the big difference here.

If I turn it off its just as slow on the ATI encoder.

Also while you can download the ATI encoder its not the same one that is in these new drivers.

Back on topic, is there a way to splice together the clips after having them encoded in a lossless fashion without need of encoding again?

[lnatan25]

Either I have a huge deja-vu moment, or I have read the same template text in a similar thread here before. :rolleyes:

[creamyhorror]

Reminds me of the guy claiming that Badaboom produces higher quality video than Ripbot264/x264, and much faster, too (http://digitalafterthought.blogspot.com/2010/04/badaboom-vs-ripbot264-objective.html):
Ripbot264 is a great encoding program. It has many more advanced features than Badaboom and allows for more control over the final video file. Also, it is free which is a huge bonus. Badaboom, on the other hand, has a great user-interface (which is more suited to the average user), has built in conversion-profiles for many more formats, and can convert videos MUCH faster bearing that you have a CUDA capable video card installed. In addition to speed, it is apparent (from these tests) that Badaboom is capable of producing a video with higher quality than Ripbot264. I guess what they say is true, "you get what you pay for".

[Washka]

In ATI u can`t set final size of your video. I want to my movie fit exactly to 4.7GB DVD. How u do that on ATI since there is no such a thing.
And yes i try that ATI Encoder and it`s crap in quality compared to x264.exe can do.

Maybe one day someone make all this settings built in ATI Encoder what we have now in x264.exe and than ATI Encoder will be usable ONLY "IF" make same quality as x264.exe. Until than i prefer quality not Speed.

Maybe Mainconcept with their new idea with OpenCL will be good.

edit: Just installed New Catalyst 10.4 on my 5870 and guess what. That encoder can`t even open a standard mpg file. Every player can open but that can`t. I think they should pay to someone serious to make this application to work.

Offtopic:I try Cyberlink Power Director. Small video clips are ok and fast to encode (with ATI) but if you want to make DvD there from DV-i camera source, your computer will die from swapping, maybe 4GB of RAM is not enough lol.

[sebazvideo]

The ATI hardware encoder is the biggest piece of garbage encoder ever produced, and it's a huge lie. There may be other h.264 encoders that are not too bad, although none seems better than x264, but the ATI one is just disgusting. ATI should be the recipient of a class action lawsuit for lying to customers that way.

[BigRedGrass]

maybe there is a solution for those ATI probs which ends in disconnects - at least it works on my PC.
it is not depend on graphical settings in IL-2 game but in the ATI Catalyst Control Center.
Since I used some standard settings like "High quality" or "Optimal quality" I never get a disconnect again.
and I hope, that this will be so for the next missions.