Handbrake - H.264 - small image changes

[rpm8200]

Hi,

I hope I can describe my problem proper enough...I have done some encoding of my DVDs (Some TV series that sell in Boxes per season).

I did rip the DVDs to the PC by using DVDshrink. I disabled all audio tracks that I didn't need and all subtitles. I disabled the compression of the DVD as well and I disabled the vob splitting.

So after that I had vobs on my hdd with a size of ~1400 MB each single episode.

When encoding with handbrake I set handbrake to "normal" output setting. I have chosen MP4 and H.264 as codec. I decided to have an average Bitrate of approx. 1200 and I enabled 2 Pass encoding (together with "turbo 1st pass").

I don't do any changes to the output format (no resize), the resolution remains (4:3) at full D1 (PAL, 720x576).

The result is a file at about 500MB each episode. So the size I think is ok.

By viewing some episodes I would comment the overall quality not as good as original but still ok in my opinion. But if there are close ups of objects, say a close up of a face, where the person is only moving slightly there are "funny" effects. The head seems to remain still, but both eyes move up by one or two pixels. May also happen with an ear...??!! It seems like the codec identifies areas that only change marginally and keep them and move them in whole. Well, if it concerns faces (in close up views) this effect really looks strange and I would like to avoid it.

My objectives:

Keep the (compressed) Filesize or at least stay close to it (I don't want to convert 1400MB mpeg2 into 1200MB mp4)
Keep the tools I use (DVDshrink and Handbrake) as this is a combination that finally at least works and produces some output in a quite easy way (other tools did simply quit execution or did not complete the processing of a single episode (e.g. "Super")
keep H264 and mp4 as this can be decoded by all of my tech- gadgets



I am pretty sure the problem is the encoding with handbrake (not ripping with DVDshrink).

So my questions:


Does anybody know that effect I describe (is there a name for it?)?
Does anybody have a clue how to get around this problem?
Are there better settings for handbrake to complete such conversions, if yes... which ones?

[Groucho2004]

With proper settings, x264 should produce very good quality at this resolution/bitrate so I don't think that's the issue.

I assume that the MPEG-2 streams in the VOBs are interlaced. What you're describing sounds like either screwed up de-interlacing or there is something wrong in your decoding chain (or both).

[rpm8200]

Thank You for participating in my thread!

I don't think it is about interlacing. Those "errors" don't effect a whole line. My previous description was not precise enough I guess. Well if reading my initial description I have to admit it was completely wrong (I think no one could understand what was the issue).

I try again, hope I'll do better this time...

During the close ups of a persons face, the eyes (just as an example) do not "jump" up a pixel or two by accident and without a cause. In fact it should look like that if a person (for example) nods. The eyes move correctly a bit up and down while the person nods slightly with the head... the problem is, that the rest of the head seems frozen, does not indicate or show this slight nod- movement of the person. Same could happen to an ear in another scene. You would like to see the person slightly shake the head, the ear indicates that but the head itself remains still. It only strikes if there *should be* a slight movement and it seems that the effect only shows if it is a close up.

It seems that the Codec can detect the movement of the eyes within the single pictures but it does not detect a change of the rest of the head (at least it does not correctly).

Hmmmm.... any ideas?

[Inspector.Gadget]

Motion-adaptive deinterlacing can cause artifacts that don't occupy an entire row of pixels because such a deinterlacer will pass areas that don't look combed through untouched.

Please provide us with a short sample of the problem area cut and demuxed from the VOB to an M2V file with DGIndex. Also please provide a screenshot (or screenshots) that show the problem in your encode file.

My guess is that Handbrake's use of x264 has nothing to do with the image problem and it's instead related to something already on the disc or introduced by filtering.

[rpm8200]

Ok I'll try to give samples. Still, I don't think it is about interlacing. It is definitly not in the original vobs. Thank You!

[creamyhorror]

Could he be referring to microshifting? I only notice it when I'm staring really hard or zoomed-in and frame-stepping in AvsP, though.

[rpm8200]

Ok, you guys have been right... it HAS been the missing deinterlacing. Strange though, that it does only appear if the characters move slow (and only in close up views). In original vobs I don't see the effect either.

I picked out a little sample scene (60secs) and tried different settings. The TV series I was talking about is DS9 and the original video material is not that good in the first place.

So I tried deinterlacing first (good result). Tried deblocking then, also decomb and denoise (as the original is not of best possible quality). First I was surprised that deblock seemed to make the video look cleaner, same with denoise. I think the best result has been done by using deinterlacing only. Further filters seem to blurr and unsharpen the video.

Well anyways... thank you for your help. I will convert some episodes with the new setting and see if thats better (I think it should be). Would have not considered interlacing to screw the encoded video that way.

[nm]

I picked out a little sample scene (60secs) and tried different settings. The TV series I was talking about is DS9 and the original video material is not that good in the first place.

Star Trek TNG, DS9 and Voyager PAL releases are notoriously bad and they require special treatment (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=503668#post503668) to get watchable video out. Standard deinterlacing is not enough. Srestore in Avisynth might be a good option: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1356231#post1356231

So I tried deinterlacing first (good result). Tried deblocking then, also decomb and denoise (as the original is not of best possible quality). First I was surprised that deblock seemed to make the video look cleaner, same with denoise. I think the best result has been done by using deinterlacing only. Further filters seem to blurr and unsharpen the video.

Yes, that is expected. You'll need better filters for denoising than HandBrake's hqdn3d.

[nurbs]

Star Trek TNG, DS9 and Voyager PAL releases are notoriously bad and they require special treatment (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=503668#post503668) to get watchable video out.
Thanks for that info. Now I can save myself the trouble and import it.