Encoding x264 by Chapters

[gatewaymastering]

I have read several discussions that state you have to encode to whole video again when making changes to the x264 video encode. Are there any problems in encoding the video stream chapter by chapter and concatenating all the files together? Would the buffer get screwed up? Are AVC streams more problematic than MPEG-2 streams?

I do this all the time with DVD material. If fact, Scenarist DVD has a multi-data file option to bring in video streams.

It would certainly save time on re-encodes.

Just a thought.

[kieranrk]

x264 does not have segment re-encoding at this time.

[Lyris]

The OP was asking, is it possible to encode each "segment" as its own .264 file and bring them into an authoring app as different clips, then combine them into one Playlist? In which case, I don't see why not given that totally seamless playback is mandatory in the BD spec. Has anyone done it?

[kolak]

The OP was asking, is it possible to encode each "segment" as its own .264 file and bring them into an authoring app as different clips, then combine them into one Playlist? In which case, I don't see why not given that totally seamless playback is mandatory in the BD spec. Has anyone done it?

It does work, but it's not as easy as it sounds. BD spec and reality not always go fully together :)


Andrew

[kieranrk]

It does work, but it's not as easy as it sounds. BD spec and reality not always go fully together :)


Andrew

I have seen a disc authored like this.

[Lyris]

A lot of Disney titles have foreign-language inserts, so the movie is diced into segments and reconstructed in-player.

Kolak, what sort of issues have you seen with this?

[kolak]

A lot of Disney titles have foreign-language inserts, so the movie is diced into segments and reconstructed in-player.

Kolak, what sort of issues have you seen with this?

It works- it just sometimes there are problems with muxing, etc.- more related to authoring software then actual video.
There are also rules during encoding, but if you use the same settings it should be fine.

Andrew

[mp3dom]

If you splice your movie into a lot of segments there's no security that, during muxing, you'll not encounter a buffer under/overflow. If that happends, you have to redo the whole work or change the settings for some segments. When you do a proper segment encoding (I mean, inside the encoder) the buffer is verified and bitrate is used accordingly. If you do separate files, the encoder cannot calculate the buffer when joining files since it doesn't know that you want to join files. In general it works well but I've experienced some problems in the past.

[kieranrk]

If you splice your movie into a lot of segments there's no security that, during muxing, you'll not encounter a buffer under/overflow. If that happends, you have to redo the whole work or change the settings for some segments. When you do a proper segment encoding (I mean, inside the encoder) the buffer is verified and bitrate is used accordingly. If you do separate files, the encoder cannot calculate the buffer when joining files since it doesn't know that you want to join files. In general it works well but I've experienced some problems in the past.

See what Lyris said. He's talking about using the Blu-Ray playlist mechanism to allow different m2ts files to be played as one film. Buffer under/overflow is not relevant in this case. As I said a well-known recent film has been authored like this.

[kolak]

See what Lyris said. He's talking about using the Blu-Ray playlist mechanism to allow different m2ts files to be played as one film. Buffer under/overflow is not relevant in this case. As I said a well-known recent film has been authored like this.

Yes- there are probably quite few discs like this, but you can have some issues during muxing. If you use many audio tracks or DTS-MA or TrueHD than it's 70% that you're going have issues. There is much more work compared to authoring with one piece.
You don't want to split your movie into small pieces, until there is big need for this.


Andrew