Is there a utility to detect macroblocks?

[JimmyBarnes]

Looking for something which can find if macroblocks exist in any frames in a x264 backup 720p rip.

Presumably one would have to define minimum macroblock size as any image enlarged enough will begin to look "blocky"

TIA

[setarip_old]

Hi!

A simple Googlesearch appears to generate a significant number of possibilities...

(Almost 500 posts, Member since 2001, posting in "Newbies"?)

[Blue_MiSfit]

What you're describing is essentially software based quality control. This is a real holy grail for content producers, since enormous amounts of time and money have to be spent to catch macroblocking and other audio/video quality issues.

There are several products out there, but they're all quite expensive and produce varied results depending on how you configure them and exactly what you're looking for.

It's possible to look for blocking based on average frame QPs, but this is a real bastard approximation. You can have ffdshow's OSD output a text file with this data, and then parse the text file. Not pretty or very simple, but it's a start I guess...

To do a better job you have to decode each frame and run a variety of algorithms on the resulting uncompressed image. That's where the expensive payware apps come in.

My advice is just to watch the damn encode yourself ;)

Derek

[JimmyBarnes]

What you're describing is essentially software based quality control. This is a real holy grail for content producers, since enormous amounts of time and money have to be spent to catch macroblocking and other audio/video quality issues.

Trust me to pick 'em

My advice is just to watch the damn encode yourself ;)

Derek

That's what I usually do but am having a @#$% of a time with one partic M2TS to x264 encode (dozens of others are fine), while 99.99 % good there are the odd frames riddled with macroblocks - they appear as a barely noticeable "jerk" in playback and would probably not be noticed in intense action scenes.

Woe is me for being a perfectionist.. :mad:

Thanx for your reply, even tho it confirmed my worst fears..

[Ghitulescu]

Macroblocks exist only in your mind.

All the expensive SW blue_misfit mentioned try to emulate the human mind, based on human input data. In other words, the humans have to say to the SW that "this is a macroblock", the SW cannot deduct this themselves.

[JimmyBarnes]

Macroblocks exist only in your mind.

All the expensive SW blue_misfit mentioned try to emulate the human mind, based on human input data. In other words, the humans have to say to the SW that "this is a macroblock", the SW cannot deduct this themselves.

What's really needed is a T-1000 or later model. Now that Arnie is no longer The Guv, perhaps he can tell me where...