Which quaility for HD sources?

[Anakunda]

Greetings, anyone could recommend a good quality setting for getting a good artifact-less picture from HD sources, mostly in 720p resolution. I've decided for 20 but not sure if that's a good choice. Thanks for all useful suggestions.

[Blue_MiSfit]

defaults are a good place to start

[CarlEdman]

I find -q 20.0 to -q 22.0 to work well for HD sources from 720p to 1080p. For many materials, unless you love film grain (as some people do), I'd use a good degrainer (like avisynth MDegrain3) and still get transparent video rates from 2 to 3 MBps.

[hello_hello]

If it means anything, which maybe it shouldn't as it's all personal preference, I settled on CRF20 myself for 720p encodes as I find the quality to be excellent while the file sizes don't get too out of control. They probably average about 3GB, with either AC3 or ACC 5.1ch audio (DTS is usually 1GB or more on it's own). I think so far the smallest has been just over 2GB and the largest a bit under 5GB. That's without any filtering except for maybe a mild degrainer.

[Blue_MiSfit]

@CarlEdman: Do you use CQ mode? If so, I'd suggest you don't ;) CRF is the preferred solution IMO.

Derek

[Anakunda]

If it means anything, which maybe it shouldn't as it's all personal preference, I settled on CRF20 myself for 720p encodes as I find the quality to be excellent while the file sizes don't get too out of control. They probably average about 3GB, with either AC3 or ACC 5.1ch audio (DTS is usually 1GB or more on it's own). I think so far the smallest has been just over 2GB and the largest a bit under 5GB. That's without any filtering except for maybe a mild degrainer.

I thought 20 is a good value but did a conversion in 720p resolution which given me with this factor an average bitrate of 1490kbps(!). I think it's quite a few for HD resolutions.

[CarlEdman]

@CarlEdman: Do you use CQ mode? If so, I'd suggest you don't ;) CRF is the preferred solution IMO.

Absolutely. That is the way to go. What I meant was that I use crfs in the range of 20 to 22. Sorry for being unclear.

[CarlEdman]

I thought 20 is a good value but did a conversion in 720p resolution which given me with this factor an average bitrate of 1490kbps(!). I think it's quite a few for HD resolutions.

Stick with what you are doing! That is a good bit-rate for 720p material at crf 20.0, achievable with clean source material or a good degrainer. In fact, if I get such a bit rate with such material, I try going down a notch or two, just to check whether I can see any difference (usually I can't, either with my eyes, and not much in filesize).

[nm]

I thought 20 is a good value but did a conversion in 720p resolution which given me with this factor an average bitrate of 1490kbps(!). I think it's quite a few for HD resolutions.

It depends completely on the video content. 1 Mbps may be more than enough for clean, mostly stationary video, while a shaky and noisy home video needs 10 Mbps.

Did you compare that CRF 20 encode to the original with your own eyes and found that it's not good enough?

[Jarod Middelman]

The 720p x264 TV Releasing Standards 2011 Update 2
[link removed] might help you.

[Stereodude]

Scene release standards... ROFL...

[Chetwood]

Agreed. Xvid rips from 720px sources downsized to 640px and no DL rips, either. Suckers.

[Blue_MiSfit]

I'm not very comfortable with this...

Release group documents being hosted on x264.nl? I mean... that's not very professional.

[Anakunda]

I was captivated by one rule from the info:

│ - Improper IVTC methods that result in jerky playback, such as Force │
│ Film, are banned

Does it mean that tune film restrains playback smoothness?

Anyway interesting which authority is determining such a standards.

[nm]

Does it mean that tune film restrains playback smoothness?

--tune film in x264 is a completely different thing than force film in DGIndex

[Anakunda]

Ah so, thanks for explaining.

[Stereodude]

Agreed. Xvid rips from 720px sources downsized to 640px and no DL rips, either. Suckers.Well, it's a great idea if he wants his HD sources to look like he downloaded them from the internet. :p

[nibus]

If you want a truly transparent encode you may need to go as low as CRF 16 on 720p. CRF 18 is my "middle of the road" setting for 720p and lower, but I often go as low as 16. I use --me umh and subme 10, but subme 7-8 looks pretty good too.

Start with something like this and raise and lower the CRF and subme values:

--preset slower --crf 18 --subme 8