Will updating to latest x264 help in this case ?

[juGGaKNot]

Hi guys.

I have a celeron b877 1.4ghz (http://ark.intel.com/products/67192/) right now and i am using x264 core 119 r2106 07efeb4 with the following options :

--preset veryslow --level 4.0 --bframes 4 --b-pyramid normal --merange 32 --no-fast-pskip --aq-mode 2 --sar 1:1 --aud

I use 2 pass and i aim for average qp 9-12 ( short videos, for youtube/other streaming )

Would i get any large benefits if i update to the latest x264 ?

Cheers.

[sneaker_ger]

Depends on what you call "large", but since your build is almost 2 years old I don't see many reasons not to upgrade. During this time there were lots of speed improvements as well as new features and bug fixes. Since we are talking about free software I think you would rather have to justify not updating.

I'd drop the --merange 32 and --no-fast-pskip parameters, btw. Placebo is the only preset that uses --no-fast-pskip and even placebo does not use --merange 32, i.e. the x264 devs think they are a waste of time. (And --b-pyramid normal is the default setting for all presets, so it can be omitted, too. The --aud parameter is not really useful.)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

As far as Youtube is concerned, you don't have to worry too much about your encoding settings, since they are going to re-encode your video anyway - with rather low quality settings.

The best you can do is providing a sufficiently "good" source, so you won't loose quality even before they start messing with your clip. I'd probably simply use something like "--crf 20" and that's it.

Apart from that, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't use an up-to-date x264, unless you found any serious regressions - in which case you should report those to the developers.

[sneaker_ger]

Oh, yeah, that. On a fast Internet connection it probably is a lot faster to just raise the bitrate with a faster preset and still have everything done in less time.

[juGGaKNot]

I'd drop the --merange 32 and --no-fast-pskip parameters

For the other stuff i encode ( uncompressed game footage ) it seems to help.

As far as Youtube is concerned, you don't have to worry too much about your encoding settings

Yes, as i said i get ~crf 12 on most encodes ( well, you know what i mean, i use 2pass bitrate mode and get average qp 12 )

just raise the bitrate with a faster preset and still have everything done in less time.

Yes, i think that's what i will do, update and use a faster preset.
After all i'm aiming for qp 9-12 when qp 16 is visually identical to source ( from what i remember ).

Thnx to all.