Encoding noisy source with x264

[LouieChuckyMerry]

First, thanks to LoRd_MuldeR for this fine freeware, I really appreciate it :) .

Second, a question that's not necessarily about Simple x264 Launcher, but perhaps someone could point me in the right direction of a solution. I've been using Simple x264 Launcher for some months to slowly shrivel a pile of 10-30 GB h264-mkv Blu Ray rips to more reasonable sizes for travel, using 2-Pass Mode with the preset Veryslow, the Tuning Film (or Animation if applicable), and the Profile Auto. This has worked very well for all the rips that don't suffer from any source grain or ripper noise. However, I'm now at the end of this project and the final nine rips I have do suffer from varying degrees of source grain (older films) or ripper noise (poor to middling rips). This grain-noise generally appears as a fine coating of white-gray dust on the entire frame. When I ran one of these (3:10 To Yuma, 1957) through Simple x264 Launcher using the above settings, the grain was changed to what appears as miniature blocks; that is, the dusty dots became bitty blocks. My question (finally): how can this be fixed? Given my limited knowledge I reckon the issue is something to do with the AviSynth script, but I don't know where to attack. I ran a test piece through Simple x264 Launcher with the above settings, except for the Tuning changed to Grain, but the results were the same. I use Simple x264 Launcher specifically so that I don't have to fiddle directly with AviSynth scripts :o , but I'm still capable of learning new tricks if only someone would give me an idea of where to begin. Thanks for any help.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Moved, because this is off-topic for Simple x264 Launcher thread.

Noise is inherently "difficult" to encode. That's because video compression works by eliminating redundant data, but noise is random by nature, which makes it the biggest opponent to video compression ;)

So, if you have a very noisy source, you can either crank up the bitrate up to the point, where you actually have a chance to retain that noise. And then you probably also want to use the "grain" tuning option.

Otherwise, your best bet is to apply a good denoise filiter on the source before encoding. Try something like MDegrain2, dfttest, FFT3DFilter, DeGrainMedian, or FluxSmooth - just to name a few.

[LouieChuckyMerry]

Moved, because this is off-topic for Simple x264 Launcher thread.


Sorry about that, please don't send me to Inbred Mountain :D .


Otherwise, your best bet is to apply a good denoise filiter on the source before encoding. Try something like MDegrain2...

Thanks for the idea, I'll attack forthwith :) .

[Guest]

I've been using Simple x264 Launcher for some months to slowly shrivel a pile of 10-30 GB h264-mkv Blu Ray rips to more reasonable sizes for travel Where are you getting these rips?