Encoder selection, pls Help!

[baly]

Hi everyone,

I have a client who wants to transcode a trailer, out of many, into many different formats.
For Youtube, Vimeo, WMV, iTunes etc.
I know there are different settings and resolutions involved for each one
but I would like to be able to support as many as possible.
My ONLY concern is QUALITY.

My question is this, is there a software paid or free (I do not care to pay if it will do my job)
that can do all these and more but in the BEST possible quality?
I saw on the web for Squeeze and Episode but I do not know which one to choose.

What are the big studios use for encoding such files?

Thanks!

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Fist of all: There is no such thing as "BEST possible quality", except for not re-encoding your video at all. Any re-encoding (video format conversion) to a non-lossless format is going to cause a certain amount of quality loss!

I don't know about Vimeo, but as far as Youtube is concerned: They accept pretty much anything as upload, but are going to re-encode the video in any case (with rather low quality settings). Therefore it doesn't matter much what format exactly you are uploading (or what encoder you use). Just be sure you upload a good quality source, so you don't loose quality even before they re-encode. You can pick, for example, H.264 or MPEG-4 ASP and just crank up the bitrate as required.

As for the WMV format: I'm not aware of a serious alternative to Microsoft's Expression Encoder (http://www.videohelp.com/download/Encoder_en4SP2.exe) for WMV/VC1 encoding. So if you really want WMV, this would be my first choice.

Finally, I think that iTunes (QuickTime) is able to play H.264 video in MP4 container, so x264 would be the obvious choice. Though be aware that Apple is extremely picky on what they accept, so you will have to choose your settings carefully.

[baly]

Thanks Lord! (sounds nice!)

So, for Youtube no matter if I follow their EXACT encoding settings, they will re-compress no matter what?
Thanks for the Expression Encoder tip! Is it free or it has a price?

And one last thing, as far as an H.264 AVC encoder which can cover all the profiles and levels, which one do you suggest?

Thank you!

[mp3dom]

I don't know for trailers, but for iTunes movies Apple require ProRes HQ files with specific settings for audio (labelled channels, specific channels order and so on. There's a free PDF that you can download from Apple that explains all the requirements).

[baly]

Thanks mp3dom, and how do you label the channels in a ProRes file?
And for H.264 AVC encoder, do you have a suggestion to make?

Thanks!

[LoRd_MuldeR]

So, for Youtube no matter if I follow their EXACT encoding settings, they will re-compress no matter what?

Yes.

Keep in mind that they deliver different platforms and offer various quality levels for each platform. So they need to create many versions (different formats, bitrates, etc) from your upload.

The situation for Vimeo is probably very similar.

Thanks for the Expression Encoder tip! Is it free or it has a price?

Free. At least there's a free version.

And one last thing, as far as an H.264 AVC encoder which can cover all the profiles and levels, which one do you suggest?

As I said before: x264

As an OpenSource project, the software itself is free. But that doesn't mean you don't have to pay patenting fees to the H.264 patent holders (not to the x264 developers), if you use it commercially.

[baly]

Thanks!
I saw x264. Is there a nice gui for it?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Thanks!
I saw x264. Is there a nice gui for it?

https://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?f=78

:devil:

[baly]

Thank you!
Also, what is your opinion on FFMpeg as encoding quality?

No more questions, I promise!

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Thank you!
Also, what is your opinion on FFMpeg as encoding quality?

FFmpeg supports a wide range of audio and video encoders, including x264 for H.264 output. But I don't think it supports WMV9/VC1 output:
http://www.ffmpeg.org/general.html#Video-Codecs

Also note that many features in FFmpeg are optional. So, for example, whether a particular encoder is available in FFmpeg or not, depends on whether your FFmpeg binary was compiled with that encoder enabled or not.

Finally a general note about quality: The resulting quality not only depends on the encoder you use, but also a lot on your encoder settings. The most important setting to control quality still is the target bitrate.

(At very high bitrates any encoder will give great quality, so the "good" encoder will have no way to shine. Conversely, at extremely low bitrates, all encoders will look equally horrible)

[baly]

Thanks for all your tips!
When I say a good encoder, I mean the one which gives you all the options to use.
I was asking about quality because I used same settings to different software and the output was not the same!
I guess there must have been some settings I did not notice...

Thank you again!

[Dark Eiri]

Go MeGUI \ RipBot264 \ Handbrake with Placebo Quality profiles on x264 for H264. No mistake to be made on these.
Expression Encoder has a slider for quality\speed trade-off for VC-1, so go all the way quality and you'll be OK.

For YouTube and Vimeo, send the original file. They WILL re-encode, always.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I was asking about quality because I used same settings to different software and the output was not the same!

What exactly do you mean with "different software" here?

If you used different encoders - not just different front-ends to the same encoder - it might not even be possible to get the same output, regardless of the settings you use!

And if you used different front-ends to the same encoder, it should be possible to get the same output with all of them. Given that all front-ends expose all relevant settings.

[mp3dom]

Thanks mp3dom, and how do you label the channels in a ProRes file?
And for H.264 AVC encoder, do you have a suggestion to make?

Thanks!

You need to use a "licensed" ProRes encoder which supports that (Rhozet, Telestream and so on) OR you can encode with ffmbc for example and then assign the labels with QuickTime Pro. As far as I know, the ProRes should contain 8 "mono" channels with 5.1+2.0. Order should be L,R,C,Lfe,Ls,Rs,Lt,Rt

[baly]

You need to use a "licensed" ProRes encoder which supports that (Rhozet, Telestream and so on) OR you can encode with ffmbc for example and then assign the labels with QuickTime Pro. As far as I know, the ProRes should contain 8 "mono" channels with 5.1+2.0. Order should be L,R,C,Lfe,Ls,Rs,Lt,Rt

Thanks mp3dom for the tip.
I use a MAC and I have QT Pro but I have not seen any setting for assigning the labels/names of the audio tracks.
Can you tell me where to find it?
Thanks!

[mp3dom]

Go to Window -> Clip Properties -> Select the audio track and go to the audio settings tab.

[baly]

ur the best! ;-)