High quality, low bitrate H.264

[MikeC]

Hi all, I need to convert some 1080i 29.97fps AVCHD footage to good quality, lowest bitrate possible, either 720P or maybe 864x486 for downloadable product sales. I've heard that MeGUI coupled with QTGMC will provide good results. I'm using an OC'd i7-2600 with 8GB of memory so I'm interested in using the MT version of avisynth. Any suggestions for good script/settings? Encode time is not a concern, but high quality and low bitrate is. All footage is filmed in a studio environment with proper lighting, camera films at 16-255 levels. I have high quality video to start with so I'm hoping to get well under 1Mb/s.

[Reel.Deel]

Is it possible to post an sample of the video your're working with?
If you choose to go with 864x486 @ 29.97p, it's possible that SeparateFields().SelectEven().BicubicResize(864,486) would suffice.

[MikeC]

I don't think i'll be able to post a sample of the video. Relatively low motion, similar to a talking head if that helps. Isn't Lanczos resizing much better than bicubic? x264 has so many settings it's hard to know what to set, or should I just choose the "slowest" preset? And what about QTGMC deinterlacing, that's supposedly the best free tool available.

[kypec]

x264 has so many settings it's hard to know what to set, or should I just choose the "slowest" preset?
Yes, slowest (for you) affordable preset with appropriate tune switches are usually all you need.;)

[Reel.Deel]

Isn't Lanczos resizing much better than bicubic?
I used Bicubic just as an example, Lanczos might be better in certain situations, Bicubic might be better in others, it all depends on the source and your taste.

[setarip_old]

@MikeC

Hi!

Unless I'm misunderstanding your needs, I believe you should be able to use one of BD Rebuilder's alternate settings to convert such files to 720p .MP4s or similar...

[zerowalker]

I have high quality video to start with so I'm hoping to get well under 1Mb/s

For getting as much quality as possible for low bitrate, i actually think Bicubic may be better.

Lanczos/Spline etc are sharp, this causes slight haloing, and sharp/haloing are hard to compress as far as i know.
Bicubic, Billinear etc are "blurry", this should be easier to compress.
in short:

Sharp -> higher bitrates to keep quality
Less-Sharp/More Blurry -> lower bitrates to keep quality

Isn't Lanczos resizing much better than bicubic?
It comes down to preference about looks etc, but in the term Quality at certain bitrates, different resize might be worth looking into and see how well h264 handles it at your bitrates.

This MAY be wrong, but i am pretty sure this rule is always followed except rare cases, at least x264(h264) which is the codec of discussion.

[MikeC]

@MikeC

Hi!

Unless I'm misunderstanding your needs, I believe you should be able to use one of BD Rebuilder's alternate settings to convert such files to 720p .MP4s or similar...

I briefly looked at that program, but it appears to only be for making backups of DVDs. Did I miss something? I'm coming from the bubblevision.com/underwater-video/Vegas-YouTube-Vimeo.htm tutorial which uses the Lanczos method so I was under the impression it was the best, along with QTGMC for deinterlacing...

[Atak_Snajpera]

Using slow qtmc does not make sense if you plan to downscale image 2-4 times. Simple fast yadif is enough.

[MikeC]

Thanks, I didn't know that about QTGMC, will test with Yadif. Vegas has a Yadif plugin, wonder if I could just use that or it's better to use it via avisynth?

[Atak_Snajpera]

just use frame server debug mode plugin and rest do in avs .

[MikeC]

I'm also thinking of using this TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 since it now uses x264. Downloaded a trial of it and going back and forth with their tech support to see if they can offer any advice...

[setarip_old]

@MikeC

You say, "I briefly looked at that program, but it appears to only be for making backups of DVDs. Did I miss something?"

Yes, you've missed reading about the MANY available conversion capabilities of BD Rebuilder in addition to conversion to DVD...

[MikeC]

setarip_old, I'm having a lot of trouble understanding this BD Rebuilder program. First problem is I don't understand on this page:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=143716

Download and install FFDSHOW and the Haali Matroska Splitter. They are required for BD-RB to work and are free. After the install, run "Video Decoder Configuration" for FFDSHOW from the "START/Programs" menu, and make sure MPEG2 decoding is enabled. Do the same using "Audio Decoder Configuration" to ensure "Uncompressed" is set to "All Supported".

Second problem, once in the program, I don't see any options about converting one file to another, only for "source path" and it wants a folder, not a file, and that folder has to be blu-ray disc format. I even clicked under the different Modes on the Mode menu. Everything points to this program only taking blu-ray discs as input... What have I missed and where? Unless I have the wrong program entirely?

[Atak_Snajpera]

I think it would be simpler If you just used Ripbot264 for this task.

[MikeC]

Ripbot... another choice.. Is that one easy to use? I'm looking at this page: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127611 and all the screen shot shows is distributed encoding. What is special about this program?