HCEnc - Best way to encode a still frame video?

[Kushami]

Hey guys,

So I'm working on a project where the person authoring the disc is using an old authoring program, and its internal compressor for the menus is really bad. The workaround I've found is to encode the still-image menu as a one minute, thirty second video and then have him build it as a video menu.

I noticed, though, that even with that, the menus came out to be like 30mb even though it's literally the same frame with zero pixel changes and no movement throughout. What's the best way to compress this to get the filesize down?

Any help appreciated!

[sneaker_ger]

The problem is the maximum keyframe interval allowed on DVDs. I think it's 15 for PAL and 18 for NTSC (but some authoring houses don't use more then 12 - I don't know why). So you have to store the image completely more than once per second. Try to increase the interval as much as possible. If you still think it's too large tell your encoder to reduce the bitrate.

[Kushami]

Ahhh, thank you for the answer. So for NTSC, 18 is the max keyframe interval? I'll also try dropping the bitrate as well.

[pandy]

TMPEGEnc have feature to repeat first frame (not sure how it works - never was curious enough to go trough detailed MPEG-2 syntax) - however this functionality is available only in manual menu (you need to click RMB on each picture in sequence).

Perhaps similar functionality can be achieved trough other tools - not sure.
And if you decided go to regular way (normal like video encoding) set only I and P frames - should provide better quality than IPB (B frames will use more bits than P frames for static picture).

[Sir Didymus]

Still menus (based on single pictures) are perfectly fine in terms of DVD specs. Serious DVD authoring programs should support this basic feature... MuxMan, for instance allows to use "bmp" pictures as "video streams" to build its menus...


What's the best way to compress this to get the filesize down?

Very nice tools exist, such as VobBlanker, to convert a motion menu of a given DVD into a still menu. The graphical interface is very flexible, allowing to select one of the I frames of the video stream of this motion menu for using it as still picture for the resulting still menu. The sticky section of the IFO/VOB Editors forum contains many useful references and RELEVANT information on this subject! :-)

[TheSkiller]

You can just encode it as if it was a motion menu and after authoring you use VobBlanker to make it a single I-frame still. I do it like this all the time because the stills are of better quality than what most authoring programs create by themselves from BMPs.

You only need to encode a video that long (1:30 minutes) if there is audio in the menu of the same length. Otherwise just encode a single GOP (15-18 frames) and then still it with VobBlanker.

[filler56789]

Another option — create high-quality MPEG-stills with mpeg2enc ++ a Very-High-bitrate quantization matrix.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1381010#post1381010