Purpose of .vaf file?

[wakebrder]

Now this could be a stupid question, But what is the actual purpose of this file? My guess is that CCE uses info in this file to improve bit allocation for the next VBR pass. If this file isn't necessary, I could save some encoding time. I'm using CCE for transcoding DVD compliant files with bitrates in the 4000-6000 range. Thanks!

[adam]

Have you read the cce manual cause its pretty clear?

Yeah you basically have the right idea. During multipass encoding cce determines the complexity of the images and saves it in the .vaf file. During the second and any subsequent passes cce uses this file to allocate the bitrate. You can re-use the .vaf file for the same source if you don't change your settings by very much, but you have to create a new .vaf file for each new source you use.

[Arky]

At higher bitrates, and assuming you have plenty of available space on your DVDr, you might find you needn't even bother with multipass - VBR is of most significant benefit where space is at a premium, and bitrate thus needs to be restrained to the minimum/allocated most efficiently. With higher bitrates, and with oodles of space, there is no reason why one can't simply use CBR. This gives a massive speed increase, and the quality should be just as good as VBR, provided the complexity of certain scenes doesn't demand higher average bitrate than your CBR setting. A CBR setting of 5mbps sounds pretty reasonable to me, with all but the most demanding footage. Give CBR a bash, and see what the results are like - what have you to lose?


Arky ;o)

[wakebrder]

Hey Arky....you authoring wizard you...I remember you from FLEXION(Lightning UK!'s site) It's nice to see you're still around helping people out. Thankyou for the advice. I'll give CBR a try. BTW, found the answer to my question (before the replies) but it seems I can't edit the title of my thread:o Thanks for the replies regardless....