2700 Kbps ! Am I Crazy ?

[bira]

Well, I used to encode at 2700Kbps using divx3.11. Plain 1-pass encode with a resolution of 720xwhatever. Many will find all this crazy. The point is, I was happy with it. Never complained about file size and most important, never complained about quality.

Now,
I prefer to use GKnot, so
What should be my settings using divx5 ?
Should I care about 2-passes ?
Should I lower the bitrate ?


Thank a lot !!!

[ivan_alias]

Do what suits you.....

Try a few things out and see what you like.

900 kbps on a 2 pass is usually plenty

[DJ Bobo]

@ bira
If you really don't care about file size: 1-pass quality based 100% (with bidirectional encoding if you want). This is the NON-PLUS-ULTRA setting that gives you the best quality you can get. Using this mode, the bitrate can go as low as 800kbps for easy-to-compress-videos and as high as 4000kbps for high-action-videos!

If you're considering using 2-pass, the question won't be bitrate anymore, since the bitrate will be dictated through the size, the question will be which resolution. As a thumb rule, you can take the following one: never go under 0,2 bit/pixel
For example: 640x480 25fps
-> Min Bitrate: 1536kbps (640 x 480 x 25 x 0,2)
So if GKnot calculates 1400kbps, choose a lower resolution, 576x432 for example.

[bira]

Thank you both!

Correct me if I am wrong:
two-pass encode is only useful if you want to have the best quality for a 'specified'(enphasis here) file size.

Now, I believe there are several mistakes below, but anyway.

A rough receipe:

** I want the best quality, no matter what: one-pass, quality based 100%

** I want to fill 'n' CD's: two-pass making GKnot calculate bitrate.
1st step: choose your resolution
2nd step: do compressabilty test
3rd step: check if your bits/pixel is at least 60% of compressabilty test bits/pixel. If not reduce resolution to get a higher bits/pixel.

** I want the best quality, but not at the expense of a huge file:

1st step: choose your resolution
2nd step: do compressabilty test
3rd step: never go higher than 100% of compressabilty test bits/pixel.

Too much nonsense, huh ? well, I tried.

[theReal]

** I want the best quality, no matter what: one-pass, quality based 100%correct.

** I want to fill 'n' CD's: two-pass making GKnot calculate bitrate.
1st step: choose your resolution
2nd step: do compressabilty test
3rd step: check if your bits/pixel is at least 60% of compressabilty test bits/pixel. If not reduce resolution to get a higher bits/pixel.correct. I'd say 50% is enough, but you might like 60% and up better (as long as the resolution is high enough). If you can only get 50% or 60% with a resolution lower than 512x384 --> better use more CD's.

** I want the best quality, but not at the expense of a huge file:

1st step: choose your resolution
2nd step: do compressabilty test
3rd step: never go higher than 100% of compressabilty test bits/pixel. You could do that, but if you choose a bitrate and you reach 100%, you can just encode with 100% quality, the result will be the same. So, better make it: never go higher than 80%.
OR, you could just try quality based with quantizer=3 (=97% quality)
or something like that.