XVID - as good as DVD?

[aLu]

Sure MPEG2 is better, but is is a quality you usually only need for pan-scan resolutions. Since most graphic cards have quite bad TV-outs, you'll maybe never notice the difference between an DVD and even quite bad MPEG4-rips. On the PC you do, however.

Even the best codec(s)[XVID] at the highest reasonable bitrates give you blockieness at high-rate scene changes - even in 2-pass-encodes. Maybe the next goal in quality should be to fix that? I've played a little with the quantizers, but the overall image quality is good enough - it would be perfect if high-rate scenes were handled better, smoothed maybe? Because the blockyness lasts only long enough to notice it, but at a critical point.

Well, this is just what I hope for in further codec development, 'cause there have been many tune-ups in features (interlacing) and stability, but the codec produces essentially the same quality as my first XVID (uManiac's Feb. Alpha version). At high rates about 1100 kb/s., it looks like a DVD .. almost ;-}...

[trbarry]

At 1100 kbps MPEG-2 will not look like a DVD either.

- Tom

[aLu]

... but that was the average bitrate, which is not needed throughout a whole movie. Usually there are parts that look great at approx 400-700 kb/s, Alien4 for example compresses very well to a 1-CD. I'm currently encoding "The silence of the lambs" with very high (3000-10000 kb/s) bitrates at the start, and I'll end of with a final size of about 850 Megs (without audio). Because this movie doesn't have that much motion, the quality will be almost DVD-like (well, the noise is missing ;-/).
Another issue is "The matrix", I did a 2-CD rip good enough to be pan-scanned and adjusted the quantization towards high motion scenes, still there's blockyness in very high bitrate scenes / scene changes. BTW, it was done with MPEG quant, because "modulated" didn't look as sharp as my old SBC-rip of the movie. SBC still produces the sharpest image, but at the cost of blockieness.

[Fairlight Excalibur]

FYI
I have a 1cd rip of the Matrix I made using Fairuse and it looks perfect! There is not a bad scene in the movie and on my TV it is like watching the DVD.

[int 21h]

Originally posted by aLu
... but that was the average bitrate, which is not needed throughout a whole movie. Usually there are parts that look great at approx 400-700 kb/s, Alien4 for example compresses very well to a 1-CD. I'm currently encoding "The silence of the lambs" with very high (3000-10000 kb/s) bitrates at the start, and I'll end of with a final size of about 850 Megs (without audio). Because this movie doesn't have that much motion, the quality will be almost DVD-like (well, the noise is missing ;-/).
Another issue is "The matrix", I did a 2-CD rip good enough to be pan-scanned and adjusted the quantization towards high motion scenes, still there's blockyness in very high bitrate scenes / scene changes. BTW, it was done with MPEG quant, because "modulated" didn't look as sharp as my old SBC-rip of the movie. SBC still produces the sharpest image, but at the cost of blockieness.

Amazing how high of a bitrate you're using there. And why are you pan-scanning? FS is evil.

You sound like a troll to me.

[Nic]

Hmmmm.

aLu please do try & keep the number of threads you create down to a minimum. You appear to be creating many threads, some of which go now nowhere & others that break forum rules (i.e. asking what thing's "best" is a rule #12 violation).

And please read up & use the search button before posting to make sure your post/question has relevance & has not been asked before.

Thanks alot,

-Nic

[Koepi]

You forget about this one:
11) Don't post just to increase your number of posts. If you have nothing to say on a certain matter then don't post. The number of posts on this board has no direct relation to the experience of a member.

;)

I agree with Nic btw.

Regards
Koepi

[Gambit]

Originally posted by Koepi
You forget about this one:

11) Don't post just to increase your number of posts. If you have nothing to say on a certain matter then don't post. The number of posts on this board has no direct relation to the experience of a member.
;)

I agree with Nic btw.

Regards
Koepi

Said by somebody with 2000+ posts :D :D :D

[aLu]

@int21h
>You sound like a troll to me.
Love it! You sound like a chip to me :)

>Amazingly high bitrate
Actually that's just the bitrate Flask 5 is reporting. And the whole point was - what MAXIMUM quality can be achieved with reasonable average bitrates. Because anything above 1200 doesn't make any sense. I know most people mainly use 700-1000 and prefer 1-CD rips. As time & the rips went by, I thought to myself - there has to be something more ...

>Forum rules
I read a lot of "what's best" threads and polls here recently. It should be allowed to frankly share opinions without anyone feeling insulted too quickly - it's just those dumb users talking ;-). I don't like the "eat this or die"-mentality.

>Too many posts
Alright, I must admit I was a little too active recently - I won't start any more threads (here), as long as I don't really have to say something, I promise... (snüff)

*** The deliquent apologizes to everyone whom his humble opinions may have insulted, and hereby states that he will never, ever will deviate again from the rules of this great Underground empire. Sworn and testified. ***

[RadicalEd]

damn spammers, you belong on amv.org ;)

[aLu]

... before it is getting too silly.

[Mango Madness]

Sometimes, more often than not, if you have the privilege of owning a slow computer and look at the dvd encoding/ripping process you get frame by frame analysis in virtualdub. You WILL notice that the majority of DVDs are the reason that xvid or divx produce bad motion scenes. I've noticed, even in FOTR, that on a frame by frame analysis the mpeg 2 compression creates some nasty frames that only get worse when you again compress them with mpeg 4.

In all the encodes with the latest dev. binaries from Koepi and Instant Builds of umaniac produce marvelous results. THis is with some avisynth scripting magic, 2 pass, Modulated HQ, VBR audio, and a general rule of 1 hour of movie = 700meg of movie.