DivX 5.05 settings and quality.

[Mole]

I'm primary doing 1 CD rips and use resolution of 576x320 for most of my movies.

Bitrate for the movies are around 750-950 depending on movie lenght. I always do 2 pass encoding.
I frame serve the movie with Avisynth and encode with VirtualDubMod.

In order to get the best quality, should I enable or disable the following:

Psychovisual (If "Enable", light, normal or strong?)
Quarter Pixel
GMC
B Frames
More passes (3-4 passes)

Oh, and I don't care about hardware support since the files are intended to playback on a computer only. Encoding speed is also not a problem. I don't mind waiting longer in order to get higher quality.

But would more passes really make any noticably difference? I can accept 2-3 passes, but I've heard of people using 5-6 passes which I think is overkill.

[suspiciousBob]

Personally speaking, with DivX 5.05 I never use GMC or QPel. Period.

I will always do 3 passes (encode at night, so it makes no difference if the PC turns itself off at 3am or 5am :))

With regards to Bframes and Psy; I use BFrames if it's a 1CD rip, and I usually use Psy Modeling for 1CD rips too - usually light or normal, depending on the movie.

[bkam]

My advice is to save an avs you would normally use to encode, use Trim to select maybe 1000 frames in the middle of the movie, and set up a bunch of jobs (all with the same bitrate of course), starting with none of those options and then adding a b-frames job, gmc job, etc, to see how it looks. Clearly, you can't tell what each of these options will do from only 1000 frames, but it may allow you to rule some out if you really don't like the way it looks. See how extra passes and those other setting do, and find the ones you like, and then try combining them to see if you still like them. Then try it with different 1000 frames, or different movie, see what works best for you, eventually try a whole movie with those settings and if you're happy with it then use those settings. Try the same ones on another movie, if it doesn't work then back to the drawing board--it's tedious but at least at the end you will know that it's the settings you feel are optimal and not taking someone else's word for it.

[snowbeach]

I always used DivX, but now I gave XviD a try and for now I am satisfied with the results (more than with the results of DivX505, because XviD is more powerful, regarding the settings)! And the picture is better, at least for me! ;)

If you have the time compare the results with my settings using XviD with your DivX encoded movie...

SW:
GKnot 0.28.1
Codec Pack 1.2

Settings

2pass - 1st pass:

Motion search precision: 6 - Ultra High
Quant type: MPEG
FourCC: XVID
VHQ mode: 1 - Mode Decision

Max I-frame interval: 300
Min I-frame interval: 1

Quarterpel and croma motion checked

Max B-frames: 2
B-frame quant ratio: 180
B-frame quant offset: 0
B-frame threshold: 0
DX50 B-VOP compatibility checked


2 pass - 2nd pass Int:

Same as before.

Then...
Quantization

Min I-frame quant: 2
Max I-frame quant: 31
Min P-frame quant: 2
Max P-frame quant: 31

Two Pass

I-frame boost: 20
below i-frame distance: 0
i-frame bitrate reduction: 20
high bitrate scenes: 0
low bitrate scenes: 0
bitrate payback delay: 1
payback proportionally checked


That's it! For further question go to the XviD forum at Doom9!

If you have tested it, I would like to know, if you were satisfied with the results or not (compared to the DivX results).

[Mole]

Are you doing 1 or 2 CD rips with these XviD settings?

I have tried XviD and even though the details are higher, there's also more blocks.

For 2 CD rips I'd definately use XviD, but I only do 1 CD rips (well, except for extremely long 2 1/2 hour movies).

This is why I stick to DivX because I think it's doing a better work on 1 CD rips.

[snowbeach]

I have very often about 2:30 movies, so I go for a 2 CD rip.

For a 1 CD case set quantization type to H.263 at 1st-pass and then use the New Modulated HQ quant type at 2nd-pass Int. Modulated will switch between H.263 and MPEG quantizers in order to achieve a crisper image. You will have sth. in between then. You should not see more blocks then anymore.

[N_F]

@snowbeach - B-frames and modulated quantizers are not MPEG4 compliant and there are also some bugs (don't ask me which). http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52166

[snowbeach]

Thank you for the info. But one more question: My encoded video is not MPEG4 compliant, if I use B-frames and modulated quantizers together? And using only B-frames or modulated quantizers (not together) I am still not MPEG4 compliant?

From my understanding now, I think I am MPEG4 compliant, when I switch B-frames off (Maximum B-frames: -1) and use as quant types only H.263, MPEG or MPEG Custom. Right?

[Acaila]

The Modulated Quants are what break the MPEG-4 specs. B-frames themselves are spec-compliant.

But please keep discussion about XviD in the appropriate forum section, this section is for DivX 5 (not to mention it has nothing to do with the thread subject).

[snowbeach]

Thanks for answering.

[skulls]

yesterday i rip "Catch me If you Can" ,a 2 1/2 hr movie, i select 1 cd 795 mb ,after i encode ,the size is 1.4 Gb...i use 2 pass ,Psychovisual=Light ,Quarter Pixel=On ,GMC=On ...anyone can tell me which best settings to use to rip Dvd film on 1 cd...

[hakko504]

Originally posted by skulls
yesterday i rip "Catch me If you Can" ,a 2 1/2 hr movie, i select 1 cd 795 mb ,after i encode ,the size is 1.4 Gb...i use 2 pass ,Psychovisual=Light ,Quarter Pixel=On ,GMC=On ...anyone can tell me which best settings to use to rip Dvd film on 1 cd... Rule #12: Do not ask what's best. (http://forum.doom9.org/forum-rules.htm)

[Mole]

Skulls, you haven't given the most important information, namely the bitrate or quantizer you used.

All the other info are more or less useless unless you tell us the bitrate or quantizer.

BTW, where could you specify the file size of your encodings?

Hope you're not confusing the average BITRATE setting with FILE SIZE.

[MasterYoshidino]

5.05 improves temporal quality of B-frames from my experience with 5.02 and 5.03. Macroblocking of XviD looks better in real life movies, but anime needs to look smooth and cell looking _imo_.

[EagleDM]

I agree with you on that.. B-frames works (at last) on this release, but multipass method is not working as I hoped and the old 2-pass method still works like a charm.

If should i compare xvid with multipass-divx 5.05 I would say xvid is better, but, against the old 2-pass method, divx is better.

I don't like Qpel, and Psychovisual Enhancement gives me some blurry image if the bitrate is low enough.

Take note that I made some really high quality rips (2 cd's with AC3) and I've never let the bitrate to go lower than 1000 kbps.