getting a perfect encode

[Minas]

can anyone please tell me how i can get a good quality encode of a movie in 700mb? my friend told me to do this: encode a movie at a very high bitrate(around 2000) so i get a good looking avi. open the file in nandub, encode with 2 passes at the aoropiate bitrates and then i should get a file around 700mb that looks decent. its works alright, but there is kind of a 'hazyness' in the movie. i encode it once with divx 5, and it looks like nandub uses divx 3. can someone explain how to get a better encode of a movie at 700mb, i know what i'm doing probibly is not the best and there are other things to produce better results. thanks :-)

[jggimi]

The same way musicians get to Carnegie Hall. ("Practice, Practice, Practice"). But with encoding, instead, it's testing, testing, testing. Here are some things to think about: Every video you desire to encode is different. If you treat them all as if they were the same, then you will see varying results -- some good, some not so good. For example, the XviD developers recommended different settings for each of Doom9's films for his latest codec comparison. Why do you think they might have done that?

Some content seems to work better than others at lower video bitrates. Reasons can be obvious, such as the length of a movie or broadcast. Others are not quite as obvious, such as the aspect ratio -- you need less pixels per frame the wider the relative image -- and other reasons may be even less intuitive. For example, one video may have better compressibility than another due to less camera movement, even if they were both "action" pictures. Some of us only select content for 1-CD which was not "Edge Enhanced" by the DVD production company, which also improves compressibility. My point? Not every DVD backup you make will fit on a single CD with what you perceive as "good" quality.

There are many tradeoffs when working the "one CD wonders." For example, the encoder can choose to lower audio bitrate (or choose more compressible audio codecs), in order to provide additional space on disc for higher video bitrates. Tradeoffs with different types of resizing algorithms can also be made that may improve compressibility for some types of content. One area that is far more art than science is the application of "noise reduction" processing during the encoding process, which can also improve compressibility, though often a light touch is needed to avoid degrading detail or other noticeable video characteristics.

Because compressibility is so varied, most encoders who go for specific sizes of output want to maximize the quality available for a given encoding process. Tools like Gordian Knot provide for compressibility testing. These tests enable you to get a reasonable feel for bitrate/resolution settings for your particularly chosen filesize. But for the "best possible" result, iterative testing is absolutely required.

There is no "best" procedure, just like there is no "best" tool, as you learned from your first post on the forum. I hope this helped you.

[manono]

Hi-
my friend told me to do this: encode a movie at a very high bitrate(around 2000) so i get a good looking avi. open the file in nandub, encode with 2 passes at the aoropiate bitrates and then i should get a file around 700mb that looks decent.
Your friend told you wrong. Reencoding an already encoded .avi can only degrade the quality, when compared to running the 2 passes directly off of your source, and may account for the "hazyness" all by itself. Other than that, pay attention to what jggimi said, and starting reading the guides on this site.