How to handle CGI cartoons?

[cfp999]

I recently began using AutoGK and so far I am very satisfied with the xvid format. Compared to Dr. Divx the results looks better IMO. One thing is bothering me though - could AutoGK possibly have a problem with CGI cartoons? There are far more blocky artifacts and a sort of transparent blur around moving objects than I am used to. I have tried w. "cartoon mode" on, but that just makes it worse.

[thoralf]

Hi CFP,

it seems like cartoons/anime are a real stress test for any codec. Usually, they involve a lot of homogeneous areas with identical colours, and lossy compression isn't exactly prepared to deal with these images. On the other hand, natural footage with a lot of different colours, gradients and so on can be compressed without a noticeable loss of quality. To make things even worse, cartoons tend to have a lot of motion - a lot of bandwidth is needed to make up for this.
I recently made a backup of Finding Nemo and had to go for a 2CD rip - all other backups I did fitted just fine on one. And yes, cartoon mode made things even worse in that case - probably caused by the half-comic / half-natural look of the movie.
So I guess you just have to live with it ... it's always a good idea to do some avs-filtering before feeding the codec with cartoons - some slight blurring increases compressibility a lot.

Hope this helps,
Thoralf.

[cfp999]

Thanks for the info. I got the same result w. Nemo. "Real" movies appears to be handled a lotter better by the codec. "Hollywood Homocide" looks great on 700MB CD IMO.

[hostyle]

Did you use any particular AVS scripts / AutoGK settings for Finding Nemo? I'm having problems with it, uing 1cd, 2cd, or 3cd. In any dark scenes theres an orange glow around Marlin (Nemos dad). Any ideas how to get rid of it?

[Sir Integral Hellsing]

hostyle: I think that's already in the source. It's supposed to look like that, I think.

[hostyle]

Doh. Just checked and there is a slight glow alright, but xvid seemed to emphasise it a little. I won't worry about it anyway :)