Maximum Quality Possible at 350kbps.

[Musafir_86]

Hello everybody,

-Here I've a question, what settings/parameters that should I set up so I will able to get maximum quality possible for target bitrate at 350kbps (or any given bitrate). I personally DON'T CARE if it will take hours (or even days) to complete the encoding. :sly:

-I know that there are a lot of such discussion like this here, but when I say A LOT then it make me so confused. :confused: I'm targetting to get similar quality as RealVideo 10 (or even outperform it!). My current XviD build is 1.1 Beta2 (Koepi's build).

-I'm going to re-encode DivX3 AVIs into XviD+Vorbis+MKV; with the goal to achieve similar quality at less than half of original filesize. My contents are mostly (100+) animes. Any suggestion for what matrix to be used (I'm using H.263), or whatever else seems delivering.

-Can anybody help me, please? Every help is forwarded with billions of thank you.

Thanks again.

Regards,
-Musafir_86.

-Forgot to mention : my anime res is 640x480 (hope nobody will not tell me to resize it, okay).

[Koepi]

Since your DivX3-files are already compressed from mpeg2-compressed sources, you'll get even worse quality. It's quite impossible to recompress mpeg4 (or dialects like divx3) in a transparent matter. That said, things aren't too bad if we talk about Simpsons-style cartoon/anime.

If time isn't important to you and you need maximum quality just throw in every feature XviD can use. Like VHQ=4, BVHQ, trellis, a.s.o.

Cheers
Koepi

[Musafir_86]

Hi again,

-First of all, thanks for the advice. But, are the XviD default settings (like I-frames tuning, O/flow treatment, Curve compression, Quantizer, e.t.c) are at their best when 1st installed or hitting "Load Default" button - in my case?

-Then, how many percent does "Turbo" decrease the quality at low-bitrate? Also, how "Packed Bitstream" affect the encoding/quality/playback? I'm still blur about this function.

Thanks.

-Musafir_86.

[stephanV]

You want max quality so dont turn on Turbo ;-). Packed bitstream does not affect quiality at all. It enables the packing of p and b frames together.

Most settings actually just should stay default. Enable qpel, gmc, b-vhq and set vhq to 4, is what you should do at least. Maybe adaptive quantization too... although i dont really know about that one.

What certainly will help too is doing your first pass not on the generally too high quant=2, but at for example 4 or 5. You can change this in the zone options, just dont forget to turn it back to normal for the 2nd pass.

[manono]

Use a low bitrate matrix. Lower the resolution. You're asking for too much. For the reasons Koepi explained, you won't get the same quality even at the original bitrate. How good do you think it's going to be with the bitrate cut in half?

[dimzon]

XviD+Vorbis+MKV
Seems like You don't care about HW compatibility. In this case look @ current h264 impltmentation (x264 is good starting point). You can look @ AAC+ implementation too (for low bitrate audio). Do not forget to apply compressibility gain filters in Avisynth (my favorite is FFT3DFilter).

Good luck!

PS. Do not forget to post You results here :)

[Musafir_86]

Meet again,

-Ok, I've finally found the desired target - actually the defaults! Back then, I've tested other matrix (CG-Animation), but the quality (I think) is same as H.263; but it takes longer! (Note that I said I don't care about encoding time, but that doesn't apply to trial-&-error time!)

-My encode parameters :-
2-pass encoding (same setting for each pass)
Target BR : 350kbps
Adaptive Quant./Q-Pel/GMC Enabled
VHQ : 4 (also for B-frames)
NO Turbo
MSP : 6 (ultra high)
Cartoon mode & Chroma Optimizer Enabled (1 zone only).
Other are defaults.

-Encoding software :
VirtualDub 1.6.7 (direct from source/full processing mode/no filters)
BeSweet 1.5b30 (libvorbis SVN from Rarewares.org)
MKVMerge (from mkvtoolnix)

-My PC specs :
iCeleron D 2.4GHz (533FSB, 256KB L2)
Abit SG-72 (SiS661FX+964L)
512MB DDR400 RAM
GeForce FX 5200 128MB (64-bit)
14' Analog Monitor

-Honestly, I can't compare the quality in detail because I'm using an old 14' monitor, which don't give the details precisely (from my opinion). Also, I'm 'serving' the frames directly from ffdshow Video Decoder (with postprocessing enabled); I think this enough to mantain as much as possible quality (as what preprocessing do). For me, when we're watching the clips, we no longer detect those tiny/'micro' misdetails as we're enjoying the story.

Originally Posted by dimzon
PS. Do not forget to post You results here :)

-BTW, here's the link to the captures : http://www.geocities.com/musafir_86/pictures/naruto/

-Any comments are welcomed, thanks. (I'm going to continue re-encode another 90+ AVIs now!!!)

-Musafir_86.