Thread: Nero 11 Recode
View Single Post
Old 12th November 2013, 14:41   #4  |  Link
LoRd_MuldeR
Software Developer
 
LoRd_MuldeR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Last House on Slunk Street
Posts: 13,248
1) The "the best quality video [you] can get" is not re-encoding at all, because any re-encoding unavoidably will cause some quality loss ("generation loss"). Try to avoid re-encoding where possible!

2) If you really have to re-encode, the primary factor that controls quality is bitrate! So if you are not concerned about file size, simply raise the bitrate to the point where the video looks transparent to your eyes. And you are done

3) "Encoding precision" probably is a Speed vs. Compression option (and here "Compression" mans "Quality per Bit"). You obviously want to optimize for compression rather than speed. But since I don't own a license of Nero Recode, I don't know whether "0" or "1" is supposed to give the best compression (i.e. slowest encoding speed), but that shouldn't be too hard to find out. Is there no help file or at least a tooltip?

3) More reference frames certainly shouldn't hurt. Though 3 still is relatively few. x264 can go up to 16.

4) "Deblock Strength" probably controls the H.264 Inloop Deblock Filter. Basically it controls the kind of compression artifacts you are going to get. With high (positive) values you are more likely to get smoothed out details, while with low (negative) values you are more likely to get blocking artifacts. Decide what you prefer! Note that most people prefer a slightly negative value (e.g. -1) for real-life footage in order to retain a "sharper" look. For cartoon-like stuff you might want a positive value. Anyway, you probably want to avoid too "extreme" value here (e.g. stick with the "-2" to "2" range). Also note: The higher the bitrate, the less effect the Deblock settings will have (the Deblock filter isn't used much at high bitrates anyway).

5) "8x8 Transform" (i.e. 8x8 vs. 4x4 Transform Adaptivity) certainly doesn't hurt. It can help quite a bit! But it's a High Profile feature, so not available if you are targeting Main Profile.

6) Why are you using Nero Recode instead of x264 with one of the various x264 GUI's? x264 is certainly one of the best H.264 encoders you can get. And it's free! As far as I remember from the last comparisons (it's been a while), the H.264 encoder used by Nero was more of the mediocre kind. So the biggest quality improvement (at same file size) could probably be obtain by switching from Nero to x264.
__________________
Go to https://standforukraine.com/ to find legitimate Ukrainian Charities 🇺🇦✊

Last edited by LoRd_MuldeR; 12th November 2013 at 22:33.
LoRd_MuldeR is offline   Reply With Quote