What are your baseline x265 encoding settings?

[Merlin93]

Hey folks,

I've been searching these forums and the web and have come to the conclusion that there isn't really a good collection of baseline encoding settings or proposed tunes for x265 that cover various types of media. Given x265 doesn't really provide much in the way of content specific tunes (aside from grain), this seems like something that would be useful to the enthusiast community, and would give people a good starting point for their own content-specific tweaks.

So I am proposing establishing a sticky thread (or using this one) as a place where people can share their settings and discuss what works (or doesn't work) and why. Assuming others are interested, of course.

Obviously, I have my own agenda since I'm in process of converting a large collection of DVD & BR media to digital format, and I'd like to use HEVC for at least some of it, so getting some good advice to tackle some of that would be handy.

As a starting point, I found the following as the most recent proposed tunes for animation and film in the HEVC discussion forum (crf 18 @ 1080p). However, they were posted more than a year ago, and may no longer be relevant based on the changes that have been made to x265 in that time...

animation:

--ctu 32 --ref 4 --bframes 6 --pbratio 1.2 --cbqpoffs -3
--crqpoffs -3 --no-sao --subme 3 --b-intra --no-amp --weightb 
--aq-mode 3 --aq-strength 0.8 --rd 4 --psy-rd 1.8 --psy-rdoq 1.5
--rdoq-level 2 --rc-lookahead 80 --qcomp 0.65
--no-strong-intra-smoothing --limit-modes

film:

--ctu 32 --pbratio 1.2 --cbqpoffs -3 --crqpoffs -3
--no-sao --subme 3 --b-intra --no-amp --weightb --aq-mode 3
--aq-strength 0.9 --rd 4 --psy-rd 2.5 --psy-rdoq 4.0
--rdoq-level 2 --rc-lookahead 80 --qcomp 0.65
--no-strong-intra-smoothing --limit-modes

I'm curious what people are using now, and whether these settings still make sense?

Personally, I use the following for animation/anime (non-CGI 1080p BR transfers), but I suspect it can be improved...

--aq-mode 3 --aq-motion --aq-strength 0.9
--rc-lookahead 80 --deblock -3:-3 --tskip --tskip-fast
--tu-inter-depth 4 --tu-intra-depth 4 --limit-tu 4 --no-sao

Still looking for good settings for general films (low action, low-to-medium grain), action films (live-action martial arts, car chases, giant robots), and CGI (3d animation, Pixar, etc.) I'd also like to see what folks use for animation/anime.

What do you use for your own content, and why?