What is this? And how does it effect the video?

[KyleMadrid]

Hi all,

Some of you may have read my earlier post in a thread I started a few days ago, and you may remember that I was about to start using a new encoding program which is much more advanced than the ones I had been using before...

Anyway, I just noticed an option in the 'x264' tab to choose which type of profile I would like to use. The options they give are, Auto, Baseline, Main, High and High10. It also lets you choose the Level.

I have no idea what this is, and I was wondering if anyone here could tell me what it is or what it is for, and how it affects the video?

Thanks in advance

Oh, and in case you're wondering... The program I am using is MediaCoder.

[poisondeathray]

Profiles and levels set restrictions on certain encoding settings such as bitrates, resolution ,frame rates .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

They are meant for device and hardware compatibilty. For example, 1st gen ipod might be limited to Baseline@L3.1 . Blu-ray would be limited to High@L4.1 . No devices can play High10 (10bit AVC - only computer can)

In general, the higher the profile and level, the higher the upper limit for bitrate and advanced features - therefore the possiblity for better compression and quality . For example , Baseline doesn't allow for b-frame - this severely limits compression efficiency


If you don't know what do to, use the presets - many GUIs have preset settings for certain targets and devices

[KyleMadrid]

Thanks poisondeathray, that explains it well. I am about to encode a football (soccer) match that I've recorded this morning in HD. I am thinking of setting the bit rate at a minimum of 4000 and a maximum of 6000 (just haven't decided yet). Container will be MKV and encoder of course is x264. Can I ask what you would suggest for this? I currently have it set at Baseline@L4.1

Also, I just noticed one other thing... Reference Frames. Is this something I should worry about? or should I just forget about it and leave it as the default? (which is set at 2).

Thanks again for your help.

[sanlyn]

So, you still plan to re-encode home-made MPEG with x264?

[KyleMadrid]

So, you still plan to re-encode home-made MPEG with x264?

yes, I do. Is there something wrong with that? because I just get the sense that you think it's not a good idea...

[Wolfen]

Profiles and levels set restrictions on certain encoding settings such as bitrates, resolution ,frame rates .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

They are meant for device and hardware compatibilty. For example, 1st gen ipod might be limited to Baseline@L3.1 . Blu-ray would be limited to High@L4.1 . No devices can play High10 (10bit AVC - only computer can)

In general, the higher the profile and level, the higher the upper limit for bitrate and advanced features - therefore the possiblity for better compression and quality . For example , Baseline doesn't allow for b-frame - this severely limits compression efficiency


If you don't know what do to, use the presets - many GUIs have preset settings for certain targets and devices

If you look at the levels list the very far right column you'll see in the brackets is the highest reference frame for that level at that resolution. And remember everytime you re-encode you lose quality, I think that's what sanlyn is referring to.

[KyleMadrid]

Profiles and levels set restrictions on certain encoding settings such as bitrates, resolution ,frame rates .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

They are meant for device and hardware compatibilty. For example, 1st gen ipod might be limited to Baseline@L3.1 . Blu-ray would be limited to High@L4.1 . No devices can play High10 (10bit AVC - only computer can)

In general, the higher the profile and level, the higher the upper limit for bitrate and advanced features - therefore the possiblity for better compression and quality . For example , Baseline doesn't allow for b-frame - this severely limits compression efficiency


If you don't know what do to, use the presets - many GUIs have preset settings for certain targets and devices

If you look at the levels list the very far right column you'll see in the brackets is the highest reference frame for that level at that resolution. And remember everytime you re-encode you lose quality, I think that's what sanlyn is referring to.

OK, thanks.

[deadrats]

So, you still plan to re-encode home-made MPEG with x264?

yes, I do. Is there something wrong with that? because I just get the sense that you think it's not a good idea...

maybe he's asking because it's kind of a waste of time to re-encode a home made mpeg, you captured it in HD and now you want to re-encode it, unless you plan on filtering the video to remove noise or interlace or to correct the colors or some similar step you will invariably reduce the quality of the footage.

[KyleMadrid]

Oh, I see.

Well, the reason I want to encode it is to reduce this file size, and I'm also cutting advertisements out.

[sanlyn]

Every re-encode has a quality cost. If MPEG->h264 uses fairly high bitrates the loss can be minimized somewhat. But 4000 in this instance for MPEG->h264 is not a "high" bitrate.

Video encoding in MPEG or h264 is a lossy encoding/compression process. It is not like subjecting a file to Huffyuv, Lagarith, ZIP or WinRAR (which are lossless compressors). The two types of compression are entirely different.

[mike20021969]

The program I am using is MediaCoder.

Do the program have a constant quality setting?

At the end of the day, if you're happy with the result that mediacoder gives you, that's all that matters.

I've converted tons of "home-made" MPEG files to mp4 format, and they look great.

[Hoser Rob]

Hi all,

Some of you may have read my earlier post in a thread I started a few days ago, and you may remember that I was about to start using a new encoding program which is much more advanced than the ones I had been using before...

Anyway, I just noticed an option in the 'x264' tab to choose which type of profile I would like to use. The options they give are, Auto, Baseline, Main, High and High10. It also lets you choose the Level.

I have no idea what this is, and I was wondering if anyone here could tell me what it is or what it is for, and how it affects the video?

Thanks in advance

Oh, and in case you're wondering... The program I am using is MediaCoder.

So how much are they paying you?