TMPGEnc Quality Level

[Pied-Piper]

Hi there,

Does TMPGEnc Motion search precition effect on file sizes?
is the difference between High and Highest quality noticable on a progressive scan display?

Thanks in advance.

[adam]

This setting has no effect on filesize, it is simply a way to prioritize encoding speed versus quality. The higher the setting, the longer and harder TMPGenc searches for redundancy between frames, and that is really all mpeg encoding is. Between all other settings, I would say yes, on just about any playback device the quality difference is noticable. Between high and highest you will notice the least amount of quality difference, and most likely won't see any difference at all. Try it on some test encodes and see for yourself. Even if you do see a difference, you will have to weight this against the extreme speed hit you take at this setting. Ultimately, I don't think its worth it.

[txpharoah]

Depending on the desired product and the source, I switch between HIGH and ESTIMATE.

On rare occasions, I'll use LOW, LOWEST or HIGHEST, but not often.

These are not "quality" settings so much as speed settings, although the quality CAN be impacted by the method that is chosen.

[adam]

Actually, this setting is EXACTLY a quality setting. It specifically allows you to prioritize quality versus speed. As I said, motion searching is really all that mpeg encoding is.

If you read the tooltip its quite clear. "The better quality, (ie: normal, high, highest), the more time to encode required.

The only time this setting won't have an effect on quality is if you have already reached the point of diminishing returns with your set bitrate, but that is not to say that you will always notice the quality differences.

[Yirkin]

I've found that the time difference between fast and high is very minor. However, when I boost it up to highest, it takes significantly longer to encode. As a result, I always pick high since I assume it is generating better output and I don't have to wait much longer then I would at the fast setting.

Howard