Problems with macroblocks?

[killajl]

I've been converting japanese animation from avi to mpeg2 and putting them on dvds. I notice that during night scenes or even when there is just a dark color on the screen, i see flickering blocks which I guess are macroblocks. Are there anyways to get rid of this? I'm using TMPGEnc Plus with settings of 352 x 480, 2 pass vbr with max bit rate of 7000, avg of 5000, and min of 3000. I've been trying to fit about 150 mins worth onto a dvd. Should I change my settings? Also, does it help to change the quantize matrix to CG/Animation setting?

[FulciLives]

I've been converting japanese animation from avi to mpeg2 and putting them on dvds. I notice that during night scenes or even when there is just a dark color on the screen, i see flickering blocks which I guess are macroblocks. Are there anyways to get rid of this? I'm using TMPGEnc Plus with settings of 352 x 480, 2 pass vbr with max bit rate of 7000, avg of 5000, and min of 3000. I've been trying to fit about 150 mins worth onto a dvd. Should I change my settings? Also, does it help to change the quantize matrix to CG/Animation setting?

5000kbps is such a high bitrate for Half D1 that you really can get away with a CBR encode. I wouldn't bother with doing 2-pass VBR unless you drop below 4500kbps

So anyways I doubt your macroblocks got anything to do with resolution and/or bitrate in this case.

Could be the AVI has too much compression to begin with (such as a DivX or Xvid file) or it could be you are changing your colorspace too one many times or picking the wrong option for that dreaded "Output YUV data as Basic YCbCr not CCIR601" setting which is on the Quantize matrix tab of the MPEG SETTING menu.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[killajl]

Would the wrong option be if "Output YUV data as Basic YCbCr not CCIR601" was checked or unchecked? Would changing the Quantize matrix setting from default to CG/Animation help? Or the soften block noise?

[FulciLives]

Would the wrong option be if "Output YUV data as Basic YCbCr not CCIR601" was checked or unchecked? Would changing the Quantize matrix setting from default to CG/Animation help? Or the soften block noise?

I'd try to encode two sample clips ... the same clip but with one CHECK MARK the "dreaded" option and with the other do NOT check mark the "dreaded" option.

I call it the "dreaded" option because no one is really 100% sure just what the hell it does and checking it or not checking it is sorta hit or miss ... no easy way to tell other than doing a short sample either way and then eyeballing it (burn to a DVD-RW/+RW to test on a TV with a stand alone DVD player if you can).

Not sure about the CG/ANIMATION setting but it does make sense but I don't encode much animation so I am out of my league here.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[killajl]

Ok, I'll try that. Thanks for the suggestions.

[SaSi]

The animation movies are different from "real-life" video in that animation doesn't comprise of natural images. The color composition is poorer (less colors to worry about) and in general, the image is softer in content with edges more precice. Color changes are steep.

This means that the encoding - if it takes the above into account - can produce a good result with less bitrate. Theoretically.

On the other hand, the softness in animation video can very easily be distorted by macroblock presence.

As mentioned before, the 5000kps average bitrate for your resolution appears to be high enough to ensure good quality encoding without any further worries.

Have you really verified that the original (AVI?) video is free from this blocking effects?

Selecting the CG/Animation QM is generaly a good option for animation, as these coefficients are better suited for smooth image with sharp edges.