TMPGEnc quality question

[chromeman]

Hi there,
This is just a quick question. When you are converting a video in TMPGEnc with the wizard and you get to the screen where you have 'source range', 'other settings' etc, on other settings there is an option under the first tab to convert the video at 'highest quality (very slow)' and 'motion search (very fast)' plus a few others. Is there a noticeable difference in the quality of the outputted video say if you choose 'highest quality' instead of' motion search'? Just wondered because I usually use 'highest quality' but it takes 5-6hrs to convert a 70minute video (approximately).
Thanks for reading!

[bugster]

The difference in quality between 'high' and 'highest' is not noticeable to most people in the most cases, but the time difference in encoding is significant. So I use 'High' or 'normal' for most stuff. Some will even say to use 'motion search estimate' as being good enough for most cases and it probably is. I never use 'highest', it is just too slow!

The correct answer though is to try the different settings yourself on a short clip (5 - 10 mins) with plenty of motion and see what is acceptable to you.

[chromeman]

Thanks bugster. Just out of interest as well, what does 'motion search estimate' actually mean?

[VCDHunter]

Motion Estimation

In video encoding, the process of analyzing previous or future frames to identify blocks that have not changed or have only changed location. Motion vectors are then stored in place of the blocks. This is very computation-intensive and can cause visual artifacts when subject to errors.

I'm assuming thats the same thing as Motion Search Estimate.

[bugster]

It is the 'motion search precision' parameter in TmpGenc that we are discussing I believe. The quote from the glossary that VCDHunter provides explains what it is used for. The various parameters available in Tmpgenc (and other encoders) determine how hard the encoder works on each block to best determine the correct motion vector (if any) for that block. The 'harder' it works, the longer it takes but the more accurate the results and so the final picture quality is less likley to show motion artefacts.
Does this help?

[VCDHunter]

Well it's helped me.

[chromeman]

Yeah thats what I was looking for, thanks. I was just interested to see. Thanks guys!

[bugster]

Glad to be of asistance.

Just hope I got it right