Question regarding CCE passes...

[hiimbored]

Hi, I just had a question about using CCE. Can doing too many passes result in worse video quality than doing a few less passes? What I'm trying to ask is: will doing 9 passes always result in better quality than doing, say, 6 passes? Thanks!

[guns1inger]

After around 3 - 4 passes the difference is minimal, and after 5 passes can only really be seen in a bitrate viewer as a smoother curve, and not in any practical, visual sense. It won't (or shouldn't) get worse, but it won't be anything you will be able to see either. I long ago gave up wasting time on anything more than 3 passes (in CCE speak, that 1+3). Most encoders only do two passes, including the analysis pass, and some rival and surpass CCE in image quality. The laws of diminishing returns are unforgiving.

So in answer to your question, 9 will only be better than 6 at a mathematical level, and 6 will only be better than 3 by around 0.005%, but take twice as long.