Hybrid conversions - trying to work out what I did differently in this run

[daveb_89]

I'm planning to use Hybrid to convert AVI rips of old analogue camcorder tapes

The first one is a recording of old cine film so the picture quality is mostly poor

First time using Hybrid and I was experimenting with settings, but I haven't been able to figure out how to save each attempt's settings as a profile to reuse later

In my iterations, there is one output file that just looks better to me than all the others - which are actually closer to the original. This attempt came out with deeper colours and clearer whites, and I don't know why! It was created using Hybrid 2020 and I'm now using 2025

In the attached side by side screen screenshots, the "better" one is on the right. The difference seems more subtle in these photos tbh but I hope it's apparent

I've scrutinised the mediainfo files (attached) and I can see some differences but nothing that shouts out "deeper colurs and whiter whites"

The "better" version is Test3.mp4, I'm comparing it one called test5high41fast.mp4 and these are the differences in Test3 :

Writing library : x264 core 160 (NOT 165) r3009 4c9b076
Matrix coefficients : BT.470 System B/G not BT.601

eNCODING SETTINGS:
mixed_ref=0 NOT 1
crf 20 not 18
vbv_maxrate=150000 NOT 62500 / vbv_bufsize=187500 NOT 78125

(I don't know how I managed set such high values in vbv_maxrate and vbv_bufsize)

SO how do I recreate this...?

[Selur]

If the source has no color matrix, Hybrid will guess the color matrix based on the source format and the resolution.
BT.470 System B/G vs. BT.601 shouldn't cause this as in both cases the bt.601 matrix should be used for YUV<>RGB conversion.
Assuming detailed mediainfo output doesn't show more details, it is likely something in the filtering. (looks more like a tv vs pc scale difference or some contrast sharpening; did you apply cas?)