CCE 1 or 2 Passes?

[scaronelly]

I've noticed that the second pass in CCE is about twice as long as the first pass. Is it really worth it doing 2 passes, or is 1 pass good enough? I want to hear some peoples opinions.

[VidGuy]

Actually, in CCE the first pass is the longest because it does 2 passes - one to create the VAF file and the second is the "real" pass.

Common wisdom is that at about 3 passes you reach the point of diminishing returns.

A way that Cinemacraft suggest you do it is to use one-pass, determine the bitrate, then do multiple passes at or about that bitrate.

For instance, I generally do Q:40 for most movies, Q:30 or Q:25 for special-effects intensive movies. Then I use Teco's bitrate viewer to look at the bitrate average I got, then set up CCE to do 3 more passes at that bitrate (actually, I use about 100 higher, since Teco seems to come up with a number about 100 lower than what you set CCE to).

All depends on the quality you want and how much control over size you need. Obviously, if size is what matters, then you can just let the
0'th pass create the VAF file, since you know what bitrate you want to do.

[JasonK]

Yep, I've found a bunch of extra passes doesn't really improve anything. 2 should be plenty. I've seen a lot of different recommendations for setting up CCE, and some are a complete waste of time or require unnecessary steps for setting up your encoding. I calculate the avg bitrate and run multiple pass VBR (Q is automatically determined), this cuts down on all the early prep works which is unnecessary (i.e. Robshot), and creates a file which will fit on DVD. You can edit the bias in the ecl file, so you dont need to generate a first pass or use advanced mode. Excellent quality.

[dc91gt]

I always encode 3 pass in CCE. Doesn't take much longer and the more passes the more accurate its going to be, granted passed 3 you've reached diminishing returns.

However, if it's a really long movie, where I need to drop the bit rate below 3750 to make it fit on a single disc, i'll run 4 passes. It does help the quality.


-d

[jbenj01]

JasonK,

How/Why the heck do you "edit the bias in the .ecl file" ?? I'm currently using CCE2.64 and use CCE Guesser to calculate avg bitrate.. you?

[JasonK]

I edit the BIAS to 20. I believe it defaults to 30. The Robshot method required you to do a single pass VBR, then manually go into advanced to edit the BIAS (to 0). It's a complete waste of time and not advised.

Regarding the number of passes, the Bach method states:

"One question may appear: You said that it is unnecessary to use “advanced settings”. Does it mean it is unnecessary to make the second pass also?
No. Surely the second pass is necessary. I said that the average allocation of bits already is optimized, but the distribution of these bits inside of each GOP still can and must be optimized, and for this it is necessary to use multipass (it may be 1 or 2 pass). More than two, however, is loss of time and risk of distortion. "

[P@iNKilleR]

i'm just dead lazy & do a one pass as so far I aint seen that much difference anyway & if any it would be hard to notice