Results: FFMPEG 2-pass vs 9-pass DVD MPEG-2

[dannyboy48888]

I'm sure from time to time we all have wondered "I bet this video would look better if only I can do more Passes." Well see's how the only info on more than 2-pass encoding results were related to CCE I decided to test this with FFMPEG. Pass 1 is a quick pass to get a idea of the bitrate. Pass 2 & 3 refines it. After this it's pretty much pointless as FFMPEG does a pretty good job with the stats it collects. Why didn't I just use the same flags for pass 1 as pass 2 and skip pass 3 all together? Well for some reason using MBD and Trellis etc in pass 1 does lower the bit rate ~5-10% , but the bitrate given causes macro-blocking in the following passes. Doing a plain run gives a good bitrate and headroom for FFMPEG to optimize the frame layout. Considering pass 1 is 4x faster (200fps vs 45fps) vs pass 2 onward in single thread mode it really doesn't add too much time. Attached is graphs, bitrate allocation, and screenshots showing the differences. Yes source is hard TFF interlaced and encoded as such. All tests done on Debian 12 with ffmpeg 5.1.3 stable. Considering its 480p video at 1650k I'd say ffmpeg overall isn't bad. It does default using linear quantization so it does saturate at relatively lower bitrates. Because of this is does act as noise filter, but looks good to me on my 55" tv at 8 ft away and the contrast not turned up to crazy levels. If you want more transparancy/grain retention you need to look at enabling non-linear quantization or moving to HCenc etc that can scale more bitrate wise. By all means feel free to give feedback. Just a normal guy trying to answer a rabbit hole I'm sure we all looked down lol. This is no way intended to be the gospel and I'm sure other sources may give different results.

Pass 1 (get idea of ideal bitrate)

ffmpeg -i /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv -vf setfield=tff -f dvd -muxrate 10080k -packetsize 2048 -c:v mpeg2video -maxrate:v 9000k -minrate:v 0 -bufsize:v 1835008 -aspect 16/9 -dc 10 -g 18 -bf 2 -intra_matrix 8,16,19,22,26,27,29,34,16,16,22,24,27,29,34,37,19, 22,26,27,29,34,34,38,22,22,26,27,29,34,37,40,22,26 ,27,29,32,35,40,48,26,27,29,32,35,40,48,58,26,27,2 9,34,38,46,56,69,27,29,35,38,46,56,69,83 -inter_matrix 16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16 ,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,1 6,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16, 16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16 -flags +ilme+ildct -alternate_scan 1 -top 1 -passlogfile /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv.passlog -threads 1 -q:v 3 -an -pass 1 /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv-pass1.m2v

Pass 2-9 (delete prior pass before starting new one to save space)

rm /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv-pass1.m2v
#
ffmpeg -i /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv -vf setfield=tff -f dvd -muxrate 10080k -packetsize 2048 -c:v mpeg2video -maxrate:v 9000k -minrate:v 0 -bufsize:v 1835008 -aspect 16/9 -dc 10 -g 18 -bf 2 -mbd rd -trellis 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -intra_matrix 8,16,19,22,26,27,29,34,16,16,22,24,27,29,34,37,19, 22,26,27,29,34,34,38,22,22,26,27,29,34,37,40,22,26 ,27,29,32,35,40,48,26,27,29,32,35,40,48,58,26,27,2 9,34,38,46,56,69,27,29,35,38,46,56,69,83 -inter_matrix 16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16 ,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,1 6,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16, 16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16 -flags +ilme+ildct -alternate_scan 1 -top 1 -passlogfile /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv.passlog -threads 1 -b:v 1613k -an -pass 3 /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv-pass2.m2v
#
rm /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv-pass2.m2v
#
ffmpeg -i /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv -vf setfield=tff -f dvd -muxrate 10080k -packetsize 2048 -c:v mpeg2video -maxrate:v 9000k -minrate:v 0 -bufsize:v 1835008 -aspect 16/9 -dc 10 -g 18 -bf 2 -mbd rd -trellis 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -intra_matrix 8,16,19,22,26,27,29,34,16,16,22,24,27,29,34,37,19, 22,26,27,29,34,34,38,22,22,26,27,29,34,37,40,22,26 ,27,29,32,35,40,48,26,27,29,32,35,40,48,58,26,27,2 9,34,38,46,56,69,27,29,35,38,46,56,69,83 -inter_matrix 16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16 ,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,1 6,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16, 16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16,16 -flags +ilme+ildct -alternate_scan 1 -top 1 -passlogfile /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv.passlog -threads 1 -b:v 1613k -an -pass 3 /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv-pass3.m2v
#
rm /home/witzel/Desktop/video/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002/Queen_Of_The_Damed-2002-avs2raw.mkv-pass3.m2v
#(repeated until pass 9, dont put rm for last pass)