FFmpeg compression problem

[Boxcart]

Hi folks,
I need some help with compressing a very large 4K video. I have a Plex server with a ton of content from over the years. One particular title is an old HBO TV movie that was never released to Blu-Ray. I have the original recording (the best quality of it that is publicly available, same quality as on Max). It had two issues: weird juddery frame rate, and low quality. The quality is simply due to being an old TV movie, but the recording is reference quality of the original. The original movie is 59.94 FPS (Apple TV also shows this when streaming it from Max) however when you scrub through, there is a new frame perhaps every 2-3 frames, but the pattern is uneven.

I used ffmpeg's mpdecimate command to remove the duplicate frames. I then used Topaz AI to upscale it to 4K. It now looks tremendous and plays smoothly. The problem is that this file is almost 200GB, far too big for a movie; it needs compression to get to the normal 50 GB range.

Usually after using Topaz AI I use an ffmpeg command to compress it near lossless visually to get it to a normal 4K movie size. The problem is my ffmpeg command (and any changes I make) are resulting in duplicate frames in the output, as well as colors that are a bit flatter than the original Topaz AI output. I tried 59.940 and 60000/1001 for frame rate, both resulted in some duplicate frames in the output. I tried putting bt709 metadata in the command and not, both resulted in worse colors than the Topaz AI output.

Here is the MediaInfo of the Topaz AI output. Could someone please help with an ffmpeg command that can compress this down to normal size while not affecting the frame rate (adding duplicate frames) or colors?

Thanks.

MediaInfo:

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L5.2
Format settings                          : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 3 frames
Format settings, GOP                     : M=1, N=30
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 41 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 271 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 120 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Original frame rate                      : 59.940 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Stream size                              : 192 GiB (97%)
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

[videoAI]

have you tried: Clever-FFmpeg-GUI ?
there might be few settings you can try.

You can also re-post here: forum

[Boxcart]

have you tried: Clever-FFmpeg-GUI ?
there might be few settings you can try.

You can also re-post here: forum

I tried that and it wasn't any better than using ffmpeg alone. It looks like when I use ffmpeg to try and compress the video, the new video gets frame duplication in this pattern (this frame duplication is not present in the Topaz AI upscale raw output):

- New frame
- New frame
- New frame
- Duplicate frame
- New frame
- New frame
- New frame
- Duplicate frame
- etc.

Here is the ffmpeg command I used:

ffmpeg -i TopazAIOutput.mkv -c:a copy -c:v hevc_nvenc -b:v 70M -bufsize:v 120M -maxrate 80M -minrate 60M -g 4 -s 3840x2160 CompressedUpscale.mkv

Here is the MediaInfo of the compressed video generated using this command (the MediaInfo of the original Topaz AI upscale video (input) is in the original post):

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main@L5.1@High
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 41 min
Bit rate                                 : 23.9 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Original frame rate                      : 59.940 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Stream size                              : 16.9 GiB (87%)
Writing library                          : Lavc62.1.102 hevc_nvenc
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Here is the MediaInfo of the output video using Clever-FFmpeg-GUI to compress:

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@Main
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 41 min
Bit rate                                 : 5 565 kb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 59.940 (60000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.011
Stream size                              : 3.93 GiB (98%)
Writing library                          : Lavc62.1.102 hevc_nvenc
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Here are the settings I used in Clever-FFmpeg-GUI for this:

[Attachment 87221 - Click to enlarge]

The ffmpeg GUI output file has worse frame duplication, in this pattern (which might just be random):
- New frame
- Duplicate frame
- New frame
- Duplicate frame
- New frame
- Duplicate frame
- Duplicate frame
- New frame
- Duplicate frame
- Duplicate frame
- New frame
- Duplicate frame
- Duplicate frame
- New frame
- New frame
...

[videoAI]

Try posting this message in the Clever GUI forum [link below]

have you tried: Clever-FFmpeg-GUI ?
there might be few settings you can try.

You can also re-post here: forum

[Boxcart]

Try posting this message in the Clever GUI forum [link below]

have you tried: Clever-FFmpeg-GUI ?
there might be few settings you can try.

You can also re-post here: forum

I don't see why ffmpeg alone can't do it. I've never had an issue with ffmpeg and commands before. I'm not familiar with that GUI.

[davexnet]

It's possible the "-g 4" is messing it up. Try taking it out

[videoAI]

@Boxcart

It wasn't my intention to get you to use a tool other than FFMPEG which it is clear that you are already comfortable using.

Since this forum doesn't have an official FFMPEG support thread, I wanted to point you to another thread where a
lot of advanced FFMPEG users hang out (including ProWo, Developer of the GUI) in the hopes that one or more of them
can help you out with your issue.

I also suggested the GUI because it supports advanced FFMPEG features, and Avisynth scripts, which may be required to
eliminate the duplicate frames issue. The tool also support changes to color spaces and color ranges (you mentioned issues
with color).

Good luck in resolving your issue ..

I don't see why ffmpeg alone can't do it. I've never had an issue with ffmpeg and commands before. I'm not familiar with that GUI.

[Boxcart]

It's possible the "-g 4" is messing it up. Try taking it out

Thanks this solved it. I use that because it creates more keyframes which helps with cutting and remuxing in MKVToolNix but didn't realize it can create duplicate frames.

[Boxcart]

@Boxcart

It wasn't my intention to get you to use a tool other than FFMPEG which it is clear that you are already comfortable using.

Since this forum doesn't have an official FFMPEG support thread, I wanted to point you to another thread where a
lot of advanced FFMPEG users hang out (including ProWo, Developer of the GUI) in the hopes that one or more of them
can help you out with your issue.

I also suggested the GUI because it supports advanced FFMPEG features, and Avisynth scripts, which may be required to
eliminate the duplicate frames issue. The tool also support changes to color spaces and color ranges (you mentioned issues
with color).

Good luck in resolving your issue ..

I don't see why ffmpeg alone can't do it. I've never had an issue with ffmpeg and commands before. I'm not familiar with that GUI.

No worries, thanks