Beginner Encoding?

[SirDarknight]

I'm a total noob in encoding. I've done some basic encoding with Handrbake but the results are not satisfactory. Somebody suggested me StaxRip recently. I saw a guy encoding a 11GB H.264 file into a 2GB H.265 without losing almost no noticeable quality.

As a beginner, how do you think I should start learning about everything?
My PC spec:

i7-3770k
16GB DDR3
R9 390 8GB GPU

[sneaker]

For best HEVC/H.265 results both HandBrake and StaxRip utilize x265. So with same source and same settings they produce the same result.

[strawberryshortcake]

I'm a total noob in encoding. I've done some basic encoding with Handrbake but the results are not satisfactory. Somebody suggested me StaxRip recently. I saw a guy encoding a 11GB H.264 file into a 2GB H.265 without losing almost no noticeable quality.

As a beginner, how do you think I should start learning about everything?
My PC spec:

i7-3770k
16GB DDR3
R9 390 8GB GPU

Reading threads and trying to do it is the best way to start, and asking questions.

Even though my register date says May 2016, I really didn't start "truly diving" into video encoding until about late April 2018.

As a newbie myself, I don't really have much to add as far as where to start. All I can say is what I've done. I'm still a baby on the timeline of learning to properly encode. If I had known what I know now, I would tell my former self to just get started with either ffmpeg or avisynth or vapoursynth. Yes, they're way more advanced and technical and probably overkill for many, but as a current newbie, I would still tell my former newbie self to head down this route. Stick with CRF encoding rather than bitrate encoding.


Just my experience below.

Any Video Converter -- about 2 to 3 years. I simply wanted to free up harddrive space with all the DVR recordings through Windows Media Center. Watch and purge. Didn't care much about keeping anything. Went strictly with bitrate encoding. Anything to knock down those 5 to 10 to 15 GB per episode/shows recordings.

Screenshot definitely don't tell the whole story. Things in motion is what counts. Pitch Perfect 32GB Blu Ray down to about 1.7GB (Any Video Converter, 2000bitrate encoding, everything else default setting) or 2.6GB (3000bitrate). One's 32GB, one's 2.6GB the other is 1.7GB. 264 encoding. I heard about 265 encoding about a month back, but it has compatibility issue on my ipad, so I'm not going down that route. The files encoded with Any Video Converter was always larger than any of the below programs. So I no longer use AVC.

You can probably figure out which one is which but to me it was good enough for my Ipad.

[Attachment 45510 - Click to enlarge]
[Attachment 45512 - Click to enlarge]
[Attachment 45511 - Click to enlarge]



Handbrake - 1-2 month, wanted to compress files to a smaller size so I could squeeze as much content onto my previous 4th gen ipad 256 mb. Youtube search all pointed to handbrake. Handbrake was the most popular, so I figured that's the "best" encoder. My results always varied. Youtuber claims of 90% compression while retaining the same quality just never did happen during my test runs. Kept searching.

Vidcoder - 1-2 month. Wanted something of an alternative to handbrake. Vidcoder is basically handbrake but with a different outfit, different GUI (graphical user interface). Felt like it was simply faster than Handbrake at default values, sometimes the encodings also looked better at a smaller size. Logical thinking says that if the settings for both vidcoder and handbrake are the exact same, I should get the same file size and same quality. I stayed on default and vidcoder seems to always win out and might I add, just faster. So I still don't know what the deal is with this. Either vidcoder is more efficient or most likely somewhere in the advanced setting vidcoder is configured differently. I didn't care to do any real digging.

MeGUI, Staxrip, Shanaencoder, Hybrid - 1-2 months. Wanted something "better" than Handbrake/Vidcoder ... just to try something new out. Ultimately, I chose to stick with MeGUI. Staxrip and Hybrid took a bit too long to encode. MeGUI on default value was faster and bested Handbrake/Vidcoder in file size and less pixelation at the same bitrate. Again, all on default (maybe fiddling with the simple stuff like video bitrate, and audio bitrate, and how fast the encode was (ultrafast to veryslow), but always taking into account for the smallest size possible (all to fit on my Ipad 12.9 512 GB). I never really dove into any advanced settings much, maybe just to test out the speed and quality, but nothing too advanced.

If I had to pick one of the above (handbrake/vidcoder, MeGUI, Staxrip, Hybrid, Shanaencoder,etc), I would pick MeGUI.

Waifu2x (animation only) - (http://waifu2x.me/, there's a downloaded version as well) 15 days roughly "working" with this. Simple software, but takes forever. Strictly for animation. Cool. Takes absolutely forever. If you have an Nvidia GPU graphics card, it'll absolutely speed up the process. I have an AMD.

ffmpeg - About 2 weeks. Command line encoding. Youtube tutorials. I like it, I still use it in combination with Avisynth.

Avisynth (plus AVSPmod) - less than a month (about 2 weeks). This is where I am at right now. If I had to do it all over again, I would start here. Knowing a little bit about ffmpeg helped bridge the transition. Very, very intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, it gets easier. I still have trouble with it though.

Vapoursynth - This is on my list of "to explore" list. Haven't use it. Haven't downloaded it yet. It's suppose to be less of a memory hog than Avisynth, it uses python scripting, it's the new kid on the block, a modernized version of Avisynth. And that's all I know about (or think I know about) it right now. Something definitely to explore.



Here's my beginner's attempt at using Avisynth. And it really depends on your "taste" as far as how the video looks after applying certain filters. Some individuals may not (and will not) like the way my Avisynth processed image looks. My purpose was to increase the sharpness of the video to play on my iPad. So, if I were to simply use Handbrake or some of the other easier to use ones (i.e. handbrake, vidcoder, etc.) even if I push the bitrate as high as it can go or even using a CRF14, I doubt I can really do much to "increase' the sharpness of the original DVD. Avisynth at least allow me to make things appear "high definition-ish." But you really can't call it high definition. It's just adding filters to give it a pseudo enhancement. Again, this is my newbie way of looking at things. I might be completely wrong with everything I wrote up top. So just take it with a grain of salt.



To the veterans or anyone: Yes, I am open to suggestion on what I can do to improve the image, as well as changing the code to improve things.

VOB original (DVD source)


Avisynth



VOB original (DVD Source)


Avisynth




Avysinth code. It's really just about copying and pasting codes and using AVSPMod to get an immediate preview of the filters applied. You don't need to know anything about coding really.

MPEG2Source("T:\Sitcom - Will & Grace DVD\Will & Grace S1 D1 Ep2 - A New Lease on Life.d2v", cpu=0)
TFM()
TDecimate()
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\RgTools.dll")
FFT3DFilter(sigma=1.5, plane=0, bw=16, bh=16, ow=8, oh=8, sharpen=0.4)
FFT3DFilter(sigma=3, plane=3, bw=16, bh=16, ow=8, oh=8, sharpen=0.4)
Import("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\LimitedSharpenFaster.avsi")
LimitedSharpenFaster(ss_x=1.5, ss_y=1.5, edgemode=1, strength=255)
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\SangNom2.dll")
Hysteria(strength=1)
awarpsharp(5)
Santiag(3,3) 
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\nnedi3.dll")
nnedi3_rpow2(rfactor=2,nsize=4,cshift="spline36resize",fwidth=720,fheight=480)
FastLineDarkenMOD(strength=1)
Tweak(hue=-3)

Updated Code: Not sure if I"m suppose to "import" and "loadplugin" every single filter that I'm using. Did it anyway and the .bat batch code still works.

if not exist WillandGraceCRF23LLLLLLLL md WillandGraceCRF23LLLLLLLL
for %%A in ("*.VOB") do (
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\AMVpack\DGMPGDec\DGIndex.exe" -i "%%~A" -o "%%~dpnA" -fo 0 -om 2 -exit
    echo Mpeg2Source("%%~dpnA.d2v", CPU2="ooooxx", Info=3^) > "%%~A.avs"
    echo TFM(d2v="%%~dpnA.d2v"^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo TDecimate(^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo Import("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\LimitedSharpenFaster.avsi"^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo Import ("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\Hysteria.avsi"^) >> "%%~A.avs"  
    echo LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\aWarpSharp.dll"^) >> "%%~A.avs"       
    echo LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\SangNom2.dll"^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo Import ("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\FastLineDarkenMOD.avsi"^) >> "%%~A.avs"  
    echo LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth+\plugins64\nnedi3.dll"^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo LimitedSharpenFaster(ss_x=1.5, ss_y=1.5, edgemode=1, strength=255^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo Hysteria(strength=1^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo awarpsharp(5^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo Santiag(3,3^) >> "%%~A.avs" 
    echo FastlineDarkenMOD(strength=1^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo Tweak(hue=-3^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    echo nnedi3_rpow2(rfactor=2,nsize=4,cshift="spline36resize",fwidth=720,fheight=480^) >> "%%~A.avs"
    "C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.2-Q16\ffmpeg2.exe" -i "%%A.AVS" -i "%%A" -map 0:0 -map 1:a:0 -y -c:v libx264 -preset veryslow -tune film -crf 23 -vf hqdn3d,setsar=sar=8/9 -c:a copy "WillandGraceCRF23LLLLLLLL\%%~nA.mp4"
    del "%%~nA*.AC3"
    del "%%A.AVS"
    del "%%~nA.d2v"
    del "%%~nA.d2v.bad"
    del "%%~nA.fix.txt"
)
pause

The following are threads that I created trying to get help:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/388818-What-is-the-proper-way-to-deinterlace-Sourc...970-interlaced
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/388838-Avisynth-How-to-install-plugins-%28Already-...l-in-folder%29