CCE SP colour difference

[hrlslcbr]

Hello. I encoded a file in CCE with different settings and TMPGEnc Plus to see which of them would yield better quality, and I can clearly see some differences between the colour of the encoded files and the original file. The colours of the files encoded by CCE are washed out, and the colours of the files encoded by TMPGEnc are more similar to the original. Is there a setting in CCE to make the colours be more like the original files?
Thanks.

[pchan]

Some info on cce at this site.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53770

[hrlslcbr]

Thanks for the link . It surely has a lot of information about CCE, but even though I read it all, the problem is still there. The colours of the videos encoded with CCE are different to the colours of the original file. Do you know any other link that has more info about CCE? Thanks

[adam]

If you want to make CCE ask more like TMPGenc does in this regard, then go to the video tab and change the Luminence Level setting to whichever option it is not set to now.

What you are experiencing isn't necessarily a problem though. PC's use a different luminence range then a tv. A properly encoded mpg, for display on a tv, will actually look washed out when viewed on a pc unless you do it through a proper software dvd player. (which automatically expands the luminence range.)

Basically, a source intended to be viewed on a pc should, and probably will, have a luminence range of 0-255. If you encode this in CCE, you want to set the luminence range to 16-235 to compress it to comply with the TV's range. This would apply to avi files that you download.

If your source was intended to be viewed on a tv then it is most likely already compressed to 16-235 so you want to select the 0-255 range. All this does is prevent it from being further compressed. This would apply to most other sources like DVDs or anything you capture off of the television. After encoding, the file will looked washed out on the pc. If you author it to a VCD, SVCD, or DVD and burn it and then play it back on the pc it should look correct. And of course it will look correct on the tv which is the main thing.

[hrlslcbr]

Good point adam . But it seems weird to me that if the source is taken off from a DVD, the colours still look different compared to the encoded video which is meant to be burnt to a DVD . I made a comparison setting the luminance level at 0-255 and 16-235, and they looked equal to me. Now, could you please explain why the luminance would be compressed more if I select the 16-235 option if the source is already 16-235?
BTW... can you tell me how to eliminate the noise in CCE encodes. I know you would say "adjust the quantizer characteristics", but it doesn't work. Even if i set it to 0, I still get mosquito noise. Does it have anything to do about the other quality options? Thanks.

[adam]

That's the confusing part about luminence levels. You can never tell an encoder to output 0-255 or to output 16-235. You can only tell it to compress or expand. Even if your source is already 16-235, if you set it to 16-235 in the encoder, then it may still compress it further.

How are you loading your video into CCE? If you are frameserving via dvd2avi and avisynth, and do it correctly, then the video stays YUV, which only supports the 16-235 range. So since source and output stay YUV, the luminence ranges will remain at the proper 16-235 regardless of what you set it to in CCE.

I can tell from your post that you are using a later version of CCE then me. Yes the quantizer setting is what you need to adjust. I can't really guide you any since your version operates alot differently then mine (2.5). But don't ever use 0. Try something around 27 maybe. You'll have to experiment, and the higher your bitrate the higher this setting needs to be.