HD MPEG-2 or WMVHD/VC-1 Encoders (Freeware)

[siddharthagandhi]

I am encoding FROM a DV-AVI file, so therefore I placed it in this section (to admin: this grouping system is a pain in the neck, you need a forum for things that dont fit in any other forum). Well, I'm on the HD bandwagon, and I want to encode using HD formats such as MPEG-2 and WMVHD/VC-1. Are there any freeware encoders for this? Especially ones with a customizable bitrate so I can encode with somewhat HD quality without the outrageous file sizes. Also, I want to encode widescreen 16:9 so i can't use something that resizes your video to 640 by 480 or whatever. It can only resize to 1280 by 720 or 1920 by 1080 or something like that...

Are there any HD encoders for the matter that are freeware out there?

[edDV]

If you have a 720x480/576 DV-AVI file why covert that to a higher resolution format? The HDTV will do that in hardware. You aren't adding any quality.

What is your goal here? Are these from camcorder tapes? What quality camcorder?

[Soopafresh]

Two command line encoders will do it and you'll want to use AviSynth as the middleman so you can resize and sharpen.

FFmpeg and Mpeg2enc HD both will encode at HD resolution.



http://www.tivofiles.com/download.php?file=HD-mpeg2enc.zip
http://www.tivofiles.com/download.php?file=cygwin1-5-12-2004.zip
http://students.washington.edu/lorenm/src/avisynth/avs2yuv/avs2yuv.exe


example syntax

avs2yuv yy.avs -o - | mpeg2enc -H -f 3 -n n -r 24 -M 1 -K hi-res -V 448 -D 11 -q 1 -b 19000 -a 3 -I 0 -a 3 -F 4 -s -o zzx.m2v


I don't know much about WMV, but this app might do the trick. Once again, you'll need AviSynth.

http://nic.dnsalias.com/wm9enc.html

[siddharthagandhi]

I dunno why I'm doing it its just that I want it to be known as HD. Really I'm not encoding from DV-AVI files (but this is the closest forum to post in). I'm actually encoding from 100% uncompressed avi files with a bitrate of like 30. I did my research on WMVHD and MPEG-2 HD and i read that its a bitrate 25 mbps or 19 mbps and therefore I am indeed reducing the quality of the file but simultaneously maintaining an HD quality in a more manageable file size.

If any of my logic, though it makes sense to me, is incorrect then tell me, because I'm not quite familiar with HD.

[siddharthagandhi]

Also, sorry to double post, but what are each of the download links for and how do I use them?

Edit: I downloaded them all. But Avisynth appears to be a script maker for the other encoders? Is there a tutorial on this site that teaches me how to use it? I'm used to encoders in which you select video source, audio source, output file name and configure the settings and it will do it for you.

BTW thanks for responding.

Edit: How do I install FFMPEG?

Also, I tried making WMVHD in Windows Media Encoder by pumping up the bitrate of one of the profiles to like 25mbps. The resolution is good because it encodes at the proper 1280 by 720 and 1920 by 1080 or w/e Not only does the encoding take forever, but the file sizes are extremely crazy. The WMVHD example files found at this link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/HDVideo.aspx

have much better file sizes than what i produce...why?

Edit: One more thing. I dont get one bit of your example syntax. What the heck is a syntax anyways?

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Edit: This edit supercedes all other edits..

I got it to work with Nic's WMV encoder. I am ABSOLUTELY AMAZED AT THE COMPRESSION OF THE FILES...WMV ENCODER IS A PIECE OF TRASH COMPARED TO THIS...

I encode at 5 mbps bitrate and for WMV encoder the file size is 120 mb, the file size for Nic's encoder is 24 freaking mb...

In fact, I encoded at 25 mb and it was approx 111 mb for 2:25 of video. Thats better compression than the WMVHD example files on Microsoft's web site. How does it do it?....the compression is amazing....I can distribute 2 mbps video on my dialup connection its that good
I've never seen comparable compression in my life...and I've dealt with almost every codec in existence

Thanks a lot...

Nonetheless, I still want to try out MPEG-2 HD as well. I don't know how to use FFMPEG or MPEG2ENC....

Edit: I tested it out more, and it really isnt that good as I thought it was. I was basing my statements off the fact that at high bitrates it has crazy compression, but the ratio doesnt hold true for smaller bitrates as I thought it would.

[edDV]

I dunno why I'm doing it its just that I want it to be known as HD. Really I'm not encoding from DV-AVI files (but this is the closest forum to post in). I'm actually encoding from 100% uncompressed avi files with a bitrate of like 30. I did my research on WMVHD and MPEG-2 HD and i read that its a bitrate 25 mbps or 19 mbps and therefore I am indeed reducing the quality of the file but simultaneously maintaining an HD quality in a more manageable file size.

If any of my logic, though it makes sense to me, is incorrect then tell me, because I'm not quite familiar with HD.

What was the source for this uncompressed SD file? Even if you were assuming a perfect Digital Betacam 720x480 29.97 fps source, there would be no benefit from upscaling to say 1920x1080i. You would just be spreading the same picture over 6x more pixels so bitrate would need to be ~6x higher to accomodate the unnecessary pixels. As said before, if you feed your SD signal to a HDTV, it will handle it's own upscaling as will computer players (aka Full Screen Mode).

Your file, assuming Huffyuv to get to down 25Mb/s must be around 640x480? That my friend is not a candidate for HDTV.

WMV should be good for 2-3x greater compression vs. MPeg2 for a medium to high quality source. You can compress further but you are now into web stream quality.

What am I missing?

[siddharthagandhi]

Okay. Well then i take back my question. Instead my next question is what is the best encoder/format for encoding with HD comparable quality, though not necessarily in 16:9 or the same resolution?

I was going to try and make my own WMVHD-DVD by using the DVD authoring guide on microsoft's web site...

[edDV]

First you start with a HD source. I see no advantage in starting with SD and encoding as HD. WMV has high quality SD settings that will get equally good quality from SD sources at far less bitrate.

Tricks can be played with HDV which is really 1440x1080 with the H squeeze trick to get 16:9 similar to the way it is done in DV.

[mikiem]

Another way of wording it -- maybe it'll help?

If you resize or uprez 720 x 480 video to HD resolutions, it'll still look pretty much like the 720 x 480 video you started with -- i.e., playing a DVD on your PC at fullscreen. On the one hand you spend however long encoding and writing an HD rez file, on the other hand software did the same thing on the fly, without the need to discard any data in order to reduce file size. Many/most HD TVs I believe can do the same thing. In either case you don't have true HD resolution, & upconverting is just a way of filling the screen.

RE: WMV files, AFAIK (& I could be wrong), you probably won't see any huge differences between encoders. I think the main difference (besides GUI) is in the pre-processing. You can encode the same file in Vegas for example & in wmencoder9, & I think you'll find the background in the Vegas encoded file to be softer, leaning a bit towards the approach used by Real. This does effect the amount of data & so the final size, but it's not like standards based mpg2 or 4 encoders where the qual. difference can be really noticable.

That all said, really the best way I think would be for you to simply compare the results encoding a short test file. Then compare the playback of that file on your PC with the original at the same, enlarged size.