x264/h264 conversion question

[cowboysroy31]

What is a good program to use to convert to this format and it kind of simple and you can put the file size you prefer to use for that file? Anyways im just wondering because i see alot of programs you can convert to this format yet you cant pick a file size you would like to have the file at. BTW i want it to be a good program that produces good quality also.

[mats.hogberg]

Convert - to what?

/Mats

[cowboysroy31]

h264

[mats.hogberg]

OK - and from what?

/Mats

[jman98]

MainConcept's encoder seems to be the easiest to use for newbies, but I have to warn you that I don't encode to x264/h264 because at 2+ years old, my best home PC is simply too old to make this practical and playback has been essentially impossible on my old PC. Even 720p has some playback problems using VLC and the much hyped CoreAVC codec is useless on my old PC. It made no difference at all using CoreAVC, which is why I had to go VLC as it was the only thing I could find that could even attempt to play the files. Your computer details setting doesn't have a lot of info, but if you have an older non-dual core CPU like me, you're wasting your time encoding to this format. It will take forever and you probably won't like playback either.

For free stuff, MeGui seems to be the tool of choice, but the last time I looked at it I felt that it had the same problem I have with VirtualDub. It has too many options, if you can believe that, and that makes it incredibly difficult to know what settings you need to use and what you should set them at. Documentation on using MeGui was very poor the last time I looked. MainConcept is a lot easier to use for newbies as it's pretty easy under it to figure out reasonable settings. Can you set file size in either of these? I have no idea. Just consider whether your PC is powerful enough that you REALLY should do this because if you aren't able to play these files back now on your PC, you are wasting your time encoding to this format. Expect 24+ hours of encode time (no joke) if you have single core 32 bit CPU.

[cowboysroy31]

Anyways im wondering whats the best x264 codec to use? btw whats the best program to use to convert to this format when using this codec?

[redwudz]

For freeware, try StaXRip, MeGUI, SUPER, HandBrake. They all should have some settings or calculators to figure out filesize.

[cowboysroy31]

Well im looking for a good conversion program that i can take like 1.4gb files and convert to like 750mb files and take like 700mb files and convert to like 350mb files and this is h264 also. So whats the best kind of program out there to do this with. BTW i want to get good quality still also btw i know you lose alittle when you compress stuff like that. Anyways im trying to do what people are doing now with newer M's and etc and im wondering what kind of programs and etc there using to keep such good quality etc.

[cowboysroy31]

Any idea's guys? ^^

[edDV]

Any idea's guys? ^^

To get good quality to h.264 you need a much better source. Are you sure your computer can play a file compressed that much? and are you happy with the quality?

700MB is in the realm of bottom fishing if you are talking about more than 60min. Compressing an already compressed file is not going to get quality.

[kevo777]

Yup. It doesn't matter what codec you use. Even with a lossless codec (i.e. Lagarith or HuffYUV) the result can only be as good as the source. With lossy codecs (i.e. h.264, Xvid, etc.) forget about it.

[celtic_druid]

Actually H.264 specs allow lossless and x264 can do it.

[T12345]

jman98, high resolution can not be the only reason to prepare the material in h264.
I have converted a clip from mpg2 to h264 with keeping the same SDTV resolution. MPC needs 33% of my 2 years old CPU for mpg2 and the same player needs 37% of the CPU for h264.