Problem with x264 lossless file creation

[algee2k8]

I hope this is the correct section for my problem.


I am trying to make a game video from COD4, using x264 as encoder.

I am taking the following steps:


1.) extract the ingame content to an image sequence, in this case TGA @ 1280x720 @ 300 fps.
taking 20 seconds with each picture consuming about 2,7MB, i will end up with about 15GB worth in TGA files :S

2.) store them TGA files in a lossless video file to save on diskspace.

i use this:

x264 --qp 0 -o output.264 input.avs

input.avs:

ImageSource("shot%04d.tga", 0, 6000, 150)
AssumeFPS(300)
ConvertToYV12()
SelectEvery(2, 1)

the output file will have 1,4GB.
but when i play it, it will look much like this:



i tried with vlc and mplayer.


if i use

x264 --qp 1 -o output.264 input.avs

instead, the output file looks proper - so apparently i have a problem with encoding lossless h.264 files...

any suggestions :S

[poisondeathray]

I think only CoreAVC can decode the new lossless x264 (High 4:4:4 Predictive), libavcodec, ffmpeg cannot - therefore VLC, Mplayer won't be able to play it.

You would save more space if you didn't use lossless x264; I bet if you used CRF16, it would be near lossless (virtually indistinguishable) and 3-5x smaller filesize - do some short tests

This might be unrelated, but there have been a few bug reports of distortion with x264 r994-r999, and it's being worked on - check Doom9 forums for details. Use an earlier x264 version if you want to be sure

[algee2k8]

hi, thanks for the quick reply.

a friend sent me a lossless x264 file to test, and that one played well, i guess it was produced with an older version then?

edit: scrap that lol, i am tired -.-

i don't want to use commercial stuff, so i will go for another solution then. CRF16 sounds nice, i will try that.

i also read about this MSU codec, is it any good? will i have to use Vdub to encode with it, or is there a standalone encoder like x264?

[poisondeathray]

CRF16 is just a constant quality level, not lossless mode.

http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf

Lower is "better" quality, so CRF14 would be even better statistically with a larger filesize. Visually I doubt you could tell the difference frame-by-frame between CRF14 and 16. But depending on what your source format is, the color maybe better with true lossless mode. Again, just do some short sample tests and make sure you use proper decoder & renderer settings when playing (e.g. overlay mixer will display better color saturation vs. VMR9renderless on the same file)

I would use an older version of x264 for now, you can check which version was used in your friend's file with mediainfo (view=>text)

I'm not familiar with MSU codec, perhaps someone else can answer...

[algee2k8]

i just tried with crf16, and its awesome instead of almost 300MB, i now have a bit more then 30MB now, thats insane

the output is slightly darker then the original, but thats actually not that bad.

thanks alot! awesomeness!