help converting 2Tb of videos to H.264 (size/quality/tools)

[Prophes0r]

I have roughly 2Tb of video files on my network. some are older DVD rips (Yes i own them) some are raw AVIs and some are just random stuff. Divx/Xvid/WMV/Mpeg containers.

I'm thinking that I can save some space by converting all of it to h.264. Now that computers are powerful enough to process the codec, is there a reason NOT to do this? The only thing I can think of is the time it will take to queue up and transcode. I know that all files will be played back on computers, I dont need to worry about compatibility with flash players or portable devices.

I have been playing around with Tmpgenc trying to figure out how to convert a movie. Ive read a few guides, but i haven't found one yet that talks specifically about how to convert to h.264 with Tmpgenc. The file outputs I'm getting are either larger AND lower quality than the source. Or smaller (to whatever size i specify) and MUCH lower quality.

First, is this something that is even worth doing? If i can save 10% size wise, that's 200Gb. Is there any reason NOT to do this? or is there a better format to use? Are multiple passes still the way to go?

If so, can anyone recommend a guide that can walk me through this? (I did a ton of converting back when Divx was the newest hottest codec, so i understand some, but its been a while)

I don't mind spending a little while finding the best quality/size ratio for a given size/bitrate conversion, and then applying that to a hundred files at once and letting it run. I just cant seem to end up with anything that doesn't look worse in the end.


The Prophes0r

[guns1inger]

Every time you encode from a lossy format (which all you have described are) to another lossy format ((e.g. H.264) you risk losing quality. When your target is to reduce space, you pretty much guarantee you will lose quality.

The only way to not lose quality (or not lose a lot of quality) is to do quality based encoding, but in many cases you won't gain any space savings, and will many times actually end up with larger files.

My recommendation - by an external 1 TB and keep expanding, or go back through your huge download library and start deleting things you haven't watched and won't watch again.

[zoobie]

First, is this something that is even worth doing?

At $100 per TB, what do you think?

[Xpenguin17]

Sure, but only convert ones that are high enough quality in their initial state. Converting low-bitrate formats encoded by old shitty codecs is fruitless, because the compression noise complicates transcoding and you'll end up with even lower quality or won't save jack shit.

Use MeGUI or Virtualdub and select x264 codec for encoding. You'll be able to figure it out after playing around for a while. MeGUI may not be as obvious 'cuz you gotta create an AVS script, but the app guides you thru the process, so you'll be fine.

As for the settings, you only gotta be worried about a couple of them. Set motion search to Multihex, subpixel refinement to max, always use 4 refs or 8+ for animation. Don't use psy-RDO, psy-trellis or any psychovisual feature. Everything on the Advanced tab should be checked and cranked up to maximum and Mode set to Auto. Leave everything else alone unless you know what you're doing. Check out Deaththesheep x264 VFW guide for details.

And you should probably denoise any scuzzy video to increase compressibility.