Saving space with MKV H.264 files

[Atak_Snajpera]

i need more info. what is your source and so on.

[Ahari]

If you want to save all the settings you can either:
a. save a Global Profile (Config->Profiles->Global Profile), this allows you to save multiple complete configurations
or
b. save the settings as the default settings (Config->Defaults->Save->All)

in general you can also save audio-&videoencoder settings separately in the tabs, and based on these settings you can also save a A&V Combo profile (Config->Profiles->A-V Combo Create), but since you also want to save special configuration settings a "Global Profile" or the defaults would be the way to go.

Cu Selur

I tried to save a global profile and the file is there in the default folder, but I can't load it again - Config->Profiles->Global Profile is blank. How do I get Hybrid to load a saved profile?

[Selur]

I fixed a bug that prevented the loading of the global profile. -> there's a new Hybrid version over at selur.de
Other than that normally you Go to Config->Profiles->Global Profile select the profile and press 'Apply'.

[Ahari]

I thought I was going nuts! Thanks, I will get the new version and try it out.

[Ahari]

I just downloaded the latest version of Hybrid and the global settings still won't load or even see the saved settings xml file.

[Ahari]

Selur, I have been playing with the saving of global profiles and it seems that my long descriptive name for the profile is causing the profile not to be recognised (Ahari's settings for converting MKV movies to H.264.xml).

If I simply save the profile as test, then it works.

What are the limitations for choosing names for the global profile?

[Selur]

I didn't knowingly add a restriction to the name,..
How long is your description I just named my file: "I'm wondering how long these names are allowed to be" and it works without a problem,...
I think I found the problem names with a '.' in it seem to cause problems.
(they get saved properly, but the detection routine doesn't find them -> will fix for next release, if you post what version of Hybrid Windows/Mac/Linux 32/64bit you use I can send you a link to a fixed version once I fixed this. )

[Ahari]

Ahari's settings for converting MKV movies to H.264.xml

I used this file name - perhaps the H.264 part is throwing it off?

[Ahari]

Aaah! - if I delete the period from the name, then it works fine!!

[Selur]

Got it fixed locally,...

[Ahari]

Got it fixed locally,...

Does that mean I won't have to worry about leaving out periods in future releases?

[Selur]

Exactly.
QTs completeSuffix returns everything after the first '.' as extension, now I'm using just suffix and everything works as expected, I just never encountered the problem,.. (was easy to fix )

Cu Selur

Ps.: send you a link to a fixed version via pm

[Ahari]

Thanks Selur!! Works great now.

This Hybrid program of yours is great, but it's a bit like flying a fighter jet by the seat of your pants! It will take a while before I work it out or even get to see all the settings!

Could you help me out with some settings to do what I want to do? (Or at least to get me in the right direction)

What I would like to do is to convert my whole movie archive from MKV files (mostly straight from MakeMKV) to H.264 MKV files to save space, but not lose any noticeable quality.

I want to keep any subtitles preserved (if there are any), convert the all the audio tracks (some movies have more than one track, not always English) to AAC (at a pretty good quality) and convert the video to H.264 at constant quality of around say 19.

There are so many settings especially for the x264 part that my head is spinning!!

I don't mind it taking longer to get good results and I don't want to lose any noticeable quality in the video. I realise this is the "holy grail" of video transcoding, but it looks like your program is up to the task!

If I could let the program loose on a folder and all the videos in that folder and subfolders are processed and saved in the original folder with a small identifying addition to the end of the filename (say "-Hybrid") that would be absolutely awesome!! Once I learn to trust the settings and the program, I would probably just let it overwrite the original files.

I know there are no perfect settings for all movies, but I would be very happy with something that would work well on the more difficult movies (I assume these will be fast action type movies?) and just process the other easier movies (animated movies?) with the same settings. So the simpler movies will take up a bit more space and processing power than really necessary, I don't mind! It will certainly take up a lot less space than my current situation! It will definitely be easier to just process anything and everything with the same settings!

I realise your time is valuable, but this could take me days to get it right and then I may still boo-boo by forgetting some hidden setting or doing something silly! You can probably do this in your sleep!

You have been a huge help to me so far and I would really appreciate it if you could help me out with this.

[Selur]

If I could let the program loose on a folder and all the videos in that folder and subfolders are processed and saved in the original folder

-> activate Config->Path settings->Adjust output path to source path for that

with a small identifying addition to the end of the filename (say "-Hybrid") that would be absolutely awesome!!

you can set a custom suffix (Config->Output settings->Filename Generation->Suffix) which will be used in the file name generation

I would probably just let it overwrite the original files.

I would not recommend to do that, something always goes wrong.

I want to keep any subtitles preserved (if there are any),

activate Config->Automation->Pass-though->subtitles

convert the all the audio tracks (some movies have more than one track, not always English) to AAC (at a pretty good quality)

1. set Main->Audio Handling->auto add (all)
2. activate Audio->Main->Reencode audio stream
3. set Audio->Main->Audio Encoding Options->Audio format to aac
4. select Audio->Main->Audio Encoding Options->Quality factor
5. set Audio->Main->Audio Encoding Options->Quality factor to something like 80
(if you download FHGAacEnc and put the dlls it requires together with it in the Hybrid folder Hybrid will also allow you to use FHG; if you should use FHG set Audio->Main->Audio Encoding Options->Mode to vbr and Audio->Main->Audio Encoding Options->Bitrate to 4 or 5)

There are so many settings especially for the x264 part that my head is spinning!!

1. set x264->Main->General Settings->Encoding mode to 'constant rate factor (1-pass)'
2. set x264->Main->General Settings->Quantization factor to 19
3. select x264->Main->Restriction Settings->Preset->slower and press the Apply-button next to it
4. select a tune setting:
a. if the content is cartoon like (simpsons, one piece,...): select x264->Main->Restriction Settings->tune->animation and press the Apply-button next to it
b. if the content is a normal film or a film with a lot of details: select x264->Main->Restriction Settings->tune->film and press the Apply-button next to it

It will take a while before I work it out or even get to see all the settings!

Yup, Hybrid can do a lot and has screws to change nearly everything,.. I know that's why it's not as newbie friendly as Ripbot&Co but therefore it allows to customize a lot of stuff.

I mainly started to develop Hybrid to have a tool that allows me to do a lot of stuff on Linux/Mac/Windows without having to always check for other tools. So at the beginning it's definitely not as easy to use Hybrid as other tools, but once you understand a bit how it's working and you set up a bunch of profiles&stuff it's not really hard to use.

Cu Selur

Ps.: if you have a question ask here or over in my forum, normally I try to reply and fix bugs asap. (and the more feedback I get the more I can fix stuff)

PPs.: you might find it helpful to enable Config->Internals->Handling->show tooltip side bar and just hover the mouse over some of the options,.. (not all have tooltips, but quite a few have )

PPPs.: If your content does not have to be compatible for a specific device you could also:
1. set x264->Main->Restriction Settings->AVC/Profile->High10
2. set x264->Misc->misc->Restrictions->Calculation precision to 10bit
this will tell Hybrid to use 10bit H.264 will will deliver better quality, but is slower during en- and decoding and not all decoders support it. (atm. no hardware players do afaik)

[Ahari]

You are great! Thank you sooo much. You have given me a lot to get busy with this weekend! (the wife is gonna be mad!!)

I should be a lot better at this when I get through that lot!

Are these the type of settings you use?

Could you maybe share a few of your favourite profiles?

It would be great for newbies such as myself to have a few "standard profiles" included in the standard installation to get us going like this. Something to give us somewhere to start or even to just trust you and use your settings blindly!

I wish you found me sooner to suggest Hybrid, I have been struggling with this for weeks!! Thanks again!

What a great tool!

[Selur]

I personally haven't used profiles for quite some time, since I normally click the stuff together that I want. Normally I'm not really encoding a lot so setting up profiles is more of a hassle than anything else and if I encode a lot, I normally:
a. do a huge batch encode where I tweak the settings a match the sources
b. encode material where the magic comes through the filtering and where profiles wouldn't help either

For x264 you normally should be fine to decide:
a. x264 8bit or 10bit: 8bit if it needs to be Hardware compatible, 10bit if you want max quality and it's fine if it just runs on a pc (and probably flash)
b. select a preset (and apply it): slower presets mean better quality, everything below slower isn't normally really worth the encoding time
c. select a tune adjustment (and apply it): 'film' for normal content, 'animations' for cartoon and for low bit-rates film content it's normally wise to not apply a profile at all
b. decide if i.e. Blu-ray compatibility is needed, if so enable Restrictions Settings->Hardware select Blu-ray/AVCHD
everything else is normally ment for specific causes,...

in general on windows it's also a good idea to add the 'Experimental Avisynth Extension' (just download and extract it into the Hybrid folder), since it adds a lot of filtering options to Hybrid. I know, more options it probably not what you are looking for atm., but depending on what you do, applying a bunch of filters can really help a lot. (i.e. QTGMC is really a good deinterlaced if deinterlacing is needed,..) If you are wondering, the avisynth extension does not come with the installer, because I don't get that much feedback to be sure it really is stable enough to be packed into the installer. -> I'm always happy to get some feedback, no matter if it's positive or negative unless it's just a complaining about Hybrid being not easy enough to use.

The main difference between people who get better results than others with x264 as encoder normally is not the encoder settings but the filtering they do. :P
When I encode on Windows, I normally use Avisynth filters like: DeblockQED, DeHaloAlpha and some Grain handling on nearly all sources.


Cu Selur

[Ahari]

Selur, I just started playing with the settings you gave me.

How do you get Hybrid to ignore non-video files. For example, I want to drag a folder with some movies and sub-folders with more movies and each folder has some files generated by my movie jukebox in it. I want these non movie files to be ignored totally. Is this possible?

[Selur]

atm. no, but I could add an option for it. (shouldn't be hard to implement,...)

[Ahari]

atm. no, but I could add an option for it. (shouldn't be hard to implement,...)

That would be nice. Then I don't have to worry about what is in the folder and could just toss the folder at Hybrid and not have any errors in Hybrid as is currently the case.

Also, I have spent a bit of time fiddling with the settings and trying to find my way around Hybrid. It really does have "screws for everything".

My first attempt is not good! No subtitles and plays back at 219.4 fps!! audio seems okay.

What have I done wrong? - I can't figure it out. I followed all your settings.

The file size is also not much smaller than the original - is there something I missed?

[Selur]

The file size is also not much smaller than the original - is there something I missed

use a higher rate factor and the file size will shrink,..
But it's really strange, that the file size is not shrinking,.. you input has mpeg-2 video,.. (you are using the mkv(mpeg-2,..) files as input, are you?)

It would help, if you enable the DebugOutput (Config->Internals->Handling->Create debug file), before you press the 'Add to Queue' button, than add the 'Add to Queue' button and attach the debugoutput to a post here,... that way I can see what calls Hybrid creates,...

Cu Selur

[Ahari]

Here is the log file.

I hope that is the correct way to post it!

[Selur]

Okay, here are some things I would change:
1st: enable autocrop (Crop/Resize->Misc->On Source Change->Auto crop)
2nd: Do not use 2pass crf, only use 1pass crf!

constant rate factor (2pass) is an experimental two pass encoding mode (1st pass is done using 1pass crf, 2nd pass is like normal 2pass 2nd pass)

Since 1pass crf does support vbv-restrictions you shouldn't use this unless you got an especially modified x264 version or an to me unknown reason which requires it.

source: the tooltip of the Encoding mode option,... -> 2pass = waste of time when using crf

with crf 19 x264 created a video with a bit rate of kb/s:2214.84 since you said that "The file size is also not much smaller than the original' I'm wondering how low is the bitrate of your source? 2000kBit/s is rather low for mpeg2,...

About the frame rate issue: -> fixed in Hybrid 2012.05.05
I'll probably release Hybrid 2012.05.06 in a few hours

Cu Selur

[Ahari]

I did use autocrop and 1 pass crf! 1 pass crf is still set! I don't understand?

I'm glad the frame rate issue was not me! Thanks for fixing it! You truly are dedicated to this software and to helping others - thank you!

My source file was only 3400kbps - a Tweetie and Sylvester cartoon! Not the best choice for testing in hindsight - it was just in front of me and had subtitles! I will try a new test with a "normal" movie. Will try to find one with at least 2 soundtracks and subtitles to really test the settings properly.

Any idea what happened to the subtitles in this test?

[Selur]

Any idea what happened to the subtitles in this test?

No clue, judging from the debug log there were no subtitles added,...
(so I guess: Config->Automation->Pass-through->Subtitle was not enabled when before loading the source)

If it is enabled and the source contains subtitles, you will see a bunch of stuff in the log like:

extracted subtitle D:\Encoding Output\multiple_sub_sample_id_2_zh_default.srt extracted subtitle D:\Encoding Output\multiple_sub_sample_id_3_en.srt
extracted subtitle D:\Encoding Output\multiple_sub_sample_id_4_fr.srt
extracted subtitle D:\Encoding Output\multiple_sub_sample_id_5_de.srt
extracted subtitle D:\Encoding Output\multiple_sub_sample_id_6_it.srt
extracted subtitle D:\Encoding Output\multiple_sub_sample_id_7_ja.srt
extracted subtitle D:\Encoding Output\multiple_sub_sample_id_8_es.srt


Cu Selur

[Ahari]

No clue, judging from the debug log there were no subtitles added,...
(so I guess: Config->Automation->Pass-through->Subtitle was not enabled when before loading the source)

It was enabled. I am confused! Autocrop and 1 pass crf were also set.

I have attached my global profile setting file that contains all the settings I am using - hope it helps.

I have followed what you said with few changes - maybe I changed something I shouldn't have?

[Selur]

AutoCrop is disabled in your Profile:
<HybridData value="false" name="autoCrop"/>
-> check: Crop/Resize->Misc->On Source Change->Auto Crop

Passthrough subtitles was on,.. but I the debugOutput does not show the loading and subtitle queue creation, it just shows the job creation and judging from that log no subtitles were in the subtitle queue
-> load the Profile, load the source, go to Subtitle-Tab (should be enabled if the source contains subtitles)

Cu Selur

[Ahari]

The frame rate is fixed now! Thanks

Subtitles are confusing as they show up in the preview, but not in the final video.

Auto crop is working fine.

This time I tried the animation tuning, but the file is still quite large - 84% of the original size!

[Selur]

"84% of the original size!"
you will probably not get below this without any filters, with 3600kBit/s mpeg2 you normally have a bunch of macoblocks&co which x264 has interprets as details that need to be preserved.

Subtitles are confusing as they show up in the preview, but not in the final video.

-> check the subtitle queue,..

[Ahari]

Sorry, your post came through as I submitted mine!

AutoCrop is disabled in your Profile:
<HybridData value="false" name="autoCrop"/>
-> check: Crop/Resize->Misc->On Source Change->Auto Crop

Auto crop is set exactly as you suggest - maybe the setting is getting lost somewhere?

If I shut down Hybrid and restart, then reload the global settings - autocrop is definitely on.

-> load the Profile, load the source, go to Subtitle-Tab (should be enabled if the source contains subtitles)

The subtitle does not appear in the subtitle queue.

[Ahari]

you will probably not get below this without any filters, with 3600kBit/s mpeg2 you normally have a bunch of macoblocks&co which x264 has interprets as details that need to be preserved.

The particular video in question comes straight from the original DVD. Maybe the studio saved it at a lower quality on purpose, but the playback is flawless to my eyes.

What filters would you recommend I use.