10 Bit encoding: any news on it and which programs to use

[loninappleton]

Recently I got some content in what was described as 10bit encoding and capable of playbaclk on the current version of VLC. Some codec pack info came with it.

My search did not turn up anything on 10bit more recent than 2011. The talk at that time was that for commercial use, the screens available were not up to it.

The file received recently is very small and contains a full feature. It is h264 MKV and the file size is just under 300mb.

What if anything is going on with this encoding technique and how is it used these days by video enthusiasts interested in small size with adequate video and audio quality? I have read the wiki entry and a bit other that describes how small size and good picture (without something called 'dithering') are the benefits of 10bit encoding. Now some are actually doing it.

To shorten a bit of the discussion (or lengthen it) My experience with MakeMKv for dvd ripping to file has produced good results if played back in the huge file created. But the Handbrake / Vidcoder encoders for MKV have produced inadequate results. Artifacts that pixelate parts of the coding job are common in my experience.

Is 10bit in some way proprietary or in others prohibitive to do and is there freeware for it?

[poisondeathray]

Recently I received some content in what was described as 10bit encoding and capable of playbaclk on current version of VLC. Some codec pack info came with it.

My search did not tunr up anything on 10bit more recent that 2011. The talk at that time was that for commercial use, the screens avaialbel were not up to it.

The file received recently is very small and contains a full feature. It is h264 MKV and the file size is just under 300mb.

What if anything is going on with this standard and how is it used these days by video enthusiasts interested in small size with adequate video and audio quality? I have read the wiki entry and a bit other that describes how small size and good picture (without something called 'dithering') is the benefit of 10bit encoding. Now some are actually doing it.

To shorten a bit of the discussion (or lengthen it) My experience with Make MKv for dvd ripping to file has produced good results if played back in the huge file created. But the Handbrake / Vidcoder encoders for MKV have produced inadequate results. Artifacts that pixelate parts of the coding job are common in my experience.

Is 10bit in some way proprietary or in others prohibitive to do and is there freeware for it?

not proprietary, you just need a 10bit x264 binary . e.g.
http://komisar.gin.by/

Most the front ends GUI's use 8bit versions, but I think megui has an option to use 10bit

Don't judge the quality on the sample solely because it was encoded with 10bit x264. There are probably dozens of other factors that contribute into making it that compressed like filtering - and the content is might be different than your DVD's and your experience with encoding (you might be comparing "apples and oranges")

One current big problem with 10bit encoding is no hardware support - no devices like ipads, phones, blu-ray players, media players. It's only supported by computer playback

[enim]

One current big problem with 10bit encoding is no hardware support - no devices like ipads, phones, blu-ray players, media players. It's only supported by computer playback.

poisiondeathray you already said that, I was about to suggest to name any professional decoder that supports 10bits, and about to ask OP to encode 10bit mkv file and try to play it in BD player.

[loninappleton]

Though this all sounds like 'not ready for prime time' I'm glad the discussion continues.

I now know that those small files described above have enough picture quality to make the effort to small size worthwhile.

VLC is the player I used and all I have is old CRT monitor still chugging along.
There is site that does this but I don't know if that should be part of this discussion.

I will put in the link and if admins want to pull it, just pull the one response and continue the topic.

[loninappleton]

here it is:

http://p2pdl.com/index.php?page=forum

[zing269]

AFAIK the main advantage to using 10 bit is reduced banding when dealing with large areas of similar color such as sky or shadows.

[loninappleton]

There's a post from an anime group about 10bit being used with MeGUI and even that is a couple years old:

http://animestash.info/forum/index.php?topic=25121.0

I am going to use the Baldrick guide for making mkv which I had not seen before to do dvd preparation for h264. Perhaps that will get rid of my glitching problem. Apparently it's my problem and not common since there's very little criticism of Handbrake.