Is it possible to re encode...

[dmichaud]

a video file thats already been encoded? What I mean is, I use xilisoft and wondershare for mac. I can convert mkv's and such easy enough....still learning how to do it without losing quality.

But if I have a 1080p movie thats at say 2-4GB in size. Is it possible to reencode it to "get back" quality? I have 2-3 movies from a few years back that id like to play around with to see if I can get them to look better. I dont care much about size in regards to how big they may get.

[usually_quiet]

The original quality is gone and there is no way to get it all of it back. It may not even be possible to get any of it back. It depends on what the problems are. It may be possible to improve some individual problems, such as macroblocks, by encoding to a lossless format, applying various filters using virtualdub or avisynth and re-encoding to a lossy format, but the re-encoding to a lossy format will always cause a small amount of quality loss overall and any lost detail is gone forever. I don't do video restoration so you will have to depend on others for advice as to what problems can be improved and to what degree.

[dmichaud]

AHHH. Well alright then, it isnt a big deal. I am just trying to get better at encoding some of my vids/blu rays. I downloaded a handful of movies a few years ago. Some of them are 1080 and 720, but have been compressed way down, the quality isnt bad but now that I have a 20TB NAS I wanted to try and see if I could make them a bit better. Re encoding or something perhaps.

[sanlyn]

As usually-Quiet says, re-encoding always entails some loss. Video encoding isn't lossless like ZIP or RAR. They are two entirely different forms of compression. Again, a video encoded at too a low a bitrate to maintain quality can be repaired in some repects, but it depends on the degree of original loss. Sometimes you're just stuck with what someone else has done. The only way to say for certain is for you to submit a few seconds of the video you're working with. Otherwise, everyone here will just be making a wild guess. You can post short video samples in the forum using the "Upload files/Manage attachments" button located just below the "Reply" window. Choose a scene with some motion in it. If you don't know how to make a short video cut, ask here and describe how the video is encoded.