Encoder different presets

[TricksterTokuchi]

GUYS PLS HELP ME IN THIS ...

I MOSTLY USE VERY SLOW PRESET, as dark shikari told to use preset, tune, profile and crf and dont ever touch the advanced column for videos as it is for software developers and coders...

but i want to state that, in Megui, it has a different very slow preset settings...
in vidcoder , it has a different very slow preset settings...
in handbrake, it has a different very slow preset settings....

which one is the best to use and why?? i need it for 1280*720p and 848*480p for anime, tv series(holly) and movies.. pls help me...u can suggest diff encoders even for diff(movie,anime, tv series)..i have knowledge of all 3...PLS HELP ....AND DONT BE HARSH ON ME..I REALLY NEED HELP...

[hello_hello]

How are you determining MeGUI, Handbrake and Vidcoder use different settings for the same preset? They shouldn't. Although thinking about it.....
Are you using Handbrake's High Profile preset? I think it's the only one that uses the x264 default settings, or very close to them (plus whatever presets you choose). The rest of Handbrake's presets probably use some sort of Handbrake default settings, not x264 default settings.

For MeGUI, if you load the default x264 encoder settings and choose the very slow preset, that's all you'll get... the default x264 settings for the very slow preset. If you choose a particular tuning (film or animation etc) MeGUI will only use the default x264 settings for that particular tuning (combined with a speed preset), but keep in mind the speed presets and tunings effectively just change a few of x264's advanced settings in a pre-defined way, and that's all MeGUI does unless you change an advanced setting manually. For the very slow preset with the film tuning it'll simply add "--preset veryslow" & "--tune film" to the command line.

Well.... there are some instances where MeGUI might change encoder settings, but only when it should. For instance, unless you tell it differently it'll adjust the --keyint settings according to the frame rate, which is fairly standard practice and nothing to worry about, and if you select a target playback device or h264 profile and level it may add additional restrictions to the x264 command line, but only what's required according to what you choose.
If you load the default x264 settings in MeGUI and choose the very slow preset and the animation tuning your command line will simply be this, so it's really not doing anything else.

program --preset veryslow --tune animation --output "output" "input"

For Handbrake and Vidcoder.... well you might need to check through their log files to find out what they're "really" doing.

[TricksterTokuchi]

i chk da details in mediainfo
i see in megui, in very slowpreset, it uses a diff value of reference frames and b frames, vidcoder another and handbrake another
can u tell me which preset in vidcoder is gud for anime encoding? slow , slower or very slow?
and i dont know why vidcoder puts 9 ref frames and 5 b frames when i select film tuning under very slow preset, film dont need much ref frames and b frames as many mention?

[TricksterTokuchi]

i always use high profile

[hello_hello]

I don't use Handbrake, but keep in mind the h264 spec places limits on the number of reference frames etc according to the Profile and Level selected (I don't mean the Handbrake Profile, but the encoder Profile. ie High Profile, Level 4.1 or Main Profile, Level 3 etc).
So while the VerySlow preset would normally use ref = 16, if that exceeds the Profile and Level selected, the encoder should reduce it to stay within the correct limit. And that will also change with the video resolution. You can test it yourself. Encode a 1080p video using MeGUI and the default x264 settings with the VerySlow speed preset. MediaInfo should report ref = 16. Now encode it again while also selecting High Profile, Level 4.1 in the encoder configuration. MediaInfo should then report (something like) ref = 4. Encode again at 720p and you might end up with ref = 9 (I can't remember exactly).

That's the encoder enforcing the limits, not MeGUI, and in a perfect world it'd work the same way when using Handbrake. By default MeGUI doesn't set a Profile or Level. Handbrake does.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

I'm fairly sure the Film tuning has no effect on the number of B frames or Ref frames. The speed presets do, but not the Film tuning. The Animation tuning would probably increase them, but the encoder might still limit them according to any Profile and Level you set.

Other than all that, I'd just be guessing as to why there's differences without knowing the exact settings you used and seeing the MediaInfo report each time.

For animation (Simpsons type animation) I'd use the Animation tuning myself. For everything else, I generally use the Film tuning. The slower the speed preset, the higher the quality and/or the lower the bitrate might be for a given CRF value (in theory) although it's usually not a dramatic difference. I mostly use the Slow speed preset myself, or the Slower preset if I'm not in a hurry. I rarely fiddle with x264's advanced settings. If I need a higher quality, I usually just lower the CRF value.

PS You can see how the x264 speed presets effect the advanced x264 settings using MeGUI. Load the x264 defaults in the encoder configuration, tick the "show advanced settings" box and switch to the "Frame Type" tab. The number of B frames and Ref frames should both be 3. Now change the speed preset to Slow and check them again. Ref frames should have changed to 5, because that's the default for the Slow preset. You can still manually change any of the advanced settings if you want to over-ride the preset defaults though.

So that's how it works, aside from the encoder enforcing Level limitations. MeGUI can't show that in it's encoder configuration as it changes with resolution. Handbrake's encoder configuration doesn't show any of that, as far as I know.

[TricksterTokuchi]

thanx hello dude..i do da same as u say..
last question... wat audio settings should i use for 1280*720p ( hollywood film and tv series)
1920*1080p(hollywood film and tv series) ??
i mostly do anime so i dont know... pls help... and i want to do tv series under 250 mb max and movies if possible 1gb [ 720p sector] and 400mb and 2.5gb max for 1080p sector

[hello_hello]

AC3 is the most compatible codec, but it's not worth re-encoding AC3 as AC3 because you can't reduce the bitrate enough to make it worthwhile. I just extract and use the original AC3 audio.

For stereo audio (and if you're downmixing multi-channel audio to stereo) MP3 is pretty compatible and you can generally use lower bitrates (ie 128kbps).

I mostly use AAC myself if I'm re-encoding audio as it supports multi-channel as well as stereo and all the devices in our house play AAC-LC. I generally use the QAAC encoder at the default quality setting (Q91) but if the bitrates are too high you can lower it. All devices that support AAC support the standard AAC encoding method (AAC-LC). Some devices support HE-AAC so you might be able to use it for lower bitrates. You can choose AAC-LC or HE-AAC in the encoder configuration, or if you leave it on auto the encoder should choose according to the bitrate.

For AAC encoding you need to download QAAC and the QuickTime installer and extract the required files with makeportable.zip. Or you can use NeroAACenc.exe. They both need to be enabled in MeGUI's options as MeGUI doesn't supply either of the AAC encoders.

[Cornucopia]

Very few hardware devices play AAC multichannel (>2ch), though, so check your devices before going too far down that road.

Scott

[hello_hello]

Where I am (Australia) pretty much everything seems to play it. Well..... if it'll decode h264 it'll probably decode multi-channel AAC up to 5.1ch. It's compulsory for Divx HD+ certified devices.

[TricksterTokuchi]

vorbis?? i use it for anime and its pretty gud...i convert it to mono though when its in vorbis

for film tune mp3 den?