what is this VAF file

[RANJHA]

in CCE 2.5 why does it creats vaf file.how much time should it normally takes for 50 minutes 4 pass vbr?
any comments are appreciated. Thanks

[BeTa]

Anybody who uses CCE should read the manual before starting with it...
It is a pretty easy to understand, straightforward manual (and not too long). That is the least you can do before you start with a $4K software. (The manual is downloadable from the company's web site.)

Anyhow, vaf is a video information file created during CBR or one-pass VBR encoding. The info is then being used when you go ahead and do multi-pass VBR.

The performance of CCE depends on your hardware (mostly CPU, some on RAM).

BeTa

[Jeomite]

Kinda a follow-up to this question.

When I use 3-Pass Encoding, it really does 4-Pass.
It takes one pass (1hr30min) to create the VAF file.
Then it takes the actual three passes (5hr30min) to create the M2V file.

So would that mean 2-Pass is really 3-Pass?

[Truman]

I agree with BeTa, read the manual carefully. The creation of a video information file is probably the most important features (well, there are not many ) of this encoder.
CCE analyzes the images during encoding and save these information to the .vaf file. This makes it possible to do a 3pass encode. Remember TMPG can encode in 2pass mode only, first pass= analyzing, 2nd pass= encoding.
Only if you have created a .vaf file you can use the advanced VBR settings. You are able to change local bitrate settings if you like. For example I use it to lower the bitrate of the credits at the end of a movie to max 500kbps or something like this. Normally CCE allocates a high amount of kbps to this part of the movie, what is a waste of bits for me since I can live with low quality credits. Doing this I save some bits for the movie itself. The rest of "advanced VBR settings" is unfortunately not more than a bitrate viewer. Well, CCE is a very good MPEG-2 encoder if used in the right way, everything else like filter support (Avisynth), MPEG analysis (MPEG repair/ bitrate viewer) or sound conversion (ssrc/ toolame) have to be done with different tools. Oh excuse me, I digress....

[Jeomite]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-11-21 09:47:09, Jeomite wrote:
Kinda a follow-up to this question.

When I use 3-Pass Encoding, it really does 4-Pass.
It takes one pass (1hr30min) to create the VAF file.
Then it takes the actual three passes (5hr30min) to create the M2V file.

So would that mean 2-Pass is really 3-Pass?
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

So I'm right? Meaning in TMPGEnc 2-Pass, the first pass is analyzing the video, the second pass is the actual encoding. And in CCE Multipass 1-Pass VBR, the first pass (aka creating the VAF) is the analyzing part and the 2nd pass is the actual encoding.

Therefore CCE's Multipass 2-Pass VBR would be equilvant to TMPGEnc's 3-Pass (if it ever had one. heh).

Correct me if I'm wrong, cause nobody's perfect. I did read through the PDF that came with CCE.

[Truman]

Yes, TMPG's VBR2pass is equivalent to CCE's VBR1pass. The difference is, that CCE save the .vaf file, so you can proceed further. For example you can change the min or max bitrate at local scenes or even change the overall bitrate a little without creating a new .vaf file. Of course if you plan to do huge changes like min0/avg1500/2500 to min500/avg2500/max3500, you are on the safe side, when you create a new one. I use to do a CBR encode first with the same bitrate, that I plan to use as average bitrate in VBRmultipass mode.