Video conversion/compression suggestions

[ShadowWizard]

I am very new to the world of video compression/editing. So please mind the question and bare with me.
I have an action cam I take with my SCUBA diving. It records video with (from what I can tell) the H264 codex. From my understanding some codecs are better for some types of videos then others, and have better compression then others. I have tried a few times to compress the videos I am getting (3.3GB for 15 min 1080p or 720p. Dunno why, but thats in another thread) a few times, and have been very dissatisfied with the results. I want to compress the video as much as possible, with as little loss in quality as possible (if thats possible.) Does anyone have any suggestions on programs/settings to use, or am I just asking too much?
I have tried handbrake BTW, and for some reason it just stops part way through and won't continue, so unless I am doing something wrong with handbrake, handbrake is out.

[davexnet]

Could you post here in this thread 5 to 10 seconds clip of your source? You will probably get better answers then.

Are you trying to create a lower resolution copy, or just re-encoding it primarily to save space?

What was so dissatisfying about your attempt ?

There are regulars in the forum who may be able to make some relevant suggestions

[ShadowWizard]

I have uploaded a sample. Please not this has been run through "Any Video Converter" in order to get a small section of the video, and thus the quality is lower then the original. As I said, I am very new and have no idea how to cut a part of the video and keep the same quality. This will however give you an example of both above/below water.
I do not want a lower resolution quality, as I said, I want to loose almost no quality/resolution whatsoever. (Is that possible?) I just want to re-encode to save space. 3.3GB / 15 min is a bit big for me. If reducing size without sacrificing quality is not possible, I am willing to accept that. A bit of quality loss however is acceptable, just very, very, very little.

[jagabo]

I have an action cam I take with my SCUBA diving. I have tried a few times to compress the videos... and have been very dissatisfied with the results.

Flickering lights (like the sun shining through the waves) can make video very hard to compress. h.265 compress better than h.264. You might try that.

I have tried handbrake BTW, and for some reason it just stops part way through

With just one video? Or all videos from your camera? You should be able to get good results from handbrake with h.264 or h.265.

[jagabo]

By the way, some codecs, from best compression to worst:

h.265
VP9
h.264
VP8
Xvid, Divx
MPEG 2
MPEG 1

[ShadowWizard]

Well handbrake is doing it again on another video. Its sitting here at 77.19% and has been since I got up at 7:30 till now (Its noon) and probably longer, so handbrake just isn't gonna work. Any suggestions on another software that will do h.265?

[stax76]

In staxrip you can use x265 or an hardware encoder if you have the required hardware:

Intel Skylake or newer
NVIDIA Maxwell gen2 card or newer
AMD Polaris card or newer

[sophisticles]

I think the OP is making a very big mistake even considering re-encoding his videos. SCUBA diving is not an easy activity and has an decent element of danger to it; if the OP is taking the time and risk to SCUBA dive, he should be keeping the footage he shoots in it's original form.

Further, the fact that his camera is recording in AVC tells me it's probably not high quality footage, relatively speaking, to begin with, even if it is 3Gb for 15 minutes, to try and compress that even more is foolish in my opinion.

I would just buy an external hard drive and call it a day.

[sneaker]

I have an action cam I take with my SCUBA diving. I have tried a few times to compress the videos... and have been very dissatisfied with the results.

Flickering lights (like the sun shining through the waves) can make video very hard to compress.

Yep. Under-water in general. And amateur filming at e.g. 1080p60. Hollywood movies are a million times easier to encode. Often only 800 lines at 24 Hz. Very stable camera with static scenes.

I wouldn't expect too much.

[TimA-C]

Nobody's asked you what you want to do with your videos? Keep them on a media server or external hard drive? Put onto a Bluray/AVCHD disk that could be played back on a Bluray player? Put onto DVD that could be played on a DVD player? Uploaded to Youtube or the like?

If you're wanting to keep it compatible with most modern players/devices or putting it on a Bluray/AVCHD disk (basically Bluray but on a DVD disk - will play on most Bluray players but NOT on a DVD player) then you'd probably want to keep your footage as h.264. (DVD will definitely degrade the video and h.265 is, as I understand it, pretty much limited to PC playback.)

Even though Handbrake appears to have problems with your videos, you might want to try either Vidcoder and/or Xmedia Recode (Yes, I know Vidcoder uses the same encoding engine as Handbrake, but I've had issues in the past that were present in one but not the other) encoding as Constant Quality with a value between 18 and 22 (the lower the value, the higher the quality) and play with the Tuning option to get results you're happy with.

Whichever route you choose, you'll probably want to keep a copy of the original videos (as sophisticles suggests) in case h.265 (or some other new codec) becomes more popular and you want to encode from your originals.

[JVRaines]

I think the OP is making a very big mistake even considering re-encoding his videos. SCUBA diving is not an easy activity and has an decent element of danger to it; if the OP is taking the time and risk to SCUBA dive, he should be keeping the footage he shoots in it's original form.

+1