Safe x264 settings for digital download sales in 2018?

[Bubblevision]

I am intending to start selling digital downloads of my movies. The formats are likely to be 720 or 1080, 50p or 50i (source is HDV 1080-50i and PAL DV 576-50i. I need them to play correctly in the vast majority of playback scenarios including typical TVs and digital media players from, say, the last 10 years.

What are "safe" settings these days for x264 in terms of profile, level, CABAC, reference frames etc., while retaining efficiency?

[poisondeathray]

High@L4.1 is the cut off for most older devices ~5-10 years old. But this means 1080p50 will not be supported

4 reference frames, 3 max bframes, CABAC ok for standalone media players

You need vbv settings as well, but that will depend on target device . It would be safe in most scenarios to use blu-ray limits on non portable media players

So the other question is what about portable devices ? Some of the older generation phones, psp , 1st gen ipads etc.. are severely limited .

[Bubblevision]

Thank you poisondeathray.

I guess I may offer an alternative "super-compatible" download for those with old phones etc..

It would be a pity not to offer 50p. As the original footage for one production is PAL DV 576-50i, and the other is HDV 1080-50i, would it be sensible to offer an interlaced download? It's going to look smoother than 25p, which will suit the documentary content, but will there just be too many playback scenarios out there that won't deinterlace it, resulting in combing?

[smrpix]

Depending on the size of your business you may want to look into a service such as vimeo pro which already has the infrastructure and market penetration to do a lot of the legwork for you. They also have the software that figures out how to send the correct version for the user's device.

(I'm a video member, not an employee or shill.)

[poisondeathray]

It would be a pity not to offer 50p. As the original footage for one production is PAL DV 576-50i, and the other is HDV 1080-50i, would it be sensible to offer an interlaced download?

It's going to look smoother than 25p, which will suit the documentary content, but will there just be too many playback scenarios out there that won't deinterlace it, resulting in combing?

720p50 is going to be more widely supported if you include portable devices . But if it's going to be watched on a HDTV or with a set top box chip, 1080-50i and 576-50i are also properly supported (some portable devices don't work well with interlaced content)

[Bernix]

Roughly translated our proverb
"There is no man on the world, that will be liked (loved - but it isn't accurate at all) by everyone."
Our TV fullHD doesn't support more than level 4.0, so if this case appears I have to bypass it and play through usb in Bluray. So you have to decide, and if it will not contain DRM so user itself can convert to his demands. If DRM you have to put on scale what levels.

Bernix

[pandy]

I agree with Bernix - HP@L4.0 + BD compatibility active (you will get warning if something going wrong), max vbv bitrate 20Mbps, max vbv buffer 15Mb should be safe focus on crf not on bitrate.

I use something like this for progressive video (this is not complete):

@SET x264opts="crf=19:level=4.0:qpmin=8:vbv_maxrate=19999:vbv_bufsize=14999:cabac=1:ref=4:bframes=3:interlaced=0:no_psnr=1:no_ssim=1:bluray_compat=1:open-gop=0:pic_struct=1:aud=1:nal_hrd=vbr:force_cfr=1:fullrange=off:overscan=show:colorprim=bt709:transfer=bt709:colormatrix=bt709:stitchable=0"

[Bubblevision]

Thanks very much for the replies. This is really helpful.

The requests I have had are specifically to download a file for keeps and for use in locations with poor or no internet connection.; the whole productions are already in full on YouTube. I see that with Vimeo On Demand, there is no way to permanently download to a phone, and the $20 subscription is a deterrent as we're not talking big numbers. So it's more likely to be sold as a download through something like https://sellfy.com/ or via a CMS plugin that I configure myself. I probably won't bother with DRM.

It sounds like 2 or even 3 versions may be appropriate, although I'm sure how that would work on sellfy; I suppose I could zip them all into one download.

@Bernix How old is your TV and what model is it?

[jagabo]

the whole productions are already in full on YouTube.

Is this your stuff?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-noK9UVWTk

Nice. I especially liked the crab with the pom-poms!

[Bubblevision]

the whole productions are already in full on YouTube.

Is this your stuff?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-noK9UVWTk

Nice. I especially liked the crab with the pom-poms!

Yes, that's mine. Thanks!

The videos I want to sell downloads of are in this playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRKm-wUwH33jV9hpJsz_haGN-CZaKBjsX

[Bernix]

Hi,
my TV is old and not well known outside of Europe (I think). It is French company named Thomson. It has also some troubles (it has to be unpluged from source because it gone mad and remote control doesn't work, nothing work. So must be solved this unusual way. But because I'm aware of this behavior I don't play such files with such codec when it played video containing AAC(lav), that is for sure generated from avidemux, but probably from each GUI containing this codec. But I'm quite satisfied with it, but wouldn't recommend it as top of the top.

Bernix

Bernix