Avidemux: Which width resize options to choose?

[mayazir]

[snip]

Sometimes the correct width must be 1440, sometimes 1520, sometimes 1430, etc...
So, first of all, I try to find out the correct width and then add it manually...
That's why I don't need to keep the aspect ratio... because the initial aspect ratio is not good..

Too many inconsistencies. And to assume the correct width must be is mere guess-work.



Now if the video in the original was cropped before adding the bars then it is true without the need to resize. There is a way to tell but more than likely the image will not exist.


So you inevitably must trust your eyes. In such a scenario there is no such thing as 'correct'

Not exactly... I don't try only randomly to guess the correct width...
I use the opening entry with the TITLE, then I google for the same image, then I adjust the opening entry comparing it with the image and then I check this opening entry of each video with the already fixed one...
And yes, I also check it visually to be sure I do it ok....

[DB83]

This is how ViX, digitilizes their videos:

You actually know that or merely speculating that the central image should have been 4:3


But I sense that cropping took place to remove something that they did not want their customers to see. Other on-screen info/logos etc.

[mayazir]

This is how ViX, digitilizes their videos:

You actually know that or merely speculating that the central image should have been 4:3


But I sense that cropping took place to remove something that they did not want their customers to see. Other on-screen info/logos etc.

Hide what? What logo?
All these series are submitted by the copyright owner - Televisa.
They just did bad work - they randomly cut the frame.

These old series were filmed as 4:3
But the active area they used for digitalization is not 4:3 and not 16:9
The active area they used for digitalization is a randomly chosen square or rectangle, which later they stretched or made narrow without keeping the aspect ratio...
They chose a random different-sized active area for each episode...
That's why I need to guess and fix the width of each video manually, adding the custom width without keeping the aspect ratio.

Yes, a lots of work... routine work.. but ok..

[DB83]

Ok. Fair enough. But even so would it be possible for a few original samples with different integral AR's.

And some titles, references would also not go ammis. I add this just in case the original was not video but telecined film.

[mayazir]

Ok. Fair enough. But even so would it be possible for a few original samples with different integral AR's.

And some titles, references would also not go ammis. I add this just in case the original was not video but telecined film.

I am not sure what exactly do you want.
I don't download to sell, I am not a pirate, I just want to keep a few of my favorite series, that's why I know the difference between the TV format and the provided version from the ViX. Of course if now we were talking about a random series or movie I wouldn't remember or be sure about the TV format and the provided format. But in this case, yes, I know what I am talking about.

Besides, I already have these series on my PC, I downloaded them from the internet years ago, they were digitalized by someone from TV, and the video quality is not good. That's why I downloaded the same series from ViX because on ViX they are provided by the copyright owner and the video quality is much better.

Here you can see the original TV format screenshot:


[Attachment 75977 - Click to enlarge]

Here you can see the screenshot of the same episode from ViX:


[Attachment 75978 - Click to enlarge]

And here you can see how I put the already fixed (it was very narrow) 2nd screenshot on the TV screenshot and marked the active area with a blue border:


[Attachment 75979 - Click to enlarge]

And this is not the worst choice of the active area, for example, this episode is ok, but there are a lot of episodes and series where the active area is chosen randomly. I use this image to give you examples of how they chose the active area for other series or episodes:


[Attachment 75980 - Click to enlarge]

Or this way:


[Attachment 75981 - Click to enlarge]

Here I show you the example of another series with a marked active area, see the difference between the TV format and the ViX version.
I used the same moment screenshot from the video from ViX and the video I have from the TV version, I put the ViX screenshot (with some opacity) on the TV screenshot and they matched in the same moment:


[Attachment 75982 - Click to enlarge]

I talk about the series or movies I know well and you may not know about how it was originally done, but I know it.

I can't submit here any video as an example, but if you want to see the videos, and if you are from the USA or Latin America, you can see them on ViX.com In other countries, you need to use VPS.
Check these series to see what I am talking about:
El privilegio de amar
La mentira
La usurpadora
El juego de la vida

I have no idea about the rest of the series, I only wanted to have these.
But I think all old series on ViX are digitalized the same wrong way.

[DB83]

I was not suggesting you were pirating. I merely wanted to see an actual video as transmitted.

Your intial screen-capture is not BTW true 4:3 whereas the second is true 16:9


I see no obvious logic in the tv co. resizing after cropping and thus changing the pic. In the very early days of wide-screen tv one did see 4:3 material stretched to fill the screen.



If you do not wish to upload a sample then that's your perogative and you will know the content better than anyone who seeks to assist. But you started the thread with the wish to resize and get back to 4:3. You do appear have changed your mind.

[mayazir]

ok, after we cleared out all doubts, could you check my way to fix these videos - crop and resize - and suggest me maybe change something in the configuration in Avidemux to make these videos better?
They are old enough and I try to modificate them but at the same time try not to lose the quality.

Do I do the modification the correct way?
I know every modification is a loss of quality so I try to make all editions with the same soft - avidemux - I crop and then resize and save the file as mp4.

The original video file is in mp4 format, but maybe better to download it from ViX mkv format?

[mayazir]

I was not suggesting you were pirating. I merely wanted to see an actual video as transmitted.

Your intial screen-capture is not BTW true 4:3 whereas the second is true 16:9


I see no obvious logic in the tv co. resizing after cropping and thus changing the pic. In the very early days of wide-screen tv one did see 4:3 material stretched to fill the screen.



If you do not wish to upload a sample then that's your perogative and you will know the content better than anyone who seeks to assist. But you started the thread with the wish to resize and get back to 4:3. You do appear have changed your mind.

I mentioned pirates to explain we are not talking about random videos, but about the series, I remember well and watched them a lot of times, so I feel the wrong crop immediately. I don't need to correct 643468 series, I only have 5-8 favorite series I want to edit the best way and keep. And I am ready to spend weeks or months fixing all errors and try not to lose quality.

No, I never asked how to resize back to 4:3.
These videos are badly digitalized and they are not 4:3 and not even 16:9.
I have no idea why the provider digitalized these series so badly.
I just want to remove black areas and fix the width, keeping the height at 1080, and finding the correct width.

My question was if I do it the right method.
And I still don't understand why you need a sample video if I already showed you all with images.
Why do you need it? It will be the same.
What exactly you want to see?

[DB83]

Well the first part is easy - crop away the black bars.

'Fixing' the width is not so easy unless you have some reference material - if you have all the previous episodes, you can, as you suggested, use these but you have to experiment with the horizontal size.


The more 'practical' approach is to inspect the video to see if there is a imperfect circle in it (so the resize makes it perfect) or so familiar with an artist's features you just know what is right. Like I said previously, only your own eyes can be the judge.

[mayazir]

Well the first part is easy - crop away the black bars.

'Fixing' the width is not so easy unless you have some reference material - if you have all the previous episodes, you can, as you suggested, use these but you have to experiment with the horizontal size.


The more 'practical' approach is to inspect the video to see if there is a imperfect circle in it (so the resize makes it perfect) or so familiar with an artist's features you just know what is right. Like I said previously, only your own eyes can be the judge.

No, no, I don't guess the correct size...
I have already 3 series in TV format but bad video quality, and I use the screenshot to compare the same moments with both versions and then calculate the correct width. For another few series, I just google for the opening entry images and adjust the video using these screens.

I wanted to know if something in the configuration of Avidemux which I use, is better to change.
But I started to explain because you asked me.
So, this is the screenshot, should I change here something else or it is ok?
I don't want again spend 1 month and edit 300 videos again and then pay attention I could do it better.


[Attachment 75985 - Click to enlarge]

I mean these:


[Attachment 75986 - Click to enlarge]

and this:


[Attachment 75987 - Click to enlarge]

[davexnet]

Did you you try any of the other resizers? Bilinear will be softer, lanczos and Spline slightly sharper.
What about your x264 settings? Did you open the settings and make any adjustments?

[DB83]

Yes and No. That will simply resize. The corrupted active video may still be corrupted but you will have more scope by un-checking the top box and then you can simply change the horizintal without changing the vertical

[mayazir]

Did you you try any of the other resizers? Bilinear will be softer, lanczos and Spline slightly sharper.
What about your x264 settings? Did you open the settings and make any adjustments?

This is what I need - suggestions for better quality.
I tried x264 just because it looks familiar to me.
Should I try another format?
The original file is mp4

Ok, I will try bilinear and other ones.

I modified a lot of videos using x264 and bicubic (as on the screenshot) and then I made screenshots of the original video from ViX and my edited version and they look almost identical. I tried also with another soft but the best quality was with Avidemux.

I am not a pro and don't work with video files, only if I want to edit some movie for my collection, and in this case, I only check the visual difference.
But I have no idea if I should pay attention to something else choosing the best method for this kind of edition.

[DB83]

Another format is not going to help. You are at the mercy of the original encoding as was downloaded.

When you come to encode in avidemux you can limit further loss of quality by chosing a CRF of 18 to 20.

[mayazir]

Yes and No. That will simply resize. The corrupted active video may still be corrupted but you will have more scope by un-checking the top box and then you can simply change the horizintal without changing the vertical

Do you mean the swsResize?

First I deactivate the "keep aspect ratio" box.
Then I put the correct width, which I already have previously calculated:


[Attachment 75988 - Click to enlarge]

Then, I open swsResize again and see the deactivated box is already activated again but with the width number I put there.


[Attachment 75989 - Click to enlarge]

Do I do something wrong?

[mayazir]

Another format is not going to help. You are at the mercy of the original encoding as was downloaded.

So, MPEG4 AVC x264 is ok? And no need to try other options?

you can limit further loss of quality by chosing a CRF of 18 to 20.

Where and how can I do it?
What is CRF?

[DB83]

Under Video Output, click on 'Configure'

Select "Constant Rate Factor" under 'Encoding Mode'


Move the bar or select the desired number


Hit 'Ok' takes you back to main screen to save your video

[davexnet]

You could also try HEVC (x265), should be fully compatible with devices newer that 6 - 7 years.
Should give some savings on size vs. a similar x264 quality
Set it up like this:

[mayazir]

Under Video Output, click on 'Configure'

Select "Constant Rate Factor" under 'Encoding Mode'


Move the bar or select the desired number


Hit 'Ok' takes you back to main screen to save your video

It was 20.
Should I make it less?
What is the best?
Why do you say 18-20 if I can make it 0 for example?


[Attachment 75992 - Click to enlarge]

[mayazir]

You could also try HEVC (x265), should be fully compatible with devices newer that 6 - 7 years.
Should give some savings on size vs. a similar x264 quality
Set it up like this:

I will try this configuration.
Thanks

[DB83]

You can make it less. 0 will substantially increase the video size without any percieved increase in quality due to the already compressed original. 18 is a reasonable compromise.

[mayazir]

You could also try HEVC (x265), should be fully compatible with devices newer that 6 - 7 years.
Should give some savings on size vs. a similar x264 quality
Set it up like this:

But the Output Format must be MKV or it was a default one and you just forgot to change it?
I thought if the original file was mp4, then the output also better was to put as mp4


[Attachment 75993 - Click to enlarge]

[DB83]

mp4 and mkv are just containers. Our friend, I guess, did not pay attention to the output format. x264 andx265 are the actual codecs that do the work.

[davexnet]

You could also try HEVC (x265), should be fully compatible with devices newer that 6 - 7 years.
Should give some savings on size vs. a similar x264 quality
Set it up like this:

But the Output Format must be MKV or it was a default one and you just forgot to change it?
I thought if the original file was mp4, then the output also better was to put as mp4


[Attachment 75993 - Click to enlarge]

mp4 or mkv is fine (doesn't matter about the source) as long as the container supports the video/audio codecs and your devices
can play them. Mp4 has the benefit of being better supported in Windows 10 (thumbnails, etc.)

[mayazir]

You can make it less. 0 will substantially increase the video size without any percieved increase in quality due to the already compressed original. 18 is a reasonable compromise.

ok, understood

BTW, one of the series I downloaded weighs 1,43 gb each episode of 45 min.
Each video is 1920x1080, but after I cropped the black areas, the video became 1444x1080 and started to weight 1,43 BG.
Here is the screenshot of the video quality:


[Attachment 75994 - Click to enlarge]

I have the same series and the visually the same quality... almost.. but almost the same... very close to the original.
Each episode weighs around 250 MB and is 654x480, but when I open it a full screen, it has almost the same video quality as the one downloaded from ViX. Here is the screenshot of the video quality:


[Attachment 75995 - Click to enlarge]

How could they do it?

[mayazir]

You could also try HEVC (x265), should be fully compatible with devices newer that 6 - 7 years.
Should give some savings on size vs. a similar x264 quality
Set it up like this:

But the Output Format must be MKV or it was a default one and you just forgot to change it?
I thought if the original file was mp4, then the output also better was to put as mp4


[Attachment 75993 - Click to enlarge]

mp4 or mkv is fine (doesn't matter about the source) as long as the container supports the video/audio codecs and your devices
can play them. Mp4 has the benefit of being better supported in Windows 10 (thumbnails, etc.)

ok, so this is not so important point.
the most important is video output and its configuration.
and another important point is to choose the right resize method - bicubic, bilinear, etc (better try them all).

and the most important is to do all changes at the same time and only save the final result after cropping, resizing, and adding an extra audio track if needed.

thanks

[davexnet]

Difference is more noticeable on the big screen (TV) or on the PC when using zoom to enlarge the details

[DB83]

Smaller frame size = lower bitrate = lower video size. There are also all sorts of encoding enhancements that might have been employed.

You can check each video's quality by installing a little program called mediainfo.

[mayazir]

Difference is more noticeable on the big screen (TV) or on the PC when using zoom to enlarge the details

I know, but on my 1920-resolution laptop, it looks very good, with a little difference...
As I already said, I don't download a bunch of series for sale or spread online, I only need 5-8 old series I used to watch in my childhood and I will be the only viewer who will watch them, and I usually do it using laptop (always have with a good resolution) or on a medium size smart TV.
But almost the same quality (from 1920 laptop) between 250 MB and 1,43 GB is impressive.

[mayazir]

Smaller frame size = lower bitrate = lower video size. There are also all sorts of encoding enhancements that might have been employed.

You can check each video's quality by installing a little program called mediainfo.

I think I need to study this topic first because remaking several series of a few hundred episodes is a long-time routine work.