MPEG2 transcoding to Xvid/AAC -which plug-in/tool are best fit?

[blizard]

Need some input on this as it take very much time to find out this by myself and reading GBPVR, videohelpt etc get me confused on what is the best for my need.

Which of these encoders are best for this purpose to make a high quality video XviD with AAC sound. The built in FFMPEG seem to not give the desired result and MEncoder take a lot of time (as far as I have tested it). Will XviD MPEG-4 Video Codec be able to to do a better job as it is the original project for XviD or is it only for decoding purpose?

My source are MPEG2 created from ATI Theatre 550 hardware encoder and in the range of 8000 kbps CBR with MP2 384 kbps for sound (max quality). This give a very good picture quality, but with a very large file size. Is it possible to cut out all garbage like advertising (Comskip and comclean) and then let it be transcoded to XviD and AAC which can be later decoded with CoreAAC and XviD MPEG-4 Video Codec?

I use Haali renderer and splitter, so I wish to be able to get the best container for those codec. What option do I have to get this to work?

As far as I have seen there ZProcess that can do something like this and then Stattiks project that are based on scripts (need some more reading to put it together). Is there any other option that would be better fit to what I want?

[zehd]

Need some input on this as it take very much time to find out this by myself and reading GBPVR, videohelpt etc get me confused on what is the best for my need.

Which of these encoders are best for this purpose to make a high quality video XviD with AAC sound. The built in FFMPEG seem to not give the desired result and MEncoder take a lot of time (as far as I have tested it). Will XviD MPEG-4 Video Codec be able to to do a better job as it is the original project for XviD or is it only for decoding purpose?

My source are MPEG2 created from ATI Theatre 550 hardware encoder and in the range of 8000 kbps CBR with MP2 384 kbps for sound (max quality). This give a very good picture quality, but with a very large file size. Is it possible to cut out all garbage like advertising (Comskip and comclean) and then let it be transcoded to XviD and AAC which can be later decoded with CoreAAC and XviD MPEG-4 Video Codec?

I use Haali renderer and splitter, so I wish to be able to get the best container for those codec. What option do I have to get this to work?

As far as I have seen there ZProcess that can do something like this and then Stattiks project that are based on scripts (need some more reading to put it together). Is there any other option that would be better fit to what I want?

"good quality" is all relative. I'm fine with using either FFmpeg or MEncoder to transcode. I can't see much difference in speed between the two either...

Many others complain about the quality of transcoded MPG to AVI using the basic transcoders. My experience is that the better the quality the bigger the size of the file.

I don't think it's possible to get 'good quality' and the same file size that is commonly found for 1 hour shows (350 Mb) 1/2 hour (175Mb) etc without using avanced transcoding methods, including multiple pass...

One reason why torrent downloads look so good is they are originally a HD recordings, and the hosts have spent time; 2 and 3 passes to transcode.

If you are expecting to have your finished transcodes look that good, you will be disappointed...

[blizard]

"good quality" is all relative. I'm fine with using either FFmpeg or MEncoder to transcode. I can't see much difference in speed between the two either...

Many others complain about the quality of transcoded MPG to AVI using the basic transcoders. My experience is that the better the quality the bigger the size of the file.

I don't think it's possible to get 'good quality' and the same file size that is commonly found for 1 hour shows (350 Mb) 1/2 hour (175Mb) etc without using avanced transcoding methods, including multiple pass...

One reason why torrent downloads look so good is they are originally a HD recordings, and the hosts have spent time; 2 and 3 passes to transcode.

If you are expecting to have your finished transcodes look that good, you will be disappointed...

I am aware that "quality" is something that can be debated in eternal ways, but what I tried to say is that I use a very high setting for creating a source MPEG2, reduce it by cutting out commercials and then use proper encoding with setting that are fit for most kind of tv shows, so I it can be an automatic process of this.

From my own encoding experience I know that x.264 (H.264) take too much time to be of any good option although it can give a very compact sized file that are visually kept in high quality for depth and colour in most shows/movies.

"Quality" is also depending on what kind of hardware that is available during both encoding and decoding, not to forget that video stream have to be displayed on a screen (CRT/TFT) which on its own turn have limitation for what can be observed in visual anomalies in transcoding and decoding process. HD resolution will be scaled down on my screen which is CRT even with a dual core CPU and X1950XT video card as the normal normal resolution are 1024 x 768.

When it comes to MEncoder vs FFmpeg I think that MEncoder are faster at least when comes down to standard FFmpeg in GBPVR and MEncoder that Stattik recommend for his transcoding batch file to create mp3/Xvid in AVI with less blocky parts in the picture.

[zehd]

I am aware that "quality" is something that can be debated in eternal ways, but what I tried to say is that I use a very high setting for creating a source MPEG2, reduce it by cutting out commercials and then use proper encoding with setting that are fit for most kind of tv shows, so I it can be an automatic process of this.

From my own encoding experience I know that x.264 (H.264) take too much time to be of any good option although it can give a very compact sized file that are visually kept in high quality for depth and colour in most shows/movies.

"Quality" is also depending on what kind of hardware that is available during both encoding and decoding, not to forget that video stream have to be displayed on a screen (CRT/TFT) which on its own turn have limitation for what can be observed in visual anomalies in transcoding and decoding process. HD resolution will be scaled down on my screen which is CRT even with a dual core CPU and X1950XT video card as the normal normal resolution are 1024 x 768.

When it comes to MEncoder vs FFmpeg I think that MEncoder are faster at least when comes down to standard FFmpeg in GBPVR and MEncoder that Stattik recommend for his transcoding batch file to create mp3/Xvid in AVI with less blocky parts in the picture.

Actually when using ZProcess, and having chosen your settings, like bitrate and output dimensions, it's easy to compare FFmpeg to MEncoder. They're about the same. Stattik and I just use different defaults. If you were to use Stattiks settings in ZProcess, you would have the same results ( on basic transcodes)

ZProcess does use as a base, the settings that sub has in the config.xml. As quality is personal, I left it as such. I believe that the quality of the output is also very bad but I have had no interest in creating a profile that would give good output quality, because of the very differences of opinions out there.

However, It seems it may be time to offer some of my suggested settings, that one could use with which whatever method they wish... Stay tuned...

[-stattik-]

FWIW, I've been testing x264/mp3 and x264/aac and the encoding takes about twice as long as xvid an the file size is about 30% smaller at the same quality. Blizard, is there a reason you want to go to AAC? It doesn't save too much space and GBPVR won't play it without some tweaking.(I'm still working on that part.) 96kbps seems like the lowest acceptable bitrate for AAC.

[SLR_65]

A long time ago zehd said:

"good quality" is all relative. I'm fine with using either FFmpeg or MEncoder to transcode. I can't see much difference in speed between the two either...

Many others complain about the quality of transcoded MPG to AVI using the basic transcoders. My experience is that the better the quality the bigger the size of the file.

I don't think it's possible to get 'good quality' and the same file size that is commonly found for 1 hour shows (350 Mb) 1/2 hour (175Mb) etc without using avanced transcoding methods, including multiple pass...

One reason why torrent downloads look so good is they are originally a HD recordings, and the hosts have spent time; 2 and 3 passes to transcode.

If you are expecting to have your finished transcodes look that good, you will be disappointed...

Hi Frank (& all),

I have some shows I would like to archive to avi. Nothing special, just some odd shows I enjoy. I've been using Video Redo to remove the commercials and then would like to convert them to avi.

I have all the time in the world as there is no time limit at all on this project and I don't care about throughput. I would like a good avi when I get done though - I'd like to minimize blockiness, stuttering when panning or test is scrolling, etc.. So transcoding time, making multiple passes, etc. isn't an issue.

Could you fill me in on the "advanced transcoding methods" you mentioned above, or could you point me to a good avi file creation tutorial?

Thanks!

Steve

[Deusxmachina]

Blizard, is there a reason you want to go to AAC? It doesn't save too much space and GBPVR won't play it without some tweaking.(I'm still working on that part.) 96kbps seems like the lowest acceptable bitrate for AAC.

Everything I transcode is basically all to h.264/AAC nowadays. Don't know why you're having a playback problem, but mine don't. 96 can be an ok bitrate for AAC, and that's probably equal to 112 or possibly even 128 in mp3. AAC is simply better at low bitrates.

FFmpeg kind of sucks, imo. Sucks relative to other converters, I mean. I'd use Mencoder if that's the other choice available. Most of the good, free manual converters out there only switch to FFmpeg as a backup. Just my opinion. YMMV.

I don't know if Blizard mentioned whether the program needs to be automatic or if manual is fine. There are programs out there with more settings, but for most people I'd say start with Handbrake, and that might be all you need.

SLR, if you have all the time in the world, and there won't be playback problems like if you want it for a standalone player, I'd do h.264/x264 instead of whatever form of avi. Do it once, do it right, save 20-30% filesize.