AVC Encoding

scarpad · 01-09-06, 10:36 AM

Now that TCPMP uses AVC in Baseline Profile I wanted to try encoding some movies in Lower Bitrate to check for quality. I figure I could encode at 640x480 at 768bitrate and get the same quality as a Divx or Xvid at 1500bitrate. Yet yield a smaller size file. Now on my Mac I could use Handbrake which will do baseline profile, but it's ungodly slow. Are there any PC alternatives I could try on my Laptop that will encode with X264 but in Baseline Profile? Most will do mainline only...

gabextremev200 · 01-09-06, 07:50 PM

Actually, TCPMP as of version .71h completely supports all features of High Profile AVC encoding except lossless (for good reason ;)) and interlace (which x264 doesn't encode to anyway).

x264's maximum quality and maximum potential can be attained via High Profile at little speed loss (the 8x8 transform in and of itself costs reletively nothing in terms of decoder speed).
I recommend Sharktooth's builds for High Profile and main profile, and x264.nl's builds (b0bor?) for main and baseline (if you remove the right features).
VGA resolution is a bit of a stretch, tho, as it might still decode slowly.

SolSie · 01-09-06, 08:25 PM

Check this for Videodora

scarpad · 01-10-06, 07:59 AM

Yeah I did use Videora last night to encode a episode at 640x480 and the results were great played back on the pc, got a 170mb file that looked great but the Axim drops way to many frams on it. I would have to say Xvid yields the Best quality, smoothest 640x480 image that looks fantastic on the axim and great on the PC, so I'll be sticking with that for now.

gabextremev200 · 01-10-06, 02:35 PM

Videora produces inferior quality because it encodes for the iPod, which supports far fewer features than TCPMP.

TCPMP essentially allows full AVC decoding, including High Profile, which produces much higher quality.

Unfortunately, as I said, VGA resolution (640x480) is still too slow for even the latest AVC plugin (version H right now), regardless of the profile used to encode.

www.x264.nl

There you will find a full-fledged implementation of the x264 encoder, which you can access via: the commandline, VFW (in VirtualDub), and the full-featured GUI which is installed along with it. :approve:

scarpad · 01-10-06, 02:57 PM

Fairuse can do x264 encoding. I've played the videora converted files at 320x240 on the Axim without a problem. I supposed I could give a try to encoding 320x240 at full AVC High Profile and see how they compare to 640x480 xvid's I wonder how much detail I will lose. Probably not alot on the axim, the file would just be less usable on a monitor or tv.