DivX's enhancements

[Enchanter]

Originally posted by alucard83
Quick question about Nandub, does it automatically do a 2 pass with Divx3.11a?

You need to make sure you have specified the STATS file first of all. After that, you need to run the First Pass (File >> First Pass) to generate the STATS file. Alternatively, you can run the Two Passes option which will perform the first pass, followed by the second pass as soon as the former is done.

Hence, if you have not specified the first pass STATS file and you run File >> Save as AVI, nandub will effectively be running the compression in single pass mode.

p.s. What Quantization type are you using in XviD?

[alucard83]

I leave it at the defualt enchanter, which I believe is 2. Do you change around those numbers? If so, do you get better results? I usually play around with the the various 2-pass tuning section and curve aggression

[Enchanter]

Originally posted by alucard83
I leave it at the defualt enchanter, which I believe is 2. Do you change around those numbers? If so, do you get better results? I usually play around with the the various 2-pass tuning section and curve aggression

Quantization = MPEG,, H.263, or MPEG-custom?

What you were referring to is the Motion Search Precision algorithm, which should be left at the default 5 or the even more accurate 6. I have not tried using something as low as 2, but I don't suppose the result will ever look good.

I usually tweak most of the settings around. The one thing I don't touch is Alternative Curve System. And since you are working with anime, don't enable any of the psychovisual settings, and most of the MPEG-4 advanced tools. What I personally do is enable B-frames (2 to 3 consecutive frames) and use a custom MPEG-matrix specifically meant for animation/CG. For decoding purposes, FFDShow does a beautiful job on XviD (and also DivX).

[alucard83]

Heh, I'm talking about under the quantization tab with those min and max frame quantizers. I always put the MSP to 6. You say you use a custom MPEG matrix for animation/CG? Does this apply to AVIs as well? One more thing, would I get better playback using FFDShow to decode xvid than using the xvid codec by itself?

[Enchanter]

For min/max quantisizer, I use 2 / 16-31.

"You say you use a custom MPEG matrix for animation/CG? Does this apply to AVIs as well?"

The question is not quite right. The encoding process will output to AVI, yes. Using two different matrices will normally result in different sharpness of the video. Using H.263 softens the picture while MPEG sharpens. The custom matrix I was referring to sharpens even more, but does not seem to suffer from artifacts as much as MPEG.

"would I get better playback using FFDShow to decode xvid than using the xvid codec by itself?"

FFDShow has post-processing filters that remove or hide away artifacts that result from compression. Few encodes do not suffer from compression artifacts and so having these filters around is handy.

[alucard83]

Very nice E. Is it possible you can post your custom custom matrix here or send it to me so I can give it a try???? Thnx a bunch!

[Archer]

Originally posted by Enchanter
What I personally do is enable B-frames (2 to 3 consecutive frames).

excuse me, but what value do you set in "maximum B-frames" & tell me about b-frames in xvid, please

[Batman]

For xvid, some people have compiled custom matrices, which you can download then use for your encodes. Search the doom9 forum to find these matrices.

[alucard83]

Originally posted by Batman
For xvid, some people have compiled custom matrices, which you can download then use for your encodes. Search the doom9 forum to find these matrices.

Schwanky

[Enchanter]

"but what value do you set in "maximum B-frames"

As I said, 2 to 3 maximum consecutive frames.



"tell me about b-frames in xvid, please"

I can write pages on the technical aspects of B-frames (which will cause you to end up confused). Hence instead of that, let me just say that B-frames allows you to increase quality for a given filesize than if used without.