anime encoding

[shion]

hey i have made many animes
that are good quality and fit about 5 episodes on a CD
but i d/l this anime
which was only 50Mb
but same quality as my 120Mb .avi!
does anybody out there knows
how you can make it so small
without sacrificing the quality?
thanx

[Enchanter]

Can you post its resolution & audio quality? And is your anime episode done in VBR mode?

p.s. Ever seen a 35MB episode that looks more like it should have a filesize of 100MB (Light effects of macroblocks and clear-enough action scenes)?

[shion]

i dont think it has anything to do with the VBR mode and stuff
(what is it anyway)
but neway
it is
55.6 MB
23 minutes long
Mp3 55kbits/s 22,050Hz
320x 240
and for some reason the quality is exaclty the same as my 120Mb
both of mine and the 50Mb has no square at all
but it is half of mine

[Enchanter]

And are the both of your files of the same resolution and audio quality as well?

Since you have no idea what VBR (Variable Bit Rate) is, I can assume that your encode is in CBR (Constant Bit Rate) and that the smaller file is in VBR (Most anime encoders have started using VBR since the end of 2000 or somewhen after that).

VBR uses the basic concept of giving less bits to low-motion scenes and assign the extra bits to the fast-motion scenes, which will require a lot of bits. Do you have an idea now?

[shion]

oh ok
i have heard of that (VBR)
thanx for the help
where should i start off?

[Enchanter]

Firstly, are your anime encodes done from DVDs? And what codec are you using?

[shion]

sorry but i just looked at my settings
and i do actually encode with VBR (div-x 5)
and also yeah it is from the DVD
thanx

[Enchanter]

Ah? But DivX5 is a codec. When you're using it, you're not necessarily encoding in VBR. If you happen to be using its default settings (1-pass), it is definitely a CBR. I'm pretty sure of it given that you had no idea of VBR before, much less what a 2-pass encoding is.

Anyway, redo your encoding using 2-pass (It's the way to get a VBR video). You can use the guides for 4.x. The two codecs are basically similar in the way of operation, DivX5 being a spruced up version of 4.x.

[shion]

I do them in 2 pass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Enchanter]

Is that so?

A few things I could add in then. The video pictures on the smaller anime episode happens to be more easily compressible. Also, at what fps did you encode yours? 24 or 30fps? If you are using 24fps, I believe each frame will then get more bits. Most anime episodes are encoded at 24fps.

[shion]

oh so rry to tell you this so late
but i found something interesting in the properties
of the superb 50Mb anime
it only has 12fps
did they do that by frame decimation?
i have tried it
but in low motions the peopl move so slow
can you help me?

[Enchanter]

12fps? That's unacceptably low!!! You should settle for 24fps, as this is the framerate most anime encoders choose to use. 12fps. No wonder it looks good.

Firstly, what fps are you using? If it is 30fps and your source is at that fps, you can use Inverse Telecine to change the framerate to 24fps and reduce/remove interlacing artifacts. If you're serious about bringing the fps further down, I'm not the person to ask, as I wouldn't even dream of doing so. Decimate will be the way to go.

[shion]

nah the 12fps is about the 50Mb files
i use 24 fps as this is the source
(it is from an Australian DVD since the jap DVDs dont have english subtitle and i get complaints that peopl want subtitles but i really dont care cause i am jap )
so do u have any other settings or like filters
so that i can get a quality like the 50 Mb i have been talking about?
thanx

[Enchanter]

It's really hard to say whether your encode is that bad or the 50MB anime that good, without having a look at the each of them. I have done a few anime episodes in the 50MB boundary (Just for the sake of doing it) and the quality isn't really that bad, but still leaves me longing for the higher quality ones.

What I would do is to try different settings until you get something that gets close to your goal. You could try telling DivX5 to drop frames too (5-10%). That could help you achieve some size reduction, at the cost of video smoothness (not by much though). Decimating frames would help too, but I'm really against it. That would be no different than watching a Realmedia file.

[shion]

I totallu agree with not doing decimating
I tried it on the weekend
and all the motions skip along
would frame dropping creat audio suny probs?
thanx for the help so far