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 video encoding&cleaning


DV filtering and CCE MPEG2 encoding examples

Some tests of static resolution comparing Pinnacle, TMPGEnc and CCE can be found here. Test pictures with CCE at constant max. bitrate (9000) here.

CinemaCraft Encoder (CCE) is so good at encoding, that it is really very difficult
to exactly determine the necessary bitrate.
The following examples are screen shots (done with VirtualdubMPEG2),
from Hi8 source captured with a DV converter (actually a D8 camera in pass
through mode) and encoded to MPEG2,
all from the same 64 min. tape that was separately and entirely encoded
at the following VBR bitrates (min./avg./max.):
2000/4400/9000
3000/6000/9000
6000/8000/9000

About 1/3 of this tape are noisy low light scenes that CCE encodes to flat 9000 kbps
if allowed. This steals a lot of bits from other scenes; however I think it's appropriate
for a crash test on bitrates required for maximum quality.

The quality differences shown are really not big, so you have to look very closely.

With this nasty source, a tiny improvement can be seen for 6000 kbps over 4400.
At 8000 (where we could as well use CBR since the maximum is at 9000),
hardly anything is further improved.

Conclusion:
4400 should be sufficient in most cases, exactly fitting 2x65 min. on one DVD
(2x 1 hour tapes incl. bonus).
With more difficult sources like this here, one has to choose if about 6000
(90min.+ per DVD) are more appropriate.
For a quick backup to DVD, 8000...9000 kbps one-pass CBR would also be an option.
(Still much cheaper than tape).

For mastering, it's also possible to drive the bitrate limit up to 15000 max. (with CCE, you must uncheck the 'DVD compliant' box to be able to do this). The difference to 9000 max. will more be a theoretical one, because the encoder will exploit this only in fast scenes with high detail, and things that can be seen in the stills here just vanish in the moving picture, but it's a variety that allows even very picky guys to throw their tapes away and do high quality edits with this material later on. Which may have some advantages, because tapes get dropout and mechanical problems with time, and DVDs are already much cheaper, so making 2 or more safety copies is no deal anymore. Don't use noname DVDs for archiving !
Many DVD standalone players can handle bitrates of 15000, and computer drives always do, so directly watching these backups is no problem.
It must be mentioned that with the tape I used here, containing about 50% low light shots, 9000/15000 had NO advantage, because those low light shots ate up all the bitrate to encode noise. Here, a CBR of 9000 was even better, so I did not include examples from 9000/15000.
If you use CCE Basic, it may therefore be the best standard procedure to master anything with 9000 kbps one-pass CBR and frameserving, a quite fast and easy procedure. Even with 384 kbps audio, it will store up to 1:05 hrs on one DVD, e.g. exactly one 1 hour tape.
Some test results here.
BTW, there is NO quality difference between CCE Basic and the pro version (same encoding machine), except for the theoretical possibility to hand optimise bitrates or to do more than 2 passes with VBR. Both is of little use: You'd hardly hit any situation where it pays to spend hours on manual optimisation, and multi pass is questionable since the encoder usually sees things differently than we do and will often not improve things but make them worse when trying to squeeze out more 'quality'.
What I never had with CCE was that it "added noise", what some people claimed to have seen. Never.

With one-pass encoding, CCE Basic could be used with frameserving from VirtualDub. CCE Basic however has no one-pass VBR, and we also want to get a defined size with DV tapes as source, so we can use all of the DVD space. 2-pass is then mandatory with VBR, and this means that the entire filter chain runs twice with frameserving. It will save time to save the filtered DV to disk in this case, and encode form there. But which format, to avoid quality loss ?
Click here for the answer.

Example 1 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 - 6000 - 8000 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


DV file unfiltered, at an almost still picture out of a 64 min. tape.
This was taken with a Camcorder with a pretty light sensitive chip.
Nonetheless, even in bright sunshine there is some sensor noise,
obvious here in the blue sky (in other parts only visible in motion).

Example 1 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 - 6000 - 8000 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Same source, filtered: Improved crispness and less grain (obvious in the blue sky).
Color saturation is also improved, due to noise reduction.

Example 1 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 - 6000 - 8000 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Encoded with CCE at 4400 kbps avg.

Example 1 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 - 6000 - 8000 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Encoded with CCE at 6000 kbps avg.


Example 1 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 - 6000 - 8000 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Encoded with CCE at 8000 kbps avg. CCE still eliminates some of the noise here, albeit the high bitrate and even though its own filtereing is switched off.

 

Example 2 : filtered - 4400 - 6000 - 8000 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


A full motion scene, already filtered.

Example 2 : filtered - 4400 - 6000 - 8000 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Encoded with CCE at 4400 kbps avg.
The writing on the truck is a bit blurred, but in the moving picture on a TV,
there was no visible difference to the higher bitrate examples (the writing was
clearer in some preceding and following frames, which explains it).

Example 2 : filtered - 4400 - 6000 - 8000 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Encoded with CCE at 6000 kbps avg. Now the writing is almost like in the source.

Example 2 : filtered - 4400 - 6000 - 8000 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Encoded with CCE at 8000 kbps avg. /9000 max. Hardly any better. What is obvious is the additional noise reduction (which may in very complicated scenes also mean some reduced detail, but hardly anything visual in the moving picture). For purists, a bitrate of 9000 avg/15000 max could however still do a bit better in this case.

 

Example 3 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Another quite still picture, unfiltered.

Example 3 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Filtered.

Example 3 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Encoded with CCE at 4400 kbps avg.
Higher bitrates did not improve anything here.

 

Example 4 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


One of the grainy low light shots.

Example 4 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Filtered image. Looks pretty crisp but the grain is increased.
This picture would require to omit crispening, or apply Temporal Smoother
at max. setting, but that would have to be changed manually, scene by scene.
One option with such sources would be to apply temporal smoothing as the first filter,
then it can catch more noise than if applied to an already crispened stream.

Example 4 : unfiltered - filtered - 4400 kbps | go to: 1 2 3 4


Encoded with CCE at 4400 kbps avg.
Due to the noise, the actual bitrate here is already at maximum (9000).
Such scenes steal lots of bits and worsen the encoding of other parts.

 


 



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