QuickSync quality/default seetings

[numero6]

Hi,
I realy love the QuickSync encoding.
It is so fast even on a small core i3 3225 with HD4000 @1400Mhz it's encoding 1080p at average 250FPS!

Since it is so fast, I was wondering if there is any option I can tune to increase the encoding's quality.

Of course I can play with the Constant Quality slider but does it realy change the QuickSync encoding parameters?

If you have any clue on how I can push the QuickSinc to its max quality, I ll take it.
Thanks

[s55]

You can set the Quality Preset on the Video Tab.

You can then fine-tune options via the Extra settings box. https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/QuickSyncOptions

Just note though, If you optimise for quality, you'll lose speed. (depending on the settings, it can be quite significant. I.e it's no different than x264 in that regard. You can get orders of magnitude faster or slower depending on the settings used)

[gmb]

As a starting point try Intels default gop settings. Advanced query field settings as below.

gop-ref-dist=0:gop-pic-size=0:target-usage=4:num-ref-frame=0

[numero6]

thanks for your help.
When I choose "H.264 (Intel QSV)" as Video Codec then I can't see "Extra Options" field, so I can't enter manual options.

To get the "Extra Options" field I need to choose "H.264 (x264)" wich doesn't use QuickSync.

Maybe is it because I use nightly?


EDIT : my bad, I found the "Advanced Query" field by turning on advanced option.
I will give it a try.

[xxxberto55]

So I would add --encopts="target-usage=1" to slow down the conversion to get better quality? Is my syntax correct?

[numero6]

I m starting to try to anderstand all those parameters and you said "target-usage=4".
From what I anderstand there are 7 level of quality/speed : 1 is the best and slowest when 7 is low quality but fast.

Handbrake default seems to be 2. So why did you suggested to use 4?
Isn't 1 the one I should choose in order to get the best quality?

[gmb]

Target usage 1 is nonsense if you ask me. Huge slowdown for basically no quality improvement over TU4. Same for target usage 2. Even worse in some cases TU4 gave me better results. My recommendation is target usage 4.

[Deleted User 11865]

Target usage 1 is nonsense if you ask me. Huge slowdown for basically no quality improvement over TU4. Same for target usage 2. Even worse in some cases TU4 gave me better results. My recommendation is target usage 4.

You did a fair amount of empirical testing, so I would tend to trust you on that (though until I can do my own testing, which I still want to do even though it's been delayed forever, I'll stick with the current default settings). One thing that comes to mind though, is that testing done on e.g. Haswell may not be directly applicable to encoding on Sandy or Ivy Bridge…

[Rezal]

tu=1 only makes sense on Haswell because you can enable trellis. Otherwise, tu=4 is fine.

@Rodeo, can you enable la-depth=100 in a nightly? Would like to test quality vs speed tradeoffs.

[Rezal]

Edit: double, sorry about that

[numero6]

tu=1 only makes sense on Haswell because you can enable trellis. Otherwise, tu=4 is fine.

Thanks for the info.

But why tu=4 would give me better encoding quality than tu=2 ?
I don't anderstand this point.

In fact what I need is to :
- decrease gently the size of my original bluray rip : even only -15% would be perfectly ok.
- keeping the quality as close as the original.
- make use of QuickSync since I dont want my NAS/server/HTPC's CPUs to be 100% loaded as it is a small i3 3225
- I don't need that QuickSync encodes @ 350FPS. If the encoding is, let say, twice fast or x3 as software encoding then it would be ok for me.

EDIT : forget to say : I always use audio passthru

[Rezal]

There's barely any quality improvement over TU=4, but speed decreases drastically.

[gmb]

TU1+ Trellis can be better sometimes but it is mixed. Sometimes it isn't or it's even worse. Because the speed is drastically worse I wouldn't recommend it. I don't know what video material you have, you could make 2-3 tests on your own. Important is you are using default gops. Not sure if mbbrc is enabled and still working with current drivers, this helps for VBR bitrate mode.

[Deleted User 11865]

Hi,
I realy love the QuickSync encoding.
It is so fast even on a small core i3 3225 with HD4000 @1400Mhz it's encoding 1080p at average 250FPS!

One thing that comes to mind though, is that testing done on e.g. Haswell may not be directly applicable to encoding on Sandy or Ivy Bridge…

Same applies to recommendations based on Haswell-only features such as MBBRC and trellis

[gmb]

MBBRC is a recommendation for IVB as well, it isn't Haswell only. On my IVB it was a good help for VBR bitrate mode. It might be enabled on default in Handbrake, haven't checked this for a while.

[Rezal]

If MBBRC is the same as on Haswell, then it should be pretty good for IB. Not available in CQP though.

@Rodeo: So what about that la-depth 100 Can you enable it?

[gmb]

la-depth 60 would be enough. Higher values decreased the quality in my QSTranscode tests.

[Rezal]

Well I have 60 fps material, while you probably only have 24/30 fps. I only get 1 second of lookahead out of Handbrake as of now.