How to minimise the visual artefacts when encoding using Videotoolbox?

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Sephstyler
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:42 pm

How to minimise the visual artefacts when encoding using Videotoolbox?

Post by Sephstyler »

Hey all,

Fresh to mac, picked up a M1 Pro mac.

Coming from a PC with RTX 2060 Max Q.

On my PC, I could use NVENC, H.265, and a fixed bitrate at a very low amount (2200kbps) - I have a very specific need. Even on slow, this could work at circa 150fps.

On the M1 Pro, its very power efficient using Videotoolbox, runs an acceptable 70-80fps, but at comparable bitrates (or even CQ slider in the 50s), there are visual artefacts, particularly in moving scenes.

Is there a way to minimise the effect of these? some filter? The old adage of speed, size and quality, Im happy to sacrifice a bit of speed to do this?

I know X.265 using CPU would probably not have this issue, but its very much less power efficient, so just seeing what people think.

Is this something perhaps with future updates can fix?
mduell
Veteran User
Posts: 8187
Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:54 pm

Re: How to minimise the visual artefacts when encoding using Videotoolbox?

Post by mduell »

Moderate bitrates with hardware encoders are generally going to have quality issues.

Post your encoding log for more specific insights.
Deleted User 11865

Re: How to minimise the visual artefacts when encoding using Videotoolbox?

Post by Deleted User 11865 »

It's possible the hardware-accelerated encoder on the M1 family just isn't that good; IIRC, Macs with the T2 chip also suffer from somewhat underwhelming compression efficiency when using the hardware-accelerated HEVC encoder. Did you try H.264 to see if it fares any better?
Sephstyler
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:42 pm

Re: How to minimise the visual artefacts when encoding using Videotoolbox?

Post by Sephstyler »

Rodeo wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 8:05 pm It's possible the hardware-accelerated encoder on the M1 family just isn't that good; IIRC, Macs with the T2 chip also suffer from somewhat underwhelming compression efficiency when using the hardware-accelerated HEVC encoder. Did you try H.264 to see if it fares any better?
Nah, i didnt. I really need mega low bitrates for my use case, so HEVC or dont bother.

Its odd, like, I did a few files today using videotoolbox at low bitrates, and they looked ok.
Then I just did 1 file which, using same settings, looks like complete garbage...
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