Max Optimal Bluray Settings without going overboard

[justincase]

I know this has been discussed a lot. And I know preset High Profile is a great all around setting.

But for those that want to push it a bit further, at what point are the results basically insignificant?

Here are the specifics in regards to the prior question:
The content being converted will come directly from a Bluray source.
The content is mostly action, fast scenes, martial arts, racing, etc.
Conversions will remain at 1080p.
I'm looking for a setting that will retain as much quality as possible with absolute no noticeable artifacts or blocking during any scene, including action scenes. Contrary to popular belief, I personally DO notice all the artifacts in action scenes of poorly encoded content, and I would like to avoid that.
Bitrate doesn't matter, I will use more bitrate if needed, but I figure there is a medium point in conversion where a decent amount can be chopped off with no noticeable degradation.

These are the settings I am thinking of using. What do you guys think and or would change? Any and all advice welcome, please only from those with deep experience in actually exploring all these settings. I myself have played around with a lot of these settings as well. One thing I have noticed is that trying to judge from a still image is almost fruitless. The best way is to make a bunch of samples and blindly label them while watching them all simultaneously side by side, trying to pick out which is which. It does get to a point where it is sometimes hard to tell. So I want the best, but with a little bit more just for peace of mind. But not so much that it is pointless.

These are the settings I'm thinking of. Is this too much for my preferances? Or what would you adjust?

Given the nature of the content I would feel better using me-range=64 & qcomp=1, but is 64 pointless and if I go to qcomp=1 how much more would I need to raise the bitrate to makeup for the lack of fluctuation. 25%? And is that also pointless? I figured 8500 bitrate would be a good minimum for 1080p content so I raised it to 10,000. Then also raising the rest of the settings should be good peace of mind. But I want better seeking ability so I lowered keyint. In doing this should I raise the bitrate higher than 10k? Or is it fine? Also it is my understanding that B-frames are better for compression or fixed bitrates, especially the lower the bitrate, but are lower quality. Should I lower the B-frames and raise the bitrate? If so by how much? Or is that also negligible? Basically I got tired of trying to decide for myself and thought I'd bring the convo here.

cabac=1 / ref=8 / me=tesa / subme=11 / me_range=32
bframes=5 / b_pyramid=2 / rc_lookahead=60 / qcomp=0.80
mixed_ref=1 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1
fast_pskip=0 / decimate=1 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.10:0.15
rc=2pass / bitrate=10000 / b_adapt=2 / deblock=1:-3:-3
weightp=2 / keyint=120 / keyint_min=1


analyse=0x3:0x133 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=18 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0
interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / b_bias=0 / direct=3
weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / scenecut=60 / intra_refresh=0 / mbtree=1 / ratetol=1.0
qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5
vbv_maxrate=40000 / vbv_bufsize=40000 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.20 / aq=1:1.00

[Smithcraft]

Why are you using detelcine and decomb for Bluray sources?

SC

[justincase]

That was mistakenly copied from my notes in regards to something else, I took it out.

Anybody have anything to say? Or did I ask too many questions? lol

[rollin_eng]

if quality is so important why not just remux the rips?

[justincase]

if quality is so important why not just remux the rips?

I'm probably going to end up just doing that anyway. Storage space is cheap and it makes the most sense for my desires.

The thing is in fooling around with all of this I have come to fall prey to enjoying it.

[Deleted User 11865]

The thing is in fooling around with all of this I have come to fall prey to enjoying it.

If you're not careful, you might end up becoming a HandBrake developer (that is, assuming you have an interest in computer programming).

[Smithcraft]

Anybody have anything to say? Or did I ask too many questions? lol

The problem is that everytime someone asks this, we give the same answer.

For me that answer is along the lines of "I don't have your eyes, or your set up. I don't know where you draw the line at what is good, what is ok, and what is not acceptable. I don't know if you are looking for files to be a certain size or if any file size is ok."

It ends up for me, being something like tuning an old car. Put headers on, and you need to adjust the carb. Change the timing and you might need to change the plug gap. Change the plug gap and you might need to adjust the carb. Change the plug wires and you might need to change the plug gap.

So for me, after doing all these changes I end up wondering if anything that I changed worked better or worse. If I watch the same sample over and over trying to pick out flaws, I don't know if I'll ever be happy with the final product, and if I'll ever even want to watch the movie again.

In the end, I've gone with High Profile as the base, and two sets of presets(one set for HD and one set for SD) built off it to add the x264 tunes.

SC

[Tree Dude]

Why not use CQ? Also using maxrate and bufsize on an encode with a constant bitrate seems useless unless you need a large buffer for some reason.

Those settings are going to yield very long encode times. I use something like this (CQ 21):

b-adapt=2:rc-lookahead=60:ref=4:bframes=6:me=umh:vbv-bufsize=25000:vbv-maxrate=25000

It's very similar to the high profile with a little added compression and the bitrate capped at 25mb to maintain AppleTV3 compatibility.

[Deleted User 11865]

Also using maxrate and bufsize on an encode with a constant bitrate seems useless unless you need a large buffer for some reason.

I assume you mean average bitrate. And no, it's not useless - if you want to limit the bitrate peaks, you have to use VBV, regardless of the chosen rate control method.

Not to mention, the only way to get x264 to actually use a constant bitrate is to use VBV (where maxrate == average bitrate).

[Tree Dude]

Also using maxrate and bufsize on an encode with a constant bitrate seems useless unless you need a large buffer for some reason.

I assume you mean average bitrate. And no, it's not useless - if you want to limit the bitrate peaks, you have to use VBV, regardless of the chosen rate control method.

Not to mention, the only way to get x264 to actually use a constant bitrate is to use VBV (where maxrate == average bitrate).

He stated he was setting the bitrate to 8500 and not using CQ (unless I am reading it wrong). Does this not mean that the video will have a bitrate of 8500 constantly regardless of the video content? In which case there would be no bitrate spikes. I use maxrate and bufsize in my encodes, but I use CQ.

[Deleted User 11865]

He stated he was setting the bitrate to 8500 and not using CQ (unless I am reading it wrong). Does this not mean that the video will have a bitrate of 8500 constantly regardless of the video content? In which case there would be no bitrate spikes.

No, average bitrate does not mean constant bitrate.