Should h.264 level 4.0/4.1/4.2 be ref=4 or ref=5?

[Starhawk]

In the 0.10.5 GUI for Mac, if you set your level to 4.0, 4.1, or 4.2, it will restrict reference frames to 5. Wikipedia and other places show reference frames should be set to 4 for those levels, but they could be wrong. I also just looked at a log I ran through the 0.10.5 CLI where I set the level to 4.1 and it restricted reference frames to 4.

[rollin_eng]

Could you please post your logs, instructions can be found here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31236

[Starhawk]

Could you please post your logs

http://pastebin.com/RfmUgHjY

[Deleted User 11865]

It depends on the output resolution. 1920x800 != 1920x1080

[Starhawk]

It depends on the output resolution. 1920x800 != 1920x1080

Thanks! I didn't know it was that granular and was only going off of

Code: Select all

1,280×720 @ 68.3 (9)
1,920×1,080 @ 30.1 (4)
2,048×1,024 @ 30.0 (4)

[FrostByte]

I believe with 1920 video if the cropped vertical resolution is > 864 then it will use 4 ref frames, else it uses 5 ref frames

[Deleted User 11865]

Either way, HandBrake will always limit correctly if you select a level in the drop-down (except when the maximum is 0, i.e. when the resolution is too high for the selected level altogether - in which case a warning will be written to the encode log).