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View Full Version : Movies: Who is doing the BEST encodes these days?



Mels_Smileys45
February 4th, 2009, 09:03 AM
Please, lets not talks about DVDR's and such and keep this limited to the subject at hand. Quality compressed small files of movies. Lets also not talk about where the people get their source material. That is of no concern and no one cares who got what first. That is CHILDISH playground nonsense! What does matter is that some people know how to provide high quality content to people who may have limited means such as download and upload caps. In this day and age it is become more important than ever to be able to find the best content at the smallest file size. It should not be that way but that is a topic for another thread...on with the discussion.

http://i44.tinypic.com/opbtkm.jpg


I find it a shame that rippers like axxo and Klaxxon and the like, who encode mass amounts of movies, still stick to the outdated and poor quality codecs. When people upgrade their monitors they quickly realize these popular rippers encodes are of very poor quality. They do not look too bad on a standard CRT set but are very ugly on a HD monitor where all the blocky pixels become very apparent.

Some people have been switching over to the newish mp4 and mkv formats and containers. Its HIGH time everyone switch over to this and make it a standard. All the content that is currently available in old Xvid and Divx format will have to be redone eventually as people will want quality content for their HD TV's and monitors. Its painful to watch some of the older encoded movies on a new monitor.

H264 and X264 provide the answers. It is very amazing at the high quality these codecs can deliver at very small files sizes. I have seen movies over two hours with 5.1 sound come in at 700MB with beautiful results. I have noticed one person named phrax who has encoded a few movies with X264 at 700MB with outstanding results. I recommend you pick one of these to try out and judge for yourself. Also people can now add the commentary tracks without having to worry about making the files too large. I have been playing with this myself and have found that I can add 2 audio tracks, keep the movie in the 720x--- range and still keep the movie well under a Gig!!! If I reduce the resolution just a little I can hit the magic 700MB mark with very little loss in DVD quality.

On the larger file front I think no one does a better job than Septic. He provides a wide variety of content, old and new, in HD at amazing real HD. No bullshit upconverting here. Real HD content that will blow your fucking mind! Watch Pulp Fiction just to see what I mean. Okay, thats somewhat off track, back on subject.



I beseech all the encoders out there to switch over to h264/x264 as soon as possible. If people so desired it would be possible to provide the same quality axxo is providing right now with files in the 350MB range with Mp4. This may be of interest to many because many ISP's are capping peoples downloads or reducing their speeds at peek usage times of the day. Come on people! Get with the technology and keep up with the times! Staying stuck in the past is ridiculous. Staying loyal to a codec because thats the accepted standard is dumb.


So...I call on you guys. Who out there is doing outstanding encodes? Who is able to do it and keep the files as small as possible? Lets hear about it!!!

drtoker
February 4th, 2009, 09:31 AM
I stick with x264. I'm not too familiar with groups, but I have also seen many many good encodes of movies, under 1gb.

Now I dont mind dling more then that if I really want/like the movie, but I would also like to know groups who strive for smaller sizes and better quality then xvid (sooo blocky...)

thelastfreeman
February 4th, 2009, 09:41 AM
I made the switch a while back when I became an HD junkie. The best x264 encodes in non-HD are done by MMI and CtrlSD, internal encoders. The filesizes range from 1-2.5GB. Scenewise, AC3 comes out with amazing HD encodes around 2-3GB, far less than the rest.

Furthermore I like groups that tune the filesize to the quality of the file instead of trying to make it fit into outdated 700mb/1.38GB rules.

Mels_Smileys45
February 4th, 2009, 10:07 AM
I made the switch a while back when I became an HD junkie. The best x264 encodes in non-HD are done by MMI and CtrlSD, internal encoders. The filesizes range from 1-2.5GB. Scenewise, AC3 comes out with amazing HD encodes around 2-3GB, far less than the rest.

Furthermore I like groups that tune the filesize to the quality of the file instead of trying to make it fit into outdated 700mb/1.38GB rules.


I have been fiddling a lot with h264 and I agree with the shoe horn aspect. I do not set a size limit anymore. I set everything to a quality standard and then leave the filesize unrestricted. I let the movie use whatever it needs for the job. I just did a near perfect encode of Sphere (1998) 2 hours 24 minutes in 720x288 with the commentary audio track included at an even 1.2G!!! I just got ACC encoding to work for me and I think its rules! Much better than AC3 or MP3 at a smaller file size too. I think I have finally got it down. I am doing an experiment with The Truman Show right now to see how small the file will come out with a little more tweaking Ive just done this morning. Can't wait till it finishes tonight.

thelastfreeman
February 5th, 2009, 09:13 PM
I have been fiddling a lot with h264 and I agree with the shoe horn aspect. I do not set a size limit anymore. I set everything to a quality standard and then leave the filesize unrestricted. I let the movie use whatever it needs for the job. I just did a near perfect encode of Sphere (1998) 2 hours 24 minutes in 720x288 with the commentary audio track included at an even 1.2G!!! I just got ACC encoding to work for me and I think its rules! Much better than AC3 or MP3 at a smaller file size too. I think I have finally got it down. I am doing an experiment with The Truman Show right now to see how small the file will come out with a little more tweaking Ive just done this morning. Can't wait till it finishes tonight.

What program(s) are you using to encode? I'm in need of a few tools to convert a few .isos to .mkvs. So far I found this guide (http://networkedmediatank.com/wiki/index.php/Encoding_Guide_for_DVD_to_H264) but I'm wondering if there's a stand alone program that will do it.

shawners
February 6th, 2009, 03:29 AM
This thread makes no sense. If you like a certain brand of compression, it doesnt matter who rips it. If it looks good at x264 or even h.264, thats all you like and doesnt matter who rips it, its what you wanted..

It makes sense to download the dvdr and rip it to your specifications. Because most encoders are encoding blu-ray and HD rips into it. When i say HD Rips, i mean HD Captured from the TV or a broadcast at 1080i.

Now the scene will rip it down to where it fits on a DVDR. Some are around 10-11 gigs compression and wont fit. But people are still facing ISP caps, limited file playback ability unless they have it set up to stream to their TV.

If you like something other then xvid or dvdr, you pretty much have to do it yourself.
I love the DVDR since I can share with friends. And its better then keeping on a PC which can at anytime falter.
This newsgroup has a lot of posters with some new and OLDER movies.
http://www.binsearch.info/browse.php?server=2&bg=alt.binaries.movies.x264

freeloader105
February 6th, 2009, 06:33 AM
eh, x264 is great but I have yet to see a standalone x264/xvid/dvix/dvd player all-in-one that I could connect to a TV. Currently you can get xvid/dvix/dvd standalones for like 40USD (some with even a front usb connection so you don't have to burn your movie to a disc).

Aaron_Walkhouse
February 6th, 2009, 06:39 AM
I have one of those DivX-compatible players for $40, so that's the
encoding I prefer. Until affordable players show up which are capable of
playing .264 I'm going to be looking for DivX and XviD files first.

Boomer The Dog
February 7th, 2009, 09:38 AM
Who is doing the best encodes. I don't know, but an award goes to anyone who can upload the movie straight, no rars or .daa, just the movie in a folder, maybe with an info file added.

I go for the more rare movies not blockbusters, and most of the time I'm happy just to find something I've been looking for.

I still like 700MB Xvid because playback is easy, and you can burn one off for a friend fast, and know that 6 will fit on a DVD. There are people who have a cheap computer from Wal-waawoof-Mart who would get choppy playback from h.264 because they have nothing for a video card, but it will play Xvid just fine.

With movie enjoyment there are many things to consider, so I'll be your usher today and just woof to shut up and watch your movie!.. :)

Hath
February 7th, 2009, 11:46 AM
The Scene is really the only one doing XViD encodes of any quality consistently.

thelastfreeman
February 7th, 2009, 11:58 AM
I'm waiting for my first x264 to finish encoding. At this rate it'll be finished close to monday.