Encoding update...

[Roger Merchberger]

I just ran a benchmark on encoding video with TMPGenc changing the
setting "DC component precision:" between 8-bit, 9-bit and 10-bit,
and lemme tell ya, you should be using 10-bit. The colors are much
truer using the higher bit depths, and in general is much better
looking video.

8-bit looked very "muddy" especially in the shadow areas - faces in
the shadow were "blotchey" or sometimes darkened right out.
9 showed marked improvements in the "muddyness" - shadowy areas were
much clearer.
10-bit didn't show that much more improvement than the 9-bit, but the
brighter areas didn't look as "blanched".

Best thing is, it doesn't seem to take much (if any) longer to
encode, but my benchmark isn't very indicitive of the difference (I
think). I encoded 3 sections of video (one at each setting) but it
was one right after the next so I don't know if filesystem caching
had anything to do with the difference in times.

The 8-bit sample took 01:55:40,
The 9-bit sample took 01:52:19,
The 10-bit sample took 01:52:55.

As there is an increase in encode time between 9 and 10-bit, file
caching shouldn't come into play (as it should already *be* cached)
but I don't know about the 8-bit to 9-bit. I'll do a new (smaller)
batch, one encode each between reboots to make sure the filesystem
cache is cleaned before every test.

I've updated my webpage to reflect this already, so newbies will get
the latest info & settings... Meanwhile, I'll keep plinking away...

Roger "Merch" Merchberger


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