[FFmpeg-user] Encoding Settings

[Moritz Barsnick]

On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 15:09:35 +0000, K J wrote:
> I have some movies and they are nice encodes so I had a look in
> MediaInfo under encoding settings to see what settings was used as I
> want to do some movies I have and use the exact same settings.

I want to point out that you will only get the same good results if you
have comparable input material. That means resolution and frame rate,
but also what kind of picture: animation, sport, general movie.

Furthermore, as far as I can tell, those encoding settings use average
bitrate mode, which I wouldn't recommend unless it's really required
(e.g. for streaming).

> They are the same settings for every movie encode. The problem is I
> am really struggling to convert them settings into FFMpeg settings, I
> have tried for 2 days now with no joy.

I don't see the joy either, especially considering the result. I
personally recommend taking your source material, and experimenting
with encoding with only a minimal set of settings. E.g. first try
libx264 *without* any additional settings, which will imply "constant
quality" encoding with CRF 23. See whether you like the result or not.
(You can trade off speed for size by using other presets.) If you need
a higher quality, specify a lower CRF (e.g. "-crf 21") and see whether
it's better.

Tuning each and every of those given parameters is really only for
experts. Those previous encodings you have perhaps also only used a
standard preset (with fixed bitrate).

Good luck,
Moritz