[MEncoder-users] Terrible results with x264

[Jason Cumiskey]

Hi,

I have just started using x264 to encode my dvds.  I am going for
quality, not speed.  I am basing my -x264encopts off of the
recommendations from
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-x264.html

Here are the commands I issue (I am using 2 pass encode):
mencoder -dvd-device /dev/dvd1 dvd://1 -alang eng -aid 128 -oac mp3lame
-lameopts cbr:br=128:vol=7 -vf
pullup,softskip,crop=704:480:10:0,hqdn3d=2:1:2,harddup -ovc x264
-x264encopts
pass=1:bitrate=1400:subq=1:partitions=all:8x8dct:me=umh:frameref=1:bframes=3:b_pyramid=normal:weight_b:threads=auto -o movie.h264

# Pass 2
mencoder -dvd-device /dev/dvd1 dvd://1 -alang eng -aid 128 -oac mp3lame
-lameopts cbr:br=128:vol=7 -vf
pullup,softskip,crop=704:480:10:0,hqdn3d=2:1:2,harddup -ovc x264
-x264encopts
pass=2:bitrate=1400:subq=6:partitions=all:8x8dct:me=umh:frameref=6:bframes=3:b_pyramid=normal:weight_b:threads=auto -o movie.h264


On pass 2, I change subq to 6 and frameref to 6 (as recommended in the
docs link above to speed up 1st pass and have higher quality for 2nd
pass).Can anyone see anything obviously wrong in my command chain?  The
resulting video is heavily pixelated and mplayer shows a bitrate of
0kbps.

Jason Cumiskey