[MEncoder-users] Intermediate codec from mpegts on the way to h264

[Andrew Berg]

On 11/11/2010 7:43 PM, David Liontooth wrote:
> Is there a good intermediate codec/format I can use that is not horribly 
> CPU-intensive, and won't lose me too much quality -- something that's a 
> good stopover on the way to h264?
I would really recommend clearing up a few GB in instead of lossily
recompressing twice instead of only once. If you were dealing with
really high bitrates like 40Mbps, you could probably save some space by
reencoding with x264 at a CRF of about 16 or so with options designed to
give you speed, but unfortunately, TV broadcasts in the US (I'm assuming
you're talking about a US broadcast since you mentioned it was ATSC and
"CBS-HD" is in your command line) are pretty low (my local CBS station
does about 15Mbps, other stations are less), so you're not likely going
to be able to get a significant savings without either using slower
options or an unacceptably high CRF. Of course, if your final encode is
going to be low quality anyway, you could get away with a high CRF.
Besides, if you can't spare some temporary space, where are you going to
put your final encodes?