H-264 in 10+

Patrol02 · Post by **Patrol02** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 11:35 pm

Hello,

Is it possible to use H-264 encoder in VideoStudio 10+?
I'm just using a trial version before buying.. And I cannot find any way to encode in H-264..

Thanks!

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 2:23 am

I don't know and I've never tried it, so feel free to ignore everything is say!

If you have a DV camera, you can always edit your AVI/DV video with Video Studio and then use a 3rd-party program such as SUPER (FREE!!!) to convert it to H.264 when you're done editing.

And, there's a chance that if you install a codec (perhaps from Free-Codecs.com) Video Studio might be able to "see" and use that codec.

PuzZLeR · Post by **PuzZLeR** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:46 am

I know this thread is a few weeks old but I want to keep it going on this amazing topic: H.264/AVC.

As far as I know, there is no way yet for VS to encode to H.264/AVC, however I have heard in this forum from those "in the know" that VS 11 will, and should, have that feature.

For now I use VS10 to do my regular edits, save as project settings, and as the last post mentioned, I use a third party program to encode to H.264/AVC.

I use Nero Recode 2 (latest version). However, I warn you that it can take up to 6 hours or more to encode only 1 hour of MPEG-2 video. This actually is fast for this CPU intensive codec with its advanced asymetrical encoding. If you don't have hyper/multithreading or D-Core expect those speeds to be much longer. Seriously.

I am quite confident that VS11 should render nice H.264/AVC video and hopefully can increase on the speeds, but I do think that this will be an advanced video card issue.

As well, DivX should move towards H.264/AVC quite soon. Since VS also encodes DivX nicely, that too can be another method for VS to encode H.264/AVC as well.

I'm sitting tight for now.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 9:05 am

PuzZLeR · Post by **PuzZLeR** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:56 am

As far as being slow to encode that will get better when hardware and software advance, but in the meantime we'll need to take advantage of overnight batch jobs. I even set up my encoding before I go to work as well.

Yes, it WILL be as standard as MPEG-2 is right now. And why not? It gives the same quality with less than a third the file size.

Just to keep the thread going, and in case some people are eager to encode in H.264 right now, in addition to Nero Recode 2's latest version, an awesome company to look into is also Jesterware here: http://www.jesterware.co.uk/. They too offer some beautiful apps for H.264 with beautiful results. I tried it, loved it and bought that too. It's free to try.

You can also do it the more "hardcore" way with x264.exe and MeGUI, but it's a bit complicated and is not for the beginner. I've gotten some good results out of it, but it's too cumbersome for me. Some people love it though.

I've also tried QuickTime 7 Pro for Windows. It had no trial option as well and it was a waste of money for me because it is so sssssssssssssssssssssssssssllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooowwwwwww. I don't want to wait weeks for a movie to encode with my late model computer. No thanks.

As well, get yourself a good decoder for post processing which improves the picture further. I use ffdshow, a DirectShow and VFW codec, and it works well in Windows Media Player with many nice features to make your video look and sound even better. VLC, a free player, has built in codecs of it's own, and has a post processing feature in the Video menu.

Ok, you CAN actually use VideoStudio to encode directly to H.264 after all. You can do it with ffdshow, much like VS encodes DivX, but I wouldn't recommend it. You would have to use the .avi container though, which can't handle H.264 at lower bitrates.

But if you want to try it anyway, select File -> Project Properties -> AVI -> Edit -> AVI tab -> ffdshow (in Compression) -> Configure -> and your Encoder settings for H.264 and let it go.

However, I can't get it to encode to the .mp4 or even .mkv container, which are both much better suited for the standard with their range. And as well, I can't get VS to encode to AAC audio, which is a standard for H.264. If someone knows better please post it.

In the meantime, I will use the .mp4 and/or .mkv containers with AAC audio. I still use VS 10 very much to prepare all my video edits and effects. When all my productions are done, then I load it into my favorite H.264 encoder, batch them, and let it rip.

Maybe by VS 11, or the next DivX 7 (version 264?) , I can eliminate the last step and go straight to H.264 within VS itself. Let's see.

For those of you who have never tried H.264/AVC, I warn you. Although I've recommended VS with codecs like DivX and Xvid, this new codec is REALLY GOOD and you'll be hooked.

I hope this helps. Please post more ideas if anybody has any others.

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 3:37 pm

I have had limited success with H.264 with high defintion video and have not found a codec (yet) that will work with Video Studio. I have transcoded Mpeg2 HDV to H.264 HD, using the Main Concept H.264 Encoder V2 but playback of the file is poor because very few programs can decompress it in real time. The Elecard Mpeg player does a pretty good job - you need the AVC plugin.

The user interface on the Main Concept encoder is strictly for geeks.

Anyone who wants to get serious about H.264 should track the following forum - http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?f=77

Bottom line, H.264 is not quite ready for prime time.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:10 pm

gibman · Post by **gibman** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:15 pm

Hi !

Yes free tools are available to do h264 encoding for you.
Like staxrip etc.

But none of these tools offer me stuff like transitions, overlay text on video.
I can only encode raw DV video from these types of apps.

I know I can do the transitions/text based tasks in ulead VS10+ and then render a new DV avi file, which in turn can be converted to the final mp4 file with the aid of staxrip or whatever tool.

Although I would try to avoid reencodes whenever I can.
Ex. when I use VS10+ to export my DV video project as a new DV AVI file, what happens to the file in terms of re-encoding/direct stream copy?
Is the entire file being re-encoded with loss in picture quality as a result, or are only the altered parts of the DV video re-encoded ? Altered parts I mean Like when I have used overlay text on some parts of the video ?

Maybe I could export as raw lossless AVI format, but this takes a lot of HD capacity I guess.

/Gibman

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:55 pm

Hi,

maddrummer3301 wrote:
Bottom line, H.264 is not quite ready for prime time.
I agree if trying to use this codec for High_Defintion video.

My opinion the biggest use of this codec isn't HD yet.

[deleted]

I have to say H.264 is ready for HD now. If you check some HD DVD disks from Hollywood now, you will find they are been encoded in H.264 already (at 1920x1080).

However, it would need more CPU power to render / play H.264 HD DVDs than the VC-1 HD DVDs....

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:07 pm

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:08 pm

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:27 pm

I understood that you could render and re-render any number of times without noticeable loss of quality, and certainly not after only one or two renders. That is because DV, while compressed, uses algorithms which make it effectively lossless. In other words, you can re-encode it without loss in quality so Smart Render is not necessary except in terms of speed. There is certainly nothing like the wholesale loss of data which occurs when first converting DV to mpeg, and then the subsequent loss of small packets of data with each subsequent mpeg recode. And as we all know, there is considerable debate as to just how large or significant to video quality those packets might be.

But the same can't be said for DV.

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:49 am

maddrummer3301 wrote:
I have to say H.264 is ready for HD now. If you check some HD DVD disks from Hollywood now, you will find they are been encoded in H.264 already (at 1920x1080).
I hear they don't play on a PS3.

Yes, because Sony PS3 only supports Blu-Ray DVD, not HD DVD. To play HD DVD on a game console, you need XBOX 360.

maddrummer3301 wrote:I think the 720p HD-Divx files are great for HD, very compatible, great picture and compression.

Yes I agree, but Hollywood choose VC-1 and H.264, not DivX...

H.T.

PuzZLeR · Post by **PuzZLeR** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 1:18 am

What happened to maddrummer3301's posts? My posts don't make sense when nobody can see what I'm responding to in his posts.

???

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 2:08 am

As the little messages in the spaces where his posts should be, it seems pretty clear that for some reason, maddrummer decided to delete them. Only he can say why...