Which encoder

hi, i am new to video ai. i am trying to increase resolution of a movie i have. it is 960x540 and i am enhancing it to full hd. question is which encoder i should use? i chose randomly h264 because it was giving me mp4 instead of mov. what are the differences between encoders? does it affect output quality?

H265 and 264 are lossy. They visibly degrade the image.
ProRes should not visibly degrade the image, but it yields a large file size. Not great for a final movie to view.
I don’t think anyone has even tried VP9 yet, but it’s what YouTube encodes to.
Personally, I always output to PNG, then encode to H265 later. (With a software encoder. TVAI only offers hardware encoders for H265. [They come out degraded and larger compared to the software encoders.]) Then I mix the audio, subtitles and chapters back into the final video.

3 Likes

Use the H.265 (auto: bitrate) in the TVAI settings, if this is your final file you want to play on devices.
the quality loss is not noticeable, and you get smaller file size compared to H.264 at the same quality level. ProRes is already diminishing return for playback.

If you planning editing the video later with some video editing tools after Topaz upscale, then use ProRes HQ. (the general Topaz best practice guidelines if you want to edit a video, is to edit your video with external tools 1st and use Topaz as the last step, so you might not need to edit the video Topaz if followed by their best practice)

regardless to what encoder you use H.264/H.265, you can select the output to MP4

image

P.S. the difference in quality between H.264/265 NVEnc (Topaz uses) to Software/CPU x.264/265 encoding (external tools) is minimal to not noticeable in general. but file size is larger with NVEnc (topaz), about 30% larger for the same quality settings. if you care about file size, consider using Topaz 1st for upscale (ProRes) and then re-encode with Hanbrake, Hybrid, AviDemux, or similar tools. if file size is not that problematic for you, don’t bother complicating your upscale general process. the added value is questionable. at least that is what I experienced with my videos trying all those tools and methods, etc.

1 Like

It is very noticeable
At not very high bitrate nvenc show significantly more smoothing and loss of detail.

1 Like

I always, always process to ProRes and then if I need to will create an MP4 using the x264 encoder (anything but the dreadful MainConcept one) if I need a lower file size. The masters I always keep in best quality - okay, ProRes is also lossy, but nowhere near as lossy as H.264

1 Like

h264 can be lossless if you provide correct settings.

Is there some visible difference when exporting PNG in 8 or 16 bits? In my current job their size is 1:10. Exporting times are same.

In the end I will edit the video with Adobe Premiere but I don’t know of it’s bit depths in exporting a video or a single frame. All these materials should look same.

As far as I know, the compression quality of NVENC is related to the hardware, please bring the graphics card model when discussing the quality.

TVAI processes in 16 bit, so it does create 16 bit content. I have not done any tests to see if 8bit PNG looses anything I can see.

OK.

At the moment I see PNG safest method to export. WHEN Topaz stops without explanation or crashes I have got something in folder to work with.

No it can’t.
It is a lossy container format & can never, ever be lossless

Read up on qp0 setting
And dont be stupid

It can even encode RGB in lossless

If you’re going to correct someone, don’t be an idiot

There’s also not such a thing as a lossy container.
Webm can contain lossless av1 streams
Mkv can contain almost any video stream
Mp4 can contain lossless h264 streams
There’s only a lack of format support for each container and not the container restraining if it’s lossy or lossless.

Again, don’t be a misinformed idiot