annotate DOCS/tech/snow.txt @ 21881:a10888bc9758

Fix invalid read for gifs with a palette for less than 256 colors
author reimar
date Sat, 13 Jan 2007 11:06:40 +0000
parents 25c95219c33d
children 0f1b5b68af32
Ignore whitespace changes - Everywhere: Within whitespace: At end of lines:
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1 HOW TO TEST SNOW
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2 ----------------
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3
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4 Snow is an experimental wavelet-based codec made by the FFmpeg developers,
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5 and while it is still in heavy development, it is already giving very good
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6 results.
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7 Be very careful though, as the format of the bitstream produced might
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8 change, do not rely on it to store videos that you value.
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9 For this reason, MEncoder will not encode without 'vstrict=-2' on the
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10 command line.
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11
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12
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13 OPTIONS RECOGNIZED BY SNOW
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14
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15 * vqscale=<0.0-255.0>
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16 Encoding quality, sane range 1-10. 0 is lossless.
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17 May be fractional.
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18 A given quality in snow needs a somewhat lower qscale than the same
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19 quality in MPEG-4.
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20
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21 * vpass=<1-3>
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22 Activates internal two (or more) pass mode.
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23
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24 * vbitrate=<value>
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25 Specify bitrate of 1pass CBR or 2pass ABR. default: 800 kbit/s.
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26 This is not very accurate for short videos.
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27
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28 * lmin, lmax, vqcomp, vratetol, vrc_eq, vrc_override
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29 Generic multipass ratecontrol options, subject to the same suggestions
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30 as in other codecs.
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31 lmin=1 can be useful for medium to high bitrates (see vqscale).
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32
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33 * cmp, subcmp, mbcmp
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34 Set the comparison function, default: 0 (SAD).
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35 useful values = 0 (SAD), 1 (SSD), 2 (SATD),
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36 11 (5/3 wavelet), 12 (9/7 wavelet).
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37 SAD is fastest and lowest quality.
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38 SSD is the only function that makes correct decisions about intra vs
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39 inter (mbcmp) when using fast motion estimation, but is not the best for
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40 the actual search (cmp, subcmp).
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41 The wavelet functions (use the one that matches pred) are best quality,
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42 especially with vme=8, but are very slow.
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43 SATD is a good balance.
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44 You can add 256 to any of the options to enable chroma motion
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45 estimation for that comparison (e.g. mbcmp=257 for SSD with chroma),
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46 but it doesn't seem to help much for the moment.
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47
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48 * pred=<0-2>
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49 Wavelet type.
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50 0 = 9/7 wavelet, default.
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51 1 = 5/3 wavelet.
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52 2 = 13/7 wavelet.
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53 9/7 is probably better for for lossy coding, and 5/3 for lossless.
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54 NOTE: 9/7 wavelet doesn't work with lossless mode.
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55
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56 * qpel
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57 Refines motion estimation, default: off.
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58 This setting always helps compressibility, but costs some CPU time
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59 both while encoding and decoding.
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60
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61 * v4mv
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62 Allows smaller motion partitions, default: off.
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63 v4mv is theoretically good, but in practice isn't really working yet.
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64 The current MB decision algorithm doesn't make very good use of this:
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65 It improves quality, but also increases bitrate. (You could get
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66 more quality per bitrate by reducing quantizer instead.)
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67
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68 * vme=<4|8>
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69 The default EPZS (4) is the same as in other formats.
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70 Snow also supports iterative motion estimation (8), which jointly
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71 optimizes adjacent blocks to make the most of OBMC. This significantly
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72 improves compression, but is very slow.
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73 Iterative ME currently does not perform scenecut detection, so should
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74 be used only in the second pass of a two pass encode.
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75
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76 * refs=<1-8>
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77 Allows each block to choose which of several reference frames to
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78 motion compensate from. Default: 1. Larger values always improve
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79 compression, but cost lots of CPU-time when encoding and extra
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80 memory when decoding.
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81
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82 In short:
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83 The best options in almost all cases are
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84 vcodec=snow:vstrict=-2:vpass=1:vbitrate=$B:pred=0:cmp=2:subcmp=2:mbcmp=1:qpel
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85 vcodec=snow:vstrict=-2:vpass=2:vbitrate=$B:pred=0:cmp=12:subcmp=12:mbcmp=1:qpel:vme=8:refs=8
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86
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87 Decent, fast options are
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88 vcodec=snow:vstrict=-2:vpass=1:vbitrate=$B:pred=0:cmp=1:subcmp=1:mbcmp=1
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89 vcodec=snow:vstrict=-2:vpass=2:vbitrate=$B:pred=0:cmp=2:subcmp=2:mbcmp=1:refs=2
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90