comparison DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1 @ 15147:9198a882c887

misc corrections and clarifications in x264 options.

15146:e518d7fd23ea

This isn't recommended and wastes bitrate as scenecuts encoded as P-frames
are just as big as I-frames, but don't reset the "keyint counter".
.
.TP
.B frameref=<1\-16>
Number of previous frames used as predictors in a P-frame (default: 1).
This is effective in Anime, but seems to make little difference in
live-action source material.
Some decoders are unable to deal with large frameref values.
.
.TP
.B bframes=<0\-16>
maximum number of consecutive B-frames between I- and P-frames (default: 0)
.

So they are coded in the order I0 P4 B1 B2 B3, and all the B-frames 
are predicted from I0 and P4.
With this option, they are coded as I0 P4 B2 B1 B3.
B2 is the same as above, but B1 is predicted from I0 and B2, and 
B3 is predicted from B2 and P4.
This results in slightly improved compression, at no speed cost.
Requires bframes >= 2.
Disadvantage: increases decoding delay to 2 frames.
.
.TP
.B (no)deblock

recommend to disable it.
.
.TP
.B deblockalpha=<-6\-6>
AlphaC0 parameter of deblocking filter (default: 0).
This adjusts thresholds for the H.264 deblocking filter.
First, this parameter adjusts the maximum amount of change that the filter is
allowed to cause on any one pixel.
Secondly, this parameter affects the threshold for difference across the
edge being filtered.
A positive value reduces blocking artifacts more, but will also smear details.
.br
For encodes that are intended to be reasonably high quality, you might
want to turn it down a little bit.
However, if your source material already has some blocking or noise
which you would like to remove, or if it is animation, it may be a good
idea to turn it up a little bit.
.
.TP
.B deblockbeta=<-6\-6>
Beta parameter of deblocking filter (default: 0).
Affects the maximum allowed gradient within two adjacent blocks.
.
.TP
.B (no)cabac
Use CABAC (Context-Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding) (default: on).
Slightly slows down encoding and decoding, but should save 10-15% bitrate.
Unless you are looking for speed, you should not disable it.
.
.TP
.B cabacidc=<value>
Initial value of CABAC IDC.
The encoder must choose a context for each block it encodes, but for the

2: high complexity
.REss
.
.TP
.B qp_min=<1\-51> (CBR or two pass)
Minimum quantizer, 10\-35 seems to be a useful range (default: 10).
.
.TP
.B qp_max=<1\-51> (CBR or two pass)
maximum quantizer (default: 51)
.

.IPs 2
Temporal: motion vectors are interpolated from the following P-frame.
(default)
.RE
.PD 1
The best choice depends on the movie.
Spatial and temporal are approximately the same speed and PSNR,
but temporal often looks better.
direct_pred=0 is usually both slower and lower quality.
.
.TP
.B (no)weight_b
Use weighted prediction in B-frames.
Without this option, bidirectionally predicted macroblocks give

.br
 0: Print errors only.
.br
 1: warnings
.br
 2: PSNR, encoding times, and other analysis stats when the encode finishes
(default)
.br
 3: PSNR, QP, frametype, size, and other stats for every frame
.REss
.

15147:9198a882c887

This isn't recommended and wastes bitrate as scenecuts encoded as P-frames
are just as big as I-frames, but don't reset the "keyint counter".
.
.TP
.B frameref=<1\-16>
Number of previous frames used as predictors in B- and P-frames (default: 1).
This is effective in anime, but in live-action material the improvements
usually drop off very rapidly above 6 or so reference frames.
This has no effect on decoding speed, but does increase the memory needed for
decoding.
Some decoders can only handle a maximum of 15 reference frames.
.
.TP
.B bframes=<0\-16>
maximum number of consecutive B-frames between I- and P-frames (default: 0)
.

So they are coded in the order I0 P4 B1 B2 B3, and all the B-frames 
are predicted from I0 and P4.
With this option, they are coded as I0 P4 B2 B1 B3.
B2 is the same as above, but B1 is predicted from I0 and B2, and 
B3 is predicted from B2 and P4.
This usually results in slightly improved compression, at almost no
speed cost.
However, this is an experimental option: it is not fully tuned and
may not always help.
Requires bframes >= 2.
Disadvantage: increases decoding delay to 2 frames.
.
.TP
.B (no)deblock

recommend to disable it.
.
.TP
.B deblockalpha=<-6\-6>
AlphaC0 parameter of deblocking filter (default: 0).
This adjusts thresholds for the H.264 in-loop deblocking filter.
First, this parameter adjusts the maximum amount of change that the filter is
allowed to cause on any one pixel.
Secondly, this parameter affects the threshold for difference across the
edge being filtered.
A positive value reduces blocking artifacts more, but will also smear details.
.br
The default behavior of the filter almost always achieves optimal quality,
so it is best to either leave it alone, or make only small adjustments.
However, if your source material already has some blocking or noise which
you would like to remove, it may be a good idea to turn it up a little bit.
.
.TP
.B deblockbeta=<-6\-6>
Beta parameter of deblocking filter (default: 0).
Affects the detail threshold.
Very detailed blocks are not filtered, since the smoothing caused by the
filter would be more noticeable than the original blocking.
.
.TP
.B (no)cabac
Use CABAC (Context-Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding) (default: on).
Slightly slows down encoding and decoding, but should save 10-15% bitrate.
Unless you are looking for decoding speed, you should not disable it.
.
.TP
.B cabacidc=<value>
Initial value of CABAC IDC.
The encoder must choose a context for each block it encodes, but for the

2: high complexity
.REss
.
.TP
.B qp_min=<1\-51> (CBR or two pass)
Minimum quantizer, 10\-30 seems to be a useful range (default: 10).
.
.TP
.B qp_max=<1\-51> (CBR or two pass)
maximum quantizer (default: 51)
.

.IPs 2
Temporal: motion vectors are interpolated from the following P-frame.
(default)
.RE
.PD 1
Spatial and temporal are approximately the same speed and PSNR,
but temporal often looks better.
direct_pred=0 is both slower and lower quality.
.
.TP
.B (no)weight_b
Use weighted prediction in B-frames.
Without this option, bidirectionally predicted macroblocks give

.br
 0: Print errors only.
.br
 1: warnings
.br
 2: PSNR and other analysis stats when the encode finishes
(default)
.br
 3: PSNR, QP, frametype, size, and other stats for every frame
.REss
.