x264 BD compliant "perfect" settings

[spoRv]

Agreed, max bitrate allowed for BD (video+audio) is 48000mbps, so if audio tracks total bitrate is over 8000mbps, you should lower video bitrate accordingly.

[zoidberg]

That's a whole lot of audio!

[Valeyard]

Not really, just 1 DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is ~4608kbps (by the way Anrea meant kbps, not Mbps)!

[zoidberg]

I figured that's what he meant. Nothing beats Akira's 14Mbps 24/192kHz TrueHD

[Valeyard]

The slightly lower maximum video bitrate won't negatively affect the encode either, the main thing is the quality. I'd use a CRF of around 12-14 to replicate general bluray quality - but if you're making a BD25 then do a full 2-pass encode. A 21GB bluray file with x264 video will meet or surpass the quality of a 36GB VC-1 file if authored from the same source.

[spoRv]

Yes, kbps, was five in the morning, forgive me!

I do not agree about VC-1; its overall bitrate/quality is just slightly worse than AVC, so, for example, same quality of a 21GB AVC could be reached by a 22 or 23GB VC-1 - that was according to some whitepapers I read a couple years ago... even if VC-1 development could have stopped, while x264 continued, I can't believe about such difference... while I can confirm it's possible to achieve unbelievable results with relatively low bitrates, and a 2+ hours movie and several audio tracks could well reside on a BD-25, if the encode is done right...

Speaking of this, I'm thinking about x265, but this topic alone worths a new thread... Valeyard?

[zoidberg]

I've just finished an encode using the settings recommended here using --preset veryslow. I noticed that these settings are slightly slower (in fps) than the recommended settings at x264bluray.com. I think the only differences are closed gops and weightp/b pyramid disabled. From what I've seen of the encode so far the quality looks about the same. I'm guessing those settings slightly reduce efficiency as opposed to quality, but in return offer extra compatibility with decoders. I will burn to disc later, hopefully all is good!

[zoidberg]

So yeah the disc burned fine and plays back on both of my hardware players (sony and panasonic) and also in VLC. Unfortunately the video levels have gotten messed up (black is grey) so I've obviously made an error at some point in the process. Don't thinks it's x264's fault though.

[spoRv]

Probably it's PC-TV conversion problems; it happened to me with my first project, and I discovered it only after I released it!

So, have you used the settings written in the first post?

[zoidberg]

It's looking that way, I think the luma got compressed when I converted to lossless for editing.
As for x264, yes I used the settings mentioned, except I used --preset veryslow for both passes. I had to specify the --input-res as x264 wouldn't start otherwise. I muxed the raw .264 file to an .MKV via MKVToolnix, and used that MKV in tsMuxer to generate an .iso file which I burned with no problems. I muxed the .iso from the MKV rather than the pure .264 stream to check it was still blu-ray compliant, which it was.