Optimum Video Encoding/Compression - I know you guys have oppinions on this...

[Pants]

Ok, so here's the deal:

I've recorded some screencasts in uncompressed 1920x1080/25p AVI, edited them together in Sony Vegas Pro 10, and am rendering them to 1920x1080/25p AVC/AAC (MPEG-4 container) optimized for 8 MBps. Sounds alright, right?
Well, the video is 13 minutes and change, doesn't have any particularity demanding post-effects, is 52% done rendering and still has another 18:50:00 to render (20:32:00 rendering).

What the hell is taking so long!?

I've rendered video on a lesser system to the same output much quicker, recently upgraded my processor and operating system (was running 32 bit 7, now running 64 addressing 4gig DDR3... meh) so I am inclined to believe it's not my system and more the formats. The moment the render go to the uncompressed AVI (there's my pre-rendered intro, with which it did just fine) it... just... halted... If it went much slower, I would have thought it would have hung my computer - only it didn't. My memory is at 75% and my processor (Phenom II X4 mk.945) is cruzeing along at 40-70% on all four cylinders. I'm checking the web, doing word processing, life is more-or-less normal... Except my apartment is 10 degrees warmer than it is normally and I'm not looking forward to the conversation I'm going to have with my wife over my electricity usage (I'll let her keep thinking it's the lights).

I use HyperCam 3 for my screencasts, so I have a lot of recording options:
Output: AVI, WMV, ASF
Compressions: (Uncompressed), Cinepak codec by Radius, DV Video Encoder, Intel IYUV codec, MJPEG Compressor,  MSScreen 9 encoder DMO, Microsoft Video 1, WMVideo8 Encoder DMO, WMVideo9 Encoder DMO

That's all and swell, sure. But I know nothing about compression and never heard about most these codecs - so my other question is this: what should I record to and where can I learn more about compression for my purposes?

Also: that sticky is getting YouTube videos weather the mods allow embedded video or not...

Also, you'll be hard pressed to take me away from my final rendering settings - they work beautifully for YouTube, but if you have input on that *and a helluva good argument* I'd like to hear what you have to say about that too.

~Pants

[Temuthril]

First output to a lossless format (HuffYUV or lossless h264 for example) from your video editor, then encode that with x264. Or install x264vfw to use it directly in your editor.

Something like following:

Code: x264 command line [Select]

x264 --preset slow --crf 18 -o output.mkv input.avi

If it's too slow, use a faster preset.
x264 options

[Lupin]

Ok, so here's the deal:

I've recorded some screencasts in uncompressed 1920x1080/25p AVI, edited them together in Sony Vegas Pro 10, and am rendering them to 1920x1080/25p AVC/AAC (MPEG-4 container) optimized for 8 MBps. Sounds alright, right?
Well, the video is 13 minutes and change, doesn't have any particularity demanding post-effects, is 52% done rendering and still has another 18:50:00 to render (20:32:00 rendering).

What the hell is taking so long!?

I've rendered video on a lesser system to the same output much quicker, recently upgraded my processor and operating system (was running 32 bit 7, now running 64 addressing 4gig DDR3... meh) so I am inclined to believe it's not my system and more the formats. The moment the render go to the uncompressed AVI (there's my pre-rendered intro, with which it did just fine) it... just... halted... If it went much slower, I would have thought it would have hung my computer - only it didn't. My memory is at 75% and my processor (Phenom II X4 mk.945) is cruzeing along at 40-70% on all four cylinders. I'm checking the web, doing word processing, life is more-or-less normal... Except my apartment is 10 degrees warmer than it is normally and I'm not looking forward to the conversation I'm going to have with my wife over my electricity usage (I'll let her keep thinking it's the lights).

I use HyperCam 3 for my screencasts, so I have a lot of recording options:
Output: AVI, WMV, ASF
Compressions: (Uncompressed), Cinepak codec by Radius, DV Video Encoder, Intel IYUV codec, MJPEG Compressor,  MSScreen 9 encoder DMO, Microsoft Video 1, WMVideo8 Encoder DMO, WMVideo9 Encoder DMO

That's all and swell, sure. But I know nothing about compression and never heard about most these codecs - so my other question is this: what should I record to and where can I learn more about compression for my purposes?

Also: that sticky is getting YouTube videos weather the mods allow embedded video or not...

Use an encoder that doesn't suck.

Also, you'll be hard pressed to take me away from my final rendering settings - they work beautifully for YouTube, but if you have input on that *and a helluva good argument* I'd like to hear what you have to say about that too.

You shouldn't worry about others stealing your settings. Others don't give an ass about those. Only an idiot will use the same settings for other videos anyways. Also, Youtube reencodes your videos.

[Pants]

Thanks Temuthril, I'm definitely going to look into that.
The video (13:31) took (40:45:00) to render... I'm not doing that again...

Also, Lupin, I think you misunderstood me: nobody's going to 'steal' my settings, I was only saying that I find they work very well for YouTube uploads, but I'm still open to how others do it. And the question was which encoders don't suck...

[blubart]

X264 commandline (or alternative with an interface like X264launcher)

[Lupin]

Also, Lupin, I think you misunderstood me: nobody's going to 'steal' my settings, I was only saying that I find they work very well for YouTube uploads, but I'm still open to how others do it. And the question was which encoders don't suck...

Settings you use will work for videos you encode. Using those same settings for a different set of videos, even if they are for youtube upload doesn't necessarily work.

There isn't a single set of settings that will work well for every video.