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Discussion Quality differences AVC CBR, AVC CVBR and HEVC?

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TubeBar

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I am sure it's been asked but AS never had this option before so guess most of my old content is AVC CVBR.

I tend to like HEVC because it's much smaller but what is the best quality? I have an LG 4K OLED and use Plex Media Server. I tried to see a difference between all 3 but hmm...not so easy. They all look about same to me.
 
If they look the same to you and you can play HEVC, then you can save some space by using that codec. As for AVC, VBR is the better option as it reduces the bitrate for slow scenary and pushes it up again for fast stuff. At least it is my choice.
 
Thanks for the explanations. I'll stick w/ HEVC that makes sense to me. I get it now.
 
get HEVC if you can. id does not compare to 4gb per episode AVC C{V}BR (e.g. low light scenes), but its half the size. low light kills any codec, but AP AVC looks better then the rest. that being said, HMAX HEVC is the best, although ive ran into some banding and blockiness there as well. i was pretty satisfied with P+ AVC until yesterday when i downloaded evil s01e02, and saw total sheeitshow @40m (when guy enters the club). even 720p bluray rips were a bit dodgy, and every single webdl (AP, P+) no matter the codec or bitrate failed massively. only 1080p bluray rip, 5gb per episode, managed to pull off the scene. all that being said, no webdl is ever going to compare to neither bluray nor high quality bluray rip. it is what it is, i always opt for HEVC and just tell myself 'naah, you didnt see that banding, noo that was not blockiness, naaah it doesnt look fuzzy', lol. btw, all have banding problems in low light (AVC CBR the least, others are about the same). also, grain. grain is doom. i started to hate grain.
 
Just one thing: there are different HEVC encodes on Prime: some are encoded with different versions (and parameters) of x265, others use whatever doesn't leave and obvious fingerprint, so YMMV.
 
zanetti said:
[snip]

i started to hate grain.
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hulu's hevc encodes of grainy material are absolutely fine, the problem is not grain itself, but crf; cqp (and I'd guess 2pass) has no problem with grain
 
i kinda like the hevc version more when it comes to grain rich content.
anime gets in 95% the cases cbr
and tv series and movies in general are getting cvbr
 
0x0x0x0x0 said:
hulu's hevc encodes of grainy material are absolutely fine, the problem is not grain itself, but crf; cqp (and I'd guess 2pass) has no problem with grain
Click to expand...

heh, didnt try HULU HEVC yet, will give it a go. first need to find something... well... grainy. as for cqp... constant quality? i guess, but that drives the bitrate thus the filesize, right?
 
zanetti said:
heh, didnt try HULU HEVC yet, will give it a go. first need to find something... well... grainy. as for cqp... constant quality? i guess, but that drives the bitrate thus the filesize, right?
Click to expand...

Yes. Of course, there's a different question of getting HEVC-encoded material from providers vs HEVC encoding yourself.

I suspect the problem in grainy HEVC crf is how temporal differences are calculated and while mathematically jumping pixels might be merely transient, the eye will notice them more than anything, so you either have that, or mega-blur. I suspect multi-pass might play better distribution games than crf. Speaking of personal experience with very grainy stuff (Firefly), I encoded the series from BD with x265 at crf 20, and it looked terrible (grain just turned to blur) but when I encoded it with cqp 20/20/22 (I/P/B) it was twice the size (but still way lower than BD streams), and everything was fine quality-wise (well, I watched it through and I couldn't find obvious faults).
 
TubeBar said:
I am sure it's been asked but AS never had this option before so guess most of my old content is AVC CVBR.

I tend to like HEVC because it's much smaller but what is the best quality? I have an LG 4K OLED and use Plex Media Server. I tried to see a difference between all 3 but hmm...not so easy. They all look about same to me.
Click to expand...
The only other thing not mentioned is if you are streaming to more than one source at the same time, h265 is more CPU/GPU intensive than h264 and could cause problems. If you are only
streaming to one source...pick which you like best.
 
Jimc115 said:
The only other thing not mentioned is if you are streaming to more than one source at the same time, h265 is more CPU/GPU intensive than h264 and could cause problems. If you are only
streaming to one source...pick which you like best.
Click to expand...
That only aplies if you are transcoding on the fly. If you stream to devices like in transferring an unmodified file from your server to a client, the impact on CPU/GPU is the same for any codec: near zero.
 
fretzke said:
That only aplies if you are transcoding on the fly. If you stream to devices like in transferring an unmodified file from your server to a client, the impact on CPU/GPU is the same for any codec: near zero.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I had replied, but misunderstood what you were saying. All good. (y)
 
coopervid said:
OK. But it seems like anybody wants to convince the other one of a "religion". Which doesn't work like we all know.
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Given that people clearly have way too much free time on their hands, they should download all three, start watching with the smallest one and keep the one that looks best to their eyes... but that's stating the obvious, right? :rockingchair::ROFLMAO:
 
0x0x0x0x0 said:
Given that people clearly have way too much free time on their hands, they should download all three, start watching with the smallest one and keep the one that looks best to their eyes... but that's stating the obvious, right? :rockingchair::ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...

I agree...pick which you like best and what fits your situation....Some shows I don't care much about...others I keep the full remux copies from Blu-Ray.
 
fretzke said:
That only aplies if you are transcoding on the fly. If you stream to devices like in transferring an unmodified file from your server to a client, the impact on CPU/GPU is the same for any codec: near zero.
Click to expand...
You are correct as long as direct play is possible. Transcoding usually catches me on audio on a couple TV's and streaming something 4K to my tablet.
 
I Grabbed a 1080p SDR HEVC from hulu it was 10bit, i beleve HBO FLIX and Prime are 8bit on thire SDR encodes.
 
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