Hi pacodoni,

I think the Convolution3D dll is optimized to run on P4 with SSE instruction set. Maybe that's why it's slow on your machine. What's your CPU? I'm currently encoding "We were soldiers" again with this script and the KVCD-LBR at CQ_VBR=22 and subtitles ( just for fun :lol: ):

LoadPlugin("C:\encoding\MPEG2DEC.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\encoding\Convolution3d.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\encoding\vobsub.dll")
mpeg2source("K:\SOLDIERS\VIDEO_TS\soldiers.d2v")
BilinearResize(336,192,45,0,630,480)
VobSub("K:\SOLDIERS\VIDEO_TS\VTS_04_0")
Convolution3d (1, 8, 8, 8, 8, 3, 0)
#TemporalSmoother(1,2)
AddBorders(8,24,8,24)

Elapsed time 27 minutes. Time to complete is 3 hours, 55 minutes.
The running time for the movie is 136 minutes. I'm encoding on a P4 @1.6Ghz.
Source position is now at 15 minutes, 47 seconds and file size is 71 MB ( video stream ) :D

-kwag

I'm working in a P3 850mhz, 512 Mb.

Part of the slow was cos i was doing video and audio togheter...

Encoding only video, the time came to 6 hour, so, for a P3 i guess it's doing ok...

BTW, i notice you're using vob sub in Avsynth, you're adding subtittles ?
IF, you are, you use there and forget about using it in VDUB, is it right ?

Pacodoni

8)

Yes. Just run VobSub Configure and do your subtitles. Then use the script like the one I used. That easy :wink:

-kwag

Kwag,

My dvd is chocking on the new VCD-LBR. I guessing it doesn't like
the 64 low bitrate. Plays fine on my PC and Laptop. By the way the
quality has improved from the old VCD-LBR. Set CQ=22 and kept
everything the same. Tried Convolution3d in my script. There is
only a slight improvement. This plugin is for noisy captures, but
the blocks and artifacts are mostly due to lack of bitrates.
Your changes are coming so fast that I'll have to wait awhile until
it settles down. Keep it going though. :D

-black prince

hey Kwag,

I'm encoding "we were soldiers" too with the new temp. and convolution3d same settings as you and my encoding time is 3 hrs 37 min. :lol: I'm also using DVD2AVI and the encode I did yesterday, the audio seemed a little out of synch :?: Did you notice any synch problems?

thx,
ren

Hi ren,
Yes. I have the same problem with that movie!. The audio is out of sync, but not at the beginning. I noticed it after half hour or so. I extracted the WAV with Mediator. I have to try another movie. Maybe there's a glitch on that DVD that throws off Mediator. I re-encoded the WAV with SCMPX. I'll try muxing that audio with the video, and see if I have the same results.
The problem is in the mpeg file. I see the out of sync when played in WMP, so I know it's not template related. If I get the same result, then I'll extract the file with DVD2AVI, and encode it again with Headac3he.

@black prince,
I did suspect that some DVD players won't like the 64Kbps low bit rate. Try 200 MIN or so, and see. I tried in all my 5 DVD players with the 64, and it worked ok. But I guess some DVD players are picky :D

-kwag

Hi Ren and Kwag,

I also had trouble extracting audio using mpeg medator from
"We were soldiers". Finally, I used dvd2avi and everything worked
fine. There were a few other movies which mpeg medator would
not sync the extracted audio properly. I did the same dvd2avi for
them and it worked.

@Kwag
Checked vcdhelp.com for my dvd model and discovered it takes
min=250, max=2400, and avg=1200 for XVCD. Going to try them
this evening.

@Ren
I am using "U571" DVD as source instead of SVCD's to create KVCD-LBR
encodes. There's alot of water and action scenes. The movie is 1hr
56min 14sec, its 16:9, and film. There are scenes that are difficult
for KVCD-X3 to handle. To answer your email, Tmpgenc was not set
to deinterlace.

Thanx

-black prince

Thanks black prince,

I just finished extracting the AC3 with DVD2AVI 1.77.3, and I'm encoding it now with Headac3he.
It's funny, because the movie "Kate & Leopold" was only synched correctly with Mediator, and with DVD2AVI it always failed :lol:
Well, anyway, we have two choices. If one doesn't work, then hopefully the other one will 8)

I finished encoding "We were soldiers", and the video stream size is 611,711MB with subtitles, which make the mpeg larger :lol: . So I'm encoding the audio at 192Kbps, for a target size of 195MB. Still it's perfect for a single CD. I previewed the .m1v and it looks great. Hopefully when I mux the audio/video it will be in sync.
And now I take a break, because I'm going to watch the "De la Hoya vs. Vargas" Blood fight :lol:

See'ya later!,
-kwag

hey black prince,

I was asking about how you deinterlaced your svcd because i was wondering about the best way to process the interlaced frames or even if it's necessary at all :?:

hey Kwag,

That should be a good match- it would be reeeeaaaally cool if you did a small capture of it and posted a small sample encoded with the LBR temp :mrgreen:

thnx,
ren

Hi ren,
That was a GREAT fight :mrgreen:
Sadly, I didn't record it :cry:
I should have :roll:

BTW, finished muxing "We were soldiers". Perfect audio/video sync.
For some reason, Mediator didn't like that movie :cry:

-kwag

kvcd LBR PAL
 

Hi Kwag,

I've been using your templates for awhile, but this is the first time I've posted on the forum.

I encoded A Beautiful Mind yesterday (PAL Australian release 130 minutes), using your LBR PAL template, and the quality was impressive, given the final file size of 699 MB with 160 Kbit sound. I didn't particular want a small file size version of this movie, and it isn't the most challenging movie to encode, but I happened to have it on the HD at the time. :D

I'm not sure if you have received any PAL posts for the LBR template, but it is very effective with my tests so far. I also travel a lot, and while my preference is quality over 2 - 3 CDs, the single disk solution is great for when I am away with my laptop.

Will you be releasing a new version of the PAL LBR template? The updated NTSC version sounds even more impressive!

Also, just for the record, I have a Conia M-100 DVD player, which has the same hardware as one of the Apex players (1100W I think), but it has different software installed. It works with all your templates unchanged, except KVCDx3 where I up the resolution to 544x576 (PAL) to make it work. I don't need to resort to MPEG 2, like some Apex owners thank goodness. I must admit that I thought you had lost the plot with KVCDx3, but once I went to 544, I was bowled over by the quality, and the file size, as even at CQ 12, it looks great on most normal (not HiDef) TVs.

Thanks for the excellent work,

Den.

Thanks Den,
Here's the updated KVCD-LBR PAL template:
http://www.kvcd.net/KVCD-LBR-09132002-352x288-(PAL)-PLUS.mcf

I haven't updated the download page. Tomorrow it will be up. But here you have it :wink:

-kwag

Hi All,

Still testing. Seems Convolution3D(1,8,8,8,8,3,0) is removing some
detail from faces in the background. Going to try some other settings
suggested on Doom. C3D has very good compressibility though, so
it could become a fixed filter in avs files. Tried Sharpen(.1) because
C3D causing some blurriness. This only increased the filesize a little,
but gave better picture quality.

@Kwag

I feel VCD-LBR is very good for PC and laptop viewing, but
STD TV it still needs some work (my opinion). Even sitting 7-8 feet from
TV the artifacts, blockiness is apparent. Close-ups scenes are great.
I guess Iam spoiled by KVCD-x3.

@Ren

Tmpgenc is too slow and dosen't always do a good job.
Most of my SVCD's were created by DVD2SVCD. D2S will use DVD2AVI's
Force Film for mild cases of deinterlacing and for NTSC or FILM less than
95% it uses the AVISYNTH commands below:

LoadPlugin("E:\DVDBAC~1\2-DVD2~1\MPEG2DEC\MPEG2DEC.DLL")
LoadPlugin("E:\DVDBAC~1\2-DVD2~1\INVERS~1\DONALD~1\DECOMB.DLL")
mpeg2source("D:\TEMP\DVDVideo.D2V")
Telecide()
Decimate(5)
SimpleResize(704,480)
TemporalSmoother(2,1)
AddBorders(0,0,0,0)

I hope this will help you. When I get a movie that is difficult to figure
out how to de-interlace, I'll run D2S for a sample clip and look at it's
avs to determin de-interlacing. About 95% of the time it's correct according
to TheWef.

:)

Hi black prince,

I did several tests last night, and came to the conclusion that the Convolution3D makes the blocks show more that if it's not used. Maybe by changing the parameters I was using, which were a suggestion from the readme file, it will work better. The picture looks sharper if the filter is not used. As for the blocks, I am using a CQ_VBR value of 22, and I think I'll fix that into the LBR on the next update. It make a big difference from 20 to 22, and the file size is not that much larger.
Another thing. I have done some tests now with the CQ_VBR set at 22, and I can't see a difference to a standard VCD. Try encoding your same blocky scene with the standard TMPEG VCD template, and the same scene with the LBR. Watch it on your TV. You'll notice that if you have blocks on some parts with the LBR, the same blocks are on the standard VCD. That's how close ( if not the same ) the LBR is to a VCD. I tried that on my HDTV, and was able to verify that there's barely any difference between the two. So if you can see blocks on a standard VCD encode, you will see the same blocks on the LBR. Try it without the C3D filter.
Give that a try.

-kwag

Hi Kwag,

Tried encoding without C3D and vbr_cq = 22, min = 300 (my DVD Player
needs at least 250) and max=1150. Of course the filesize increased by
300,000 and the quality did increase some. Here's the weird thing though,
the more I increased the max bitrate the smaller my final filesize kept
getting. I started from 1150 and increased it to 2500 by 100 each time.
The quality stayed the same but the file kept getting smaller.
For a one minute encode, it went from 4,916Kb to 3,107KB and my
min=300 time. I know this is no longer a STD VCD with these
bitrates and would not be DVD compliant, but my goal is filesize vs
quality. I am ok with this encode for my PC and Laptop, but it seems
a more efficient method is needed to use bitrates during the encoding.
What does bitrate viewer tell you. By the way, my commercial copy
of "Green Mile" was propably mastered from a studio version of the
movie with higher resolutions than a DVD we can buy. It could be as
high as 1024 x 720. That's why I believe is better throughout the entire
movie (GIGO theory). :roll:

-black prince

Hey guys

I have back on testing today, and tried the samples with and without Convolution3D, and yeah i could see what black prince ment about the blur detail from faces in the background.
But hasn't see much blockness difference between them.

Black prince did sharpen included on convolution 3D scrypt make a better image compared with the no convolution 3D scrypt ?
What did you think about the two scrypts, what gave you better quality ?

Also, i couldn't have the results that you had when testing the max bitrates. For me the value was always the same, :(

Kwag Finished Dracula, about 130 min, CQ 25, without C3D and sound 224. The final filesize was 798Mb, the image is cool, and yeah, i could see some artifacts, but almost nothing..

One thing that i notice about C3D, wuas that, in the start or end of the movie, when screen is black and show something as the name of the artists, for example, when encode with C3D, when the name goes off, no artifacts can be seen, but, without C3D, you see those.

C ya. :wink:

Pacodoni 8)

Hi pacodoni,
Could you double check and see if the result I'm getting is the same?
Try some part of your movie, where most notable artifacts are seen, but encode it as standard VCD with TMPEG's standard 352x240 NTSCFilm template. For what I can see, there's hardly any difference in artifacts from the standard VCD to the KVCD-LBR encoded with CQ_VBR set to 22.
The is a difference, but it is so minimal, that it can be disregarded.
Just want to make sure other people get the same results I'm getting.

Thanks,
-kwag

@all

We need to use the power of this forum to test new templets
by selecting a DVD movie(s) and having those who are willing to
run tests selected by Kwag to give reports of what's happening.
By starting with a baseline (i.e. hardware, software and movie),
all testers report what their getting (same results or not). Then
when adjustments are made, we can quickly test changes.
Up until now, Kwag and Ren are generally doing all the work.
Only releasing it when he believes it's beyond beta stage. Some
of my testing results are different from others because my source
is mostly SVCD's. Why not create another section for Testing to go
along with the others. To become a tester you must agree to use the
same source, software and at least tell what OS, hardware your using.
Kwag or someone will put out the test criteria and those willing to
help will post results that are the same or different. This is only an idea.

@pacodoni

Sharpen(.1) is what I used. It's all a matter of taste. I can tell you
that it will slow down your encode and increase you filesize. The
picture quality of KVCD-LBR is slightly fuzzy to me and Sharpen give
people and objects a little more definition. I stop using C3D for now.
On Doom9 there are testers trying for find settings for normal movies
since it is very good at compressing a movie. The latest I tried is
Convolution3D(1,4,6,3,5,2.8,0). The trick is to get settings that have
little or no effect, but you get compression better than TS(2,2).

@Kwag

The first statement is purely a suggestion. If you have your own
reasons not to have testers that's fine. About KVCD-LBR, I don't
know how you achieved the quality that KVCDx3 gets, but I been
tempted to take that templet and reduce its resolution to 352x240
and see if it would give the same quality. KVCDx3 is the perfect
blend and produces no blockiness and atrifacts in high action scenes,
water, explosives, dark, bright, etc. Is it possible to use the GOP and
Q.Matrix settings from it, but downsize the resolution. Maybe that's
what your already doing? Anyway keep on doing what your doing. :D

-black prince

Hi black prince,
Statement #1 is fine, but when the templates are released, they are released as a point of reference to satisfy most people, and from that point, each person can tweak and make changes to their personal taste.
As they are right now, the LBR, they satisfy the primary goal which is for viewing on small ( or not so small :wink: ) tv sets, for travelers, and special "convenience" for carrying your movies on a single CD-R. The quality is far above what I thought possible, and is very close to a standard VCD. I have tested now about 4 different movies, and after creating the same section as standard VCD, the result of that same section as LBR looks almost the same. Even on HDTV. The main problem is not the LBR template, it's the 352x240 resolution. If the source is pristine, then the output from the LBR is excelent. But creating mpegs from DVD's at 352x240, we magnify the macroblocks, and we can never achieve the quality of a commercial VCD, because their mastering source was made either from BetaMax digital tapes or some other extremely high resolution and quality. With machines such as Ursa Gold Diamond and Rank Cintel. These things cost around $1,000,000. Slightly out of our budget 8O
As for lowering the resolution on the x3 to 352x240, it will look worse than the LBR. The x3 uses a very high MAX bit rate, and the CQ_VBR is not a linear relationship with the LBR, because of the high resolution of 528x480. That is, the higher the resolution, the lower we can drop the CQ_VBR value. Also, because the x3 uses a much longer GOP, we can use a higher bit rate/CQ combination. The same GOP used on the LBR, even though it creates a much smaller file size, looks really bad and unstable video and artifacts appear everywhere.
As for testers, everyone can make tests and suggestions. I'm always listening. As for KVCD.Net sending BETA templates, special news, what's comming, and what's cooking on the oven, that's only for donators. That's their bonus ( plus all the gifts they get by mail from us for donating ) :wink:

-kwag

Kwag.

When i said about artifacts, i wasn't talking about a comparison between kvcd standard 352x240, and the new LBR KVCD. :roll:
I was pointing to one question, there were almost no artifacts AT ALL.

Sometimes my english ain't too good, so, my bad. :oops:

I'm realy happy with my final version of Dracula on 1 CD, it's like i told about this particular movie, it has lots of fog, many night scenes, and this is hard when you put them togheter, you can see more blocks on this type of scenes.
But, using the template, and, taking advantage from the small filesize that produces, i could raise the CQ, raise the sound and make an almost 130 min movie in a single VCD with a great quality, were you can't see blocks in these scenes.

You said you can't see almost any difference between both, i think that LBR was an improvement, first in the motion, second in the filesize, what let you free to explore the CQ, sound, to get quality and third in the compability.

Joining all that, WOW !

So, i wasn't critisizing ( how culd i :? i've learned almost everything on the KVCD forum )the LBR, au contraire, i think, like i said, it's an improvement, and yes, i tested, as you said to me to do and i keep thinking LBR is better...

Like i said, my Bad, if i express myself wrongly. :oops:

Thanks.


black prince

Thanks by the info on Sharpen, it really helps on the C3D effect.
The forum also is very interesting, full of great ideas.
I'll test some new things, including the C3D config you mentioned.
Well, i'll back to encode.

Thanks

C ya guys :wink:

Pacodoni 8)

Doing "A Beautiful mind" now at CQ_VBR=22. We'll see how it comes out 8)


@black prince,
I'm getting mixed results with the C3D filter. I will try your(1,4,6,3,5,2.8,0) values. I also lost detailes on faces when using the default values, so I think lower values like the ones you used are more reasonable to reduce digital noise, while keeping details.

-kwag

@Pacodoni,

Here's some interesting setting you may want to try.

AVISYNTH
C3D=(0,4,4,4,4,2.8,0)

Tmpgenc
CQ_VBR=65
max bitrate = 10000 (largest value)
Min Bitrate = 64

Try this with a one minute clip and check the filesize. You may be
supprised at the quality and the size. I am using this and reducing
the CQ_VBR where it looks good on STD TV. :)

@Kwag

I understand about testing and agree. :)

-black prince

Hi black prince.

Only for make it easier, i will call

1 = (1,8,8,8,8,3,0)
2 = (1,4,6,3,5,2.8,0)
3 = (0,4,4,4,4,2.8,0)

Ok, i did these comparisons like this, i went in the eletronics where my friend works and used two equal sets. 2 standard TV's Sony 29' conected to 2 Sony DAV-S300 ( i'm not doing sony commercial :lol: ) but i thought to use the same standalone that i have in my house, to have a better notion.

I've tried both config's you gave in the forum 2 and 3 , and, 3 ( that indeed have a better res than the first set that i made on C3D with 1.
Using 3, i could see a blockness reduced, campared to 1 and a little bit compared with 2.
About 1 all we know the story, it made more blocks, but, considering 2 and 3 they make a reducing in blocks.
Well, i get into this results, after all tests.

2 and 3 are better than 1, you realy can see the difference.
Between 2 and 3, 3 is a little better, you can see less blocks.

You're right about it, i enjoyed it, thanks.

I'm trying some configs, so, depending on my results, i post 2 U all.

C Ya :wink:

Pacodoni 8)

Well, here's my result of "A beautiful mind" with and without C3D.

These are video stream file size only.
Without: 625,170KB
With: 606,337KB

This was with CQ_VBR set at 22.

The C3D values used were (1,0,0,7,7,3,0)

Explanation follows:

First parameter is matrix selection. Only 0 and 1 available. I used matrix #1

The next two parameters are Spacial Luma Treshold and Spacial Chroma Treshold. To my understanding, these values are of great importance to VHS and other types captures, but not for DVD rips. ( Danger Will Robinson: That is what I think. If I'm wrong, someone correct me ) 8O So I set them to "0".
This has to be verified, but the visual results I got, were better looking than setting these to any value other than 0.

The following two are Temporal parameters. Temporal Luma Treshold and Temporal Chroma Treshold. Here I set both to 7. At 8 or above, I started noticing loss of sharpness. Higher values over 10, you start to see ghosting.

The next parameter is called Temporal influence. I left that value at 3. The recommended value.

The last one is debug, so leave it at 0.

These settings gave me a sharp looking video, while reducing artifacts around objects. Higher values will lower the file size, but at the expense of some sharpness reduction. This was with this particular movie. Different movies will probably need different parameters values, depending on the quality of the material.

-kwag

posting again
 

I have been using ur templates for a while..and they are way too good.

I converted Contact.avi and the film is about 143 minutes and the resulting mpeg was 770 mb which is good because before I was never able to fit to a single CD.

I think I used min bitrate of 300 which could be why I got a bigger size.

CQ = 20
Max = 1500
Min = 300

I can be a tester Kwag ..
PC 1.8Mhz pentium, 256 DDR

Hi all

First of all thanks Kwag for the explanation on the values, it helped a lot :) !!!!

After reading forums about C3D, I did a lot of encodings using the config, that lots o people said, and i had these results :

Working with these 7 values of C3D



1...... 1,3,4,2,3,2,8,0
2...... 0.28.100.28.100.10.0
3...... 0,4,4,8,8,3,0
4...... 1,12,30,10,10,10,0
5...... 1,18,250,20,80,40,0
6...... 1,0,0,7,7,3,0
7...... 1,4,5,3,4,2

First of all, i agree with KWAG when he mentioned

It really blurs when the value is high, it doesn't get a pretty picture.

In results of the testings, with the two tv sets and two standalones i mentioned, i think that 3 and 6 ( Kwag's config ) still make the big difference.
One thing strange, is that 4, made not a so blur image :? but have a higher value, so, it confused me a bit, worth a test.
About the others, some blur and some didn't affect the blocks.

If someone has different test/results, let us know :D

Hope it was helpfull :wink:

Pacodoni 8)

@Hi All,

KVCD_LBR Testing

I dropped C3D for now, since lowering its settings dramatically
reduces its ability to compress. :( Instead, I am focusing on Tmpgenc
settings (i.e. cq_vbr, max bitrate, and min bitrate). As a result of
experimenting with it’s settings, two will remain fixed. Min
bitrate = 64 and max bitrate = 10000 (largest value this field can hold)
My test showed me that the higher I set max bitrate the filesize keep
decreasing in size without any picture quality loss. This left me with
cq_vbr and avs script to get the best picture quality from. I am using
Tmpgenc batch processing where I save a project file for each increase
of cq_vbr. I incremented cq_vbr by 5 (i.e. 20,25,30,35,etc) and save it
as a project. I change my avs script to select file clips of one minute
using trim(starting frame,ending frame) and add any filters to test
for compression. This way I can make a change in one place and
then test the effect on each increment of cq_vbr. I chose 800mb
CD as a target, where 700mb will be used for video and 100mb for
audio. Using “U571” as and example, the movie is 116 minutes. I
picked a clip that is full of action (i.e. water, explosions, etc.) because
this will use more bitrates. Now I divide 700mb (video) / 116 min (time)
= 6.0344mb per minute. From my test avs script results, I find the
cloest filesize per minute and get the cq_vbr setting from it. In this
case it’s 35. I view this .m1v clip with WMP and decide if I want more
picture quality by removing credits. Here’s a sample of my tests for one minute
clip:
.
.
cq_20.m1v…………3,668KB
cq_25.m1v…………4,509KB
cq_30.m1v…………5,290KB
cq_35.m1v…………5,970KB
cq_40.m1v…………6,553KB
cq_45.m1v…………7,051KB
cq_50.m1v…………7,484KB

When the entire movie is encoded the picture quality is great and I’ve used most
of the 700mb. :D

I need suggestions about this method of testing and improvements. :idea:

Thanx

-black prince

Sync Problems
 

Kwag,

Hand my chance to run test with Har's War, had sync problems all through ou the movie. Any reason for this? Never had problme sprior to the new 352x240 Plus.

Aloha
Bud

Hi Bud,

Do you have sync problems viewing on WMP?. If you do, then the mpeg is out of sync.

-kwag

Did starship troopers ... got a size of 874 mb Film was not widescreen will try again with Min = 0 and Max = 100000 and let u'll know the size. Using direct Tmpeg ( no FitCD )

Hi Nat123,

Starship Troopers (1997) is 130 minutes wide screen (16:9).

1>Use FitCD and set Destination as VCD, TV-overscan as 1.

2>Edit avs script and uncomment TemporalSmoother(2,2)

3>Tmpgenc use KVCD-LBR, change min bitrate=64, max bitrate=
.....10000 and CQ_VBR to 40. Select video only. Now encode.

4>Check filesize of video. It should be less than 800.

5>Play movie using WMP to see if you like the picture quality.

6>If the filesize is under 700mb try increasing CQ_VBR by 5.
....Remember to save at least 80mb for audio.

I hope this helps :)

-black prince

Hi Everyone,

Just finished "U571". It the best quality KVCD-LBR I've produced
up to this date. I have decided to make KVCD-LBR my traveling
videos only and KVCDx3 for stand-alone DVD player at home.
I prefer two sets. One for work and another at home. They
are now my favorite KVCD templets. My testing procedures are
getting great results with KVCD-LBR and I going to try it with
KVCDx3. There are movies where I am not using the space on
CD's as efficiently as possible. Great work Kwag. :D :D :D :D

-black prince

WMP
 

Kwaag,

Had the sync problem, after I recorded it and played back on my Pioneer DV 343. Cant' test now, will have to wait unit all my things arrive, it's hell not having my own system up.....on the road now


Aloha

Bud

Kwag,

I just encoded Imposter last night, and all I can say is WOW!!!! (not the movie, the video quality)
Reading through this thread, I was inspired to experiment with c3d.

I used the LBR template, and your c3d settings (the 1,0,0,etc)
and set the bitrates based on what FitCD gave me.

I actually took the bitrates that fitcd spit out, lowred the min to 500
and took the left over and put it in the maximum. ended up around
500/3350. I also brought the cq up to 40.

This looks great my my Sony dvd player. I actually think it looks better than the plus template at the same resolution.

Just wanted to share my results.

-Jeff

A small tip: if you want to sharpen the picture and want to encode a lot faster than with the Sharpen function, try UnFilter by Donald Graft. It's very fast and effective as well. My estimate is that UnFilter(15,15) would be about the same as Sharpen(.1) . I suppose that you can find the filter at least from doom9.

Sorry to pop an old thread back up but I was reading through and thought I should point out that UnFilter is by Tom Barry, not Donald Graft.

It's designed to compensate for over-zealous smoothing/sharpening during source authoring.