If you're a fan of FFmpeg, you may have noticed that the x265 quality setting seems to have changed in version 2:6.1-3. In this article, we'll take a closer look at what's changed and how it might affect your video encoding workflow.
First, it's important to understand that x265 is a popular open-source video codec that's used to encode video files in the H.265/HEVC format. This format offers better compression and quality than the older H.264/AVC format, which is why it's become so popular in recent years.
FFmpeg is a powerful multimedia framework that can be used to encode, decode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter, and play audio and video. It's often used in conjunction with x265 to encode video files in the H.265/HEVC format.
What's Changed in FFmpeg 2:6.1-3?
In FFmpeg version 2:6.1-3, the default quality setting for x265 has been changed from 31 to 28. This might not seem like a big deal, but it can actually have a significant impact on the quality of the encoded video.
The quality setting in x265 is a value between 0 and 51, with 0 being the lowest quality and 51 being the highest quality. The default value of 31 is considered to be a good balance between quality and file size. However, lowering the quality setting to 28 will result in a lower quality video, but with a smaller file size.
How Does This Affect Your Workflow?
If you're used to encoding video with x265 using the default quality setting of 31, you might notice a decrease in quality when encoding with FFmpeg 2:6.1-3. This is because the default quality setting has been lowered to 28.
If you want to maintain the same level of quality as before, you'll need to manually set the quality setting to 31 or higher. You can do this by using the -crf option in FFmpeg. For example, the following command will encode a video using x265 with a quality setting of 31:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx265 -crf 31 output.mp4
Why Was the Default Quality Setting Changed?
You might be wondering why the default quality setting was changed in the first place. The answer is simple: to improve the compression efficiency of x265.
By lowering the default quality setting, x265 is able to encode video files with better compression efficiency. This means that the encoded video files will be smaller, which can be a big advantage if you're encoding videos for streaming or downloading over the internet.
In conclusion, the default quality setting for x265 has been changed in FFmpeg 2:6.1-3. This might affect the quality of the encoded video, but it can also result in better compression efficiency. If you want to maintain the same level of quality as before, you'll need to manually set the quality setting to 31 or higher.
References
| Title | URL |
|---|---|
| FFmpeg | https://ffmpeg.org/ |
| x265 | https://x265.org/ |
| x265 Encoding Guide | https://x265.readthedocs.io/en/default/encoding.html |