Encoding animation with Xvid

This is a guide to configuring the options in the Xvid (version 1.xx) codec for encoding. Specifically these settings are optimized for encoding animation, such as cartoons and anime.

These encoding options should be available in any operating system where the Xvid encoder is installed.

The bold options are the specific changes that are recommended. The italics are the comments on the options.

MAIN:

• Encoding Type: Two Pass
• Target size (MBytes): ??? (Whatever size of video you want)
• Quantizer: ?.? (Useful only for single pass quantizer based)
  • [ ] Interlaced (Only useful if you need to Deinterlace - generally do not use; filters are better for deinterlacing)
  • [ ] Cartoon mode (Only for very flat color cartoons, generally do NOT use)
  • [X] Turbo Mode (Increases Speed in 2nd pass 2pass mode)
  • [ ] Greyscale
  • [X] Chroma Optimizer
  • [ ] Packed bitstream

MOTION ESTIMATION:

• Motion Search Precision: “6 - Ultra High”
• VHQ Mode: “4 - Wide search”
  • [X] Chroma Motion
  • [X] 4MV
  • [X] HQ AC
  • I-frame interval - Min: 1 Max: 300
  • CONFIGURATION NOTE(nbsp)(ndash) Numbers for framerate
    • NTSC (American & Japanese) = 300
    • PAL (European) or FILM (some DVDs) = 240
    • HDTV = 1200
  • Advanced Simple Profile
    • Numberof B-frames: 3 (Use three as the number minimum, greatly improves video quality)
    • [ ] Qpel (Stands for quarter pixel)
    • [X] GMC (If you plan to only playback on PC use it, if you want to be compatible with standalone dvd player don't)
    • [X] BVHQ (Produces nicer looking B-frames)

QUANTIZATION:

• [X] H.263 (Better for cartoons & anime)
• [ ] MPEG (Generally better for live action)
• [X] Trellis quantization
• Quanitization restrictions
  • I-frame quantizer Min : 2 (or at 1 for full CD, requires experimentation)
  • I-frame quantizer Max : 31
  • P-frame quantizer Min : 2 (or at 1 for full CD, requires experimentation)
  • P-frame quantizer Max : 31
  • B-frame quantizer Min : 2 (or at 1 for full CD, requires experimentation)
  • B-frame quantizer Max : 31

SECOND PASS:

• Two pass tuning
  • I-frame Boost (%): 10
  • I-frame closer than… (frames): 1
  • … are reduced by (%): 20
  • Max overflow improvement (%): 5 (default)
  • Max overflow degradation (%): 5 (default)
• Curve compression
  • High bitrate scenes (%): 0
  • Low bitrate scenes improvement (%): 0
  • Overflow control strength (%): 5 (20 is good for full movies(nbsp)(ndash) requires more testing)