Best encoder[s] for HD Movies

**Violator** · 03-14-2011, 10:23 PM

Guys

Back in the day ESiR and DON were regarded as putting out the best quality encodes. However, of late, I haven't seen much action from them.

So who currently rules the roost, specifically for 720p content? Even WiKi seem to release less these days.

V

**mjmacky** · 03-14-2011, 11:11 PM

Uh anyone really... on a larger scale the "better" encoders know how to retain quality without using excessive bitrate (this is efficiency). However, unless you're collecting thousands of movies or dozens of huge series, this waste of efficiency isn't really worth your dedicated investment of time to hunting them down. If you want HD, find a 1080p or 720p x264, anyone really, and watch it. If space is a real concern, give up on HD.

**shipwreck** · 03-14-2011, 11:13 PM

WiKi don't release less. Their releases just don't seem to spread as much / so quickly ever since they moved away from HD China. They are still very active actually.

Good encoding groups for 720p content? Besides the already mentioned, CHD (CHDBits; especially if you want new (major) releases quickly), HiDT & ViSTA (HD-Torrents), D-Z0N3 & decibeL & FoRM (A-HD), CtrlHD (HDBits, HDChina), beAst (HDChina, HDStar), HDBRiSe (HDBits.ro), FLAWL3SS (Bit-HDTV) to name a few. If you're paticularly interested in saving as much space as possible, DiRTY (x264) and aZA (Blu-Bits) are interesting groups that seem to focus on keeping the size as small as possible without comprimising too much quality.

P.S.: Since all these groups are bittorrent tracker internals, it probably makes more sense to move this thread to the bittorrent section.

**Violator** · 03-14-2011, 11:41 PM

Hey thanks for the replies both of you.

As my projector is only 720p, 1080p isn't important as I'd sooner stick with a 1:1 pixel ratio. As it's a big display however quality comes first so file size isn't important.

Cheers for the info

V

**mjmacky** · 03-15-2011, 12:47 AM

You're welcome, and 720p is probably the most pragmatic choice in that situation, unless the fucker is huge (then 720p won't look very quality like, who knows about the hardware downscale from 1080p in that case, depends on equipment).

Oh yes and about the earlier post, they are my own opinions and do not reflect the viewpoints FST, P2P, or the scene as a whole. They are however right, I have the gift of correct opinions... I would have taken the power of flight, but beggars can't be choosers.

**Violator** · 03-15-2011, 02:26 AM

Not only are you guys informative but humourous too

space isn't an issue as I lurve HD. It's a shame FrameStor only do 1080p - have checked out some HiDt stuff though and looks good.

**shipwreck** · 03-15-2011, 02:13 PM

HiDT and ViSTA seem to use some 'extra sharpening' settings that is especially useful for 720p rips. Good groups that, their 1080p rips are very good also.

Most of the P2P groups these days manage to produce some good quality encodes, unlike a few years ago, times have changed. Even a few scene groups have improved quite a bit over the years. So it's not so much the video quality itself, but the little details / extras where groups can distinguish themselves from others, e.g. integrated subtitle streams (HDBRiSe usually use great looking .ass subs, for example), commentary audio tracks, chapters (titled or not) etc.

720p is my format of choice for all the movies that are simply not good enough to merit a 1080p encode or even full Bluray / remux, or the original Blu-ray transfer is not good enough to make a real difference.