xREL.v3

Release.Date:        31.03.2015
Video.......:        x265 7989 kbps
Frame.Rate..:        23,976 fps
Resolution..:        1920x1080 pixel
Audio.......:        English DTS 5.1 1510kbps
Subtitles...:        English SDH, English
Length......:        2h 49m 04s
Source......:        Retail Bluray
Size........:        11490 MB
iMDB.COM....:        http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/
BLURAY.COM..:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Interstellar-Blu-ray/77552/

So, almost a year and a half ago we encoded Skyfall with the new H265 format
by using the x264 successor, x265. We found that it was showing nice progress
in its development, but far from replacing the current x264 encoder.

The x265 encoder is still inferior, as expected, but that doesn't mean that it
won't produce adequate results in a few years. x264 wasn't perfect in the
beginning either, it took quite a few years, and currently we are just 2 years
into x265 development.

We chose a bitrate of 8mbit this time, as we believe this number should not
change with the adoption of x265 for regular releases (or rather the
CRF value that would produce this bitrate for this type of film as 2pass
should and will be abandoned by then). Even the higher bitrate of 10.5mbit
with x264 for our 1080p release was not enough to keep the finest details
and prevent the encode from showing blocking in dark scenes, although using
better encoding settings could have helped a little.
(A loss in quality you have to accept when racing other groups).
HD releases should not get smaller, but offer better quality at roughly the same size.

Since pictures say more than a thousand words, we have included 10 comparisons
between the source, this x265 encode and the previous x264 release. They have
been included in /Proof as lossless .png's renamed to .jpg to avoid site filters.
Beware, the second to last set contains spoilers.

This encode has of course 2.5mbit less video bitrate, but on the other
hand its supposed to offer higher efficiency with the given bits, so one would
expect this to look better than the x264 encode some day. Just not today.

Overall, x265 is far behind x264 in keeping the numerous fine details that the Blu-ray has,
which is a well made transfer from it's superb 70mm and 35mm master-negatives.
The fine grain is lost in virtually all frames, and blocking is visible
in every dark scene.

Our conclusion, grab the iNTERNAL (containing lossless video and audio tracks) we
released or watch the x264 version rather than this one, unless you want to test your
H265/HEVC playback capabilities. Finding a good decoder isn't as hard as it was the last
time. MPC-HC is still the leading software but VLC has recently also introduced
HEVC decoding.

Be patiend, it's still young. Or visit Millers planet if you aren't, just
don't forget to bring a towel.

x265 version used:
https://bitbucket.org/multicoreware/x265/commits/c452299ac5f88b541af6b1cd775cd12f5a191e8f

commandline used:
avs4x265.exe --pass 1 --bitrate 8000 --stats interstellar.1080p.stats --preset slow
--psy-rd 1 --aq-strength 0.8 --deblock -2 -o NUL interstellar.1080p.avs

avs4x265.exe --pass 2 --bitrate 8000 --stats interstellar.1080p.stats --preset slow
--psy-rd 1 --aq-strength 0.8 --deblock -2 -o interstellar.1080p.x265.hvec interstellar.1080p.avs

Full log:

avs4x265.exe --pass 1 --bitrate 8000 --stats interstellar.1080p.stats --preset s
low --psy-rd 1 --aq-strength 0.8 --deblock -2 -o NUL interstellar.1080p.avs
avs  [info]: AviSynth 2.60, build:Sep 18 2013 [17:36:36]
avs  [info]: Video colorspace: YV12
avs  [info]: Video resolution: 1920x1080
avs  [info]: Video framerate: 24000/1001
avs  [info]: Video framecount: 243211
avs4x265 [info]: "x265" -  --frames 243211 --fps 24000/1001 --input-res 1920x108
0 --input-csp i420 --pass 1 --bitrate 8000 --stats interstellar.1080p.stats --pr
eset slow --psy-rd 1 --aq-strength 0.8 --deblock -2 -o NUL
yuv  [info]: 1920x1080 fps 24000/1001 i420p8 unknown frame count
x265 [info]: HEVC encoder version 1.5+254-c452299ac5f8
x265 [info]: build info [Windows][GCC 4.8.2][64 bit] 8bpp
x265 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX
x265 [info]: Main profile, Level-4 (Main tier)
x265 [info]: Thread pool created using 8 threads
x265 [info]: frame threads / pool features       : 3 / wpp(17 rows)
x265 [info]: Coding QT: max CU size, min CU size : 64 / 8
x265 [info]: Residual QT: max TU size, max depth : 32 / 1 inter / 1 intra
x265 [info]: ME / range / subpel / merge         : dia / 57 / 2 / 1
x265 [info]: Keyframe min / max / scenecut       : 23 / 250 / 40
x265 [info]: Lookahead / bframes / badapt        : 25 / 4 / 2
x265 [info]: b-pyramid / weightp / weightb / refs: 1 / 1 / 0 / 1
x265 [info]: Rate Control / AQ-Strength / CUTree : ABR-8000 kbps / 0.8 / 1
x265 [info]: tools: rd=2 rdoq=2 psy-rd=1.00 psy-rdoq=1.00 early-skip deblock(tC=
-2:B=-2) sao signhide fast-intra tmvp stats-write

x265 [info]: frame I:   1967, Avg QP:12.40  kb/s: 31955.39
x265 [info]: frame P:  61990, Avg QP:14.10  kb/s: 17760.03
x265 [info]: frame B: 179254, Avg QP:17.64  kb/s: 4361.61
x265 [info]: global : 243211, Avg QP:16.70  kb/s: 7999.79
x265 [info]: Weighted P-Frames: Y:4.6% UV:2.5%
x265 [info]: consecutive B-frames: 8.3% 5.6% 6.5% 57.0% 22.7%

encoded 243211 frames in 26156.54s (9.30 fps), 7999.79 kb/s

avs4x265.exe --pass 2 --bitrate 8000 --stats interstellar.1080p.stats --preset s
low --psy-rd 1 --aq-strength 0.8 --deblock -2 -o interstellar.1080p.x265.hvec in
terstellar.1080p.avs
avs  [info]: AviSynth 2.60, build:Sep 18 2013 [17:36:36]
avs  [info]: Video colorspace: YV12
avs  [info]: Video resolution: 1920x1080
avs  [info]: Video framerate: 24000/1001
avs  [info]: Video framecount: 243211
avs4x265 [info]: "x265" -  --frames 243211 --fps 24000/1001 --input-res 1920x108
0 --input-csp i420 --pass 2 --bitrate 8000 --stats interstellar.1080p.stats --pr
eset slow --psy-rd 1 --aq-strength 0.8 --deblock -2 -o interstellar.1080p.x265.h
vec
yuv  [info]: 1920x1080 fps 24000/1001 i420p8 unknown frame count
x265 [info]: HEVC encoder version 1.5+254-c452299ac5f8
x265 [info]: build info [Windows][GCC 4.8.2][64 bit] 8bpp
x265 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX
x265 [info]: Main profile, Level-4 (Main tier)
x265 [info]: Thread pool created using 8 threads
x265 [info]: frame threads / pool features       : 3 / wpp(17 rows)
x265 [info]: Coding QT: max CU size, min CU size : 64 / 8
x265 [info]: Residual QT: max TU size, max depth : 32 / 1 inter / 1 intra
x265 [info]: ME / range / subpel / merge         : star / 57 / 3 / 3
x265 [info]: Keyframe min / max / scenecut       : 23 / 250 / 40
x265 [info]: Lookahead / bframes / badapt        : 25 / 4 / 2
x265 [info]: b-pyramid / weightp / weightb / refs: 1 / 1 / 0 / 3
x265 [info]: Rate Control / AQ-Strength / CUTree : ABR-8000 kbps / 0.8 / 1
x265 [info]: tools: rect rd=4 rdoq=2 psy-rd=1.00 psy-rdoq=1.00 deblock(tC=-2:B=-
2) sao signhide tmvp stats-read

x265 [info]: frame I:   1967, Avg QP:13.06  kb/s: 28714.81
x265 [info]: frame P:  61990, Avg QP:15.13  kb/s: 13630.73
x265 [info]: frame B: 179254, Avg QP:17.05  kb/s: 5810.54
x265 [info]: global : 243211, Avg QP:16.53  kb/s: 7989.00
x265 [info]: Weighted P-Frames: Y:4.6% UV:2.5%
x265 [info]: consecutive B-frames: 8.3% 5.6% 6.5% 57.0% 22.7%

encoded 243211 frames in 111783.96s (2.18 fps), 7989.00 kb/s

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