any compatibility issues with high end x264 encodes?

[spicediver]

I've encoded a 1080p edit on the "very slow" x264 profile setting that has produced a file with these stats:

Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings : CABAC / 16 Ref Frames

The quality and file size are all good and are what I intended, but was wondering if any editors here have had viewers report playback/compatibly problems with encodes at this level (5.1) and with this many reference frames (16).?

Full encoding stats are here:

Writing library : x264 core 157 r2935M 545de2f
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=16 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=24 / lookahead_threads=4 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=19.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

 

[tranzor]

Some devices and machines (older and newer) may have issues with the high profile at 5.1. To play things safe you should just use 4.0 or 4.1.
4.1 is still in the "high" setting.

I encountered such an encode back in 2018 where high 5.1 was used for an mkv and many PC media players (or external media boxes) also had issues with it

 

[Baenwort]

VLC now supports profile 5.1 (https://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc.git;a=blob;f=modules/codec/x264.c) and most media players (EMBY, JELLYFIN) also support profile 5.1 as they all use ffmpeg which supports it (PLEX is iffier as they don't have as new of a ffmpeg version as the others).

Some Chromecasts also support it (https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media) as does the Android MediaPlayer but I can't find a direct link for it.

I'm not as sure about the various MPC branches as I don't follow them.

Roku doesn't support it so would trigger transcoding.

I don't do iOS so I'm unsure what their profile support is. (Googling makes me think yes based upon (https://developer.apple.com/documen...hls_authoring_specification_for_apple_devices)

So most recent (last 5 year) devices and players should support it but older stuff may not.

 

[spicediver]

Thankyou tranzor and Baenwort - this is helpful info.

 

[krausfadr]

Since Jellyfin does not look as good as PLEX, I try to keep all my releases 100% viable for PLEX users with no transcoding necessary. If you want to go all fancy try HEVC (H265) 10-bit. But as soon as you get complicated with H264, it can cause various issues for different users. Goal should be maximum quality + compatibility.

 

[spicediver]

Since Jellyfin does not look as good as PLEX, I try to keep all my releases 100% viable for PLEX users with no transcoding necessary. If you want to go all fancy try HEVC (H265) 10-bit. But as soon as you get complicated with H264, it can cause various issues for different users. Goal should be maximum quality + compatibility.

Yes I've now settled for a Level 4.1 profile for my latest x264 encodes.

x265 10 bit I wouldn't even consider at this point.