Encoding Discussion Megathread (ffmpeg, Handbrake, AV1, etc...)

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Anyone tried or found a way to add synthetic grain to qsv AV1 encodes. It really the only thing stopping me from letting my a310 convert my entire library to av1.

Synthetic grain has really allowed me to make perfect transcodes of film media. It even helps make some purely digital media look better in small amounts.

Yeah I think that's my largest drawback right now. It's not that it can't be utilized, in fact, the AV1 QSV spec lists grain as one of the features, but it has not yet been implemented anywhere I know of. The interesting part for me is that my SVT-AV1 encodes with grain synthesis occasionally look worse (subjectively) than my QSV encodes. For example, I just encoded A Wind Named Amnesia from a remux and QSv did a fantastic job. My older, non-HD sources that I have to deinterlace (and that use grain for atmospheric purposes) suffer significantly.

It'll happen, the consumer tools just aren't there yet.

Is jellyfin-ffmpeg6 new enough to use global_quality and/or extbrc?  I have global_quality in my current script, but I never A/B/X tested whether it does anything.

I don't know the snapshot jellyfin-ffmpeg derives from, but I'm using 6.1.x snapshots to accomplish this. I would assume the Jellyfin fork is pushing through some of the major (for AV1 encoders) changes, but I haven't had a chance to test. Back before my hiatus I tried jellfin-ffmpeg6 and had no luck, but I also have discovered a number of mistakes I've made along the way. For instance, negative mapping is WAY better for encoding applications and you can map stream metadata to the end result if you wish (not just plan -map_metadata).

I'll share more as I experiment, I have a ton of remuxes I'm working through currently with the NHL on all-star break.