********************* Command Line Options ********************* .. _string-options-ref: Note that unless an option is listed as **CLI ONLY** the option is also supported by x265_param_parse(). The CLI uses getopt to parse the command line options so the short or long versions may be used and the long options may be truncated to the shortest unambiguous abbreviation. Users of the API must pass x265_param_parse() the full option name. Preset and tune have special implications. The API user must call x265_param_default_preset() with the preset and tune parameters they wish to use, prior to calling x265_param_parse() to set any additional fields. The CLI does this for the user implicitly, so all CLI options are applied after the user's preset and tune choices, regardless of the order of the arguments on the command line. If there is an extra command line argument (not an option or an option value) the CLI will treat it as the input filename. This effectively makes the :option:`--input` specifier optional for the input file. If there are two extra arguments, the second is treated as the output bitstream filename, making :option:`--output` also optional if the input filename was implied. This makes :command:`x265 in.y4m out.hevc` a valid command line. If there are more than two extra arguments, the CLI will consider this an error and abort. Generally, when an option expects a string value from a list of strings the user may specify the integer ordinal of the value they desire. ie: :option:`--log-level` 3 is equivalent to :option:`--log-level` debug. Executable Options ================== .. option:: --help, -h Displays help text **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --version, -V Displays version details in the following manner *[Version Name]+/-[Number of commits from the release changeset]-/+[repository's head changeset SHA-1 paraphrase identifier]* along with the compilation platform, build information and supported cpu capabilities. In case of release tar balls version information is partly derived from configuration file *x265Version.txt* .. seeAlso:: For more information on how to configure the version file please refer to ``_ and Contribute pages for updates specific release and version control management. **Example:** *x265 [info]: HEVC encoder version 3.4+27-'d9217cf00'* *x265 [info]: build info [Windows][MSVC 1916][64 bit] 10bit* *x265 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast LZCNT SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX FMA3 BMI2 AVX2* **CLI ONLY** Command line executable return codes:: 0. encode successful 1. unable to parse command line 2. unable to open encoder 3. unable to generate stream headers 4. encoder abort Logging/Statistic Options ========================= .. option:: --log-level Controls the level of information displayed on the console. Debug level enables per-frame QP, metric, and bitrate logging. Full level enables hash and weight logging. -1 disables all logging, except certain fatal errors, and can be specified by the string "none". 0. error 1. warning 2. info **(default)** 3. debug 4. full .. option:: --no-progress Disable periodic progress reports from the CLI **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --csv Write encoding statistics to a Comma Separated Values log file. Creates the file if it doesn't already exist. If :option:`--csv-log-level` is 0, it adds one line per run. If :option:`--csv-log-level` is greater than 0, it writes one line per frame. Default none The following statistics are available when :option:`--csv-log-level` is greater than or equal to 1: **Encode Order** The frame order in which the encoder encodes. **Type** Slice type of the frame. **POC** Picture Order Count - The display order of the frames. **QP** Quantization Parameter decided for the frame. **Bits** Number of bits consumed by the frame. **Scenecut** 1 if the frame is a scenecut, 0 otherwise. **RateFactor** Applicable only when CRF is enabled. The rate factor depends on the CRF given by the user. This is used to determine the QP so as to target a certain quality. **BufferFill** Bits available for the next frame. Includes bits carried over from the current frame. **BufferFillFinal** Buffer bits available after removing the frame out of CPB. **UnclippedBufferFillFinal** Unclipped buffer bits available after removing the frame out of CPB only used for csv logging purpose. **Latency** Latency in terms of number of frames between when the frame was given in and when the frame is given out. **PSNR** Peak signal to noise ratio for Y, U and V planes. **SSIM** A quality metric that denotes the structural similarity between frames. **Ref lists** POC of references in lists 0 and 1 for the frame. Several statistics about the encoded bitstream and encoder performance are available when :option:`--csv-log-level` is greater than or equal to 2: **I/P cost ratio:** The ratio between the cost when a frame is decided as an I frame to that when it is decided as a P frame as computed from the quarter-resolution frame in look-ahead. This, in combination with other parameters such as position of the frame in the GOP, is used to decide scene transitions. **Analysis statistics:** **CU Statistics** percentage of CU modes. **Distortion** Average luma and chroma distortion. Calculated as SSE is done on fenc and recon(after quantization). **Psy Energy** Average psy energy calculated as the sum of absolute difference between source and recon energy. Energy is measured by sa8d minus SAD. **Residual Energy** Average residual energy. SSE is calculated on fenc and pred(before quantization). **Luma/Chroma Values** minimum, maximum and average(averaged by area) luma and chroma values of source for each frame. **PU Statistics** percentage of PU modes at each depth. **Performance statistics:** **DecideWait ms** number of milliseconds the frame encoder had to wait, since the previous frame was retrieved by the API thread, before a new frame has been given to it. This is the latency introduced by slicetype decisions (lookahead). **Row0Wait ms** number of milliseconds since the frame encoder received a frame to encode before its first row of CTUs is allowed to begin compression. This is the latency introduced by reference frames making reconstructed and filtered rows available. **Wall time ms** number of milliseconds between the first CTU being ready to be compressed and the entire frame being compressed and the output NALs being completed. **Ref Wait Wall ms** number of milliseconds between the first reference row being available and the last reference row becoming available. **Total CTU time ms** the total time (measured in milliseconds) spent by worker threads compressing and filtering CTUs for this frame. **Stall Time ms** the number of milliseconds of the reported wall time that were spent with zero worker threads, aka all compression was completely stalled. **Total frame time** Total time spent to encode the frame. **Avg WPP** the average number of worker threads working on this frame, at any given time. This value is sampled at the completion of each CTU. This shows the effectiveness of Wavefront Parallel Processing. **Row Blocks** the number of times a worker thread had to abandon the row of CTUs it was encoding because the row above it was not far enough ahead for the necessary reference data to be available. This is more of a problem for P frames where some blocks are much more expensive than others. .. option:: --csv-log-level Controls the level of detail (and size) of --csv log files 0. summary **(default)** 1. frame level logging 2. frame level logging with performance statistics .. option:: --ssim, --no-ssim Calculate and report Structural Similarity values. It is recommended to use :option:`--tune` ssim if you are measuring ssim, else the results should not be used for comparison purposes. Default disabled .. option:: --psnr, --no-psnr Calculate and report Peak Signal to Noise Ratio. It is recommended to use :option:`--tune` psnr if you are measuring PSNR, else the results should not be used for comparison purposes. Default disabled Performance Options =================== .. option:: --asm , --no-asm x265 will use all detected CPU SIMD architectures by default. You can disable all assembly by using :option:`--no-asm` or you can specify a comma separated list of SIMD architectures to use, matching these strings: MMX2, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, XOP, FMA4, AVX2, FMA3 Some higher architectures imply lower ones being present, this is handled implicitly. One may also directly supply the CPU capability bitmap as an integer. Note that by specifying this option you are overriding x265's CPU detection and it is possible to do this wrong. You can cause encoder crashes by specifying SIMD architectures which are not supported on your CPU. Default: auto-detected SIMD architectures .. option:: --frame-threads, -F Number of concurrently encoded frames. Using a single frame thread gives a slight improvement in compression, since the entire reference frames are always available for motion compensation, but it has severe performance implications. Default is an autodetected count based on the number of CPU cores and whether WPP is enabled or not. Over-allocation of frame threads will not improve performance, it will generally just increase memory use. **Values:** any value between 0 and 16. Default is 0, auto-detect .. option:: --pools , --numa-pools Comma separated list of threads per NUMA node. If "none", then no worker pools are created and only frame parallelism is possible. If NULL or "" (default) x265 will use all available threads on each NUMA node:: '+' is a special value indicating all cores detected on the node '*' is a special value indicating all cores detected on the node and all remaining nodes '-' is a special value indicating no cores on the node, same as '0' example strings for a 4-node system:: "" - default, unspecified, all numa nodes are used for thread pools "*" - same as default "none" - no thread pools are created, only frame parallelism possible "-" - same as "none" "10" - allocate one pool, using up to 10 cores on all available nodes "-,+" - allocate one pool, using all cores on node 1 "+,-,+" - allocate one pool, using only cores on nodes 0 and 2 "+,-,+,-" - allocate one pool, using only cores on nodes 0 and 2 "-,*" - allocate one pool, using all cores on nodes 1, 2 and 3 "8,8,8,8" - allocate four pools with up to 8 threads in each pool "8,+,+,+" - allocate two pools, the first with 8 threads on node 0, and the second with all cores on node 1,2,3 A thread pool dedicated to a given NUMA node is enabled only when the number of threads to be created on that NUMA node is explicitly mentioned in that corresponding position with the --pools option. Else, all threads are spawned from a single pool. The total number of threads will be determined by the number of threads assigned to the enabled NUMA nodes for that pool. The worker threads are be given affinity to all the enabled NUMA nodes for that pool and may migrate between them, unless explicitly specified as described above. In the case that any threadpool has more than 64 threads, the threadpool may be broken down into multiple pools of 64 threads each; on 32-bit machines, this number is 32. All pools are given affinity to the NUMA nodes on which the original pool had affinity. For performance reasons, the last thread pool is spawned only if it has more than 32 threads for 64-bit machines, or 16 for 32-bit machines. If the total number of threads in the system doesn't obey this constraint, we may spawn fewer threads than cores which has been empirically shown to be better for performance. If the four pool features: :option:`--wpp`, :option:`--pmode`, :option:`--pme` and :option:`--lookahead-slices` are all disabled, then :option:`--pools` is ignored and no thread pools are created. If "none" is specified, then all four of the thread pool features are implicitly disabled. Frame encoders are distributed between the available thread pools, and the encoder will never generate more thread pools than :option:`--frame-threads`. The pools are used for WPP and for distributed analysis and motion search. On Windows, the native APIs offer sufficient functionality to discover the NUMA topology and enforce the thread affinity that libx265 needs (so long as you have not chosen to target XP or Vista), but on POSIX systems it relies on libnuma for this functionality. If your target POSIX system is single socket, then building without libnuma is a perfectly reasonable option, as it will have no effect on the runtime behavior. On a multiple-socket system, a POSIX build of libx265 without libnuma will be less work efficient. See :ref:`thread pools ` for more detail. Default "", one pool is created across all available NUMA nodes, with one thread allocated per detected hardware thread (logical CPU cores). In the case that the total number of threads is more than the maximum size that ATOMIC operations can handle (32 for 32-bit compiles, and 64 for 64-bit compiles), multiple thread pools may be spawned subject to the performance constraint described above. Note that the string value will need to be escaped or quoted to protect against shell expansion on many platforms .. option:: --wpp, --no-wpp Enable Wavefront Parallel Processing. The encoder may begin encoding a row as soon as the row above it is at least two CTUs ahead in the encode process. This gives a 3-5x gain in parallelism for about 1% overhead in compression efficiency. This feature is implicitly disabled when no thread pool is present. Default: Enabled .. option:: --pmode, --no-pmode Parallel mode decision, or distributed mode analysis. When enabled the encoder will distribute the analysis work of each CU (merge, inter, intra) across multiple worker threads. Only recommended if x265 is not already saturating the CPU cores. In RD levels 3 and 4 it will be most effective if --rect is enabled. At RD levels 5 and 6 there is generally always enough work to distribute to warrant the overhead, assuming your CPUs are not already saturated. --pmode will increase utilization without reducing compression efficiency. In fact, since the modes are all measured in parallel it makes certain early-outs impractical and thus you usually get slightly better compression when it is enabled (at the expense of not skipping improbable modes). This bypassing of early-outs can cause pmode to slow down encodes, especially at faster presets. This feature is implicitly disabled when no thread pool is present. Default disabled .. option:: --pme, --no-pme Parallel motion estimation. When enabled the encoder will distribute motion estimation across multiple worker threads when more than two references require motion searches for a given CU. Only recommended if x265 is not already saturating CPU cores. :option:`--pmode` is much more effective than this option, since the amount of work it distributes is substantially higher. With --pme it is not unusual for the overhead of distributing the work to outweigh the parallelism benefits. This feature is implicitly disabled when no thread pool is present. --pme will increase utilization on many core systems with no effect on the output bitstream. Default disabled .. option:: --preset, -p Sets parameters to preselected values, trading off compression efficiency against encoding speed. These parameters are applied before all other input parameters are applied, and so you can override any parameters that these values control. See :ref:`presets ` for more detail. 0. ultrafast 1. superfast 2. veryfast 3. faster 4. fast 5. medium **(default)** 6. slow 7. slower 8. veryslow 9. placebo .. option:: --tune, -t Tune the settings for a particular type of source or situation. The changes will be applied after :option:`--preset` but before all other parameters. Default none. See :ref:`tunings ` for more detail. **Values:** psnr, ssim, grain, zero-latency, fast-decode, animation. .. option:: --slices Encode each incoming frame as multiple parallel slices that may be decoded independently. Support available only for rectangular slices that cover the entire width of the image. Recommended for improving encoder performance only if frame-parallelism and WPP are unable to maximize utilization on given hardware. Default: 1 slice per frame. **Experimental feature** .. option:: --copy-pic, --no-copy-pic Allow encoder to copy input x265 pictures to internal frame buffers. When disabled, x265 will not make an internal copy of the input picture and will work with the application's buffers. While this allows for deeper integration, it is the responsibility of the application to (a) ensure that the allocated picture has extra space for padding that will be done by the library, and (b) the buffers aren't recycled until the library has completed encoding this frame (which can be figured out by tracking NALs output by x265) Default: enabled Input/Output File Options ========================= These options all describe the input video sequence or, in the case of :option:`--dither`, operations that are performed on the sequence prior to encode. All options dealing with files (names, formats, offsets or frame counts) are only applicable to the CLI application. .. option:: --input Input filename, only raw YUV or Y4M supported. Use single dash for stdin. This option name will be implied for the first "extra" command line argument. **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --y4m Parse input stream as YUV4MPEG2 regardless of file extension, primarily intended for use with stdin (ie: :option:`--input` - :option:`--y4m`). This option is implied if the input filename has a ".y4m" extension **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --input-depth YUV only: Bit-depth of input file or stream **Values:** any value between 8 and 16. Default is internal depth. **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --frames The number of frames intended to be encoded. It may be left unspecified, but when it is specified rate control can make use of this information. It is also used to determine if an encode is actually a stillpicture profile encode (single frame) .. option:: --dither Enable high quality downscaling to the encoder's internal bitdepth. Dithering is based on the diffusion of errors from one row of pixels to the next row of pixels in a picture. Only applicable when the input bit depth is larger than 8bits. Default disabled **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --input-res YUV only: Source picture size [w x h] **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --input-csp Chroma Subsampling (YUV only): Only 4:0:0(monochrome), 4:2:0, 4:2:2, and 4:4:4 are supported at this time. The chroma subsampling format of your input must match your desired output chroma subsampling format (libx265 will not perform any chroma subsampling conversion), and it must be supported by the HEVC profile you have specified. 0. i400 (4:0:0 monochrome) - Not supported by Main or Main10 profiles 1. i420 (4:2:0 default) - Supported by all HEVC profiles 2. i422 (4:2:2) - Not supported by Main, Main10 and Main12 profiles 3. i444 (4:4:4) - Supported by Main 4:4:4, Main 4:4:4 10, Main 4:4:4 12, Main 4:4:4 16 Intra profiles 4. nv12 5. nv16 .. option:: --fps YUV only: Source frame rate **Range of values:** positive int or float, or num/denom .. option:: --interlace , --no-interlace 0. progressive pictures **(default)** 1. top field first 2. bottom field first HEVC encodes interlaced content as fields. Fields must be provided to the encoder in the correct temporal order. The source dimensions must be field dimensions and the FPS must be in units of fields per second. The decoder must re-combine the fields in their correct orientation for display. .. option:: --frame-dup, --no-frame-dup Enable Adaptive Frame duplication. Replaces 2-3 near-identical frames with one frame and sets pic_struct based on frame doubling / tripling. Default disabled. .. option:: --dup-threshold Frame similarity threshold can vary between 1 and 99. This requires Adaptive Frame Duplication to be enabled. Default 70. .. option:: --seek Number of frames to skip at start of input file. Default 0 **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --frames, -f Number of frames of input sequence to be encoded. Default 0 (all) **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --output, -o Bitstream output file name. If there are two extra CLI options, the first is implicitly the input filename and the second is the output filename, making the :option:`--output` option optional. The output file will always contain a raw HEVC bitstream, the CLI does not support any container file formats. **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --output-depth, -D 8|10|12 Bitdepth of output HEVC bitstream, which is also the internal bit depth of the encoder. If the requested bit depth is not the bit depth of the linked libx265, it will attempt to bind libx265_main for an 8bit encoder, libx265_main10 for a 10bit encoder, or libx265_main12 for a 12bit encoder, with the same API version as the linked libx265. If the output depth is not specified but :option:`--profile` is specified, the output depth will be derived from the profile name. **CLI ONLY** .. option:: --chunk-start First frame of the chunk. Frames preceding this in display order will be encoded, however, they will be discarded in the bitstream. This feature can be enabled only in closed GOP structures. Default 0 (disabled). .. option:: --chunk-end Last frame of the chunk. Frames following this in display order will be used in taking lookahead decisions, but they will not be encoded. This feature can be enabled only in closed GOP structures. Default 0 (disabled). .. option:: --field, --no-field Enable or disable field coding. Default disabled. Profile, Level, Tier ==================== .. option:: --profile, -P Enforce the requirements of the specified profile, ensuring the output stream will be decodable by a decoder which supports that profile. May abort the encode if the specified profile is impossible to be supported by the compile options chosen for the encoder (a high bit depth encoder will be unable to output bitstreams compliant with Main or MainStillPicture). The following profiles are supported in x265. 8bit profiles:: * main, main-intra, mainstillpicture (or msp for short) * main444-8, main444-intra, main444-stillpicture See note below on signaling intra and stillpicture profiles. 10bit profiles:: * main10, main10-intra * main422-10, main422-10-intra * main444-10, main444-10-intra 12bit profiles:: * main12, main12-intra * main422-12, main422-12-intra * main444-12, main444-12-intra **CLI ONLY** API users must call x265_param_apply_profile() after configuring their param structure. Any changes made to the param structure after this call might make the encode non-compliant. The CLI application will derive the output bit depth from the profile name if :option:`--output-depth` is not specified. .. option:: --level-idc Minimum decoder requirement level. Defaults to 0, which implies auto-detection by the encoder. If specified, the encoder will attempt to bring the encode specifications within that specified level. If the encoder is unable to reach the level it issues a warning and aborts the encode. The requested level will be signaled in the bitstream even if it is higher than the actual level. Beware, specifying a decoder level will force the encoder to enable VBV for constant rate factor encodes, which may introduce non-determinism. The value is specified as a float or as an integer with the level times 10, for example level **5.1** is specified as "5.1" or "51", and level **5.0** is specified as "5.0" or "50". Annex A levels: 1, 2, 2.1, 3, 3.1, 4, 4.1, 5, 5.1, 5.2, 6, 6.1, 6.2, 8.5 .. option:: --high-tier, --no-high-tier If :option:`--level-idc` has been specified, --high-tier allows the support of high tier at that level. The encoder will first attempt to encode at the specified level, main tier first, turning on high tier only if necessary and available at that level. If your requested level does not support a High tier, high tier will not be supported. If --no-high-tier has been specified, then the encoder will attempt to encode only at the main tier. Default: enabled .. option:: --ref <1..16> Max number of L0 references to be allowed. This number has a linear multiplier effect on the amount of work performed in motion search but will generally have a beneficial effect on compression and distortion. Note that x265 allows up to 16 L0 references but the HEVC specification only allows a maximum of 8 total reference frames. So if you have B frames enabled only 7 L0 refs are valid and if you have :option:`--b-pyramid` enabled (which is enabled by default in all presets), then only 6 L0 refs are the maximum allowed by the HEVC specification. If x265 detects that the total reference count is greater than 8, it will issue a warning that the resulting stream is non-compliant and it signals the stream as profile NONE and level NONE and will abort the encode unless :option:`--allow-non-conformance` it specified. Compliant HEVC decoders may refuse to decode such streams. Default 3 .. option:: --allow-non-conformance, --no-allow-non-conformance Allow libx265 to generate a bitstream with profile and level NONE. By default, it will abort any encode which does not meet strict level compliance. The two most likely causes for non-conformance are :option:`--ctu` being too small, :option:`--ref` being too high, or the bitrate or resolution being out of specification. Default: disabled .. option:: --uhd-bd Enable Ultra HD Blu-ray format support. If specified with incompatible encoding options, the encoder will attempt to modify/set the right encode specifications. If the encoder is unable to do so, this option will be turned OFF. Highly experimental. Default: disabled .. note:: :option:`--profile`, :option:`--level-idc`, and :option:`--high-tier` are only intended for use when you are targeting a particular decoder (or decoders) with fixed resource limitations and must constrain the bitstream within those limits. Specifying a profile or level may lower the encode quality parameters to meet those requirements but it will never raise them. It may enable VBV constraints on a CRF encode. Also note that x265 determines the decoder requirement profile and level in three steps. First, the user configures an x265_param structure with their suggested encoder options and then optionally calls x265_param_apply_profile() to enforce a specific profile (main, main10, etc). Second, an encoder is created from this x265_param instance and the :option:`--level-idc` and :option:`--high-tier` parameters are used to reduce bitrate or other features in order to enforce the target level. The detected decoder level will only use High tier if the user specified a High tier level. The signaled profile will be determined by the encoder's internal bitdepth and input color space. If :option:`--keyint` is 0 or 1, then an intra variant of the profile will be signaled. If :option:`--total-frames` is 1, then a stillpicture variant will be signaled, but this parameter is not always set by applications, particularly not when the CLI uses stdin streaming or when libx265 is used by third-party applications. Mode decision / Analysis ======================== .. option:: --rd <1..6> Level of RDO in mode decision. The higher the value, the more exhaustive the analysis and the more rate distortion optimization is used. The lower the value the faster the encode, the higher the value the smaller the bitstream (in general). Default 3 Note that this table aims for accuracy but is not necessarily our final target behavior for each mode. +-------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Level | Description | +=======+===============================================================+ | 0 | sa8d mode and split decisions, intra w/ source pixels, | | | currently not supported | +-------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | 1 | recon generated (better intra), RDO merge/skip selection | +-------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | 2 | RDO splits and merge/skip selection | +-------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | 3 | RDO mode and split decisions, chroma residual used for sa8d | +-------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | 4 | Currently same as 3 | +-------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | 5 | Adds RDO prediction decisions | +-------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | 6 | Currently same as 5 | +-------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ **Range of values:** 1: least .. 6: full RDO analysis Options which affect the coding unit quad-tree, sometimes referred to as the prediction quad-tree. .. option:: --ctu, -s <64|32|16> Maximum CU size (width and height). The larger the maximum CU size, the more efficiently x265 can encode flat areas of the picture, giving large reductions in bitrate. However, this comes at a loss of parallelism with fewer rows of CUs that can be encoded in parallel, and less frame parallelism as well. Because of this the faster presets use a CU size of 32. Default: 64 .. option:: --min-cu-size <32|16|8> Minimum CU size (width and height). By using 16 or 32 the encoder will not analyze the cost of CUs below that minimum threshold, saving considerable amounts of compute with a predictable increase in bitrate. This setting has a large effect on performance on the faster presets. Default: 8 (minimum 8x8 CU for HEVC, best compression efficiency) .. note:: All encoders within a single process must use the same settings for the CU size range. :option:`--ctu` and :option:`--min-cu-size` must be consistent for all of them since the encoder configures several key global data structures based on this range. .. option:: --limit-refs <0|1|2|3> When set to X265_REF_LIMIT_DEPTH (1) x265 will limit the references analyzed at the current depth based on the references used to code the 4 sub-blocks at the next depth. For example, a 16x16 CU will only use the references used to code its four 8x8 CUs. When set to X265_REF_LIMIT_CU (2), the rectangular and asymmetrical partitions will only use references selected by the 2Nx2N motion search (including at the lowest depth which is otherwise unaffected by the depth limit). When set to 3 (X265_REF_LIMIT_DEPTH && X265_REF_LIMIT_CU), the 2Nx2N motion search at each depth will only use references from the split CUs and the rect/amp motion searches at that depth will only use the reference(s) selected by 2Nx2N. For all non-zero values of limit-refs, the current depth will evaluate intra mode (in inter slices), only if intra mode was chosen as the best mode for at least one of the 4 sub-blocks. You can often increase the number of references you are using (within your decoder level limits) if you enable one or both of these flags. Default 3. .. option:: --limit-modes, --no-limit-modes When enabled, limit-modes will limit modes analyzed for each CU using cost metrics from the 4 sub-CUs. When multiple inter modes like :option:`--rect` and/or :option:`--amp` are enabled, this feature will use motion cost heuristics from the 4 sub-CUs to bypass modes that are unlikely to be the best choice. This can significantly improve performance when :option:`--rect` and/or :option:`--amp` are enabled at minimal compression efficiency loss. .. option:: --rect, --no-rect Enable analysis of rectangular motion partitions Nx2N and 2NxN (50/50 splits, two directions). Default disabled .. option:: --amp, --no-amp Enable analysis of asymmetric motion partitions (75/25 splits, four directions). At RD levels 0 through 4, AMP partitions are only considered at CU sizes 32x32 and below. At RD levels 5 and 6, it will only consider AMP partitions as merge candidates (no motion search) at 64x64, and as merge or inter candidates below 64x64. The AMP partitions which are searched are derived from the current best inter partition. If Nx2N (vertical rectangular) is the best current prediction, then left and right asymmetrical splits will be evaluated. If 2NxN (horizontal rectangular) is the best current prediction, then top and bottom asymmetrical splits will be evaluated, If 2Nx2N is the best prediction, and the block is not a merge/skip, then all four AMP partitions are evaluated. This setting has no effect if rectangular partitions are disabled. Default disabled .. option:: --early-skip, --no-early-skip Measure 2Nx2N merge candidates first; if no residual is found, additional modes at that depth are not analysed. Default disabled .. option:: --rskip <0|1|2> This option determines early exit from CU depth recursion in modes 1 and 2. When a skip CU is found, additional heuristics (depending on the RD level and rskip mode) are used to decide whether to terminate recursion. The following table summarizes the behavior. +----------+------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+ | RD Level | Rskip Mode | Skip Recursion Heuristic | +==========+============+================================================================+ | 0 - 4 | 1 | Neighbour costs and CU homogenity. | +----------+------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+ | 5 - 6 | 1 | Comparison with inter2Nx2N. | +----------+------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+ | 0 - 6 | 2 | CU edge density. | +----------+------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+ Provides minimal quality degradation at good performance gains for non-zero modes. :option:`--rskip mode 0` means disabled. Default: 1, disabled when :option:`--tune grain` is used. .. option:: --rskip-edge-threshold <0..100> Denotes the minimum expected edge-density percentage within the CU, below which the recursion is skipped. Internally normalized to decimal value in x265 library. Recommended low thresholds for slow encodes and high for fast encodes. Default: 5, requires :option:`--rskip mode 2` to be enabled. .. option:: --splitrd-skip, --no-splitrd-skip Enable skipping split RD analysis when sum of split CU rdCost larger than one split CU rdCost for Intra CU. Default disabled. .. option:: --fast-intra, --no-fast-intra Perform an initial scan of every fifth intra angular mode, then check modes +/- 2 distance from the best mode, then +/- 1 distance from the best mode, effectively performing a gradient descent. When enabled 10 modes in total are checked. When disabled all 33 angular modes are checked. Only applicable for :option:`--rd` levels 4 and below (medium preset and faster). .. option:: --b-intra, --no-b-intra Enables the evaluation of intra modes in B slices. Default disabled. .. option:: --cu-lossless, --no-cu-lossless For each CU, evaluate lossless (transform and quant bypass) encode of the best non-lossless mode option as a potential rate distortion optimization. If the global option :option:`--lossless` has been specified, all CUs will be encoded as lossless unconditionally regardless of whether this option was enabled. Default disabled. Only effective at RD levels 3 and above, which perform RDO mode decisions. .. option:: --tskip-fast, --no-tskip-fast Only evaluate transform skip for NxN intra predictions (4x4 blocks). Only applicable if transform skip is enabled. For chroma, only evaluate if luma used tskip. Inter block tskip analysis is unmodified. Default disabled .. option:: --rd-refine, --no-rd-refine For each analysed CU, calculate R-D cost on the best partition mode for a range of QP values, to find the optimal rounding effect. Default disabled. Only effective at RD levels 5 and 6 Analysis re-use options, to improve performance when encoding the same sequence multiple times (presumably at varying bitrates). The encoder will not reuse analysis if slice type parameters do not match. .. option:: --analysis-save Encoder outputs analysis information of each frame. Analysis data from save mode is written to the file specified. Requires cutree, pmode to be off. Default disabled. The amount of analysis data stored is determined by :option:`--analysis-save-reuse-level`. .. option:: --analysis-load Encoder reuses analysis information from the file specified. By reading the analysis data written by an earlier encode of the same sequence, substantial redundant work may be avoided. Requires cutree, pmode to be off. Default disabled. The amount of analysis data reused is determined by :option:`--analysis-load-reuse-level`. .. option:: --analysis-reuse-file Specify a filename for :option:`--multi-pass-opt-analysis` and option:`--multi-pass-opt-distortion`. If no filename is specified, x265_analysis.dat is used. .. option:: --analysis-save-reuse-level <1..10>, --analysis-load-reuse-level <1..10> 'analysis-save-reuse-level' denotes the amount of information stored during :option:`--analysis-save` and 'analysis-load-reuse-level' denotes the amount of information reused during :option:`--analysis-load`. Higher the value, higher the information stored/reused, faster the encode. Default 0. If not set during analysis-save/load, the encoder will internally configure them to 5. Note that :option:`--analysis-save-reuse-level` and :option:`--analysis-load-reuse-level` must be paired with :option:`--analysis-save` and :option:`--analysis-load` respectively. +--------------+---------------------------------------------------+ | Level | Description | +==============+===================================================+ | 1 | Lookahead information | +--------------+---------------------------------------------------+ | 2 to 4 | Level 1 + intra/inter modes, depth, ref's, cutree | +--------------+---------------------------------------------------+ | 5 and 6 | Level 2 + rect-amp | +--------------+---------------------------------------------------+ | 7 | Level 5 + AVC size CU refinement | +--------------+---------------------------------------------------+ | 8 and 9 | Level 5 + AVC size Full CU analysis-info | +--------------+---------------------------------------------------+ | 10 | Level 5 + Full CU analysis-info | +--------------+---------------------------------------------------+ .. option:: --refine-mv-type Reuse MV information received through API call. Currently receives information for AVC size and the accepted string input is "avc". Default is disabled. .. option:: --refine-ctu-distortion <0/1> Store/normalize ctu distortion in analysis-save/load. 0 - Disabled. 1 - Save ctu distortion to the analysis file specified during :option:`--analysis-save`. - Load CTU distortion from the analysis file and normalize it across every frame during :option:`--analysis-load`. Default 0. .. option:: --scale-factor Factor by which input video is scaled down for analysis save mode. This option should be coupled with :option:`--analysis-load`/:option:`--analysis-save` at reuse levels 1 to 6 and 10. The ctu size of load can either be the same as that of save or double the size of save. Default 0. .. option:: --refine-intra <0..4> Enables refinement of intra blocks in current encode. Level 0 - Forces both mode and depth from the save encode. Level 1 - Evaluates all intra modes at current depth(n) and at depth (n+1) when current block size is one greater than the min-cu-size. Forces modes for larger blocks. Level 2 - In addition to the functionality of level 1, at all depths, force (a) only depth when angular mode is chosen by the save encode. (b) depth and mode when other intra modes are chosen by the save encode. Level 3 - Perform analysis of intra modes for depth reused from first encode. Level 4 - Does not reuse any analysis information - redo analysis for the intra block. Default 0. .. option:: --refine-inter <0..3> Enables refinement of inter blocks in current encode. Level 0 - Forces both mode and depth from the save encode. Level 1 - Evaluates all inter modes at current depth(n) and at depth (n+1) when current block size is one greater than the min-cu-size. Forces modes for larger blocks. Level 2 - In addition to the functionality of level 1, restricts the modes evaluated when specific modes are decided as the best mode by the save encode. 2nx2n in save encode - disable re-evaluation of rect and amp. skip in save encode - re-evaluates only skip, merge and 2nx2n modes. Level 3 - Perform analysis of inter modes while reusing depths from the save encode. Default 0. .. option:: --dynamic-refine, --no-dynamic-refine Dynamically switches :option:`--refine-inter` levels 0-3 based on the content and the encoder settings. It is recommended to use :option:`--refine-intra` 4 with dynamic refinement. Default disabled. .. option:: --refine-mv <1..3> Enables refinement of motion vector for scaled video. Evaluates the best motion vector based on the level selected. Default 1. Level 1 - Search around scaled MV. Level 2 - Level 1 + Search around best AMVP cand. Level 3 - Level 2 + Search around the other AMVP cand. Options which affect the transform unit quad-tree, sometimes referred to as the residual quad-tree (RQT). .. option:: --rdoq-level <0|1|2>, --no-rdoq-level Specify the amount of rate-distortion analysis to use within quantization:: At level 0 rate-distortion cost is not considered in quant. At level 1 rate-distortion cost is used to find optimal rounding values for each level (and allows psy-rdoq to be effective). It trades-off the signaling cost of the coefficient vs its post-inverse quant distortion from the pre-quant coefficient. When :option:`--psy-rdoq` is enabled, this formula is biased in favor of more energy in the residual (larger coefficient absolute levels). At level 2 rate-distortion cost is used to make decimate decisions on each 4x4 coding group, including the cost of signaling the group within the group bitmap. If the total distortion of not signaling the entire coding group is less than the rate cost, the block is decimated. Next, it applies rate-distortion cost analysis to the last non-zero coefficient, which can result in many (or all) of the coding groups being decimated. Psy-rdoq is less effective at preserving energy when RDOQ is at level 2, since it only has influence over the level distortion costs. .. option:: --tu-intra-depth <1..4> The transform unit (residual) quad-tree begins with the same depth as the coding unit quad-tree, but the encoder may decide to further split the transform unit tree if it improves compression efficiency. This setting limits the number of extra recursion depth which can be attempted for intra coded units. Default: 1, which means the residual quad-tree is always at the same depth as the coded unit quad-tree Note that when the CU intra prediction is NxN (only possible with 8x8 CUs), a TU split is implied, and thus the residual quad-tree begins at 4x4 and cannot split any further. .. option:: --tu-inter-depth <1..4> The transform unit (residual) quad-tree begins with the same depth as the coding unit quad-tree, but the encoder may decide to further split the transform unit tree if it improves compression efficiency. This setting limits the number of extra recursion depth which can be attempted for inter coded units. Default: 1. which means the residual quad-tree is always at the same depth as the coded unit quad-tree unless the CU was coded with rectangular or AMP partitions, in which case a TU split is implied and thus the residual quad-tree begins one layer below the CU quad-tree. .. option:: --limit-tu <0..4> Enables early exit from TU depth recursion, for inter coded blocks. Level 1 - decides to recurse to next higher depth based on cost comparison of full-size TU and split TU. Level 2 - based on first split subTU's depth, limits recursion of other split subTUs. Level 3 - based on the average depth of the co-located and the neighbor CUs' TU depth, limits recursion of the current CU. Level 4 - uses the depth of the neighboring/ co-located CUs TU depth to limit the 1st subTU depth. The 1st subTU depth is taken as the limiting depth for the other subTUs. Enabling levels 3 or 4 may cause a mismatch in the output bitstreams between :option:`--analysis-save` and :option:`--analysis-load` as all neighboring CUs TU depth may not be available in the :option:`--analysis-load` run as only the best mode's information is available to it. Default: 0 .. option:: --nr-intra , --nr-inter Noise reduction - an adaptive deadzone applied after DCT (subtracting from DCT coefficients), before quantization. It does no pixel-level filtering, doesn't cross DCT block boundaries, has no overlap, The higher the strength value parameter, the more aggressively it will reduce noise. Enabling noise reduction will make outputs diverge between different numbers of frame threads. Outputs will be deterministic but the outputs of -F2 will no longer match the outputs of -F3, etc. **Values:** any value in range of 0 to 2000. Default 0 (disabled). .. option:: --tskip, --no-tskip Enable evaluation of transform skip (bypass DCT but still use quantization) coding for 4x4 TU coded blocks. Only effective at RD levels 3 and above, which perform RDO mode decisions. Default disabled .. option:: --rdpenalty <0..2> When set to 1, transform units of size 32x32 are given a 4x bit cost penalty compared to smaller transform units, in intra coded CUs in P or B slices. When set to 2, transform units of size 32x32 are not even attempted, unless otherwise required by the maximum recursion depth. For this option to be effective with 32x32 intra CUs, :option:`--tu-intra-depth` must be at least 2. For it to be effective with 64x64 intra CUs, :option:`--tu-intra-depth` must be at least 3. Note that in HEVC an intra transform unit (a block of the residual quad-tree) is also a prediction unit, meaning that the intra prediction signal is generated for each TU block, the residual subtracted and then coded. The coding unit simply provides the prediction modes that will be used when predicting all of the transform units within the CU. This means that when you prevent 32x32 intra transform units, you are preventing 32x32 intra predictions. Default 0, disabled. **Values:** 0:disabled 1:4x cost penalty 2:force splits .. option:: --max-tu-size <32|16|8|4> Maximum TU size (width and height). The residual can be more efficiently compressed by the DCT transform when the max TU size is larger, but at the expense of more computation. Transform unit quad-tree begins at the same depth of the coded tree unit, but if the maximum TU size is smaller than the CU size then transform QT begins at the depth of the max-tu-size. Default: 32. .. option:: --dynamic-rd <0..4> Increases the RD level at points where quality drops due to VBV rate control enforcement. The number of CUs for which the RD is reconfigured is determined based on the strength. Strength 1 gives the best FPS, strength 4 gives the best SSIM. Strength 0 switches this feature off. Default: 0. Effective for RD levels 4 and below. .. option:: --ssim-rd, --no-ssim-rd Enable/Disable SSIM RDO. SSIM is a better perceptual quality assessment method as compared to MSE. SSIM based RDO calculation is based on residual divisive normalization scheme. This normalization is consistent with the luminance and contrast masking effect of Human Visual System. It is used for mode selection during analysis of CTUs and can achieve significant gain in terms of objective quality metrics SSIM and PSNR. It only has effect on presets which use RDO-based mode decisions (:option:`--rd` 3 and above). Temporal / motion search options ================================ .. option:: --max-merge <1..5> Maximum number of neighbor (spatial and temporal) candidate blocks that the encoder may consider for merging motion predictions. If a merge candidate results in no residual, it is immediately selected as a "skip". Otherwise the merge candidates are tested as part of motion estimation when searching for the least cost inter option. The max candidate number is encoded in the SPS and determines the bit cost of signaling merge CUs. Default 2 .. option:: --me Motion search method. Generally, the higher the number the harder the ME method will try to find an optimal match. Diamond search is the simplest. Hexagon search is a little better. Uneven Multi-Hexagon is an adaption of the search method used by x264 for slower presets. Star is a three-step search adapted from the HM encoder: a star-pattern search followed by an optional radix scan followed by an optional star-search refinement. Full is an exhaustive search; an order of magnitude slower than all other searches but not much better than umh or star. SEA is similar to x264's ESA implementation and a speed optimization of full search. It is a three-step motion search where the DC calculation is followed by ADS calculation followed by SAD of the passed motion vector candidates. 0. dia 1. hex **(default)** 2. umh 3. star 4. sea 5. full .. option:: --subme, -m <0..7> Amount of subpel refinement to perform. The higher the number the more subpel iterations and steps are performed. Default 2 +----+------------+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+ | -m | HPEL iters | HPEL dirs | QPEL iters | QPEL dirs | HPEL SATD | +====+============+===========+============+===========+===========+ | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 4 | false | +----+------------+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+ | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | false | +----+------------+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+ | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | true | +----+------------+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+ | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | true | +----+------------+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+ | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | true | +----+------------+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+ | 5 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 8 | true | +----+------------+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+ | 6 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 8 | true | +----+------------+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+ | 7 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 8 | true | +----+------------+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+ At --subme values larger than 2, chroma residual cost is included in all subpel refinement steps and chroma residual is included in all motion estimation decisions (selecting the best reference picture in each list, and choosing between merge, uni-directional motion and bi-directional motion). The 'slow' preset is the first preset to enable the use of chroma residual. .. option:: --merange Motion search range. Default 57 The default is derived from the default CTU size (64) minus the luma interpolation half-length (4) minus maximum subpel distance (2) minus one extra pixel just in case the hex search method is used. If the search range were any larger than this, another CTU row of latency would be required for reference frames. **Range of values:** an integer from 0 to 32768 .. option:: --temporal-mvp, --no-temporal-mvp Enable temporal motion vector predictors in P and B slices. This enables the use of the motion vector from the collocated block in the previous frame to be used as a predictor. Default is enabled .. option:: --weightp, -w, --no-weightp Enable weighted prediction in P slices. This enables weighting analysis in the lookahead, which influences slice decisions, and enables weighting analysis in the main encoder which allows P reference samples to have a weight function applied to them prior to using them for motion compensation. In video which has lighting changes, it can give a large improvement in compression efficiency. Default is enabled .. option:: --weightb, --no-weightb Enable weighted prediction in B slices. Default disabled .. option:: --analyze-src-pics, --no-analyze-src-pics Enable motion estimation with source frame pixels, in this mode, motion estimation can be computed independently. Default disabled. .. option:: --hme, --no-hme Enable 3-level Hierarchical motion estimation at One-Sixteenth, Quarter and Full resolution. Default disabled. .. option:: --hme-search ,, Motion search method for HME Level 0, 1 and 2. Refer to :option:`--me` for values. Specify search method for each level. Alternatively, specify a single value which will apply to all levels. Default is hex,umh,umh for levels 0,1,2 respectively. .. option:: --hme-range ,, Search range for HME level 0, 1 and 2. The Search Range for each HME level must be between 0 and 32768(excluding). Default search range is 16,32,48 for level 0,1,2 respectively. .. option:: --mcstf, --no-mcstf Motion-compensated spatio-temporal filtering (MCSTF) improves the compression efficiency of videos that contain a high level of noise. It introduces a temporal filter before encoding and this filter is applied only to the I- and P-frames. It utilizes previously generated motion vectors across different video content resolutions to find the best temporal correspondence for low-pass filtering. Here, motion estimation is applied between the central picture and each future or past picture, thereby generating multiple motion-compensated predictions, which are then combined by using adaptive filtering to produce a final noise-reduced picture. Default: disabled Spatial/intra options ===================== .. option:: --strong-intra-smoothing, --no-strong-intra-smoothing Enable strong intra smoothing for 32x32 intra blocks. This flag performs bi-linear interpolation of the corner reference samples for a strong smoothing effect. The purpose is to prevent blocking or banding artifacts in regions with few/zero AC coefficients. Default enabled .. option:: --constrained-intra, --no-constrained-intra Constrained intra prediction. When generating intra predictions for blocks in inter slices, only intra-coded reference pixels are used. Inter-coded reference pixels are replaced with intra-coded neighbor pixels or default values. The general idea is to block the propagation of reference errors that may have resulted from lossy signals. Default disabled Psycho-visual options ===================== Left to its own devices, the encoder will make mode decisions based on a simple rate distortion formula, trading distortion for bitrate. This is generally effective except for the manner in which this distortion is measured. It tends to favor blurred reconstructed blocks over blocks which have wrong motion. The human eye generally prefers the wrong motion over the blur and thus x265 offers psycho-visual adjustments to the rate distortion algorithm. :option:`--psy-rd` will add an extra cost to reconstructed blocks which do not match the visual energy of the source block. The higher the strength of :option:`--psy-rd` the more strongly it will favor similar energy over blur and the more aggressively it will ignore rate distortion. If it is too high, it will introduce visual artifacts and increase bitrate enough for rate control to increase quantization globally, reducing overall quality. psy-rd will tend to reduce the use of blurred prediction modes, like DC and planar intra and bi-directional inter prediction. :option:`--psy-rdoq` will adjust the distortion cost used in rate-distortion optimized quantization (RDO quant), enabled by :option:`--rdoq-level` 1 or 2, favoring the preservation of energy in the reconstructed image. :option:`--psy-rdoq` prevents RDOQ from blurring all of the encoding options which psy-rd has to choose from. At low strength levels, psy-rdoq will influence the quantization level decisions, favoring higher AC energy in the reconstructed image. As psy-rdoq strength is increased, more non-zero coefficient levels are added, and fewer coefficients are zeroed by RDOQ's rate distortion analysis. High levels of psy-rdoq can double the bitrate which can have a drastic effect on rate control, forcing higher overall QP, and can cause ringing artifacts. psy-rdoq is less accurate than psy-rd, it is biasing towards energy in general while psy-rd biases towards the energy of the source image. But very large psy-rdoq values can sometimes be beneficial. As a general rule, when both psycho-visual features are disabled, the encoder will tend to blur blocks in areas of difficult motion. Turning on small amounts of psy-rd and psy-rdoq will improve the perceived visual quality. Increasing psycho-visual strength further will improve quality and begin introducing artifacts and increase bitrate, which may force rate control to increase global QP. Finding the optimal psycho-visual parameters for a given video requires experimentation. Our recommended defaults (1.0 for both) are generally on the low end of the spectrum. The lower the bitrate, the lower the optimal psycho-visual settings. If the bitrate is too low for the psycho-visual settings, you will begin to see temporal artifacts (motion judder). This is caused when the encoder is forced to code skip blocks (no residual) in areas of difficult motion because it is the best option psycho-visually (they have great amounts of energy and no residual cost). One can lower psy-rd settings when judder is happening and allow the encoder to use some blur in these areas of high motion. In 444, chroma gets twice as much resolution, so halve the quality when psy-rd is enabled. So, when psy-rd is enabled for 444 videos, cbQpOffset and crQpOffset are set to value 6, if they are not explicitly set. .. option:: --psy-rd Influence rate distortion optimized mode decision to preserve the energy of the source image in the encoded image at the expense of compression efficiency. It only has effect on presets which use RDO-based mode decisions (:option:`--rd` 3 and above). 1.0 is a typical value. Default 2.0 **Range of values:** 0 .. 5.0 .. option:: --psy-rdoq Influence rate distortion optimized quantization by favoring higher energy in the reconstructed image. This generally improves perceived visual quality at the cost of lower quality metric scores. It only has effect when :option:`--rdoq-level` is 1 or 2. High values can be beneficial in preserving high-frequency detail. Default: 0.0 (1.0 for presets slow, slower, veryslow) **Range of values:** 0 .. 50.0 Slice decision options ====================== .. option:: --open-gop, --no-open-gop Enable open GOP, allow I-slices to be non-IDR. Default enabled .. option:: --keyint, -I Max intra period in frames. A special case of infinite-gop (single keyframe at the beginning of the stream) can be triggered with argument -1. Use 1 to force all-intra. When intra-refresh is enabled it specifies the interval between which refresh sweeps happen. Default 250 .. option:: --min-keyint, -i Minimum GOP size. Scenecuts beyond this interval are coded as IDR and start a new keyframe, while scenecuts closer together are coded as I or P. For fixed keyframe interval, set value to be equal to keyint. **Range of values:** >=0 (0: auto) .. option:: --scenecut , --no-scenecut How aggressively I-frames need to be inserted. The higher the threshold value, the more aggressive the I-frame placement. :option:`--scenecut` 0 or :option:`--no-scenecut` disables adaptive I frame placement. Default 40 .. option:: --scenecut-bias <0..100.0> This value represents the percentage difference between the inter cost and intra cost of a frame used in scenecut detection. For example, a value of 5 indicates, if the inter cost of a frame is greater than or equal to 95 percent of the intra cost of the frame, then detect this frame as scenecut. Values between 5 and 15 are recommended. Default 5. .. option:: --hist-scenecut, --no-hist-scenecut Scenecuts detected based on histogram, intensity and variance of the picture. :option:`--hist-scenecut` enables or :option:`--no-hist-scenecut` disables scenecut detection based on histogram. .. option:: --radl Number of RADL pictures allowed infront of IDR. Requires closed gop interval. If enabled for fixed keyframe interval, inserts RADL at every IDR. If enabled for closed gop interval, in case of :option:`--hist-scenecut` inserts RADL at every hard scenecut whereas for the :option:`--scenecut`, inserts RADL at every scenecut. Recommended value is 2-3. Default 0 (disabled). **Range of values:** Between 0 and `--bframes` .. option:: --ctu-info <0, 1, 2, 4, 6> This value enables receiving CTU information asynchronously and determine reaction to the CTU information. Default 0. 1: force the partitions if CTU information is present. 2: functionality of (1) and reduce qp if CTU information has changed. 4: functionality of (1) and force Inter modes when CTU Information has changed, merge/skip otherwise. This option should be enabled only when planning to invoke the API function x265_encoder_ctu_info to copy ctu-info asynchronously. If enabled without calling the API function, the encoder will wait indefinitely. .. option:: --intra-refresh Enables Periodic Intra Refresh(PIR) instead of keyframe insertion. PIR can replace keyframes by inserting a column of intra blocks in non-keyframes, that move across the video from one side to the other and thereby refresh the image but over a period of multiple frames instead of a single keyframe. .. option:: --rc-lookahead Number of frames for slice-type decision lookahead (a key determining factor for encoder latency). The longer the lookahead buffer the more accurate scenecut decisions will be, and the more effective cutree will be at improving adaptive quant. Having a lookahead larger than the max keyframe interval is not helpful. Default 20 **Range of values:** Between the maximum consecutive bframe count (:option:`--bframes`) and 250 .. option:: --gop-lookahead Number of frames for GOP boundary decision lookahead. If a scenecut frame is found within this from the gop boundary set by `--keyint`, the GOP will be extended until such a point, otherwise the GOP will be terminated as set by `--keyint`. Default 0. **Range of values:** Between 0 and (`--rc-lookahead` - mini-GOP length) It is recommended to have `--gop-lookahaed` less than `--min-keyint` as scenecuts beyond `--min-keyint` are already being coded as keyframes. .. option:: --lookahead-slices <0..16> Use multiple worker threads to measure the estimated cost of each frame within the lookahead. The frame is divided into the specified number of slices, and one-thread is launched per slice. When :option:`--b-adapt` is 2, most frame cost estimates will be performed in batch mode (many cost estimates at the same time) and lookahead-slices is ignored for batched estimates; it may still be used for single cost estimations. The higher this parameter, the less accurate the frame costs will be (since context is lost across slice boundaries) which will result in less accurate B-frame and scene-cut decisions. The effect on performance can be significant especially on systems with many threads. The encoder may internally lower the number of slices or disable slicing to ensure each slice codes at least 10 16x16 rows of lowres blocks to minimize the impact on quality. For example, for 720p and 1080p videos, the number of slices is capped to 4 and 6, respectively. For resolutions lesser than 720p, slicing is auto-disabled. If slices are used in lookahead, they are logged in the list of tools as *lslices* **Values:** 0 - disabled. 1 is the same as 0. Max 16. Default: 8 for ultrafast, superfast, faster, fast, medium; 4 for slow, slower; disabled for veryslow, slower. .. option:: --lookahead-threads Use multiple worker threads dedicated to doing only lookahead instead of sharing the worker threads with frame Encoders. A dedicated lookahead threadpool is created with the specified number of worker threads. This can range from 0 upto half the hardware threads available for encoding. Using too many threads for lookahead can starve resources for frame Encoder and can harm performance. Default is 0 - disabled, Lookahead shares worker threads with other FrameEncoders . **Values:** 0 - disabled(default). Max - Half of available hardware threads. .. option:: --b-adapt Set the level of effort in determining B frame placement. With b-adapt 0, the GOP structure is fixed based on the values of :option:`--keyint` and :option:`--bframes`. With b-adapt 1 a light lookahead is used to choose B frame placement. With b-adapt 2 (trellis) a viterbi B path selection is performed **Values:** 0:none; 1:fast; 2:full(trellis) **default** .. option:: --bframes, -b <0..16> Maximum number of consecutive b-frames. Use :option:`--bframes` 0 to force all P/I low-latency encodes. Default 4. This parameter has a quadratic effect on the amount of memory allocated and the amount of work performed by the full trellis version of :option:`--b-adapt` lookahead. .. option:: --bframe-bias Bias towards B frames in slicetype decision. The higher the bias the more likely x265 is to use B frames. Can be any value between -90 and 100 and is clipped to that range. Default 0 .. option:: --b-pyramid, --no-b-pyramid Use B-frames as references, when possible. Default enabled .. option:: --force-flush Force the encoder to flush frames. Default is 0. Values: 0 - flush the encoder only when all the input pictures are over. 1 - flush all the frames even when the input is not over. Slicetype decision may change with this option. 2 - flush the slicetype decided frames only. .. option:: --fades, --no-fades Detect and handle fade-in regions. Default disabled. .. option:: --cra-nal Force NAL type to CRA to all the frames expect for the first frame, works only with :option:`--keyint` is 1. Quality, rate control and rate distortion options ================================================= .. option:: --bitrate Enables single-pass ABR rate control. Specify the target bitrate in kbps. Default is 0 (CRF) **Range of values:** An integer greater than 0 .. option:: --crf <0..51.0> Quality-controlled variable bitrate. CRF is the default rate control method; it does not try to reach any particular bitrate target, instead it tries to achieve a given uniform quality and the size of the bitstream is determined by the complexity of the source video. The higher the rate factor the higher the quantization and the lower the quality. Default rate factor is 28.0. .. option:: --crf-max <0..51.0> Specify an upper limit to the rate factor which may be assigned to any given frame (ensuring a max QP). This is dangerous when CRF is used in combination with VBV as it may result in buffer underruns. Default disabled .. option:: --crf-min <0..51.0> Specify a lower limit to the rate factor which may be assigned to any given frame (ensuring a min compression factor). .. option:: --vbv-bufsize Specify the size of the VBV buffer (kbits). Enables VBV in ABR mode. In CRF mode, :option:`--vbv-maxrate` must also be specified. Default 0 (vbv disabled) .. option:: --vbv-maxrate Maximum local bitrate (kbits/sec). Will be used only if vbv-bufsize is also non-zero. Both vbv-bufsize and vbv-maxrate are required to enable VBV in CRF mode. Default 0 (disabled) Note that when VBV is enabled (with a valid :option:`--vbv-bufsize`), VBV emergency denoising is turned on. This will turn on aggressive denoising at the frame level when frame QP > QP_MAX_SPEC (51), drastically reducing bitrate and allowing ratecontrol to assign lower QPs for the following frames. The visual effect is blurring, but removes significant blocking/displacement artifacts. .. option:: --vbv-init Initial buffer occupancy. The portion of the decode buffer which must be full before the decoder will begin decoding. Determines absolute maximum frame size. May be specified as a fractional value between 0 and 1, or in kbits. In other words, these two option pairs are equivalent:: --vbv-bufsize 1000 --vbv-init 900 --vbv-bufsize 1000 --vbv-init 0.9 Default 0.9 **Range of values:** fractional: 0 - 1.0, or kbits: 2 .. bufsize .. option:: --vbv-end Final buffer fullness. The portion of the decode buffer that must be full after all the specified frames have been inserted into the decode buffer. Specified as a fractional value between 0 and 1, or in kbits. Default 0 (disabled) This enables basic support for chunk-parallel encoding where each segment can specify the starting and ending state of the VBV buffer so that VBV compliance can be maintained when chunks are independently encoded and stitched together. .. option:: --vbv-end-fr-adj Frame from which qp has to be adjusted to achieve final decode buffer fullness. Specified as a fraction of the total frames. Fractions > 0 are supported only when the total number of frames is known. Default 0. .. option:: --min-vbv-fullness Minimum VBV fullness percentage to be maintained. Specified as a fractional value ranging between 0 and 100. Default 50 i.e, Tries to keep the buffer at least 50% full at any point in time. Decreasing the minimum required fullness shall improve the compression efficiency, but is expected to affect VBV conformance. Experimental option. .. option:: --max-vbv-fullness Maximum VBV fullness percentage to be maintained. Specified as a fractional value ranging between 0 and 100. Default 80 i.e Tries to keep the buffer at max 80% full at any point in time. Increasing the minimum required fullness shall improve the compression efficiency, but is expected to affect VBV conformance. Experimental option. .. option:: --qp, -q Specify base quantization parameter for Constant QP rate control. Using this option enables Constant QP rate control. The specified QP is assigned to P slices. I and B slices are given QPs relative to P slices using param->rc.ipFactor and param->rc.pbFactor unless QP 0 is specified, in which case QP 0 is used for all slice types. Note that QP 0 does not cause lossless encoding, it only disables quantization. Default disabled. **Range of values:** an integer from 0 to 51 .. option:: --lossless, --no-lossless Enables true lossless coding by bypassing scaling, transform, quantization and in-loop filter processes. This is used for ultra-high bitrates with zero loss of quality. Reconstructed output pictures are bit-exact to the input pictures. Lossless encodes implicitly have no rate control, all rate control options are ignored. Slower presets will generally achieve better compression efficiency (and generate smaller bitstreams). Default disabled. .. option:: --aq-mode <0|1|2|3|4> Adaptive Quantization operating mode. Raise or lower per-block quantization based on complexity analysis of the source image. The more complex the block, the more quantization is used. These offsets the tendency of the encoder to spend too many bits on complex areas and not enough in flat areas. 0. disabled 1. AQ enabled 2. AQ enabled with auto-variance **(default)** 3. AQ enabled with auto-variance and bias to dark scenes. This is recommended for 8-bit encodes or low-bitrate 10-bit encodes, to prevent color banding/blocking. 4. AQ enabled with auto-variance and edge information. .. option:: --aq-strength Adjust the strength of the adaptive quantization offsets. Setting :option:`--aq-strength` to 0 disables AQ. At aq-modes 2 and 3, high aq-strengths will lead to high QP offsets resulting in a large difference in achieved bitrates. Default 1.0. **Range of values:** 0.0 to 3.0 .. option:: --sbrc, --no-sbrc To enable and disable segment-based rate control. SBRC controls the overflow with segment sizes, and it is based on the Capped CRF mode. Segment duration depends on the keyframe interval specified. If unspecified, the default keyframe interval will be used. Default: disabled. **Experimental Feature** .. option:: --hevc-aq Enable adaptive quantization It scales the quantization step size according to the spatial activity of one coding unit relative to frame average spatial activity. This AQ method utilizes the minimum variance of sub-unit in each coding unit to represent the spatial complexity of the coding unit. .. option:: --qp-adaptation-range Delta-QP range by QP adaptation based on a psycho-visual model. Default 1.0. **Range of values:** 1.0 to 6.0 .. option:: --aq-motion, --no-aq-motion Adjust the AQ offsets based on the relative motion of each block with respect to the motion of the frame. The more the relative motion of the block, the more quantization is used. Default disabled. **Experimental Feature** .. option:: --qg-size <64|32|16|8> Enable adaptive quantization for sub-CTUs. This parameter specifies the minimum CU size at which QP can be adjusted, ie. Quantization Group size. Allowed range of values are 64, 32, 16, 8 provided this falls within the inclusive range [maxCUSize, minCUSize]. Default: same as maxCUSize .. option:: --cutree, --no-cutree Enable the use of lookahead's lowres motion vector fields to determine the amount of reuse of each block to tune adaptive quantization factors. CU blocks which are heavily reused as motion reference for later frames are given a lower QP (more bits) while CU blocks which are quickly changed and are not referenced are given less bits. This tends to improve detail in the backgrounds of video with less detail in areas of high motion. Default enabled .. option:: --pass Enable multi-pass rate control mode. Input is encoded multiple times, storing the encoded information of each pass in a stats file from which the consecutive pass tunes the qp of each frame to improve the quality of the output. Default disabled 1. First pass, creates stats file 2. Last pass, does not overwrite stats file 3. Nth pass, overwrites stats file **Range of values:** 1 to 3 .. option:: --stats Specify file name of of the multi-pass stats file. If unspecified the encoder will use x265_2pass.log .. option:: --slow-firstpass, --no-slow-firstpass Enable first pass encode with the exact settings specified. The quality in subsequent multi-pass encodes is better (compared to first pass) when the settings match across each pass. Default enabled. When slow first pass is disabled, a **turbo** encode with the following go-fast options is used to improve performance: * :option:`--fast-intra` * :option:`--no-rect` * :option:`--no-amp` * :option:`--early-skip` * :option:`--ref` = 1 * :option:`--max-merge` = 1 * :option:`--me` = DIA * :option:`--subme` = MIN(2, :option:`--subme`) * :option:`--rd` = MIN(2, :option:`--rd`) .. option:: --multi-pass-opt-analysis, --no-multi-pass-opt-analysis Enable/Disable multipass analysis refinement along with multipass ratecontrol. Based on the information stored in pass 1, in subsequent passes analysis data is refined and also redundant steps are skipped. In pass 1 analysis information like motion vector, depth, reference and prediction modes of the final best CTU partition is stored for each CTU. Multipass analysis refinement cannot be enabled when :option:`--analysis-save`/:option:`--analysis-load` is enabled and both will be disabled when enabled together. This feature requires :option:`--pmode`/:option:`--pme` to be disabled and hence pmode/pme will be disabled when enabled at the same time. Default: disabled. .. option:: --multi-pass-opt-distortion, --no-multi-pass-opt-distortion Enable/Disable multipass refinement of qp based on distortion data along with multipass ratecontrol. In pass 1 distortion of best CTU partition is stored. CTUs with high distortion get lower(negative)qp offsets and vice-versa for low distortion CTUs in pass 2. This helps to improve the subjective quality. Multipass refinement of qp cannot be enabled when :option:`--analysis-save`/:option:`--analysis-load` is enabled and both will be disabled when enabled together. It requires :option:`--pmode`/:option:`--pme` to be disabled and hence pmode/pme will be disabled when enabled along with it. Default: disabled. .. option:: --strict-cbr, --no-strict-cbr Enables stricter conditions to control bitrate deviance from the target bitrate in ABR mode. Bit rate adherence is prioritised over quality. Rate tolerance is reduced to 50%. Default disabled. This option is for use-cases which require the final average bitrate to be within very strict limits of the target; preventing overshoots, while keeping the bit rate within 5% of the target setting, especially in short segment encodes. Typically, the encoder stays conservative, waiting until there is enough feedback in terms of encoded frames to control QP. strict-cbr allows the encoder to be more aggressive in hitting the target bitrate even for short segment videos. .. option:: --cbqpoffs Offset of Cb chroma QP from the luma QP selected by rate control. This is a general way to spend more or less bits on the chroma channel. Default 0 **Range of values:** -12 to 12 .. option:: --crqpoffs Offset of Cr chroma QP from the luma QP selected by rate control. This is a general way to spend more or less bits on the chroma channel. Default 0 **Range of values:** -12 to 12 .. option:: --ipratio QP ratio factor between I and P slices. This ratio is used in all of the rate control modes. Some :option:`--tune` options may change the default value. It is not typically manually specified. Default 1.4 .. option:: --pbratio QP ratio factor between P and B slices. This ratio is used in all of the rate control modes. Some :option:`--tune` options may change the default value. It is not typically manually specified. Default 1.3 .. option:: --qcomp qComp sets the quantizer curve compression factor. It weights the frame quantizer based on the complexity of residual (measured by lookahead). It's value must be between 0.5 and 1.0. Default value is 0.6. Increasing it to 1.0 will effectively generate CQP. .. option:: --qpstep The maximum single adjustment in QP allowed to rate control. Default 4 .. option:: --qpmin sets a hard lower limit on QP allowed to ratecontrol. Default 0 .. option:: --qpmax sets a hard upper limit on QP allowed to ratecontrol. Default 69 .. option:: --rc-grain, --no-rc-grain Enables a specialised ratecontrol algorithm for film grain content. This parameter strictly minimises QP fluctuations within and across frames and removes pulsing of grain. Default disabled. Enabled when :option:'--tune' grain is applied. It is highly recommended that this option is used through the tune grain feature where a combination of param options are used to improve visual quality. .. option:: --const-vbv, --no-const-vbv Enables VBV algorithm to be consistent across runs. Default disabled. Enabled when :option:'--tune' grain is applied. .. option:: --qblur Temporally blur quants. Default 0.5 .. option:: --cplxblur temporally blur complexity. default 20 .. option:: --zones //... Tweak the bitrate of regions of the video. Each zone takes the form: ,,