QaS - Quality and Size presents
This is a 10-bit HEVC / x265 re-encode of [Shady Crab’s][shady release] 100.2 gb release of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, its OVA and its specials.
[Reaktor released][reaktor release] a similar x265 re-encode of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood but this one has:
* Surround 5.1 english audio track.
* Specials
* Some episodes have english comment audio tracks. (I don’t know why not [Reaktor][reaktor release] includes this)
* Better video quality according to some measured video quality metrics (details on technical section)
* Less size
Here are some comparison shots for [Shady Crab’s release][shady release] vs [Reaktor's release][reaktor release] vs mine
[Shady Crab’s (Source):][shady release]
[](https://imagetot.com/image/hgiWae) [](https://imagetot.com/image/hgilRN) [](https://imagetot.com/image/hgiqCD)
[Reaktor's (re-encode):][reaktor release]
[](https://imagetot.com/image/hgibeO) [](https://imagetot.com/image/hgieX9) [](https://imagetot.com/image/hgiovP)
Mine (re-encode):
[](https://imagetot.com/image/hgifa1) [](https://imagetot.com/image/hgijty) [](https://imagetot.com/image/hginOu)
Actually i didn't want to share these images because videos are not still images and they can't be judged by them. That's why i measured the video quality metrics. According to these my video quality is better than [Reaktor's re-encode][reaktor release]. Details on technical section. Enjoy.
**Recommended Players**: VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic (K-Lite Codec Pack)
**File details**
Video:
1920x1080 23.976 fps HEVC x265 10-bit
Audio:
English; Opus Surround ~ 256kbit/s
Japanese; Opus Stereo ~128 kbit/s
Some episodes English Commentary; Opus Stereo ~96 kbit/s
Subtitles:
English; ASS subtitles
Signs/Song for Dub; ASS subtitles
**Technical Details**: (in case you're interested)
**Audio**:
I encoded the default english surround audio track with Opus 256-Kb/s because the recommended bitrate for surround is 256-Kb/s according to [wiki][opus wiki], i encoded the japanese stereo audio track with Opus 128-Kb/s because it says opus at 128-Kb/s for stereo is nearly indistinguishable from the uncompressed source on [wiki][opus wiki]. I encoded stereo english comment audio tracks with Opus 96-Kb/s for decreasing the file size and it’s the minimum recommended setting for stereo according to [wiki][opus wiki]. In case you are asking why i am using opus: [Opus Comparison][opus compare]
**Video**:
I encoded all videos with x265's slower preset and crf 23. One anime episode takes about one and a half hours to encode. I measured three video quality metrics: [PSNR][psnr link], [SSIM][ssim link] and the newest one [VMAF][vmaf link]. PSNR is the oldest one and i think it has the lowest importance because it's a signal to noise ratio and it has nothing to do with human perception of quality. VMAF i think is the most important one because it's developed with human perception of quality in mind. I don't want to go into details on these.
Let's talk about my video metrics. I measured these quality metrics on first episodes only, [Reaktor's][reaktor release] video and mine given the reference video [Shady Crab’s][shady release].
My video PSNR: 38.5909
[Reaktor's][reaktor release] video PSNR: 48.2257
In my defense PSNR looks for pixel-wise noise and it really is a signal-to-noise ratio instead of human quality perception. Yes you guessed it correct my video is more noisier than [Reaktor's][reaktor release] but when we look at the VMAF score we can say the noise is not noticable for human eyes.
My video SSIM: 0.9911
[Reaktor's][reaktor release] video SSIM: 0.9917
There is no reason to talk over this. The difference is minimal.
My video VMAF: 94.9976
[Reaktor's][reaktor release] video VMAF: 94.9814
My aim is to provide more quality for smaller sizes. I know it's a little improvement but i managed to get more video quality at this size and more content like specials, opus 5.1, english comment tracks etc...
**Seed as much as possible please.**
**Notes:**
1. I have slow upload speed. Only 512 kb/s. And i have a weekly schedule to uphold. So expect download speed fluctuation. I use [super seeding mode][super link] because of my slow upload speed. So if you won't upload, you can't get any torrent pieces from me until there is more than one seed. I use super seeding mode because i try to shorten the time it takes for initial seeding. I might rent a seedbox but that's extra cost for me. I paid electricity and hardware price already and monthly seedbox price is a burden i can't overcome. If there is a huge request for seedbox i can start a discord server and accept donations through discord shared bitcoin address but i'm guessing nobody will request a seedbox :)
2. To my weekly schedule followers: there won't be a 720p, 480p release. This took a long time to encode and i have real life stuff to attend to but if there is a huge request for it i guess i can do it.
I tried to be as honest as possible while writing this description. I know it's too long to read. If you read all of it, i thank you for your time :)
[shady release]: https://nyaa.iss.one/view/932413
[reaktor release]: https://nyaa.iss.one/view/1028184
[opus wiki]: https://wiki.xiph.org/Opus_Recommended_Settings
[opus compare]: https://opus-codec.org/comparison/
[psnr link]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_signal-to-noise_ratio#:~:text=Peak%20signal%2Dto%2Dnoise%20ratio%20(PSNR)%20is%20an,the%20fidelity%20of%20its%20representation.
[ssim link]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_similarity#:~:text=The%20structural%20similarity%20index%20measure,the%20similarity%20between%20two%20images.
[vmaf link]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Multimethod_Assessment_Fusion
[super link]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-seeding
Hey man EoE here from Judas: cool release, I'm impressed with how much effort you went to in calculating quality metrics.
I've got a few comments about how you might be able to improve quality and efficiency, as well as the speed of your encoding. First, x265 Slower is a little *too* slow in my opinion, with the main offender being that it sets `rd` to 6. This makes the encode a lot slower, and whilst the efficiency gains may be worth it, there are other (imo cleverer) ways to increase that efficiency. I would suggest using the slow preset, with the following custom options: (ffmpeg syntax) `bframes=8:ref=6:aq-mode=3:aq-strength=0.75:qcomp=0.65:psy-rd=0.6:psy-rdoq=1.2`. For anime, this should increase quality in darker scenes, whilst keeping bitrates fairly low. `ref=6` will also allow for more frames to be referenced by the encoder, which does increase the encode time a little, but should also reduce your filesize. If you're interested in what the rest of the settings do, see [here](https://x265.readthedocs.io/en/master/cli.html), or ask me on Discord.
Finally, I can see that you're x265 write settings have been omitted. This is never a good idea: missing write settings often indicate use of hardware accelerated encoding such as NVEnc, which is much lower quality than software based encoding, and may put others off. Your previous encodes all have the write settings included, and doing some quick analysis of the video from this release would indicate that this is probably an x265 encode, however I'd suggest leaving them in, or if you're indeed using NVEnc, making sure that this is stated obviously in the title and description of the torrent.
I'd be interested in talking to you further about your work privately, feel free to add me on Discord (`End of Eternity#6292`), or ping me in the Judas discord server. I'm always happy to give advice :)
Cheers, EoE
Comments - 2
VVacek
EoE