I've have some screen recorded video with OBS software using the video codec "NVIDIA NVENC HEVC" (which is h.265 via GPU hardware) using CQP level 17.
Full encoder options in OBS were:
The output is a 06:08:33.94 long video, (around 5.6GB) that I need to slice into shorter videos trimmed at specific timestamps. Because of how h.264 and h.265 works, it seems I need to re-encode whole the video to do that without missing the first few seconds of each trimmed video. The full output of ffprobe this source file is:
ffprobe.exe source-00.mp4
ffprobe version 6.0-essentials_build-www.gyan.dev Copyright (c) 2007-2023 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 12.2.0 (Rev10, Built by MSYS2 project)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-static --disable-w32threads --disable-autodetect --enable-fontconfig --enable-iconv --enable-gnutls --enable-libxml2 --enable-gmp --enable-lzma --enable-zlib --enable-libsrt --enable-libssh --enable-libzmq --enable-avisynth --enable-sdl2 --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libaom --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libvpx --enable-libass --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvmaf --enable-libzimg --enable-amf --enable-cuda-llvm --enable-cuvid --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-nvdec --enable-nvenc --enable-d3d11va --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-libgme --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libgsm --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopus --enable-libspeex --enable-libvorbis --enable-librubberband
libavutil 58. 2.100 / 58. 2.100
libavcodec 60. 3.100 / 60. 3.100
libavformat 60. 3.100 / 60. 3.100
libavdevice 60. 1.100 / 60. 1.100
libavfilter 9. 3.100 / 9. 3.100
libswscale 7. 1.100 / 7. 1.100
libswresample 4. 10.100 / 4. 10.100
libpostproc 57. 1.100 / 57. 1.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '.\source-00.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : isom
minor_version : 512
compatible_brands: isomiso2mp41
encoder : Lavf60.3.100
Duration: 06:08:33.94, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2179 kb/s
Stream #0:0[0x1](und): Video: hevc (Main) (hev1 / 0x31766568), yuv420p(tv, bt709/bt709/iec61966-2-1), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 1976 kb/s, 60 fps, 60 tbr, 15360 tbn (default)
Metadata:
handler_name : VideoHandler
vendor_id : [0][0][0][0]
Stream #0:1[0x2](und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 190 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
handler_name : SoundHandler
vendor_id : [0][0][0][0]
The thing is I'm happy with the current quality, I'd like that this re-encoding process does mess as less as possible with the original quality, while maintaining the sum of all the output videos not to far away in size to those 5.6GB from the original source.
The first thing I tried, was to trim some unwanted footage from the beginning and the end of the source, and following this suggestion from this answer superuser, I didn't specify any options to the video codec:
ffmpeg will automatically attempt to use many of the same parameters when encoding including: frame rate, width, height, pixel format, audio channel layout, audio sample rate, etc. So you usually don't have to do anything special.
So: ffmpeg -i source-00.mp4 -ss 00:00:01.80 -to 06:07:34.0 -map 0 -c copy -c:v libx265 actual-footage-0.mp4
After many hours of re-encoding the result was a 1.26GB video with a much worse quality, full info:
ffprobe actual-footage-0.mp4
ffprobe version 6.0-essentials_build-www.gyan.dev Copyright (c) 2007-2023 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 12.2.0 (Rev10, Built by MSYS2 project)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-static --disable-w32threads --disable-autodetect --enable-fontconfig --enable-iconv --enable-gnutls --enable-libxml2 --enable-gmp --enable-lzma --enable-zlib --enable-libsrt --enable-libssh --enable-libzmq --enable-avisynth --enable-sdl2 --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libaom --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libvpx --enable-libass --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvmaf --enable-libzimg --enable-amf --enable-cuda-llvm --enable-cuvid --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-nvdec --enable-nvenc --enable-d3d11va --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-libgme --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libgsm --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopus --enable-libspeex --enable-libvorbis --enable-librubberband
libavutil 58. 2.100 / 58. 2.100
libavcodec 60. 3.100 / 60. 3.100
libavformat 60. 3.100 / 60. 3.100
libavdevice 60. 1.100 / 60. 1.100
libavfilter 9. 3.100 / 9. 3.100
libswscale 7. 1.100 / 7. 1.100
libswresample 4. 10.100 / 4. 10.100
libpostproc 57. 1.100 / 57. 1.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'actual-footage-0.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : isom
minor_version : 512
compatible_brands: isomiso2mp41
encoder : Lavf60.3.100
Duration: 06:07:32.22, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 493 kb/s
Stream #0:0[0x1](und): Video: hevc (Main) (hev1 / 0x31766568), yuv420p(tv, bt709/bt709/iec61966-2-1, progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 289 kb/s, 60 fps, 60 tbr, 15360 tbn (default)
Metadata:
handler_name : VideoHandler
vendor_id : [0][0][0][0]
encoder : Lavc60.3.100 libx265
Stream #0:1[0x2](und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 191 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
handler_name : SoundHandler
vendor_id : [0][0][0][0]
What can I do to preserve the quality as much a possible while re-encoding a HEVC video?
