Nature's Journey

[PSA1]

I was under the impression that this video has a constant bitrate of 38Mbps but it is not, it is variable, for the most part it looks good but at 48:54, it got very soft and pixelated, I turn on the bitrate meter and it was down to 12.5Mbps, a little dissapointed cuz I thought this is supposed to be a reference title for PQ but to me it is not, I guess I'm picky.

[sonicbox]

We probably don't need another thread on this title. See: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=10957

There are no BD or HD titles that are CBR - they are all VBR. CBR isn't a smart thing to use for modern video. This title is total overkill on bitrate already, so you are basically judging the original source material. It may not be to your liking.

Anyway, you may want to stop looking at the inaccurate bitrate meter to weigh quality. Even if it was "live" accurate (which it isn't), it's pretty much meaningless; easily compressed sequences will always have lower bitrates when the codec is doing it's job.

[PSA1]

Originally Posted by sonicbox

We probably don't need another thread on this title. See: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=10957

There are no BD or HD titles that are CBR - they are all VBR. CBR isn't a smart thing to use for modern video. This title is total overkill on bitrate already, so you are basically judging the original source material. It may not be to your liking.

Anyway, you may want to stop looking at the inaccurate bitrate meter to weigh quality. Even if it was "live" accurate (which it isn't), it's pretty much meaningless; easily compressed sequences will always have lower bitrates when the codec is doing it's job.

I guess you didn't read my post, I did not turn on the bitrate meter until I saw this particular scene, it was very soft with alot of macro blocks in the dark area, if you have this disc then go to that timecode and see for yourself.
BTW the bitrate meter on the PS3 is accurate, but about 1/2 second delay. I tested it with material I encoded myself. All I'm saying is that they should have put Average bitrate 38Mbps on the sticker and so that people don't get the impression of this video is always at 38Mbps. On another note, it is not from the source, I have cheap HDV camera and none of them have artifacts and go soft like that, and from what I have heard, they use F750 for the camera, it is the compression, if you want to explain as to why it is not smart to encode this video at high CBR then I'm all ears, when you have the disc space and short lengh of the program, to me why take a chance and let the VBR screw up?, lock that sucker in at 38 Mbps CBR and be done with unless they don't have CBR with VC-1?
Don't get me wrong, I like the whole video, some scenes are spectacular, just dissapointed for this one scene.

[sonicbox]

PSA1, browse and add to the other thread if you wish. There are also some threads on AVS, including one with direct image comparisons and comments from the guy that produced it. It's likely that scene on the master just looks like that. Nature's Journey is not raw camera footage. Personally, I don't find NJ a "reference title."

I don't think you really understand how modern video codecs function. If you want to dig deeper, possibly join some of the compression professionals (and hardcore enthusiasts) on doom9... and maybe AVS, etc. It's out of scope here.