CCE 2.66 guide

CCE 2.66 guide

CCE 2.66 is still the latest stable version, even though the 2.67 series has been out for a while. Changes between 2.66 and 2.67 are minimal, but there's an essential one concerning how you encode progressive and interlaced content. Both versions are significantly different from previous versions and many people were not quite able to mak 111h74b e the leap of thought - that's where this guide comes in. Also note that the latest build of the CCE 2.66 series (the one you can download from this very site) removed ecl functionality used in many programs relying on CCE, and you need EclCCE to save and load projects.

Before you get started, all CCE 2.66 versions have a memory leak when encoding from AviSynth scripts. Check CCE FAQ question 14.3 for how to get around this problem.

When you first get started with CCE 2.66, I suggest you create a few templates. During subsequent encoding sessions, you'll no longer have to configure everything, rather you just select the appropriate template, select your source(s) and start encoding. To create a template, select Template from the menu, then select the Standard template.

The first thing to do is select a new name in the Title field. I'd suggest something easily recognizable, like "first pass - progressive - 16:9" for a first pass profile for progressive content.

Then make sure the timecode is set to 00 rather than the default 01 00 (that would mean your video "starts" at 1h). Well, actually, you should do this, but it has come to my attention (thanks RB) that all CCE 2.66 versions do not properly apply this setting, so you have to manually change this for each video item you're going to encode, once you have imported them.

Uncheck Audio file unless you want to use CCE as audio encoder.

Then we have the Video settings:

Here there are two ways to go at it. The first one is straight multipass encoding as described below. Use that if you want to achieve a certain size regardless of quality. Alternatively, you could perform an abbreviated first pass in constant quality mode. From that, you can determine which bitrate you need to achieve a certain quality. If the bitrate is lower or equal to what you can afford, you can be sure you'll get a movie in the quality you desire. If this test encoding pass shows that you cannot obtain the desired quality at the bitrate you can afford, then you'll have to make a decision: Can you live with a lower quality, or do you have to cut corners elsewhere. Some claim, that you can find a quality parameter that will work for all movies, but I'm highly sceptical of such claims. Yet, it you are willing, it's something to try out. Click here to read more about constant quality first pass.

Set mode to MPEG-2 (ES, Multipass VBR).

Then set the average (Avg) bitrate to your calculated bitrate, the Min bitrate to 0 and the Max bitrate to 9000. Theoretically, DVD allows a bitrate of up to 9800, but using the whole bitrate range could lead to problems during authoring, so using a lower value is safer.

3:2 pulldown detection would allow CCE to perform automatic inverse telecine on telecined NTSC content, but that feature is buggy and we have more advanced tools for this process outside of CCE so don't use it.

Letter box hint should only be used together with 3:2 pulldown detection - it ensures that black bars at the top / bottom of a frame are excluded from the pulldown detection.

You can select Panscan, if you want a widescreen movie to be displayed in pan&scan format on 4:3 TVs.

Last but not least, we have the Aspect Ratio. Set this to 16:9 for 16:9 content (most DVD movies), and 4:3 for 4:3 content (most series on DVD, DVB and DV and analogue sources).

Then click on the Video button:

Change the N/M parameter to 4.

Make sure Add sequence end code is checked. DVD Video complian (there's a t missing there ;) does not have to be checked. Checking it would ensure that our video is flagged as having a maximum bitrate of 9800 kbit/s - compliant with the maximal bitrate of a DVD. However, this is only a flag and has no influence on the actual bitrate - but DVD authoring programs might read this value and decide that your combined audio and video bitrate is too high and refuse to author your content.

When encoding multiangle content, you should check DVD Video multiangle This will automatically check Close all GOPs, Equalize each GOP's bit length and Restrict auto I frame insertion which are also useful for multiangle content.

Upper field first should not be checked, unless you're dealing with interlaced bottom field first. In that case, checking this option would shift the bottom frames by one line, thus turning the video into a top field first video (CCE will always return a top field first video stream).

Half horizontal resolution and Half vertical resolution can be used to reduce the horizontal and vertical resolution respectively. However, the resizing method CCE uses is very low quality so if you want to reduce the resolution, do this outside of CCE (for instance in an AviSynth script).

The Luminance level setting does not matter unless you're dealing with RGB input (VFAPI), in which case you should select 0 to 255.

The Frame rate should be automatically recognized from the source so you don't have to worry about it.

If you can explain Quantization matrices to a person without a masters in signal processing, you can probably reconfigure quantization matrices on your own - if not, stay away from them.

Finally, leave the Packet size at the default of 2048.

Press OK to get back to the template configuration, then press Quality.

Simple settings allow you to chose from 3 predefined settings and one you can configure on your own, resulting in different input filter configuration. You can try them if you like, but it's generally a good idea to configure the filters on your own as follows:

Uncheck all filters for the best results and set the Quantizer characteristics to a value in the range of 27 - 30.

The Intra block DC precision should be set to match the source - most DVDs use 10 so set your template to use that value (you can still change it).

For progressive content, set the Block scanning order to Zigzag, and check the Progressive frame flag. For interlaced content, you'd set the Block scanning order to Alternate and would uncheck Progressive frame flag.

Since there's a noticeable difference between progressive and interlaced content, I suggest you create a first pass (and second pass later on) profile for each input type.

Press OK to get back to the Template window.

Then press the Add button to add the profile to the list of profiles, or press Replace to replace the profile you're currently editing. Pressing Add or Replace will take you back to the main window.

Now, select the the appropriate profile for the files you're going to encode from the templates list:

Then drag and drop your source files into CCE. The currently selected template applies to all files you add, so if you start adding files that need another template, select the required template, then continue adding files. If you double click on a file from the list, you can access it's properties and configure essentially what you've already seen when creating the template. When you're all done adding files and reconfiguring, press Encode.

Oh, one more thing: If you want to ensure that your chapters positions will be accurate, it can be advantageous to force keyframes at certain positions. To do this, go into the configuration screen of a video item (double click on it), then press Settings.

Then double click on the file again the next window (it's largely useless really) until you get to this screen:

In addition, you'll see a preview screen. Now you can use the slider to and player controls to move around the video. To insert a keyframe at a certain position, either enter it in the Chapter list field and press Set, or move to the appropriate video position by either using the Frame search slider, then press Set.

All defined chapters will be listed in the dropdown list to the left of the Delete button, and pressing the Delete button will delete the currently selected chapter position.

Note that even though CCE uses the term chapter, this doesn't automatically generate a chapter, it merely ensures that at the positions you've configured, a keyframe will be inserted, making it possible to have a chapter starting at this very frame. You'll still have to insert this chapter manually in a DVD authoring tool though.

As you can see, using this screen it's also possible to trim the beginning and end of the video by configuring an In and Out position for the video. The In and Out buttons can be used to set the beginning and end of the part of the video that is going to be encoded. Press OK 3 times to get back to the main screen.