ffmpeg x264 lossless video encoding

I re-encoded my previous club class video clips for my Google drive quota.

The result of is extremely good.


$ ls -lh
-rw-r----- 1 xatier staff 2.8G Jun 29 07:13 Topic 20 - [Programming 1] Python 1.mov
-rw-r--r-- 1 xatier staff 1.6G Jul 3 00:24 Topic 20 - [Programming 1] Python 1.mp4
-rw-r----- 1 xatier staff 3.1G Jun 29 07:30 Topic 21 - [Programming 2] Python 2.mov
-rw-r--r-- 1 xatier staff 1.4G Jul 3 13:43 Topic 21 - [Programming 2] Python 2.mp4

For the x264 lossless encoding, you can use the following commands:

If you don't have time, use the 'ultrafast' preset:

# fastest encoding
$ ffmpeg -i input -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -qp 0 -c:a copy output

If you need a compressed encoding, use the 'veryslow' preset:

# best compression
$ ffmpeg -i input -c:v libx264 -preset veryslow -qp 0 -c:a copy output


Both examples will provide the same quality output. (-qp 0)


It took me over 2 hours for this video on my 2012-mid MacbookAir (1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 / 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3).


$ ffmpeg -i Topic\ 20\ -\ \[Programming\ 1\]\ Python\ 1.mov  -c:v libx264 -preset veryslow -qp 0 -c:a copy py1.mp4
...
frame=459704 fps= 23 q=-1.0 Lsize= 1660358kB time=02:07:41.73 bitrate=1775.3kbits/s dup=1008 drop=0
video:1387489kB audio:264157kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.527454%


Update: il gnaggnoy remembered not only qp but also both qpmax and qpmin should be set to 0 in order to force a lossless encoding in x264.

Reference:
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.264
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/FFmpeg