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videoffmpegh.264x264libx264

In FFmpeg, encoding anything lower than slow preset takes video to level 5


Why whenever I use any preset lower or equal to slow, it makes my video High@L5 (profile high / level 5)? It doesn't make sense to me, I always tought that levels were associeted with frame size, frame rate and data rate only

I've searched all over for a relation between presets and levels in x264 encoding through FFmpeg, but couldn't find any.

My only concern is compatibility, since anything above 4 tends to be exotic to most players.


Solution

  • This is due to the increased number of reference frames. slow is 5, slower is 8 and and veryslow is 16. You can override by specifying a level directly, or set ref count to 4 or lower.