Did you *really* do a mini-encode of a mini-encode? I swear, this is why people think mini-encoders lack any kind of brain capacity.

@LightArrowsEXE Come on, man. Don't be like that. Looking at the format details in the torrent's description, he probably did it for people with older machines that have trouble playing back 10bit H265 video. My laptop, for example, is such. When I watch Judas' encodes, audio plays fine but the video lags like a mofo. So, he's just helping people out.

@t1pak Consider not using Windows Media Player. Your comment also does not address my issue whatsoever.

@LightArrowsEXE Believe me, I've tried several different players. It's just that the laptop I mentioned is 9 and a half years old (I'm amazed the damn thing is still alive at all) and it just has trouble handling 10bit H265 video. As for addressing your issue - you may be right. I'll be honest and admit that I don't know jack about encoding video. So maybe I didn't understand what your critique to him was.

@t1pak To explain a bit further in laymen terms, in order to have a super small encode, you have to sacrifice quality (and usually quite a bit to get as low as someone people do, taking their settings and lack of encoding experience into account). This already is highly destructive, but if you then also take that encode and *compress it even further again*, you'll end up with stuff looking even worse. Generational loss also exists; the more you encode the same video, the more the artifacts pop up. That's why it's an awful idea. As for your computer, not meant to really disrespect, but my mother's 12-year old laptop (which also miraculously is still alive, although I had to yeet Windows off of it for it to run properly, which she wasn't happy with) runs most video fine with mpv. That includes 10bit h265. Have you considered playing around with it a bit more, figuring out settings to help push out performance, cleaned your PC, etc?

@LightArrowsEXE Oh, okay. I understand it now. I've actually read about these things, as I was trying to learn some stuff about video editing a while ago. But, i haven't dabbled in that area in a while, lol. So, what you just explained didn't come to mind, at all, even though it's kinda obvious when you think about it. As for my laptop - I've played around with the settings and stuff quite a bit. But, nothing helped. Cleaning it? If you mean taking the actual machine apart and cleaning the hardware, then no. I'm not confident enough that I'll be able to put it back correctly afterwards. And, if by "cleaning" you mean maybe re-installing Windows to get rid of clutter that may be slowing things down - that would also be a no. I just realized this, But, I haven't done that in at least a couple of years. Probably worth it to note that this laptop runs Windows 7. And yes, I know that support for it was recently ended. But, with its specs and how it's already struggling, I'm pretty sure that if I tried to put 10 on it it'll just outright die. lol

I meant the reinstalling part, yeah. You don't necessarily have to do a full reinstall, but getting rid of old programs, clearing up your hard drives, defragmenting it and doing other optimizations, etc. will do wonders on older systems.

Right. I'll have to see what I can do about that. Though, it's probably gonna be a pain because, unlike my desktop that runs a legit copy of Windows 10 with a purchased key, the 7 on the laptop was acquired from sailing the seas, lol. And, finding Windows 7 activators that actually work properly has always been a huge hassle over these 9 years I've had the laptop. Honestly, I'm thinking of getting a new laptop soon, either way. So, I'm not sure it's worth the trouble trying to re-install 7 on this one. Speaking of which, while we're on the topic, care to give an opinion? Whenever I do go to buy said new laptop, I'll be getting a gaming one cuz I want to know I'm getting my money's worth. But, it'll be mainly for entertainment, as I work from home and do my work on my desktop which is pretty decent. So, I'll be limiting my budget for the laptop a bit and will most likely get an entry level gaming machine. What do you think of this one -> https://ardes.bg/product/hp-pavilion-gaming-15-ec0001nu-8ks94ea-16gb-250ssdnvme-163434 ?

Sorry, I'm really bad at hardware related things. If you're looking for a system that can play video well, most cheap modern laptops should be able to do that well enough to not pose an issue. If you have a desktop, I'd advice swapping parts for that instead if you want a gaming rig rather than spending that money on gaming laptop (I say as someone with a gaming laptop).

Gotcha. I'll think about that.