Spice and Wolf / Ookami to Koushinryou Season 1 (2008)
Note that only the English track is 5.1, the Japanese track is stereo.
Full mediainfo here since it is so long.
A/V Source: rhastafeb7 BD Remux (JP)
EN Audio + Subtitles: CTR (Baal/Cman)
Recommended Subtitles: MTBB
Encode Comparison
Complete name : Spice.and.Wolf.S01E11.1080p.BluRay.10-Bit.Dual-Audio.FLAC5.1.x265-YURASUKA.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 1.32 GiB
Duration : 23 min 51 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 7 899 kb/s
Movie name : Spice and Wolf - S01E12 - YURASUKA
Encoded date : UTC 2022-01-01 01:35:39
Writing application : mkvmerge v63.0.0 ('Everything') 64-bit
Writing library : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.3
Attachments : Perrywood MT Std Extra Bold Cn.otf / nyala.ttf / simkai.ttf / Madonna.otf / Maiandra GD.ttf / NatVignetteOne.ttf / NatVignetteTwo.ttf / nyala.ttf / Oldbook ITC Std.otf / Perrywood MT Std Extra Bold Cn.otf / GandhiSans-Bold.otf / GandhiSans-BoldItalic.otf / MAILARTRUBBERSTAMP-REGULAR.OTF / NYALA-REGULAR.TTF
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5@Main
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 23 min 51 s
Bit rate : 5 608 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.113
Stream size : 957 MiB (71%)
Title : YURASUKA 1080p x265
Writing library : x265 3.5:[Linux][GCC 10.2.0][64 bit] 10bit
Encoding settings : cpuid=1111039 / frame-threads=4 / numa-pools=24 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / no-ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=1920x1080 / interlace=0 / total-frames=0 / level-idc=0 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=6 / no-allow-non-conformance / no-repeat-headers / annexb / no-aud / no-hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / open-gop / min-keyint=1 / keyint=360 / gop-lookahead=0 / bframes=16 / b-adapt=2 / b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=72 / lookahead-slices=4 / scenecut=40 / hist-scenecut=0 / radl=0 / no-splice / no-intra-refresh / ctu=32 / min-cu-size=8 / rect / amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=4 / tu-intra-depth=4 / limit-tu=0 / rdoq-level=2 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / no-ssim-rd / signhide / tskip / nr-intra=0 / nr-inter=0 / no-constrained-intra / strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=3 / limit-refs=3 / limit-modes / me=3 / subme=4 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / no-frame-dup / no-hme / weightp / weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / deblock=0:0 / no-sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=4 / selective-sao=0 / no-early-skip / rskip / no-fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / b-intra / no-splitrd-skip / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=1.60 / psy-rdoq=2.00 / no-rd-refine / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=crf / crf=16.0 / qcomp=0.72 / qpstep=4 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=0 / ipratio=1.40 / pbratio=1.30 / aq-mode=3 / aq-strength=0.85 / cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / no-const-vbv / sar=0 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=0 / colorprim=1 / transfer=1 / colormatrix=1 / chromaloc=0 / display-window=0 / cll=0,0 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=1023 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / slices=1 / no-opt-qp-pps / no-opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.05 / hist-threshold=0.03 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / no-hdr10 / no-hdr10-opt / no-dhdr10-opt / no-idr-recovery-sei / analysis-reuse-level=0 / analysis-save-reuse-level=0 / analysis-load-reuse-level=0 / scale-factor=0 / refine-intra=0 / refine-inter=0 / refine-mv=1 / refine-ctu-distortion=0 / no-limit-sao / ctu-info=0 / no-lowpass-dct / refine-analysis-type=0 / copy-pic=1 / max-ausize-factor=1.0 / no-dynamic-refine / no-single-sei / no-hevc-aq / no-svt / no-field / qp-adaptation-range=1.00 / scenecut-aware-qp=0conformance-window-offsets / right=0 / bottom=0 / decoder-max-rate=0 / no-vbv-live-multi-pass
Language : Japanese
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Codec ID : A_FLAC
Duration : 23 min 51 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 1 502 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 10.417 FPS (4608 SPF)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossless
Delay relative to video : 39 ms
Stream size : 256 MiB (19%)
Title : English FLAC 5.1
Writing library : Lavf58.76.100
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Codec ID : A_FLAC
Duration : 23 min 51 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 694 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 10.417 FPS (4608 SPF)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossless
Stream size : 118 MiB (9%)
Title : Japanese FLAC 2.0
Writing library : Lavf58.76.100
Language : Japanese
Default : No
Forced : No
Text #1
Format : ASS
Title : Signs/Songs [Baal/Cman]
Text #2
Format : ASS
Title : Full Subtitles [Baal/Cman]
Text #3
Format : ASS
Title : Full Subtitles (Honorifics) [MTBB]
Text #4
Format : ASS
Title : Full Subtitles [MTBB]
Text #5
Format : PGS
Title : Signs/Songs [Funimation]
Text #6
Format : PGS
Title : Subtitles [Funimation]
Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Opening
00:01:30.007 : en:Part A
00:12:48.101 : en:Part B
00:22:09.995 : en:Ending
00:23:40.002 : en:Preview
Dead end for a sucker that’s a sucker like me.
私のようなカモの行き止まりです。
Comments - 16
herkz
why include subs you know are worse and make them the default?
Yurasuka (uploader)
I always make the Signs/Songs track the default to match with the English audio. At this point it’s mainly to remain consistent with previous releases.
Personally I don’t even watch in English I just include everything for the most options possible.
altrivia
Thanks for the release. Any plans on doing S2 as well?
Yurasuka (uploader)
Yes next week.
NeutralHatred
Inferior subs aren’t an “option”. I don’t offer clients a system with an i3 and 2GBs of RAM when a Ryzen with 8GBs is available.
Yurasuka (uploader)
People still buy i3s or else Intel wouldn’t make them. And if you can have both at the same time for free then why does it matter? You could make the same argument about the English dubs themselves, I’m still going to include them for the people that want an “inferior” experience. Some people watch mini encodes. Some people choose to watch BDMVs instead of encodes altogether. I’m not here to decide what’s best for everyone I’m here to provide more options in a sea of other options.
nx6
Thanks Yurasuka. I’ve grown to like your releases quite a bit and appreciate your efforts.
LightArrowsEXE
For your S2 encode, I would highly recommend lowering your debanding strength. You’re nuking a lot of backgrounds and some lines. I get wanting to get rid of as much banding as you can, but what makes Spice and Wolf so appealing visually are its backgrounds. Nuke them and you’re actively harming the experience in my honest opinion.
Yurasuka (uploader)
The banding is really bad in some shots. I could filter those scenes separately but I don’t have that kind of patience.
To me fixing the banding was more important than those smaller details. But I can understand if you don’t agree.
It’s actually less aggressive than the debanding on VCB’s encode which is why I included them in the comparison.
Although they added way too much grain in my opinion. I think my encode ended up somewhere in-between Beatrice and VCB.
I should have included more banded scenes in the comparison
herkz
wtf did vcb-studio just add tons of grain or something
Yurasuka (uploader)
Without knowing what the original looks like, VCB actually seems decent. But yes they went completely overboard with the grain.
The best possible encode would be one that goes scene-by-scene and applies heavier banding only to the scenes that need it.
Beatrice usually does this now if you look at their encode scripts so I’d like to see them re-do this one.
LightArrowsEXE
Yeah, VCB went seriously overboard. I tried looking at ways to fix the banding without requiring as much scenefiltering a while ago, but I couldn’t come up with anything that also didn’t come with heavy drawbacks. Really sucks that of all shows to have such bad BDMVs, it had to be one where fixing it ruins what I’d argue (and have argued lol) is the most stunning part of its visual production.
ShadowVlican
thanks for all the hard work you guys do, this attention to detail is greatly appreciated
DoktorWeiss
BASED release, but how does it compare to the video encodes from Baal that CTR used in his 720p release? CTR stated that he thinks Baals encodes are superior to Beatrice’s for season 1.
Yurasuka (uploader)
The problem with comparing a 720p encode to a 1080p encode is it’s going to look different depending on the upscaling method of the video player and TV/monitor.
I could not decide which one to use so here is Bilinear, Bicubic, Lanczos, and Spline36
It does look very good, but I think Baal used a different version of the BD because the framing, colours, and grain are entirely different from everyone else. Or he probably added a ton of grain like VCB did. It also looks over-sharpened to me but that might just be the upscaling methods being too aggressive. It’s hard to tell which parts are x264 artifacts and which parts are upscaling artifacts.
In my opinion it’s too far removed from the source but I can also see a lot of people (like CTR) preferring the sharp grainy look. It’s ultimately a matter of preference. For my encode I specifically made sure not to add more grain than the BD has. I probably did about a dozen different encodes before settling on what was released. It is pretty easy to either add way too much in the filters or for x265 to smooth everything out so I tried to balance it as best as I could.
You might also be interested in this other comparison I found but unfortunately it doesn’t include the BDMV.
DoktorWeiss
Thanks for the effort you put into this comparison. Your encodes for this are definitely better than VCB’s from what I’ve seen in the comparison screens, but Beatrice’s encode work seems to retain the closest look when compared to the JPBD. So you’re right about your encodes being in-between the two in terms of quality. With that being said though, I can honestly say that I do prefer Baal’s encodes, except for one minor issue, he slightly cropped the image. Other than that I really like the extra clarity of the small background details as a result of the minor sharpening Baal did. I can see if it were some strong warp sharpening filter that completely alters line work and wipes out detail, as seen in Moozzi and Cleo’s encodes, but that’s fortunately not the case.