HEVC to AVC Conversions Suddenly Messing Up

[WTWASP]

I am tearing my hair out...

I hate HEVC. I prefer AVC encoding with bitrates of 2500kbits for video and 224kbits for audio - the bitrates I associate with RARBG encoding. Unfortunately, RARBG encoding for AVC is getting harder and harder to find, because of this stupid HEVC taking over everything. If I obtain an AVC movie file that varies from these parameters - YTS-MX (2250/384), YTS-AM, YIFY, etc, then conversions are pretty smooth and I can modify the files to meet my preferred bitrates for optimum filesizes that allow me to know the duration of a movie based on its file size.

But if it's HEVC? It's a nightmare.
Even finding an oversized MKV (more than 5 GB) is better than dealing with this HEVC crap.

For some stupid reason, no matter what custom settings I use to "decompress" or "uncompress" an HEVC to an AVC, it keeps coming out even SMALLER than before. I could swear I converted a HEVC movie with a duration of just under 2 hrs long (1 hour and 50-some minutes), with the only settings being 2550kbits for video and 224k for audio (if not already 224k by its own default, in which case I select COPY), and it converted satisfactorily.

But now, seemingly "all of a sudden", I'm getting all kinds of stupid outputs. I'm trying to convert a 3h10m HEVC movie with a file size just under 3 GB, to an AVC file with a filesize of 3.65 GB, but it keeps coming out to barely over 2 GB. The same discrepancies are happening with the audio, too.  And on top of this, this particular movie is producing a jittery playback, likely due to a new surprise : reduced framerate - upon checking the new file's properties (in VLC) it is somehow dropping from the standard 23.98 fps to less than 15 fps.

What the hell is going on and how do I get around these issues?  I am confident nothing has been "accidentally" changed or reset in Avidemux. I'm not in the habit of changing anything other than the endcoding option on the left of the Avidemux window. Deeper settings have remained untouched and in their default settings.

Still, I've checked all the options deeper within the program, but it's all in video editing terminology and lingo that is all Greek to me, and there's no way to look up the terms in a glossary or whatever to understand what exactly everything does. Or at least, nothing that summarizes the functions clearly - web searches just give me entire histories with more gobbledy-gook terminology that renders me more confused. 

My Avidemux version is 2·7·1 on 32-bit (because that is the system I have, and using 64-bit is NOT an option). I considered installing a newer (32-bit) version to see if maybe some better options have become available, but I'm leery about upgrading anything anymore, cos new versions tend to remove good features and replace them with useless junk (and/or become Shareware/paid products).

Besides, as I said, it seems like converting HEVC to AVC was working just fine, but now it's "dumbing down" the quality of every conversion no matter what I do.

It's pissing me off cos each conversion takes anywhere from 2-4 hrs, depending on the length of the movie. I cannot do anything else on my PC during a conversion session, cos Avidemux is such a disgusting resource hog and slows everything down to a snail's crawl (is there any way to speed this up without stressing my PC's guts even more than they already are?).

So I am left twiddling my thumbs waiting for one conversion to complete, often wasting an entire day if the output is not what I want and I have to redo it with "minor tweaks" to my custom output settings (i.e. increasing the 2500 video bitrate to 2550 or higher until the final result shows me a bitrate between 2495 and 2500).

This brings up another issue : is there a way to get this damn thing to adhere to the ACTUAL custom settings I choose without dropping a little in the final result? Like, can I force Avidemux to make sure "2500kbps" MEANS 2500kbps, and not 2435kbps or whatever? The audio pulls the same crap - I select 224k and sometimes I get that, but other times it spits out 225 or 227 (or in the case of HEVC, 210).

I know these are a lot of issues for one post, and they are presented in a real dog's breakfast format (all over the place), but I can't even think straight cos I am so tired from staying up all hours trying to get a single conversion to pan out as desired without redoing it a hundred times. These extended conversion sessions are throwing off my entire daily routine/schedule and taxing my sanity.

Help....?

[Geo_log]

this HEVC cr@p

Please provide a small example of this cr@p, or at least its Mediainfo.

endcoding option on the left of the Avidemux window

What are these encoding options now?

I'm leery about upgrading anything anymore

You can use Avidemux in the portable mode, just download new version from https://avidemux.org/nightly/ to a new folder and  rename avidemux.exe to avidemux_portable.exe

[WTWASP]

Oh god...

>>> "Please provide a small example of this cr@p, or at least its Mediainfo."

What "mediainfo"? It's HEVC!! Self-explanatory! A compressed video file that decompresses/decodes on the fly during playback, which causes long pauses and hangs when manually jumping to random points in the movie, hence why HEVC sucks. Annoying as hell.

AVC does not do that, as it is not compressed, and the very reason why I want HEVC files converted to AVC.

Most times, a HEVC will convert to AVC without any undesired results that cannot be explained or corrected. I use the Constant Bitrate Single Pass @ 2500kbps (or higher, if necessary, which I do not find out til after 2 hours of converting time is wasted), in hopes that the output comes as close to a video bitrate of 2500kbps without going over (the occasional 2501 is acceptable) or less than 2495.

But every now and then, a HEVC file comes along that pulls this half-ass nonsense. HEVCs are smaller than AVC so they should always yield a bigger file size with a bitrate close to the value (2500+) that I entered, but it's slashing to much smaller instead.

I cannot see anything in the source file's details that would be a red flag. I use VLC and Mp3Tag ediotr to see this info (if it's available - another strike against HEVC is that all but the audio bitrate, run time, and filesize shows as blank in Mp3Tag editor - no aspect ratio dimensions, no video bitrate).

These problematic HEVCs appear no different from the other ones that convert easily ; same aspect ratio (1920x800-1080p), same audio codec (AAC), same audio bitrate (224kbps), same audio sample frequency (48kHz), same framerate (23.98 or 24 fps), and same container (mp4).

Since posting this topic, I suspect the only workaround is to take whatever LOW video bitrate output is yielded from an initial conversion, double it, and if the sum is more/less than 2500, then (respectively) subtract/add the difference to the target value preset of 2500, after DOUBLING it first (to 5000), and then modify accordingly until the desired outcome is achieved...? I have yet to test this theory for consistency and reliability, though... but based on the 2 recent experiences I had where this bizarre phenomenon occurred, it looks that way.

It's hard enough to obtain the desired 2500kbps (acceptable variable range of 2495-2501) - with no way to even get an estimated output BEFORE encoding so I am not re-encoding all day long trying to hit the target - without these random HEVCs adding to the hassle by pulling a "shrinkflation" stunt for no apparent reason.


>>> "What are these encoding options now?"

Whatever Avidemux 2·7·1 offers. I am honestly not sure what you are asking me here. I get the feeling even if knew and I told you, it would make no difference cos you'd be as clueless as I am as to the reason for this "HEVC half-ass" conversion issue.

I also doubt upgrading anything will even be possible (I assume that will be the default reply/suggestion from many ; the one-size-fits-all answer to everything, whether it makes practical sense or not - "juss UPGRADE, bruh!").

Sadly, I must be cautious with upgrading since I have an older system (XP 32bit) that I prefer, cos I have over a decade of work created on that platform, comprised of thousands of files that are dependent on unique-to-32bit programs that created and opens those files. If something won't run (is not supported) on XP 32bit, then it's useless to me, and I cannot afford newer computers, so even if I was open to an upgrade, finances say no.


>>> "You can use Avidemux in the portable mode, just download new version from https://avidemux.org/nightly/ to a new folder and  rename avidemux.exe to avidemux_portable.exe"

Portable shmortable. I have no idea what that means or anything about that. Sounds like bigger problems in a smaller filesize.