[MPlayer-users] Is it possible to specify colour depth ofMPEG-IIfiles using

[Jeff Clagg]

On Mon, Apr 17, 2006 at 07:41:54PM -0400, John Brown wrote:
> Does the MPEG-II standard compel me to use 24-bit colour? If not, how would 
> I choose the colour depth with MEncoder?

Whatever depth you use the input, the pixel values in the output will
still map to a 24-bit colorspace. Reducing color depth is a highly
ineffective way to lower bitrate with mpeg2, but removing high frequency
noise (e.g., vf hqdn3d) may be an effective route.

The same is true for images that are being converted to jpeg, and for
essentially the same reasons. In fact, extreme color dithering may
actually create sharp boundaries that make jpeg (and the mpeg video
codecs) perform *less* effectively.