VMAF metric is like a video critic that watches your content and scores how close it feels to the original, on a scale of 0–100. Imagine you're showing off your video to an audience:

95–100: The audience applauds — the quality is so excellent, they can’t tell it’s not the original.
90–94: A few keen eyes notice tiny imperfections, but most still cheer — very good quality.
80–89: Some viewers nod, but others squint at the visible compression — good but not flawless.
Below 80: Murmurs of distraction as artifacts steal the spotlight — fair to poor quality.
If you want standing ovations, aim for 95+. For casual enjoyment, 90+ will do.




____________________________________________________________

Ab-av1
crf 14 → vmaf 99

Handbrake 1.8.2 (2024081000)
Video.svt-av1 10 bit fast decode Preset 5 crf 14
Audio.eac3 passtrough
____________________________________________________________

File

Video: AV01 3840x1920 23.976fps [V: av1 main, yuv420p10le, 3840x1920 [default]]
Audio: DD+ 48000Hz 6ch 768kbps [A: Surround [eng] (eac3 atmos, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), 768 kb/s) [default]]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Arabic [ara] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Bulgarian [bul] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Chinese Simplified [chi] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Chinese Traditional [chi] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Chinese Yue [chi] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Czech [cze] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Danish [dan] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Dutch [dut] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: English [eng] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: English [SDH] [eng] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Estonian [est] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Finnish [fin] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: French [fre] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: French Canadian [fre] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: German [ger] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Greek [gre] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Hebrew [heb] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Hindi [hin] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Hungarian [hun] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Indonesian [ind] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Italian [ita] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Japanese [jpn] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Korean [kor] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Latvian [lav] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Lithuanian [lit] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Malay [may] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Norwegian [nor] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Polish [pol] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Portuguese [por] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Portuguese Brazilian [por] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Russian [rus] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Slovak [slo] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Slovenian [slv] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: European Spanish [spa] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Latin America Spanish [spa] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Swedish [swe] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Tamil [tam] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Telugu [tel] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Thai [tha] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Turkish [tur] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Ukrainian [ukr] (ass)]
Subtitle: Advanced SubStation Alpha [S: Vietnamese [vie] (ass)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: No subtitles]

General
Unique ID                      : 103183087635743330946460001197770895937 (0x4DA056FEA73EE7946B84308BFE2B7241)
Complete name                  : Shrinking.s02e03.web.hdr.2160p.av1.5.1.eac3.vmaf99-Rosy.mkv
Format                         : Matroska
Format version                 : Version 4
File size                      : 1.59 GiB
Duration                       : 34 min 21 s
Overall bit rate               : 6 619 kb/s
Frame rate                     : 23.976 FPS
Movie name                     : Shrinking.s02e03.web.hdr.2160p.av1.5.1.eac3.vmaf99-Rosy
Encoded date                   : 2024-11-17 22:44:50 UTC
Writing application            : mkvmerge v88.0 ('All I Know') 64-bit
Writing library                : libebml v1.4.5 + libmatroska v1.7.1
Cover                          : Yes
Attachments                    : cover.jpg

Video
ID                             : 1
Format                         : AV1
Format/Info                    : AOMedia Video 1
Format profile                 : Main@L5.0
HDR format                     : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                       : V_AV1
Duration                       : 34 min 21 s
Bit rate                       : 5 839 kb/s
Width                          : 3 840 pixels
Height                         : 1 920 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 2.000
Frame rate mode                : Constant
Frame rate                     : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                      : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.033
Stream size                    : 1.40 GiB (88%)
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics       : PQ
Matrix coefficients            : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primar : Display P3
Mastering display luminance    : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level    : 1788
MaxCLL_Original                : 1788 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Le : 99
MaxFALL_Original               : 99 cd/m2

Audio
ID                             : 2
Format                         : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                       : A_EAC3
Duration                       : 34 min 21 s
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 189 MiB (12%)
Title                          : Surround
Language                       : English
Service kind                   : Complete Main
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No
Complexity index               : 16
Number of dynamic objects      : 15
Bed channel count              : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration      : LFE
Dialog Normalization           : -26 dB
compr                          : -0.28 dB
dialnorm_Average               : -26 dB
dialnorm_Minimum               : -26 dB
dialnorm_Maximum               : -26 dB
____________________________________________________________

Source

Video: HVC1 3840x1920 23.976fps [V: English [eng] (hevc main 10 L5.0, yuv420p10le, 3840x1920) [default]]
Audio: DD+ 48000Hz 6ch 768kbps [A: English [eng] (eac3 atmos, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), 768 kb/s) [default]]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: English [eng] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: English [SDH] [eng] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Arabic [ara] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Bulgarian [bul] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Chinese Simplified [chi] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Chinese Traditional [chi] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Chinese Yue [chi] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Czech [cze] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Danish [dan] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Dutch [dut] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Estonian [est] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: European Spanish [spa] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Finnish [fin] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: French [fre] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: French Canadian [fre] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: German [ger] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Greek [gre] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Hebrew [heb] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Hindi [hin] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Hungarian [hun] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Indonesian [ind] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Italian [ita] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Japanese [jpn] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Korean [kor] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Latin America Spanish [spa] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Latvian [lav] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Lithuanian [lit] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Malay [may] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Norwegian [nor] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Polish [pol] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Portuguese [por] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Portuguese Brazilian [por] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Russian [rus] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Slovak [slo] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Slovenian [slv] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Swedish [swe] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Tamil [tam] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Telugu [tel] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Thai [tha] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Turkish [tur] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Ukrainian [ukr] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: Vietnamese [vie] (subrip)]
Subtitle: UTF-8 [S: No subtitles]

General
Unique ID                      : 14648462133212896951371518269025167950 (0xB0530F19376DFE481F9A531154C2A4E)
Complete name                  : shrinking.s02e03.hdr.2160p.web.h265-successfulcrab.mkv
Format                         : Matroska
Format version                 : Version 4
File size                      : 6.00 GiB
Duration                       : 34 min 21 s
Overall bit rate               : 25.0 Mb/s
Frame rate                     : 23.976 FPS
Writing application            : mkvmerge v84.0 ('Sleeper') 64-bit
Writing library                : libebml v1.4.5 + libmatroska v1.7.1

Video
ID                             : 1
Format                         : HEVC
Format/Info                    : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                 : Main 10@L5@High
HDR format                     : SMPTE ST 2094 App 4, Version 1, HDR10+ Profile B compatible
Codec ID                       : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                       : 34 min 21 s
Bit rate                       : 24.2 Mb/s
Width                          : 3 840 pixels
Height                         : 1 920 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 2.000
Frame rate mode                : Constant
Frame rate                     : 23.976 FPS
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                      : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.137
Stream size                    : 5.82 GiB (97%)
Language                       : English
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics       : PQ
Matrix coefficients            : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primar : Display P3
Mastering display luminance    : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level    : 1788 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Le : 99 cd/m2

Audio
ID                             : 2
Format                         : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                       : A_EAC3
Duration                       : 34 min 21 s
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 189 MiB (3%)
Language                       : English
Service kind                   : Complete Main
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No
Complexity index               : 16
Number of dynamic objects      : 15
Bed channel count              : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration      : LFE
Dialog Normalization           : -26 dB
compr                          : -0.28 dB
dialnorm_Average               : -26 dB
dialnorm_Minimum               : -26 dB
dialnorm_Maximum               : -26 dB
____________________________________________________________

Tools

Ab-av1
FFBitrateViewer
FFmpeg
FFmetrics
Freefilesync
Handbrake
Jackett
Mediainfo
Mkvtoolknix
Qbittorent
Scenerulez
Shutterencoder
VVV-virtualvolumeview
Xnconvert
Xnview mp

===================== AV1 guide v14 ========================

Step 1 - Check VMAF with Ab-av1

 1. AV1
   Source resolution → crf-search -i "c:\file.mkv" --pix-format yuv420p10le --svt fast-decode=1 --svt tune=0 --preset 5 --min-samples 20 --min-vmaf 98
   1080p Downscale   → crf-search -i "c:\file.mkv" --pix-format yuv420p10le --svt fast-decode=1 --svt tune=0 --preset 5 --min-samples 20 --min-vmaf 96 --vfilter "scale=-1:1080"
   720p Downscale    → crf-search -i "c:\file.mkv" --pix-format yuv420p10le --svt fast-decode=1 --svt tune=0 --preset 5 --min-samples 20 --min-vmaf 96 --vfilter "scale=-1:720"  
   Sample encode     → sample-encode -i "c:\file.mkv" --pix-format yuv420p10le --svt fast-decode=1 --svt tune=0 --preset 5 --min-samples 20 --crf 20  

 2. x265
   Source resolution → crf-search -i "c:\file.mkv" --encoder libx265 --pix-format yuv420p10le --preset medium --min-samples 20 --enc x265-params=fastdecode=1 --min-vmaf 98
   1080p Downscale   → crf-search -i "c:\file.mkv" --encoder libx265 --pix-format yuv420p10le --preset medium --min-samples 20 --enc x265-params=fastdecode=1 --min-vmaf 96 --vfilter "scale=-1:1080"
   720p Downscale    → crf-search -i "c:\file.mkv" --encoder libx265 --pix-format yuv420p10le --preset medium --min-samples 20 --enc x265-params=fastdecode=1 --min-vmaf 96 --vfilter "scale=-1:720"
____________________________________________________________

Step 2 - HandBrake

Summary:
- Container: MKV

Dimensions:
- Cropping: None
- Anamorphic: None
- Borders: None

Video:
- Encoder: AV1 (10-bit SVT)
- Framerate: Same as source
- Preset: 5
- Fast Decode: ✓
- Encoder Profile: Main
- Encoder Level: Auto
- Quality: CRF determined from "ab-av1"(1), or crf 20-25

Audio:
- DTS to Opus Conversion:
 - DTS 7.1 → Opus @ 512 kbps
 - DTS 5.1 → Opus @ 384 kbps
 - DTS 2.0 → Opus @ 128 kbps
*When passtrough? lossy codec(opus,aac, ac3, eac3,wma) 768-128 kbps
____________________________________________________________

Step 3 - Subtitles

- Original → passtrough
- Subtitle Translator
- Whisper OpenAI
- Opensubtitles
- Subtitlecat
*If size is an issue don`t use pgs, prefer ass/srt.
____________________________________________________________

References

1. Dolby, 2023. What are Dolby Vision profiles and levels? [Online]
2. Ozer, J., 2017. Video Encoding by the Numbers: Eliminate the Guesswork from your Streaming Video. Doceo Publishing.
3. Sayood, K., 2017. Introduction to Data Compression. 5th Edition.
4. Ozer, J., 2021. What is CBR, VBR, CRF, Capped-CRF? Rate Control Modes Explained.
5. Rassool, Reza. VMAF Reproducibility: Validating a Perceptual Practical Video Quality Metric.
6. Kah, A. e al. Fundamental relationships between subjective quality, user acceptance, and the VMAF metric for a quality-based bit rate ladder design for over-the-top video streaming services.
7. Boldrin, M. 2008. Against Intellectual Monopoly.