Documentation

Only use this setting when you change the default value, Auto (AUTO), for the setting H264AdaptiveQuantization. When you keep all defaults, excluding H264AdaptiveQuantization and all other adaptive quantization from your JSON job specification, MediaConvert automatically applies the best types of quantization for your video content. When you set H264AdaptiveQuantization to a value other than AUTO, the default value for H264SpatialAdaptiveQuantization is Enabled (ENABLED). Keep this default value to adjust quantization within each frame based on spatial variation of content complexity. When you enable this feature, the encoder uses fewer bits on areas that can sustain more distortion with no noticeable visual degradation and uses more bits on areas where any small distortion will be noticeable. For example, complex textured blocks are encoded with fewer bits and smooth textured blocks are encoded with more bits. Enabling this feature will almost always improve your video quality. Note, though, that this feature doesn't take into account where the viewer's attention is likely to be. If viewers are likely to be focusing their attention on a part of the screen with a lot of complex texture, you might choose to set H264SpatialAdaptiveQuantization to Disabled (DISABLED). Related setting: When you enable spatial adaptive quantization, set the value for Adaptive quantization (H264AdaptiveQuantization) depending on your content. For homogeneous content, such as cartoons and video games, set it to Low. For content with a wider variety of textures, set it to High or Higher. To manually enable or disable H264SpatialAdaptiveQuantization, you must set Adaptive quantization (H264AdaptiveQuantization) to a value other than AUTO.