No.
If you are reading this, you likely just finished watching Outlander Season 4, Episode 4, “Common Ground.” You’re reeling from the tense standoff between Jamie and the regulators. You’re scratching your head about Roger’s detective skills. And, if you are a particular kind of nerd (like me), you are also furious at the macroblocking in the dark forest scenes. outlander s04e04 libvpx
Episode 4 is particularly dark. Dark scenes are the kryptonite of the Libvpx encoder. To save data, the encoder looks at a dark patch of shadow and says, “Eh, it’s all black anyway,” and discards 80% of the detail. But in Outlander , those shadows hide Jamie’s plaid texture or the bark on the trees. Is the episode good? Yes. The writing is tight, and the cultural collision is handled with surprising nuance for a romance-drama. And, if you are a particular kind of
Watching Outlander S04E04 encoded with Libvpx at low bitrates is like reading the cliff notes of a romance novel. You get the plot points (snake bite, treaty, Roger being awkward), but you miss the texture . Please give us an H.265 or AV1 option for shows with this much visual density. Or, at the very least, crank up the bitrate. Let the Libvpx breathe. The Fraser clan deserves better than pixelation. To save data, the encoder looks at a