It should be appreciated that an optimal encoding profile for a single video sample (i.e., set of encoding parameter values resulting in the least encode time per frame, the lowest bit rate, and the highest quality, such as a PSNR of the luma component) can be found by encoding the video sample over all possible encoding parameter values. However, an exhaustive search is time consuming.

For example, using the open source ×264 encoder for the H.264 standard, trial encoding profiles 155 in FIG. 1 (and the trial encode settings of process 306) can include different values for encoding parameters including but not limited to adaptive-quantization mode (aq-mode parameter), the number of reference frames (ref parameter), the sub-pixel motion estimation method (subme parameter), the partition size for intra and inter motion compensation (part parameter), and the quantization approach (trellis parameter).

Adaptive quantization varies the quantizer for each individual macroblock within each frame to avoid blur/blocking in flat areas containing fine/edge detail, such as calm water, sky and animation. The aq-mode encoding parameter can correspond to the values of 0: Do not use (adaptive quantization) AQ at all, 1: Allow AQ to redistribute bits across the whole video and within frames, or 2: Auto-variance AQ which attempts to adapt AQ strength per-frame.

The subme encoding parameter can be 7 different values relating to the number of iterations for motion estimation.

The ref encoding parameter can be 16 different values specifying from one to a maximum of 16 reference frames.

The part encoding parameter can be 10 different values that specify the partition size for intra (I), predictive (P) and bi-predictive (B) macroblocks.