Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

[baggss]

This is strait out of the old Handbrake forum.

One of the more common questions new users of HandBrake ask is "What settings should I use?" This is the most difficult one to answer since it is such a subjective question. What looks "best" to one person in a certain situation will be different from what someone else thinks looks "best" in a different situation.

So this is the thread to post your favorite settings, and WHY those settings look best to you. New users can then browse for people that have a similar "why" and try out their settings.

WHY:
PRIORITIES:
SETTINGS: (Just show the ones you change...)
Title: all [ main feature, other... ]
Chapters: all [ single chapters, other... ]
Framerate (fps): Same as Source [ 29.97, 25, 24, 23.976, 15, 12, 10, 5 ]
Encoder: FFmpeg [ XviD, x264 (Main profile), x265 (Baseline profile)
Target size (MB): OFF [ ON - 700 ]
Average bitrate (kbps): ON - 1000 [ other... ]
Constant quality: OFF [ ON - 50% ]
Grayscale encoding: OFF [ ON ]
2-pass encoding: OFF [ ON ]
File format: MP4 [ AVI, OGM ]
Codecs: MPEG-4 Video / AAC Audio [ AVS/H.264 Video / AAC Audio ]
Subtitles Language: OFF [ prefered language... ]
Audio Language 1: First [ prefered language... ]
Audio Language 2: OFF [ commentaries, secondary language... ]
Sample rate (Hz): 44100 [ 48000, 24000, 22050 ]
bitrate (kbps): 128 [ 320, 256, 224, 192, 160, 112, 96, 80, 64, 56, 48, 40, 32 ]
Picture Settings...
Width: Auto Selected [ other... ]
Height: Auto Selected [ other... ]
Keep aspect ratio: ON [ OFF ]
Crop: Automatic [ Custom: 0, 0, 0, 0 ]
Deinterlace: OFF [ ON, ON when needed ]

[baggss]

WHY: Video for iPod, I travel a lot.

PRIORITIES: iPod compatibility, then quality.

SETTINGS:
Title: All episodes or Main Title as applicable
Chapters: All
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder: x264 (h.264 iPod))
Target size (MB): OFF
Average bitrate 1000-1450Kbs
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: ON
File format: MP4
Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
Subtitles Language: OFF unless required.
Audio Language 1: English
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate 44100Hz
Bitrate 128Kbps

Picture Settings...
Width: 320 -640
Height: 240 -480
Keep aspect ratio: Used as required
Crop: Automatic or used as required for Widescreen to Fullscreen
Deinterlace: OFF

[Maddux]

WHY: Convert DVD Collection to Digital Media Server

PRIORITIES: Quality, then file size

SETTINGS:
File format: MP4
Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
Encoder: x264 (h.264 Main)
Average Bitrate: 2000 kbs
2-pass encoding: ON
Subtitles Language: English (As Needed for Foreign Films)
Audio Bitrate: 192 Kbps

Picture Settings:
Keep Aspect Ratio: On (Unless Needs Correction)
Crop: Automatic (Unless Needs Correction)

I picked a single chapter from a movie that I felt had both action and slower dialogue driven parts, and had both well-lit and darker scenes (Pirates of the Caribbean) and encoded it about 15 times using a bunch of different settings before finally deciding on these. In the end I'm probably using a higher bitrate than I really need, but I'd rather use just a bit more space than regret it later. On average my file size is about 15 MB per minute. Which translates into movies ranging from 1.5 to 2 GB. Only longer movies break the 2 GB barrier (e.g. Batman Begins at 2.11 GB or The Fellowship of the Ring at 2.65 GB).

[cnladd]

WHY: Transfer DVDs to a media server

PRIORITIES: Quality and file size

SETTINGS:
Title: Main feature (if there are special features -- usually just the longer "featurettes" and documentaries -- I'll rip them separately.)
Encoder: x264 (Main profile)
Constant quality: 70%
Grayscale encoding: OFF (Unless it is a black and white movie)
Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
Subtitles Language: OFF (English for foreigh films)
Audio Language 1: First (I prefer films in their "main" language)
Sample rate (Hz): 44100 [ 48000, 24000, 22050 ]
Bitrate (kbps): 192 (Except concert DVDs, which I rip at 256 or 320, depending on the artist.)
Picture Settings... (Only change if the picture needs it.)

Like Maddux, above, I've chosen these settings to copy my DVD library to a media server (Intel Mac Mini). After testing chapters of many of my favorite movies, I settled on a constant quality of 70%. This results in an average movie size of 1.5GB at a very good quality. Higher quality settings yielded a drastically increased file size without much of an increase in quality.

I suspect that my final picture is very similar to Maddux's.

[cbud]

WHY: Video for iPod

PRIORITIES: Maximum iPod Quality

SETTINGS:
Title: The one(s) I want!
Chapters: All
Framerate (fps): Determined using ffmpegX and set appropriately
Encoder: x264 (h.264 iPod)
Target size (MB): OFF
Average bitrate: 1500 Kbs
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF (ON for B&W content)
2-pass encoding: ON
File format: MP4
Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
Subtitles Language: OFF unless it’s a foreign film.
Audio Language 1: English (choose stereo track if available)
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate 48000Hz
Bitrate 128Kbps

Picture Settings...
Width: no greater than 640
Height: no greater than 480
Keep aspect ratio: On
Crop: Custom
Deinterlace: Depends on source. Determined with Apple DVD player.



I have had problems (Handbrake picks wrong rate, won't copy to iPod) when using ‘same as source’ so I determine this myself (using ffmpegX) and set it appropriately. I use an average bitrate of 1500 Kbs and have had no iPod compatibility issues. I choose the stereo (2.0) audio track if it is available instead of the 5.1 track. I assume the 2.0 mix on the DVD would be better than a 2.0 mix created by Handbrake, but it might not matter at all. Most audio on a DVD is at a sample rate of 48 khz and I choose not to down sample this. I have noticed a little bit of distortion on certain DVDs (probably with poor audio tracks to begin with) when the sample rate is changed to 44.1 khz. I click automatic crop first then press custom and make adjustments if needed (which is not that often). I use Apple DVD player (deinterlace off, requires Tiger?) to determine if the source needs to be deinterlaced.

[rhester]

I choose the stereo (2.0) audio track if it is available instead of the 5.1 track. I assume the 2.0 mix on the DVD would be better than a 2.0 mix created by Handbrake, but it might not matter at all.

The DVD stereo mix is always going to be better than HandBrake's on-the-fly downmix from 5.1.

Rodney

[broaddd]

I am pretty hard-pressed to discern any difference above 1500kbps on 264 (main) 2-pass encoding at 720x368 (anamorphic), with AC3 passthrough; and I've compared it to 2000kbps, 2500kbps, 3000kbps.

I've noticed that ffmpegx recommends a 'best bitrate' of about 750 for this resolution, so wonder why there are such different perceptions on what bitrate is optimal... isn't there a point of diminishing returns?

[OSMacintosh]

My Settings

I make high quality movies for my iPhone.

Here are my settings:

Title: Main Feature
Chapters: All (ON)
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder: H.264
Target size (MB): OFF
Average bitrate (kbps): ON (4.0 Mbps)
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: ON
File format: M4V (MP4)
Codecs: AVS/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
Subtitles Language: OFF (Unless needed)
Audio Language 1: English
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate (Hz): 448000
bitrate (kbps): 160
Picture Settings...
Width: Auto Selected
Height: Auto Selected
Keep aspect ratio: ON
Anamorphic: OFF
Crop: Automatic
Deinterlace: OFF (Unless Needed)

Other Tools:

Handbrake (iPhone Movies)
http://handbrake.m0k.org/

CD Covers (Artwork)
http://www.cdcovers.cc/

[gabefung]

WHY: Convert my entire DVD/VCD Collection for Media Center + iPod + iPhone
PRIORITIES: iPod/iPhone/Apple TV ready. Balance between quality and file size.

SETTINGS:
Title: usually main feature only. Special features may rip as separate title only if it is necessary.
As for tv show, i rip each episodes as separate files.

Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder: x264 (h.264 iPod0
Target size (MB): OFF

Average bitrate (kbps):

1500: For movies with lots of big explosion, special effects, fast camera movement

1250: Suitable for most movies. File size would be 10MB per 1 minute of material.

700: B/W Movie and TV Show. Roughly 250MB for a 45 minutes show.

350: VCD

(2 pass for all bit rate, boz @ same bitrate 2 pass make a difference, even for vcd...)

Constant quality: OFF [ ON - 50% ]
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: ON, always on, it make a difference!
File format: MP4
Codecs: AVS/H.264 Video / AAC Audio ]
Subtitles Language: my parents need it
Audio Language 1: 5.1 track
Mixdown: Dolby Pro Logic if applicable.
Sample rate (Hz): 44100
bitrate (kbps): usually 128, but for a movie with great soundtrack or with lots of sfx sound, i choose 160

Picture Settings...
Width: 640 x XXX, to maintain compatibility with older video iPod.
Keep aspect ratio: ON
Crop: Automatic
Deinterlace: depends.

[GSM]

Thank you for this Topic/Sticky!
And Thank You to everyone who posts their "best" settings!

Makes using soo much easier to have a little guide like this.

[gabefung]

one more thing on my best setting:

TV Show. Unlike movie we are talking about 24 episodes per season @ 42-44 minutes each. Size really matter here.

I choose 700kbps for video which yield 260MB per episode, roughly 6GB per season.

and of course as i say above, 2 pass does matter.

[mike693]

WHY: Apple TV (convenience of entire library on server, preserve original discs)
PRIORITIES: Quality, then File Size
SETTINGS:
Title: main
Chapters: all
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder: x264 (Main)
Target size (MB): OFF
Average bitrate (kbps): ON - Typically 1.5 - 3.5 mbps based on CRF test rip at 72%
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: ON
File format: MP4
Codecs: AVS/H.264 Video / AAC Audio (will use MP4 if it is the only way to fix problem of audio stopping part way thru film)
Subtitles Language: OFF [unless audio is in a language I don't speak]
Audio Language 1: First
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate (Hz): 44100
bitrate (kbps): 160
Picture Settings...
Width: Auto Selected
Height: Auto Selected
Keep aspect ratio: ON
Crop: Automatic
Deinterlace: OFF, ON only if it's awful
RELATED TOOLS: RipIt4Me (et al.), DVDshrink, AtomicParsley, iTunes, BASH

[roland.g]

I use pretty much the consensus settings here.

WHY: Apple TV, no video iPod and if a true one comes out/iPhone release, will wait to see what the specs are for those.

PRIORITIES: Quality, file size.

Settings:
Title: Main
Chapters: all
File Format: MP4
Codecs: AVC/H.264/AAC Audio
Framerate: same as source
Encoder: x264(Main)
2-Pass encoding: On
Quality - Avg. Bitrate: 2000
Target Size: Off

Picture Settings: 720x keep aspect ratio
Sample Rate: 48
Bit Rate: 160

My big questions:

1. Why does Auto-crop usually pull 2x from left and right? and output is either still 720 or 704?

2. Bitrate: is it true that there really is no difference over 1000 or 1500 and that 2000-2500 is a waste of space.

3. Audio - default I use is English (AC3) (5 ch). This seems to play through Apple TV, downmixed? Is it better to choose another selection off the DVD per broaddd and rhester[/b]

[mike693]

@roland.g

The bitrate value you choose should largely be a based on what quality looks good to you on your equipment. If you can't tell the difference, why not save the space?

It also depends on the source material. For example, some sources (e.g., older films, 16mm, etc.) can have a grainier image. I find that kind of material generally needs a higher bitrate to achieve the same (subjective) quality. Every movie is different. Further, a 704x416 movie will generally need a higher bit rate than a 704x304 movie as it needs to move about a third more data.

I do a single pass test run in CRF mode to let the computer analyze the film and figure out the bitrate for me. I use the bit rate from that first run in a two pass run later. I prefer high quality, that's why I use CRF at 72%. I typically run HB overnight, so I don't really care how long it takes.

You may find a single pass CRF run good enough (instead of two pass), or higher or lower quality values. Play with it and see what works for you.

[KennyM]

Hi.

I'm a composer editing together a demo reel of projects I've worked on and have to rip a few things off of a DVD. I'm editing this together with iMovie and putting the DVD together to burn from iDvd.

Since I'm a video idiot a lot of the settings don't mean much to me. Any suggestions for settings for maintaining the highest quality needed that is going to end up back on a DVD?

Thanks,
Kenny

[rhester]

If both your source and destination are DVD, I wouldn't recommend HandBrake at all. It's just not intended for that and will degrade your output quality unnecessarily as well as lengthen your processing time.

HandBrake is intended to convert DVD video to 3GP - that's it.

Rodney

[Ralph The Magician]

WHY: Ability to create a collection of digital masters which can be used to recreate DVDs at near 1:1 quality, yet in an easy format for conversion to other formats and playback on the computer.
PRIORITIES: Quality
SETTINGS:
Title: main feature
Chapters: select/no extras
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder: x264 (Main profile)
Target size (MB): OFF
Average bitrate (kbps): ON - 2560
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: ON
File format: MP4
Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
Subtitles Language: OFF
Audio Language 1: first (english)
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate (Hz): 48000
bitrate (kbps): 160
Picture Settings...
Width: Auto Selected
Height: Auto Selected
Keep aspect ratio: ON
Crop: Automatic
Deinterlace: OFF

Comes out really great. Files end up being about half the size as those on the DVD, but there is virtually little-to-no quality loss for animation. Absolutely fantastic. Allows for easy conversion to ther H.264 bitrates, and can be played back in iTunes, QuickTime, and VLC.

[Jeff]

WHY: Transfer DVDs to a media server

PRIORITIES: Quality and file size

SETTINGS:
Title: Main feature (if there are special features -- usually just the longer "featurettes" and documentaries -- I'll rip them separately.)
Encoder: x264 (Main profile)
Constant quality: 70%
Grayscale encoding: OFF (Unless it is a black and white movie)
Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
Subtitles Language: OFF (English for foreigh films)
Audio Language 1: First (I prefer films in their "main" language)
Sample rate (Hz): 44100 [ 48000, 24000, 22050 ]
Bitrate (kbps): 192 (Except concert DVDs, which I rip at 256 or 320, depending on the artist.)
Picture Settings... (Only change if the picture needs it.)

Like Maddux, above, I've chosen these settings to copy my DVD library to a media server (Intel Mac Mini). After testing chapters of many of my favorite movies, I settled on a constant quality of 70%. This results in an average movie size of 1.5GB at a very good quality. Higher quality settings yielded a drastically increased file size without much of an increase in quality.

I suspect that my final picture is very similar to Maddux's.

What are you playing your movies back on? More specifically, what audio?
I'm in the middle of researching the whole AAC vs AC3 thing, and being that you can only pass AC3 from your mac mini via the optical cable to a AV receiver and not AAC, I'm assuming you are not getting surround sound out while viewing your movies. Is this true?

[macjonte]

I use it to be able to browse DVDs from front row.
priority: standards. And space, a lot of movies taking a lot of space.

Target Size: 700 MB
video: h264 MP4, 2-pass encoding
audio: AAC 128 kbit (I start to try with Dolby surround today)
And then I won't change more.

[DisabledTrucker]

WHY: To archive my collection into a format compatible with Any O/S
PRIORITIES: Quality both Visual and Audio, Standards that are compatible with Any O/S
SETTINGS: (Just show the ones you change...)
Title: Primarily Main Feature, but others if entertaining enough
Chapters: Whatever is in the Main Feature mainly **See Above**
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder: Primarily h264 (x264 main) for compatiblity
Target size (MB): OFF I'm not concerned with size as much
Average bitrate (kbps): 2200 usually but varies depending upon source
Constant quality: OFF generally but occaisionally I use this instead depending on source then it's usally at around 98% as I tend to be discriminate about quality
Grayscale encoding: OFF (I don't care about B/W vids those are soo last millenium!)
2-pass encoding: ON always
File format: MP4 for compatiblity
Codecs: AVS/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
Subtitles Language: OFF unless needed for non-english videos **See below**
Audio Language 1: US English or Native dependant upon movie, and normally 5.1 but for some reason there seems to be a problem with this in Handbrake and Quicktime/iTunes **See Below**
Audio Language 2: OFF I don't have a need for it and it usually causes problems during playback from my experiences
Sample rate (Hz): Source Native from back of box normally
bitrate (kbps): Highest possible encoder will do
Picture Settings...
Width: Auto Selected but normally 720
Height: Auto Selected but normally 480/304
Keep aspect ratio: ON unless video needs fixing
Crop: Automatic normally but minor adjustments sometimes needed
Deinterlace: ON when needed **See below**

I've not done much with Handbrake being a new convert to Mac explicitly, but my experiences are from other software I have used in the past as well as my current trails converting The Fast and The Furious - Tokyo Drift. I have found that the Subtitles Language in Handbrake doesn't work unless you specifically select it and there are some movies that are mixed languages and use the Subtitles in the main language to interperate those parts of the movie, something I found that Handbrake lacks the ability to distinguish at this point and should be looked at for a possible feature. It should also automatically determine if the movie needs Deinterlacing as well and only select it when it's needed for you with an override for those movies it can't detect the interlacing in.

On the PC I used Nero's Recode and those were the settings I used in it. It would also be nice to have an advanced mode where one can change the settings through at a minimum of a command line interface or a checkbox at best.

The 5.1 problem seems to lie in QuickTime somewhere as I've had problems with any playback that uses 5.1 sound in it, even on the PC when encoding with Recode. 2.0 Audio seems to do okay, but I'd rather have the full 5.1 sound even if it's using the AC3 format. I realize that the AC3 in open source is still lacking and problematic, but surely there must be a way to fix that. Even if using AAC, there must be a way to fix the 5.1 sound problems. I do realize however neither of these are due to Handbrakes handling of the codecs, it's either the open source libraries or QuickTimes problem, something that cannot be fixed within HandBrake itself.

I encode my movies so that others in the house on other operating systems can view the movies from a localized server and size isn't my problem, a new hard drive isn't that expensive these days and Raid5 makes it relatively easy to add them. My only concern is that it plays and looks as good as possible on no matter what it's being played back on, be it the 24" iMac, the 15" Powerbook, the 17" Samsung monitors, or 50" Samsung LCD HDTV in the living room. The operating systems in my home include, of course, Mac, as well as Linux and Winblows and it must be able to play on all of them independant of player. Though they will be primarily be accessed through iTunes/Quicktime, they aren't always accessed through that therefore I need compatibility as a must.

I can't stand "static" or the "grainy/blocky" look or audio that skips or doesn't sound right so that too is a must for me, the codec must be good enough that I am able to comfortably watch a movie in the living room after I re-encode it. Espeically if I have company over, it's really embarrasing watching a movie that didn't encode right and has blocky/grainy graphics and the sound skips or is distorted in some way. Which is why I chose to go with m4v as the file container, as that is the closest to doing what I am looking for in the MP4 arena and holds the h264 compatible videos as well as either AC3 or AAC audio.

My son occaisionally likes to put them on his iPod for trips that we frequently take, but that's not a priority to me that it be 100% compatible with that as the monitor the DVD player in the car will display 16x9 720i/p on it as well and the iPod does a great job outputting to it. The vast majority of my movies are "WideScreen" 16x9/16x10 so for the most part I don't have much a problem with that either, since they are primarily displayed on the HDTV which is also 16x9 "WideScreen".

Upscaling to 1080i/p isn't a necessity to me either, if I wanted that I'd be watching HD-DVD's and converting them. At their current cost and the fact they are using DRM technology that I'm not thrilled with, I don't forsee using those in the future. The ability to transfer them across a network is though, which is also another reason I have chosen the m4v container for my movie collection, so as not to fill up my bandwidth to view the movies no matter where I am in the house. It's also why I use the limiter for bitrate primarily. I've found that much more than 2200 is too much for the network and much less than 1500 is too little for the quality of the movies.

[sidechain]

WHY: I have 2000 DVD's I have no more Room. I love Apple TV since
I modded it for a bigger drive and to play movies direct OFF my network with NO itunes running!
PRIORITIES: FIle Size One Quality 2nd
SETTINGS:
Title: main feature on Movies Episodes on TV shows
Chapters: all
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder: FFmpeg XviD, x264 (Main profile)
Target size (MB): OFF
Average bitrate (kbps): ON 1500
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: OFF
File format: MP4
Codecs: MPEG-4 Video / AAC Audio [ AVS/H.264 Video / AAC Audio ]
Subtitles Language: OFF Unless it's forign Film English
Audio Language 1: First English - The Queen's
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate (Hz): 48000
bitrate (kbps): 160
Picture Settings...
Width: Auto Selected
Height: Auto Selected [ other... ]
Keep aspect ratio: [ OFF ]
Crop: Automatic [ Custom: 0, 0, 0, 0 ]
Deinterlace: OFF [ ON, ON when needed ]
Animorphic ON

[MetalSnake]

WHY: Watching Music DVDs on the Mac (or maybe AppleTV) without using the original disc everytime

Priorities: High Quality, then file Size

Settings
Title: Well, the main one, sometimes I would like to have two titles in one movie though.
Chapters: all
File format: MP4 file (chapters enabled)
Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
FPS: Same as source
Encoder: x264 (h.264 Main)
Target size: off
Average bitrate: 1400
Constant quality: off
Grayscale encoding: off
2-pass encoding: on
Picture settings: every movie needs different settings here.
Audio:
Track 1: Stereo track
Track 2: off
Sample rate: 48
Bitrate: 160 (I would like 192 though)
Subtitles: none

[coolblue]

WHY: Archiving DVDs or DVB Streams

PRIORITIES: Quality, then file Size

SETTINGS:
Codec: AVS/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
Encoder: x264 (Main profile)
Constant quality: ON 68% - 70%
Audio Language 1: German (foreign language) (Stereo 160kbs, or 6-channel discrete 384kb/s)
Audio Language 2: English (Dolby Pro Logic II or Stereo)
bitrate (kbps): 160 or 384

Picture Settings...
16:9 = 720x576 with Anamorphic: On (1024x576)
Crop: 0, 0, 0, 0

x264 Setting:
ref=5:mixed-refs=1:no-fast-pskip=1:bframes=3:b-rdo=1:bime=1:weightb=1:filter=0,0
:subme=7:analyse=p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4:me=umh:no-dct-decimate=0:nr=150

These are for me the best x264 CRF Settings for a good quality and filesize. On my C2D I have a speed of 4-8fps.

My test film: CSI Miami S01E01 - E04
Length: 42 minutes
16:9, 2 Audio Tracks.

The original source have noise. So I use the NR setting (nr=150) to get a file size that is about 100-200 smaler with the same picture quality.

With CRF 68% I get a filesize between 800mb and 1000mb. I think that's okey.
CRF 70% makes only a little difference in some details.
CRF 66% is bad. Some parts of the picture blur seeable.

Test made on a 24" TFT in Fullscreen View. (So I see all blocking effects, if there were some)

My x264 settings are Quicktime compatible!!
Use filter 0,0 for noisy or bad sources and -2,-1 for good sources.
Use nr=0 for good sources. Max nr = 150. (If you use more.. it blocks more)

Greetings
coolblue

[cvk_b]

Bleeding Edge Seriously Sexy iPod Encodes

Newest Subversion Changeset 622 Mac GUI
Width: 640xWhatever
Bitrate: 1500
2 Pass, Turbo enabled on 1st Pass
x264:

Code: Select all

keyint=300:keyint-min=30:bframes=0:cabac=0:vbv-maxrate=1500:vbv-bufsize=2000:me=umh:subq=6:merange=32:deblock=-1,0:ref=2:no-fast-pskip=1:mixed-refs=1:analyse=all

or deblock=1,0 for cartoons

deinterlace and/or 29.97 as necessary

Tag with METAX (atomic parsley gui)

[Oxygenthief]

WHY: I am beginning the daunting task of upgrading my home entertainment system. The core of which will be a media server/NAS that will provide video and audio content to the other components of my home entertainment system through a new TVIX M-4100SH. I have a 500+ DVD collection that I will be converting into digital format on a 5 TB NAS.
PRIORITIES: 1. (its actually a tie) Compatibility with TVIX M-4100SH and Quality, 2. File Size, 3. Future Proof format/container for media.
SETTINGS: (Just show the ones you change...)
Title: Usually just the main title movie but for tv series I pick all the episodes.
Chapters: I don't really worry about this setting since I usually watch a movie all the way through and rarely skip chapters. I don't even know if it is possible to set chapters for XviD content anyway...
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder: XviD
Target size (MB): After an exhaustive trial and error process (some 50 encodes) I found that a rather simplistic approach works the best. I simply add 250MB to the Target Size for every 15 minutes of movie. Yes, it may seem like overkill for some movies, but for others (especially high movement/action movies) it is perfect. It may seem corny but the most demanding scene I have found to test playback quality is the intro credits for Star Trek Voyager! Yes I'm a geek, but the bit rate in parts of the scene is in the 8000 range. In other words a whole lot of stuff going on. Not to mention a couple of demanding motion pans. And on top of that you have vibrant colors as well as an almost black on white (ship in space) view to gague and scan for jagged edges, red stairs, etc...
Average bitrate (kbps): OFF
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: ON
File format: AVI
Codecs: Xvid/AC3
Subtitles Language: OFF
Audio Language 1: Always the 5.1 surround option
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate (Hz): 48000
bitrate (kbps): 320
Picture Settings...
Width: The orignal width, hand jammed. Handbrake apparently tries to auto crop even if I tell it not to...
Height: The original width, hand jammed.
Keep aspect ratio: ON
Crop: No Crop
Deinterlace: On when needed


Simply put, I cannot say enough good things about Handbrake. I have tried way too many encoders all to find this all in one solution after months of evaluation. In combination with AnyDVD you are ready for just about every movie out there. Even with 2 pass encoding the times are less than single pass times of every other encoder out there (at least with my high quality settings).

With my settings I usually see a 50-65% reduction in movie size with little or no loss in quality at the same resolution as my DVD/Mpeg2 movies.

I have a Cannon HV20 high def camcorder and am looking forward to seeing how well Handbrake does with HighDef content.

For anyone wondering why I chose Xvid over other encoding options it was a decision based on compatibility. While I did find that the H.264 standard offered better quality at smaller file sizes for the same content I could not get any MP4/H.264 encoded with AC3 to play in the TviX M-4100SH, at least not with surround sound anyway. Since I wanted to keep the surround sound that left me with only the XviD option. Since my primary concern was never file size this was not necessarily a bad thing. I say that because the H.264 standard seems to be evolving rapidly. So something I encode today may not be what it could be a year or two from now. XviD, on the other hand, is established. Meaning once H.264 standards are common place and it or something else becomes the new standard there will undoubtedly be conversion apps to migrate XviD content over to the new content (just like Handbrake performs Mpeg2 to XviD now).

Kudos to the developers, your efforts are greatly appreciated.