HandBrake

I don't have any screenshots or anything, but if you could see it, you would all know what I'm talking about. The worst one I have seen so far has been Avatar: A good example is at 0:26:15 to 0:26:26. The tree on the left and the light beams on the right of the frame pixelate and block up very noti...

subme=8:trellis=2:ref=16:bframes=16:me=umh:merange=64:no-fast-pskip=1:no-dct-decimate=1:b-adapt=2:direct=temporal 1. direct=temporal? Why? direct=spatial or auto makes more sense; under auto mode, spatial is used the lion's share (>95%) of the time. 2. You use pointlessly slow settings like bframes...

1. You cannot encode hard subtitles (ie. always on) with a srt file. Soft subtitles can also be "always on". You just need to check the Default box. Avoid hardsubbing subtitles if it isn't necessary, I say. Thats pretty much it. Set the file to encode then once it has finished, you can ei...

If the goal is quality, x264 is the way to go for the foreseeable future. HB isn't particularly directed toward the creation of web video anyway (which is the major point of WebM/opensourced VP8). If patent issues concerning VP8 are settled (either in court or out) and a capable team starts working ...

Loose picks dimensions that are divisible by 16 which allows the compression to be a little more efficient and thus can improve picture quality a little. As far as I understand it, if you encode at a non-mod16 resolution, x264 pads to mod16 with repeated edge pixels, which is probably as easy or ea...

From a discussion on Doom9 I remember x264 not needing any changes to encode black and white. Someone proposed an alternative, pretty infeasible method involving some sort of separation of channels, but it would require re-summing prior to playback. I doubt monochrome sources are causing the Xbox to...

mduell wrote:Read much? He has a 5th gen iPod and that's the preset setting.

Mind turning down the snark? He didn't say he used any preset and the log gives no indication. I've never used the iPod 5G preset, so I wouldn't know what the VBV-maxrate for that is either.

[duplicate]

Just use MKVMergeGUI to remux the encoded video, and specify the display aspect ratio when you do. No re-encoding required.

I think you can do the same with YAMB for MP4 files.

1. Are you using one of the presets? Which one? Your vbv-maxrate setting (768) seems rather low. 2. Are you using 1-pass with a bitrate target? If you are, you shouldn't, because 1-pass ABR produces uneven and inferior quality. Use 2-pass. 3. Post a screenshot of a 'grainy' frame. Are you talking ab...

Try a(nother) x264 frontend, like MeGUI, StaxRip, Ripbot264, etc. Such Avisynth-based programs should be able to handle Debugmode FrameServer files (I know MeGUI does, having used it before).

PCKid wrote:Tried the MKVextract. Too hard to see how to use it. Guess I'll leave Handbrake alone and go back to Visualhub. Have no problems with that at all. Leave Handbrake for DVDs. Doesn't seem to like mkvs.

AFAIK, the right program to use is MKVMergeGUI (it has a splitting option).

Could be any of various factors, but the basic reason is that Mary Poppins is more complex to encode. Some old, grainy movies (even animation!) can go to 3+GB. If you don't want to spend so much bitrate/size on those specimens, then use 2-pass to set a bitrate, or increase the CRF value.

Using the appletv preset, doesn't handbrake default to the most efficient and fastest settings to achieve it? If not, why not? Settings can't be both fast and efficient. Fast settings are less bitrate-efficient, i.e. they result in less quality for the same bitrate. Slow settings are more bitrate-e...

In a recent thread it was noted by a user here (and a developer seemed to confirm) that the "Strict" anamorphic setting was actually better than the Loose one (seemingly a "new" development). Did I understand that correctly? Because I've been using the High Profile for all my bl...

Could be a colormatrix problem fixable by specifying the matrix in the x264 options, but I don't know how to do it in Handbrake (never tried it).

Use Anamorphic Strict if your device or player can take it - it results in the best quality of the three. Generally any decent computer player should be fine with it, and standalone players like the WD TV as well. Don't know about Apple devices.

I like bframes=6 and ref=6 myself. b-adapt=optimal tends to use a lot of b-frames if allowed to, up to 6 or 7 on some films. It's slow, though. merange=24 for high-motion or HD material. aq-strength=1.2-1.4 when you want even more detail retention.

mduell wrote:HB does not support interlaced encoding.

Wouldn't it be possible to pass the 'interlaced' flag to x264 via an advanced commandline? Or would some other issue (like muxing) still screw it up?

Awesome thanks! I will give both a shot and see how they turn out. Would you be willing to quickly explain the difference between the two? Just so I have a better understanding of whats going on. I just reduced some of the higher settings in the first commandline, trying to remove the less time/bit...

Where's your encode log? Also, post a screenshot showing the issue.

Slow but high quality (paste in advanced commandline box): ref=6:mixed-refs=1:b-adapt=2:bframes=6:weightb=1:direct=auto:me=umh:subq=9:analyse=all:8x8dct=1:trellis=2:no-fast-pskip=1:psy-rd=1,0:merange=24:deblock=-2,-2:rc-lookahead=50:aq-strength=1.2:b-pyramid=1 A bit faster and slightly lower quality...

Aha, I see. Baseline profile is pretty terrible, yes. Mainly the lack of CABAC (10-20% efficiency IIRC) and b-frames. Luckily most semi-recent devices support Main or High Profile. Baseline profile might as well just be XviD... hex isn't much of a drop down from umh AFAIK, but I'm sure the devs did ...

cabac=0:ref=2:me=umh:bframes=0:8x8dct=0:trellis=0:subq=6:weightb=0

Those are some terrible settings though.

15-20GB 1080p encodes of movies are oversized. Blu-ray encodes are, generally speaking, oversized.

Let CRF (Constant Quality) do the deciding for you.