3 ATV quality ideas, please give me your feedback

[288enzo]

I've spent what seems like a millennium reading up on the different methods on getting a higher quality output then the Apple TV default on Handbrake. This is what I found, please let me know your thoughts.

1. Target Size = 16.5 MB / minute of movie time (2 pass encoding)
2. 2000kbps (2 pass encoding), apparently one can't see the difference between 2000 and 2500...why not up it to 3000 or 4000, is it really that much of a difference?
3. Constant Quality = RF 18, why doesn't it allow for 2 pass encoding if it supposedly makes for a better output?

My objective is highest quality possible, size isn't an issue. I need them to be in X264 otherwise I wouldn't simply watch the ISO of the DVD I rip.

I'd like to know which of the above is your preferred method and why.

Always open to idea number 4, 5, 6 so forth and so on.

BTW - Anamorphic, Strict or Loose?

I think I'm getting closer to understanding about 1 100th of what i'm trying to achieve.

[HBSean]

1. Target Size = 16.5 MB / minute of movie time (2 pass encoding)
2. 2000kbps (2 pass encoding), apparently one can't see the difference between 2000 and 2500...why not up it to 3000 or 4000, is it really that much of a difference?
3. Constant Quality = RF 18, why doesn't it allow for 2 pass encoding if it supposedly makes for a better output?

My objective is highest quality possible, size isn't an issue.

I would recommend that you use Constant Quality.

I would not use Target Size if you are concerned about quality.

I used to use an Average Bitrate (2 pass). I did not care if the encode took twice as long and took two days to finish as long as the quality was good, but what I found when I used average bitrate with many test encodes and final product encodes is that bright slower moving scenes did suffer some quality issues. Faster scenes I did not notice any quality issues and with some scenes I saw an improvement.

When Handbrake released 0.9.4, I was reading about how the Handbrake team was pushing people to use Constant Quality so I did more research, tests, and final encodes. You the user choose the quality you would like to maintain. The encoder will keep that quality throughout. An important concept with Constant Quality is that while encoding if the encoder determines that in order to keep that certain quality maintained, the bitrate will be increased as necessary. Also, if a scene does not need a high bitrate to maintain that quality, the encoder will use a lower bitrate. Using Average Bitrate, you may not have enough or you may have too much bitrate. Comparing scenes using Average vs Constant, a majority of scenes using constant looked so much better.

Animated movies such as Finding Nemo and Wall-E use a higher bitrate, but they look so much better than using Average.

I should also note that out of 14 encodes using Constant I had one encode that did not meet my expectations. The movie was My Sister's Keeper. I watched the original DVD again and did notice the quality was not great to begin with. Also, many scenes in the movie look dark which is probably the reason. Watching scenes from the encoded movie came out with some bitrates lower than 300 kbps. Despite this, a re-encode with a lower RF helped this.

For Constant Quality, I use a setting of RF=18 (the same as you have chosen).