Advice on Presets

[tkc100]

I am new to HandBrake but after spending many frustrating hours with Doctor Divx and the Divx Converter I am certainly glad to find it. I have encoded several movie now without a hitch.
I do however have a question that I am hoping someone with more experience can assist me with. Yesterday I encoded a movie using the mkv container, once with the "normal preset" and then again with the "high profile" preset for comparison.
Here are the results:
1 title set playing time 2h 17mn
VIDEO_TS Title set = 4.36 GB (4,687,587,328 bytes)
Normal = 1.29 GB (1,396,369,446 bytes) 30% the size of the original
Encoding time 5 hours 9 minutes 47 seconds
5.163055556
High Profile = 1.56 GB (1,681,741,562 bytes) 36% the size of the original
Encoding time 10 hours 48 minutes 37 seconds 10.81027777 hours
It took 5.65 hours longer to encode the high profile
or 105 % longer
Does this look normal?
There really isn't much difference in size.
Is the quality of the "high profile" really worth the added time?
Thanks!

[ascianti]

2x longer? Yes, that's normal
300mb larger? possibly, high-profile does turn on ac3 pass-through, so if you have a really big ac3 audio file, it can really bump up the resulting video size, however that on its own seems unlikely, unless the video you encoded is just perfectly suited to the settings in normal and gives basically no size decrease with high profile (seems unlikely).

You can look at the resulting files and see which one you think has better quality, they both should be basically the same (as by default they both use the constant quality setting).

[king otoss]

hey i done basically what you done last night, twice as long? try 50 times longer (just a guess lol).....the normal preset took a few minutes and the high profile took a couple of hours....I was only encoding 25min of the film....
Cant see any real difference in picture quality or file size.....why the difference in encoding time? Is there any advantage in using high profile??
I cant personally see or hear much difference in picture or sound quality....but i've only tried one film so i need to do some experiments with more....

BTW why doesnt an .MKV file give me any details? like bitrate, duration ect when i roll over a .avi file in windows explorer it gives me all the info i want, with .mkv it only gives me the Type: MKV and the Size: 320MB

[Deleted User 11865]

2x longer? Yes, that's normal
300mb larger? possibly, high-profile does turn on ac3 pass-through, so if you have a really big ac3 audio file, it can really bump up the resulting video size, however that on its own seems unlikely, unless the video you encoded is just perfectly suited to the settings in normal and gives basically no size decrease with high profile (seems unlikely).

You can look at the resulting files and see which one you think has better quality, they both should be basically the same (as by default they both use the constant quality setting).

x264 options can have an influence on the quality of the file at the same RF.

For example, 8x8dct (enabled in High Profile preset, disabled in Normal preset) will often increase file size (especially if the source is grainy, in my experience) and quality.

[mduell]

hey i done basically what you done last night, twice as long? try 50 times longer (just a guess lol).....the normal preset took a few minutes and the high profile took a couple of hours....I was only encoding 25min of the film....

Let's see the encoding logs. I don't believe you.

BTW why doesnt an .MKV file give me any details? like bitrate, duration ect when i roll over a .avi file in windows explorer it gives me all the info i want, with .mkv it only gives me the Type: MKV and the Size: 320MB

Windows doesn't support the latest freetard flavor of the month. If you use MP4 then Windows will show you full details.

[Bling2Ming]

I think the high profile preset also turns on Detelecine and Decomb, whilst the normal preset keeps them turned off. So if you have a non progressive source the high profile preset could take a lot longer than the normal preset though the results should look better too.

[tkc100]

Thanks for all the advice and input.
Although I know my way around computers I am new to all this video stuff. It can really be overwhelming at times. The concepts and all the language that accompanies them can really burn my brains at times.
I am thankful that individuals such as yourselves are willing to share your experience.
So far using HandBrake has been almost flawless. When it has presented problems it was my lack or understanding the process and not the software that was a fault.
For now I think I will go with the "High Profile" preset. Time is really not much of a factor for me. I start and encode when I go to bed and it is almost always done when I get up.
The size difference really isn't much of a factor either. I am just so happy to be able to store a feature movie without all the fluff found on the standard DVD release.
Lastly I think I am covering my bet here. I really don't understand all the differences between the two presets but it's my bet the "High Profile" produces a better end product. If some where down the road I get a latest and greatest television the "High Profile" encodes may if fact really show themselves to be better.

[mduell]

As long as your playback device is a computer or highly capable set top (current gen gaming consoles, etc) you're fine with High Profile. You may want to drop the AC3 passthrough track for considerable filesize savings if you don't have and don't plan on getting 5.1 speakers.