Blocky Digitized Video on new version of Handbrake

hi-tekguru · Post by **hi-tekguru** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 4:47 am

Hello,

Ok, so I downloaded the latest version of Handbrake and encoded a movie with no problems. When I play it back the video is a bit blocky and digitzed. I encoded the movie using H.264 at 1800kbps bitrate. I took the same ISO movie and encoded it on another machine but using Handbrake 0.8.5 with a 1600 bitrate and the video turned out much better and did not show the blocky / digitized problems. Plus the other machine is older and slower. Is there something I'm missing in the newer version of Handbrake to help clear up the video ?

Thanks,

James

slider · Post by **slider** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 4:45 pm

Having the same problem, but I don't know what version I'm running. It has been working fine untill yesterday.

hi-tekguru · Post by **hi-tekguru** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:09 pm

Found the problem. If I uncheck Anamorphic PAR and specify the width and height. Once I unchecked it and specific the size the video encoded beautifully. I compared the same video with Anamorphic PAR checked with the one unchecked and there was a big difference. From here on out I will leave this unchecked and just specify the size.

Thanks,

James

jbrjake · Post by **jbrjake** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 2:02 pm

hi-tekguru wrote:Found the problem. If I uncheck Anamorphic PAR and specify the width and height. Once I unchecked it and specific the size the video encoded beautifully. I compared the same video with Anamorphic PAR checked with the one unchecked and there was a big difference. From here on out I will leave this unchecked and just specify the size.

....or you could think about it for two seconds and realize that when you're encoding a higher resolution image, you need a higher bitrate to achieve the same quality as at a lower resolution. The difference between 700*400 and 720*480 (or whatever your aspect ratio / resolution was) is more than 200kbps.

Honeyko · Post by **Honeyko** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:23 pm

Without knowing what height/width he manually selected for the second run, and the DAR of the original material, it's hard to offer advice here.

(Unchecking anamorphic will yield a cleaner file is the output if DAR is 640x480 TV when the source is 720x480 NTSC, but make a crummier file if the output is a widescreen film -- provided you're confining output to certain file sizes.)

jbrjake · Post by **jbrjake** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:34 pm

Honeyko wrote:(Unchecking anamorphic will yield a cleaner file is the output if DAR is 640x480 TV when the source is 720x480 NTSC, but make a crummier file if the output is a widescreen film -- provided you're confining output to certain file sizes.)

This is not true. Please don't spread nonsense like this with such an air of authority.

What size 4:3 anamorphic material is displayed at is an arbitrary decision made by the playback system. For example, VLC displays 720*480 with an 8/9 PAR as 720*540, which is the exact opposite of what you're claiming.

This is also what QT 7.2 does with current HandBrake code.

Furthermore, anyone displaying the video at any resolution greater than 640*480 regardless of whether the DAR is 4:3 will also see a better picture from using anamorphic.

Your comment about target file size makes no sense. Comparing at a constant size, anamorphic will "make a crummier file" all the time, regardless of film AR, because anamorphic always uses more pixels than non-anamorphic, requiring more bitrate.