iTunes Store HD encoding?

[Ace]

What kind of encoding scheme do you guys think the folks at Apple utilize for their HD encodes? I rip my Blu-rays using HandBrake, but the HD videos from the iTunes Store always has much better picture quality at 5mbps than what Handbrake puts out at 5.5mbps. Are there any particular advanced settings I should edit to maximize the output quality for HD encodes? (Whill still retaining Apple TV compatability.)

[rhester]

To match the iTunes Store, you will need direct access to the digital masters at the recording studios, which is what they work from. In this case, it's not the quality of the encoder but the quality of the source that counts. Not even Blu-Ray comes remotely close.

Rodney

[dynaflash]

lol. As well probably a rendering farm in order to process that kind of input in any reasonable amount of time.

[Da Man]

You mean Handbrake and my Core2Duo wouldn't crunch 1-4 TB of data in an evening?

[dynaflash]

hehe, of the two, I doubt hb would be the weak link.

[zedsdead]

Apple stated during the Final Cut Studio 2 Keynote that they use Compressor to encode all video on the iTunes Store (obviously one that also supports tagging, which I would love to get my hands on). And yes, they likely have access to Uncompressed 1080p versions of the movies.

[rhester]

The sources aren't 1080p. I believe I read somewhere not long ago that they are something on the order of 4K.

Rodney

[Da Man]

There was an article in Popular Science recently where it was noted it was 4K with a file size ranging anywhere from 1-4TB for the average 1.75 hour film. And it still took their server farm almost 8 hours to crunch one movie down to the quality of what Netflix streams to their viewers, I think.

[jbrjake]

Really? My understanding was their HD sources were only 1080p, but with more color info and far less compression. Maybe they upgraded the system since I last googled.

[Da Man]

I'll poke around my magazine rack (AKA a bin in the bathroom) and see if I can't locate the exact issue. Unfortunately, like everything in Popular Science and Popular Mechanics, everything is dumber down a little bit too much for my taste.