HandBrake

Where can I find a definition of what each preset is optimized/best used for? In particular, Regular Normal and Regular High Profile? What devices are they optimally/ideally designed to work with?

I have seen this page, http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/BuiltInPresets but am looking for a little more information.

Thanks much, in advance!

The easier way might be for you to tell us what devices you're trying to target, then we could point you to the right preset or in the direction of an appropriate setting.

I have several Macs (iMacs, laptops, and Mac Pros), 2 original AppleTVs, an iPad, an iPhone4, and various iPods. I'm sure that I could use the Apple Universal setting to make an encoding that will work on all of these devices, but I'd like to know what Normal & High Profile are used for.

Devices that are not made by Apple.

Basically, they don't target any specific device - they're more general presets targeting devices which support High Profile H.264 (High Profile preset) or Main Profile H.264 (Normal preset). Also, the Normal preset is slightly faster.

If you leave out the iPods, the AppleTV is the weakest device in that bunch. You'd be safe encoding with the "AppleTV" preset included in 0.9.5. If you take out the ATV or you upgrade to the 2nd generation ATV, then you could use the "AppleTV 2" preset which would be a bit better quality/better file sizes.

thompson wrote:If you leave out the iPods, the AppleTV is the weakest device in that bunch. You'd be safe encoding with the "AppleTV" preset included in 0.9.5. If you take out the ATV or you upgrade to the 2nd generation ATV, then you could use the "AppleTV 2" preset which would be a bit better quality/better file sizes.

I've heard that the Normal preset is very similar to the Apple Universal preset, in that it can be used for both ATV and iPods, however, based on what you're saying, that's not the case.

kappabear wrote:

thompson wrote:If you leave out the iPods, the AppleTV is the weakest device in that bunch. You'd be safe encoding with the "AppleTV" preset included in 0.9.5. If you take out the ATV or you upgrade to the 2nd generation ATV, then you could use the "AppleTV 2" preset which would be a bit better quality/better file sizes.

I've heard that the Normal preset is very similar to the Apple Universal preset, in that it can be used for both ATV and iPods, however, based on what you're saying, that's not the case.

Here's the deal. You can get a file that's compatible with all of your devices, but you're always encoding to the lowest common denominator. Even the latest generation iPods have serious limitations, and once you start going back one or two generations they become almost useless. My recommendation is to encode to the AppleTV. The difference between the ATV and your Mac are much less than the differences between your iPod and your Mac, as far as playback capability.

Does that make any sense?

kappabear wrote:

thompson wrote:If you leave out the iPods, the AppleTV is the weakest device in that bunch. You'd be safe encoding with the "AppleTV" preset included in 0.9.5. If you take out the ATV or you upgrade to the 2nd generation ATV, then you could use the "AppleTV 2" preset which would be a bit better quality/better file sizes.

I've heard that the Normal preset is very similar to the Apple Universal preset, in that it can be used for both ATV and iPods, however, based on what you're saying, that's not the case.

I'd be interested to know where you heard that

Neither the Normal nor the High Profile presets limit the resolution, so if you have a 1080p source they'll be incompatible with any of your devices. Both encode Main or High Profile H.264 (incompatible with any iPod - except the 32/64 GB 3rd gen. iPod touch and 4th gen. iPod touch). They also have b-pyramid and weightp enabled (incompatible with the 1st gen. AppleTV).

thompson wrote: Here's the deal. You can get a file that's compatible with all of your devices, but you're always encoding to the lowest common denominator. Even the latest generation iPods have serious limitations, and once you start going back one or two generations they become almost useless. My recommendation is to encode to the AppleTV. The difference between the ATV and your Mac are much less than the differences between your iPod and your Mac, as far as playback capability.

Does that make any sense?

Thanks, that makes perfect sense, and is exactly what I assumed. However, it also sounds like I'd have to make a 2nd encoding if I wanted the movie to play on an iPod, right?

By the way, thanks for the responses. You guys are great.

kappabear wrote:Thanks, that makes perfect sense, and is exactly what I assumed. However, it also sounds like I'd have to make a 2nd encoding if I wanted the movie to play on an iPod, right?

If you didn't want to make the compromises necessary to make a universally encoded file, then yeah unfortunately. The iPods are just so limited in their playback and your other devices are just so much more capable that I think it's somewhat unavoidable. At least that's what I would do.

Thanks Thompson. Much appreciated.