HandBrake

Description of problem or question:

Since the latest version released in December i’m not able to reduce the size of mp4 files. Be it a 10MB file or a 3GB file, the result always is a bigger file.
I tried playing with the settings, also had the web optimized option marked, constant rate etc.
Nothing seems to help.
Any ideas?

Steps to reproduce the problem (If Applicable):




HandBrake version (e.g., 1.0.0):


1.2.0

Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Windows 10 Creators Update):


Imac Mojave from 2017.

HandBrake Activity Log ***required*** (see How-to get an activity log)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1xb360fz1nxe ... lC4Va?dl=0

I'm confused, You've uploaded a bunch of logs that show that the filesize was significantly reduced ?

There are a couple examples in there where you tried to re-encode to a quality higher than the source, so it correctly ended up larger. (In which case, Try RF 23, 24 etc until you find a number that reduces the size appropriately)

Well here's the latest attempt:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhcqbxlu3r1og ... 2.txt?dl=0

A 1.59 GB file turns into a 2.45 GB file.

What am i missing?

Your source is already highly compressed, so you will have to sacrifice more quality. I expect you might be disappointed with the results of compressing it *more*. But if smaller is what you want, keep sliding the quality slider on the video tab to the left until you get the file size you are looking for. 6 ticks usually halves the file size.

You might also want to try a slower video encoder preset (also on the video tab). The preset you've chosen is for fast encoding which sacrifices quality and size for speed.

Thanks John. I'll give ti a try.
However, why would it make the file so much bigger?

When transcoding video, the process works like this.

The source is uncompressed to raw YUV format. YUV format is basically 12 bits per pixel. So in your case each frame is 1920 * 1080 * 12 bits ~= 3MB per frame. Your video is about 1hr 5min long and 30 frames per second which is about 117000 frames. 117000 frames * 3MB per frame is about 351GB. This uncompressed data is what the encoder sees. It doesn't know anything about the original compressed size of the source. The encoder then compresses this 351GB data using the settings you've chosen. Only the uncompressed data and the settings you've chosen have an impact on the final file size.

Ok so i've done as you suggested. Still ended up with a bigger file.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hobdcx69iwfv3 ... 9.txt?dl=0

Your thoughts please?

You need to lower the quality by increasing your rf value, try 28.

You only tried one of the things I suggested... and the file did get smaller than your last attempt. But as I also said (and s55 before me) you will have to lower the quality setting to achieve the size you are looking for.

What size are you hoping to achieve?