BluRay Encode Advice

General questions or discussion about HandBrake, Video and/or audio transcoding, trends etc.
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Bobcat37
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 5:51 am

BluRay Encode Advice

Post by Bobcat37 »

I am currently working on ripping my bluray collection with handbrake and am still unsure how best to approach it (I have read through the whole guide and wiki, and got a nice custom DVD setting I'm happy with, but hi-def content seems to be another beast).

My sources are pretty much all 1080p and I want to keep the resolution at that level (although right now I only have a 720p tv, I plan to upgrade this year). I playback my stuff using a Mac and Plex, so I have no need to worry about Apple TV compatibility. I'd like to try and keep the file size below 5 GB. Encode speed isn't much of a factor, from what I can tell my iMac refuses to encode 1080p at anything faster than 3fps. It sucks, but I guess it's a sacrifice for the quality. So onto my questions -

1) First off, this is my latest bluray setting - CQRF of 21.5 with this advanced string:
b-adapt=2:me=umh:analyse=all:no-fast-pskip=1:direct=auto:merange=24:ref=4:no-dct-decimate=1

Is this good for bluray sources? My first test rips have been with Planet Earth episodes, so I'd like to make them as detailed as possible while keeping them below 5GB. If there is anything you'd change please let me know.

2) For anamorphic, is there going to be a better option between Strict and Loose when it comes to bluray? I am still kind of confused by the differences between the two but decided to use Loose on all my DVD sources since the guide said under strict "compression will suffer".

3) Lastly, for my DVD rips, I would encode two audio tracks (surround and stereo) for the sake of iPhone compatibility, but from what I can tell an iPhone doesn't like 1080p, so is there a point in doing this on my bluray encodes? Or would it still be a good future-proofing idea for iPhones of the future that might support 1080p video?

Thanks for any advice and critique. I'm using handbrake 0.9.4
creamyhorror
Enlightened
Posts: 134
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2010 2:00 pm

Re: BluRay Encode Advice

Post by creamyhorror »

Bobcat37 wrote: 1) First off, this is my latest bluray setting - CQRF of 21.5 with this advanced string:
b-adapt=2:me=umh:analyse=all:no-fast-pskip=1:direct=auto:merange=24:ref=4:no-dct-decimate=1
You might consider adding subme=9, b-pyramid=1 and bframes=6 for additional quality at the expense of more speed. Increasing merange to 28 or 32 will probably also help, assuming you're willing to compromise even more speed.
2) For anamorphic, is there going to be a better option between Strict and Loose when it comes to bluray? I am still kind of confused by the differences between the two but decided to use Loose on all my DVD sources since the guide said under strict "compression will suffer".
Compression suffers negligibly, so I recommend strict in future.
3) Lastly, for my DVD rips, I would encode two audio tracks (surround and stereo) for the sake of iPhone compatibility, but from what I can tell an iPhone doesn't like 1080p, so is there a point in doing this on my bluray encodes? Or would it still be a good future-proofing idea for iPhones of the future that might support 1080p video?
I'd just do separate SD encodes for the iPhone if you need them. So no dual audio tracks.
TedJ
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Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:25 pm

Re: BluRay Encode Advice

Post by TedJ »

I would argue in favour of dual audio tracks, compared to the video and audio passthrough tracks the size is minimal and it's a nice fallback option for those media players/devices that can't handle the passthrough track.
creamyhorror
Enlightened
Posts: 134
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2010 2:00 pm

Re: BluRay Encode Advice

Post by creamyhorror »

TedJ wrote:I would argue in favour of dual audio tracks, compared to the video and audio passthrough tracks the size is minimal and it's a nice fallback option for those media players/devices that can't handle the passthrough track.
There's an argument there for DTS tracks, since decoding support for those is not quite universal, but AC-3 tracks don't need transcoding. And I'd always do another encode for my iPhone anyway.
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