How to keep 1080p but reduce file size w/ sacrificing qualit

[kpfriedberg]

I am a relatively unsophisticated user who has historically used presets when re-encoding rips. I was hoping the community might help me with the following.

For Blu Ray rips, i typically use the AppleTV or Normal presets to rip. As forum members know, the former results in a 540p 4GBish file while the later results in a 12gbish file at 1080p. My question is: Is there a way to keep 1080p, no sacrifice quality too much, but reduce the file size somewhere between the two. I realize there is a tradeoff in file size and quality. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Deleted User 13735]

You can play with the CQ slider or bitrates, but as you are aware, you are going to trade either quality or image real estate / bitrate in order to get smaller files.

That being said, I do most of my HD transcodes down to 720p. They play better on my computer, and unless you have a TV bigger than 40", you won't see a "lot" of difference. And you will enjoy the same "relative" quality by using a 55% lower bitrate (and file size). That's oversimplified of course, but provides a good starting point for your own experimentation. And don't be afraid to do that.

[mduell]

For Blu Ray rips, i typically use the AppleTV or Normal presets to rip. As forum members know, the former results in a 540p 4GBish file while the later results in a 12gbish file at 1080p. My question is: Is there a way to keep 1080p, no sacrifice quality too much, but reduce the file size somewhere between the two. I realize there is a tradeoff in file size and quality. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Increase the rate factor by about 5 points for the Normal preset encode. The tv preset has a number of other settings to deal with the hardware and software limitations of the old tv.

That being said, I do most of my HD transcodes down to 720p. They play better on my computer, and unless you have a TV bigger than 40", you won't see a "lot" of difference. And you will enjoy the same "relative" quality by using a 55% lower bitrate (and file size). That's oversimplified of course, but provides a good starting point for your own experimentation. And don't be afraid to do that.

Unless you're resolution constrained by your playback device, you're better off increasing the rate factor than decreasing the resolution until the rate factor is well into the 30s. A 55% reduction in bitrate is about 6 points on RF.