HandBrake

I have successfully used Handbrake to transfer self-made DVD's to a variety
of iPods and iPads. Works great! No problems, good quality on the
devices.
Now I want to be more flexible and play the content of these DVD's from the
iDevice to a TV. I have the necessary cables (they use red/yellow/white
RCA jacks) and can do it, but the quality is mediocre at best; I am not expecting HD, just less blur, more sharpness. Even the
same file played through iTunes on the iMac's screen suffers.
In case you were wondering, this allows me to take with me many shows while
traveling, all in a small device.
Here is the sequence of events:

•Record HDTV broadcast on a DVR (yes, recorded in HD)
•Play DVR and simultaneously burn to DVD (not an HD burner, but when the
DVD is played on a TV the quality is very good)
•Use Handbrake to convert DVD content into iDevice compatible format
•Connect iDevice to TV and play (quality suffers greatly)

I have created a custom preset (see the excellent article at
http://www.macworld.com/art ... e.html
on how to do this) based on AppleTV 2 that assures encoding at the maximum
quality based on the source, I have searched these forums and found
suggestions:

use constant quality, not average bit rate (was doing it all along)
RF: 19
no-det-decimat = 1 (did it, no real improvement)
no-fast-pskip =1 (couldn't find this setting in v 0.96)
mbtree = 0 (couldn't find this setting in v 0.96)

My activity log is at http://paste.handbrake.fr/pastebin.php?show=3137

So what might improve what I see on the screen?

You forgot to mention that you're downscaling to a 352-pixel width… no wonder Activity Logs are required.

First of all, which specific iPod models are you targeting?

Edit: I see that your source DVD is already 352 pixels wide. Still, please answer my question so that we can get started.

The source is created by burning a DVD from a DVR. Not sure how that might cause the issue you have noted.

The video is transferred to either an iPod Touch or 3rd generation iPad before being played on a TV.

You should really try and figure out how to have your DVR output the maximum DVD resolution (720x480, instead of the 352x240 you get now). Or even find a way to get access to the HD content. What's your DVR?

In the meantime, you will need to increase constant quality.
For such a low resolution, an RF of 14 would be a good starting point.

Also...

calguy44 wrote:I have the necessary cables (they use red/yellow/white
RCA jacks) and can do it, but the quality is mediocre at best;

You're using a composite cable, i.e. the worst possible way to connect a video source to a TV short of RF. You're never going to get decent quality output unless you invest in a better cable.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I will pursue them.
It seems the biggest bottleneck is the DVR, which is a component of the cable box from the cable company. I may not have too many options short of replacement.
The cables seem to be the option that is most readily useable for televisions on the road, but I will pursue alternatives.

calguy44 wrote:Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I will pursue them.
It seems the biggest bottleneck is the DVR, which is a component of the cable box from the cable company. I may not have too many options short of replacement.
The cables seem to be the option that is most readily useable for televisions on the road, but I will pursue alternatives.

Yeah, RCA is more or less universal, but only due to being around for so long. The quality on it is pretty poor. I know that many iDevices will support S-Video, which might get you a marginally better picture, but if any of your devices support the HDMI adapter, then don't even think about it. GET ONE. The quality difference will be night and day assuming the video itself is high quality. Keep the RCA adapter as a backup just in case you can't use HDMI.