Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

General questions or discussion about HandBrake, Video and/or audio transcoding, trends etc.
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megabyteme
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Joined: Fri May 23, 2008 12:27 am

Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by megabyteme »

Oh... great! How do I turn that on? decomb=1 or picturedecomb=1 or other?
MacLovin
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Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:16 pm

Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by MacLovin »

Hey Guys,

after crawling to several threads, I still could not figure out what is the optimal picture setting for an anime such as SIMPSONS. Since I will rip my DVD collection soon, I appreciate any input regarding the picture settings.

Do I need to deinterlace ?

Do I need detelecine / VFR ?

What about those b-frames ?


Thanks for your help,

Christian
jzietman
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by jzietman »

nightstrm wrote:OK, here is what I am currently using. I am currently using post-snapshot code, so some of these features may not be available in .9.2 (and one is only available via a patch currently). Big difference is always using CRF=64 (except for concert DVDs... this high of a value typically results in a very large file), switched to loose anamorphic, no longer use denoise filter, and switched audio settings with support of multiple audio inputs in snapshot.

Format: MP4 File

Video
Encoder: x264
Constant Quality: 64% (I use 64% for everything now... very satisfied with size + quality after the VAQ improvements were committed to SVN)

Picture Settings
Anamorphic: Loose
Crop: Automatic
VFR: Enabled
Decomb: Default (only available via patch against SVN code... this + VFR results in beautiful encodes)

Audio + Subtitles
Track 1: English (AC3) (Dolby Surround) <-- if available, otherwise use English (AC3) (5.1)
- Audio Codec: AAC (faac)
- Mixdown: Stereo (due to a bug, this retains the original dolby surround encoding -- I'd rather keep the studio mix)
- Samplerate (khz): 48
- Bitrate (kbps): 160
- DRC: 1.50
Track 2: English (AC3) (5.1)
- Audio Codec: AC3 Passthru
Subtitles: Autoselect (Forced Subtitles Only - Checked)

Chapters: Enabled (I use chapter names from DVD if available, otherwise leave as default)

Advanced: cabac=0:ref=2:analyse=all:me=umh:subq=6:no-fast-pskip=1:trellis=1:mixed-refs=1:merange=32:level=30
Hi nightstrm,

Why do you use DRC on your audio tracks? Does it make it louder or the file size smaller? I've been scared to use it since, having gone through a brief and unduly expensive stint as a wannabe-audiophile, I've come to be very wary of audio compression in general...
dynaflash
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by dynaflash »

drc makes the soft sounds louder, kind of like a night listening mode that some receivers have.
Here is a bit of light reading on HB's implementation http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php ... ion#p21191
jzietman
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Posts: 146
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 3:29 pm

Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by jzietman »

dynaflash wrote:drc makes the soft sounds louder, kind of like a night listening mode that some receivers have.
Here is a bit of light reading on HB's implementation http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php ... ion#p21191
gotcha. thanks.
nightstrm
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by nightstrm »

dynaflash wrote:drc makes the soft sounds louder, kind of like a night listening mode that some receivers have.
Here is a bit of light reading on HB's implementation http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php ... ion#p21191
Dynaflash hit it right on the head with his post... I find I like the sound output a little better when listening via headphones, or my bedroom TV (no A/V receiver, only built-in speakers). If I watch from my AppleTV in the living room, I'm using the untouched AC3 soundtrack.
megabyteme
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri May 23, 2008 12:27 am

Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by megabyteme »

TedJ wrote:
megabyteme wrote:
TedJ wrote:AFAIK, decomb has only been included in the Mac GUI...
Is decomb planned to be included in the Windows GUI for the final release of 0.9.3?
Definitely, once jbrjake has finished tweaking and tuning it.

In the meantime, you should be able to pass the decomb option manually by adding it to the advanced options.
megabyteme wrote:Oh... great! How do I turn that on? decomb=1 or picturedecomb=1 or other?
^^^^ anyone?
gbdesai
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Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:44 pm

Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by gbdesai »

Add the switch "-5" to the command line (if you are using WinGui then add it to the box in the Advanced tab... Do a HandBrakeCli.exe --help for all the available options...
megabyteme
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri May 23, 2008 12:27 am

Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by megabyteme »

gbdesai wrote:...if you are using WinGui then add it to the box in the Advanced tab... Do a HandBrakeCli.exe --help for all the available options...
Yes, that is exactly what I said I want to do.... add it to the advanced options under the advanced tab in the Windows GUI.

I looked here:
http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/x264Options#options
and here...
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/me ... ng-options

There is no mention about decomb. Where else am I suppose to look for advanced options so I can use the decomb filter in the Windows GUI?
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s55
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by s55 »

No, it's not documented and won't be until an official public release.

This thread is for your best settings using the current release. We do not support SVN or Snapshot releases. Wait till the next official release.

Now, Back on topic please.
cvk_b
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This thread needs to die

Post by cvk_b »

This thread needs to die with perhaps a few choice parts plucked and split. People asking for support here have ruined it. This thread should have been "post your best setting here for version X, and why". At least then it wouldn't span multiple versions.
jzietman
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by jzietman »

nightstrm wrote:OK, here is what I am currently using. I am currently using post-snapshot code, so some of these features may not be available in .9.2 (and one is only available via a patch currently). Big difference is always using CRF=64 (except for concert DVDs... this high of a value typically results in a very large file), switched to loose anamorphic, no longer use denoise filter, and switched audio settings with support of multiple audio inputs in snapshot.

Format: MP4 File

Video
Encoder: x264
Constant Quality: 64% (I use 64% for everything now... very satisfied with size + quality after the VAQ improvements were committed to SVN)

Picture Settings
Anamorphic: Loose
Crop: Automatic
VFR: Enabled
Decomb: Default (available in SVN code... this + VFR results in beautiful encodes)

Audio + Subtitles
Track 1: English (AC3) (Dolby Surround) <-- if available, otherwise use English (AC3) (5.1)
- Audio Codec: AAC (faac)
- Mixdown: Stereo (due to a bug, this retains the original dolby surround encoding -- I'd rather keep the studio mix)
- Samplerate (khz): 48
- Bitrate (kbps): 160
- DRC: 1.50
Track 2: English (AC3) (5.1)
- Audio Codec: AC3 Passthru
Subtitles: Autoselect (Forced Subtitles Only - Checked)

Chapters: Enabled (I use chapter names from DVD if available, otherwise leave as default)

Advanced: cabac=0:ref=2:analyse=all:me=umh:subq=6:no-fast-pskip=1:trellis=1:mixed-refs=1:merange=32:level=30
Hey nightstrm, are you still using these settings, or have you switched around a bit in the months since?
nightstrm
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by nightstrm »

I am still using those settings.
PsychopathikRob
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by PsychopathikRob »

Im looking to rip movies to my imac for streaming to my 360 on a 42" screen, at the moment I use the normal setting but when i play it on my xbox it cuts all the edges off the movie. Has anyone got any ideas? also is the PS3 setting playable on the 360 because i think that would be the closest match.
btm
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by btm »

nightstrm wrote:Here is the preset I have been using to generate encodes that are compatible with both the AppleTV and the iPhone, while taking advantage of the new features in .9.2 (including AAC+AC3, improved anamorphic support, and VFR to name a few). Using these settings, I have yet to come across an encode that did not work on both devices.

It should be noted that this uses CRF, which means you cannot accurately predict what the output file size is going to be. This has resulted in some files that seem quite large in comparison to the 8GB of space on my iPhone, but have so far been below 2.5GB. I need Steve to announce a 32GB 3G iPhone in the very near future! :mrgreen:

EDIT: In case I haven't made it clear enough, this preset is not going to be for everyone. It is slower than some of the stock presets, and the file sizes are larger than normal, especially with the limited drive space of the iPhone. I'd like to help come up with something in-between the iPhone and AppleTV presets that is a little easier to manage, but my main concern was keeping as much video quality as possible while maintaining compatibility with all of my Apple devices.

CLI Equivalent (untested): -i <source> -o <destination> -U -F -m -e x264 -q .63 -8 weak -p -E aac+ac3 -B 160 -R 48 -D 1.51 -v -x cabac=0:ref=2:analyse=all:me=umh:subq=6:no-fast-pskip=1:trellis=1:mixed-refs=1:merange=32:level=30

GUI settings -

Format: MP4 File
Codec: AVC/H.264 Video/AAC + AC3 Audio
Insert iPod Atom: Checked (not really necessary)

Video -
Encoder: x264
Constant Quality: 63% (will bump up to 64-65% for select titles) <-- ensure CRF is still checked in preferences

Picture Settings -
Anamorphic: Strict (can use loose if you want)
Crop: Automatic
VFR: Enabled (thank you jbrjake... I have finally encoded Futurama to my liking after numerous attempts before!)
Denoise: Weak (usually set, but this is really a personal preference)

Audio + Subtitles -
Track 1: English AC3 5.1 (Track 1 Mix: DPL2 + AC3)
Bitrate: 160kbps (only affects AAC)
Sample Rate: 48khz
Dynamic Range Compression: 1.51 (only affects AAC, and is really a personal preference)
Subtitles: Autoselect (Forced Subtitles Only - Checked)
Chapters: Enabled

Advanced: cabac=0:ref=2:analyse=all:me=umh:subq=6:no-fast-pskip=1:trellis=1:mixed-refs=1:merange=32:level=30

For older television shows, I've stuck with using pretty much the same settings as above, except using an average bitrate of 1750kbps (Quicktime reports ~1500kbps final bitrate) and AAC audio only.


nightstrm,

First off thanks for posting these settings. I'm not currently using 0.9.3 yet but the results so far are pretty great.

For most movies these settings work perfectly (the only difference is that I set my quality to 68%). However there a few titles which seem to have a problem. In particular, Disney titles seem to cause the most trouble. For instance Ratatouille, encoding from chapters 1 to the end causes the resulting mp4 to be invalid in quicktime. I get an error of "Incorrect Duration." Playing around a bit I found that if I skip the first chapter and encode only 2 til the end the file is completely fine.. with the exception of missing the first chapter of the movie. Playing a bit more I would just encode the first chapter and this would continue to give the "Incorrect Duration" error. So I systematically turned off various settings until I found what was causing the problem... it turns out to be the VFR filter. I get perfectly fine encodings if I turn this off. My question is, have you or anyone else ran into this problem? If so, is it because of the disc's additional copyright protection or is this a handbrake related bug?

Thanks,
Brian
qantaqa
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by qantaqa »

Brian,

I noticed my rips dont work if they exceed 4gb, if you have the same problem, try reducing the quality a bit.



Nghtstrm,

Thanks for these amazing settings, I am ripping piles of dvd9's with this now. The quality is straight out amazing and it works on everything... my XBOX360, my iPhone, my PC and my APPLE TV... this got to be the best possible rip settings ever.

No crap like 'rip for the lowest denominator', no sacrifices here.

Super!
jbrjake
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by jbrjake »

qantaqa wrote:Thanks for these amazing settings, I am ripping piles of dvd9's with this now. The quality is straight out amazing and it works on everything... my XBOX360, my iPhone, my PC and my APPLE TV... this got to be the best possible rip settings ever.

No crap like 'rip for the lowest denominator', no sacrifices here.
Those settings are all *about* sacrifices. Otherwise they wouldn't work on all those devices. It sacrifices high profile for the AppleTV, and cabac and b-frames for the iPhone. You're sacrificing storage space as a result. That means sacrificing choice because you can have fewer video at any given time on any of those devices. In return you're spared the time of encoding and cost of storing copies for each device. But as a result you're getting bloated files everywhere you go. It's a compromise, like everything in video encoding, and you are quite definitely ripping for the lowest common denominator.
qantaqa
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by qantaqa »

oc I am ripping for whats possible on the most limited device. However it doesnt feel like that as the resulting quality is just as high as the APPLETV rip setting. Ussually the suggested rip settings for the iphone are complete crap, based on the official specs, rather then finding a way to get the top notch quality by finding something that does work. This setting does this.

The filesize is ussually comparable to APPLETV, some files are bigger, but thats because the constant quality makes filesize quite unpredictable. In my opinion the few hundred megs it might take more on a movie is well worth saving the hassle of managing multiple libraries and the picture when connecting the iphone to a tv through component is just scary good (a nice way to impress with the power of the iphone).

You tried these settings jbrbrake? Cause size seems like the least important factor imo with harddisks going TB and beyond (and there is no way an entire movie collection is gonna fit my iphone, it will always be choosing some).
jbrjake
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by jbrjake »

qantaqa wrote:oc I am ripping for whats possible on the most limited device. However it doesnt feel like that as the resulting quality is just as high as the APPLETV rip setting.
Yes, but that same resolution could be conveyed to an AppleTV or a computer or a 360 with far fewer bits than are needed for the iPhone, and the same quality could be conveyed to an iPhone with far fewer bits than are needed on the other devices. That's what I mean about them not being the "best possible rip settings" and that you are still encoding to the lowest common denominator. I never said NightStorm's settings lowered quality, I said they made sacrifices.
Ussually the suggested rip settings for the iphone are complete crap, based on the official specs, rather then finding a way to get the top notch quality by finding something that does work. This setting does this.
I take issue with that. I crafted the iPhone setting so that its quality is exceedingly high. It gets top-notch quality *for an iPhone screen*. It reduces resolution, in order to squeeze the same quality into a much smaller footprint. After all, an iPhone screen just scales down larger video anyway, so the bits are wasted there. I'd like to see some actual metrics to back up an extraordinary claim like "the suggested rip settings for the iPhone are complete crap."
You tried these settings jbrbrake?
Of course I have. But I don't use them regularly because it's a massive waste of space, for the same reason NightStorm gave himself: "The reality of it is, if you want encodes that look good on both devices, you're going to have to come to the realization that the encodes are going to be big... much bigger than most people want for their 8GB iPhones (including me)."
Cause size seems like the least important factor imo with harddisks going TB and beyond (and there is no way an entire movie collection is gonna fit my iphone, it will always be choosing some).
Counterpoint: If you have all this storage space on your computer, you can back up a copy for each device. Then you can fit way more on each device, and choose less. When I went on a trip last month, I carried around a day's worth of video on my 8GB iPhone:
3 feature-length films movies
1 2-hour TV show special
1 hour-long standup comedy special
36 TV show episodes (half hour run times each)

I don't believe that would be possible with the universal settings.
btm
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by btm »

qantaqa wrote:Brian,

I noticed my rips dont work if they exceed 4gb, if you have the same problem, try reducing the quality a bit.



Nghtstrm,

Thanks for these amazing settings, I am ripping piles of dvd9's with this now. The quality is straight out amazing and it works on everything... my XBOX360, my iPhone, my PC and my APPLE TV... this got to be the best possible rip settings ever.

No crap like 'rip for the lowest denominator', no sacrifices here.

Super!
qantaqa,

These files aren't getting anywhere near 4 GB. My gut feeling is that it has to do with the copy protection on the first chapter of a track. If I just encode that one chapter using nightstrms settings it gives me the error in the resulting mp4. Turning off VFR seemed to have resolved the problem but I really have no idea why. Has anyone run into this? Or am I taking crazy pills?

-Brian
kalafalas
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by kalafalas »

WHY: a file that looks exactly like playing a dvd on my computer, and works with my ipod classic, iphone 3g, and apple tv.

PRIORITIES: works on all 4 devices, looks exactly like (dvd) source, trying to keep a 2gb file size limit, speed

SETTINGS:
Title: main movie only
Chapters: all
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder:
Target size (MB): OFF
Average bitrate (kbps): ON - 2000
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: ON, turbo 1st pass ON
File format: MP4 [ AVI, OGM ]
Codecs: H.264 Video / AAC Audio / iPod Atom ON
Subtitles Language: OFF
Audio Language 1: All Automatic
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate (Hz): 48000
bitrate (kbps): 160

Picture Settings...
Width: 720
Height: N/A (loose anamorphic)
Keep aspect ratio: ON
Crop: Automatic
Deinterlace: OFF



i build this off the iPhone preset, as that (along with the ipod classic) is the most limited of the devices im using. since i dont know how to use the advansed feature, i figured the defaults for the iphone would be best.

WARNING: the classic can handle the same as the iPhone (supposedly), but the iPod 5G cannot. i havent tryed this on an iPod 5G.

what i do is start with the iPhone preset, change the width to 720, then check loose anormiphic. then change the avg bitrate to 2000, then audio bitrate to 160. daz it :)
Eug
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:01 am

VFR can cause problems

Post by Eug »

btm wrote:My gut feeling is that it has to do with the copy protection on the first chapter of a track. If I just encode that one chapter using nightstrms settings it gives me the error in the resulting mp4. Turning off VFR seemed to have resolved the problem but I really have no idea why. Has anyone run into this? Or am I taking crazy pills?
I had the same problem with Ratatouille, and turning off VFR did allow me to encode the first chapter properly, as you said. I am encoding the rest of the movie as a test run. So, here are my tentative default settings for my iPhone 3G and Xbox 360:

Video
- Encoder: x264
- Framerate: Same as source
- Average bitrate: 2500 Kbps
- Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
- iPod Atom: Yes <-- Doesn't seem to matter
- 1-pass or 2-pass

Picture Settings
- Anamorphic: Strict
- Resolution: 720xXXX
- Crop: Automatic
- VFR: Disabled (as a default, but will turn it on whenever possible)
- Detelecine: Yes
- Deinterlace: Off (but it depends).

Audio + Subtitles
- Track 1: DPL2 + AC3
- Samplerate (khz): 48
- Bitrate (kbps): 160
- DRC: None
- Subtitles: As desired

---

Ratatouille is an interesting test case. Even with Deinterlacing set to "slower", it seriously degrades the picture. Flickering jaggies galore.

I will continue testing to see how VFR affects other titles, but I think for defaults, leaving VFR turned on can be problematic.

I don't always use 2-pass because the image quality improvement at 2.5 Mbps may not always be worth the 100% increase in encoding time, and because the instructions here say one can run into bitrate peak issues with 2-pass, at least with 0.9.2.

These files work fine on the iPhone 3G (and Xbox 360), but are quite large for the iPhone. Luckily I have a 16 GB iPhone, but I'd prefer to have a 32 or 64 GB iPhone. However, I find that anything below about 2 Mbps looks quite crappy on a TV and I'd rather deal with big files than crappy video quality. I use a single encode setting for the Xbox 360 and iPhone 3G because I don't want to encode everything twice. These files will NOT work on the 5G iPod, but I don't care. I found the 5G iPod's screen a bit too small for pleasant video viewing, and the 1.5 Mbps ceiling was far too limiting for TV watching, so I sold my 5G iPod a long time ago. The 2.5 Mbps H.264 support on the new models (including the iPhone) is a huge improvement.
Last edited by Eug on Tue Aug 12, 2008 12:30 pm, edited 3 times in total.
jbrjake
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by jbrjake »

If you guys have a reproducible issue with VFR please start a new thread or a bug report for it instead of clogging up the Best Settings thread. And please. Include activity logs.

I don't have this particular DVD so unfortunately I can't test.

I am aware of one minor issue with VFR that I'm working on, but I can't think of any way it could affect something like this. VFR only touches frames long after the DVD reading code does, so it's not immediately clear how they even could interact....
Eug
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by Eug »

jbrjake wrote:If you guys have a reproducible issue with VFR please start a new thread or a bug report for it instead of clogging up the Best Settings thread. And please. Include activity logs.

I don't have this particular DVD so unfortunately I can't test.

I am aware of one minor issue with VFR that I'm working on, but I can't think of any way it could affect something like this. VFR only touches frames long after the DVD reading code does, so it's not immediately clear how they even could interact....
Yes. I will do this when I get home. I haven't started the bug thread yet because I don't have the activity log with me. However, the settings above are indeed now my default "best settings" for general usage (for the iPhone and Xbox 360), not just for Ratatouille.
vlo37
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by vlo37 »

WHY: Video for Computer and iPod

PRIORITIES: iPod compatibility, then size, then quality.

SETTINGS:
Title: All episodes or Main Title as applicable
Chapters: All
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Encoder: ffmpeg
Target size (MB): OFF
Average bitrate 1000kbps
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: ON
File format: MP4
Codecs: MPEG-4 Video / AAC Audio
Subtitles Language: OFF unless required.
Audio Language 1: English
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate 44800Hz
Bitrate 64Kbps

Picture Settings...
Width: 640
Height: 480
Keep aspect ratio: Used as required
Crop: Automatic or used as required for Widescreen to Fullscreen
Deinterlace: Slowest
Locked