Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

General questions or discussion about HandBrake, Video and/or audio transcoding, trends etc.
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vlo37
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:09 am

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

Post by vlo37 »

WHY: Video for Computer and iPod

PRIORITIES: Quality for Computer and iPod, small size
SETTINGS:
Title: All episodes or Main Title as applicable
Chapters: All
Framerate (fps): 23.976
Encoder: ffmpeg
Target size (MB): 142
Average bitrate: OFF
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
Anamorphic: None
Deinterlace: Slower
Deblock: ON
trondmm
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 11:39 am

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

Post by trondmm »

I use these settings for my PSP:

handbrake --aencoder faac --ab 64 --arate 48 --mixdown stereo --encoder x264 --vb 192 --format mp4 --x264opts "crf=18:ref=2:mixed-refs=1:bframes=3:b-rdo=1:bime=1:weightb=1:subme=7:trellis=2:analyse=all:level=3:merange=64:no-fast-pskip:me=umh:sar=1/1" --deblock --two-pass --turbo --drc 2

Main priority is file size. But, I'm still pretty satisfied with the image quality with these settings. It's better with live action than animation, though.
ddoonie
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:57 pm

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

Post by ddoonie »

These are the settings i use, main intention is best quality keeping files around the 1.5-2.5GB range. Can anyone tell me if these seem ok? Or if my settings are 'countering' each other... To my eyes, on my MBP they look fine, but i havent been able to test it out on a 50". Before i was running CABAC=0 with Trellis=1, and i believe that is sort of redundant as i needed CABAC for trellis to work? Hopefully my current settings dont have any of those 'redundancy' issues, please advise! :)

ps, i'm using the matrix from http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...125#post887125

CRF 64%, Denoise weak, detelecine yes, deblock yes, decomb default

bframes=6:ref=6:mixed-refs=1:subq=6:me=umh:trellis=1:brdo=1:bime=1:direct=auto:vbv-maxrate=4900:vbv-bufsize=3500:no-fast-pskip=1:analyse=all:merange=32:cqm=/applications/multimedia/handbrake_m4ghighdetail.cfg:deblock=-3,0

My eyes have gotten so lazy checking test encodes, they all look the same, so i'll stick with theoretical at the moment :)

ps.. you think this should stream well on a wireless g network? (i use plex.app), i have gotten some stuttering etc...
Ledhead
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 2:29 am

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

Post by Ledhead »

WHY: To playback movies on my iMac and TV
PRIORITIES: Quality, fast, then size.
SETTINGS:
Title: Main Feature
Chapters: all
Framerate (fps): Same as Source
Codec: AVC/H.264/AAC Audio
Encoder: x264
Target size (MB): OFF
Average bitrate (kbps): ON - 1350
Constant quality: OFF
Grayscale encoding: OFF
2-pass encoding: On [Turbo]
File format: MP4
Subtitles Language: OFF
Audio Language 1: First
Audio Language 2: OFF
Sample rate (Hz): 48000
Bitrate (kbps): 128
PICTURE SETTINGS:
Width: Auto Selected
Height: Auto Selected
Keep aspect ratio: Off
Crop: Automatic
Deinterlace: OFF
Anamorphic: Loose

Advanced x264:

Code: Select all

bframes=2:ref=1:subq=4
If you turn 2-pass of it will go very fast (like 70fps avg.) but the quality will probably suffer. 2-pass will go slower but quality will be very good. These settings were tested on Ocean's Eleven (1:56) and the quality was great, size was 1.2 gigabites and the average fps was something like 40-50. Which is pretty fast. :D
nickkallis
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:54 pm

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

Post by nickkallis »

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
Nightstorm,
I am a newbie and about to rip my DVDs for playback on all of my various devices. I was wondering if these settings would also work for streaming my movies from a networked hard drive to my Xbox360? If not, what tweak or adjustment would you make? I appreciate any and all help.

Thanks!
nightstrm
Veteran User
Posts: 1887
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:43 am

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

Post by nightstrm »

nickkallis wrote:
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
Nightstorm,
I am a newbie and about to rip my DVDs for playback on all of my various devices. I was wondering if these settings would also work for streaming my movies from a networked hard drive to my Xbox360? If not, what tweak or adjustment would you make? I appreciate any and all help.

Thanks!
Sorry, I can't really help as I do not have an Xbox360 and haven't tried any encoding for that target.
nickkallis
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:54 pm

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

Post by nickkallis »

Do you have a PS3? I could stream to that. Or do you use those same setting to Stream to AppleTV?
nightstrm
Veteran User
Posts: 1887
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:43 am

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

Post by nightstrm »

nickkallis wrote:Do you have a PS3? I could stream to that. Or do you use those same setting to Stream to AppleTV?
I do, but I've never taken the time to actually try and playback any of my encodes on it... I'm not sure if they would work or not. Right now, I only playback on my Macs, iPhone, and AppleTV.
12bears
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:05 am

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

Post by 12bears »

My requirement was to move my whole media library to my Mac for viewing through Apple TV. That meant a combination of SD and HD content.

Only consideration was quality, speed, size etc all non-factors. Size particularly so with the cost of HD space these days.

I have two customised settings both of which are based on the in-built Apple TV preset:

SD setting is exactly as per the default ATV preset but with the ABR boosted to 3500 from 2500 as I find this improves things with fast action films. A 2hr film comes out at about 3Gb.

HD settings are again based on the default ATV preset but with the follow modifications:

ABR: increased to 5000

Framerate: set to 24 fps - This is necessary because the way ATV handles framerate impacts the maximum bitrates and resolutions that can be supported. See this Macworld article for more...http://www.macworld.com/article/57237/2 ... pletv.html

Picture settings: select 'loose' anamorphic and fix the width at 1280, that way, the height will automatically adjust to keep the aspect ration correct but the width will always be correct for APV's 1280 maximum. This way it doesn't matter if the HD source is 720 or 1080

These HD settings give excellent results and perfect streaming playback, with a 2hr film being about 5Gb

I used to find that Handbrake would seem to freakout with output files >4Gb and produce files that wouldn't play, however, since I started using the latest beta version http://handbrake.fr/?article=snapshot with the 'Large file' option checked, it seems to be fine.

If I get really stuck with a file which constantly crashes Handbrake (occasional), I fall back to VisualHub and use the 'Go nuts' ATV setting, but Handbrake is my preference and much faster in my experience.

Hope this helps.
nickkallis
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:54 pm

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

Post by nickkallis »

Can anyone recommend settings that will work on a PS3 as well as an iPhone 3G? I am using a mac and I would love to be able to just do one conversion. I can't find that combination posted anywhere yet.

Thanks!
wombatwoman
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:42 am

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

Post by wombatwoman »

I want to make copies of my dvds for some soldiers in Iraq (they have a sad amount of down time) that I'm writing to, but I don't know or understand the settings. To say I could use some help would be putting it lightly. They need to be able to be played on a dvd player or computer with fairly decent quality. I would greatly appreciate some help. I'm not very computer-savy, if you can't tell.
Cavalicious
Moderator
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Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:07 am

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

Post by Cavalicious »

thats why we have documentation.
rhester
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Posts: 2888
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:24 pm

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

Post by rhester »

wombatwoman wrote:I want to make copies of my dvds for some soldiers in Iraq (they have a sad amount of down time) that I'm writing to, but I don't know or understand the settings. To say I could use some help would be putting it lightly. They need to be able to be played on a dvd player or computer with fairly decent quality. I would greatly appreciate some help. I'm not very computer-savy, if you can't tell.
HandBrake can't be used to copy DVDs. You'll need to use another application. You can use it to convert a DVD to something that can be watched on a computer, but for this purpose, DVDs are probably a better choice.

Rodney
puddleglum
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 2:20 pm

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

Post by puddleglum »

If anyone cares to do so, I would love to hear someone's "Best Settings" for exporting 1080i and 720p MPGE2 EyeTV recordings to 720p/H.264 using handbrake. I've been doing a lot of tinkering and experimenting, but still haven't decided what I'm going to use.
Jimmdean
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2008 4:58 pm

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

Post by Jimmdean »

puddleglum wrote:If anyone cares to do so, I would love to hear someone's "Best Settings" for exporting 1080i and 720p MPGE2 EyeTV recordings to 720p/H.264 using handbrake. I've been doing a lot of tinkering and experimenting, but still haven't decided what I'm going to use.
So far, I am using the Apple TV Preset. My Source is PBS Kids cartoons at 720P "59fps" via EyeTV (Super Why, Sid, Martha, Word World). I dial back the resolution and fps to 944x528 and 30fps to maintain future Apple TV compatibility (should I ever choose to get one), and I've pretty much settled on 2000 bitrate. All of that together cuts back encoding time a little. If you were 100% sure you'd never get an Apple TV (or a future one), then there's really no reason to dial back any of it, but the Apple TV preset is probably still your best bet in terms speed vs. quality (and if wanting to use Front Row).
It's just a little too much trouble to use the animation preset and with 720P material it seems to take forever unless you're quad-core, plus you end up with a file that is not nearly as universal and probably doesn't look all that much better, especially for a cartoon.

Edit:
On that note, when it says 59fps I'm not 100% sure what that actually means. Doesn't 720P @ 30fps mean the same thing as 720P 60fps? If I let Handbrake encode files that eyetv says are 59fps at 944x528 and leave fps as "same as source" would an Apple TV still play it?
newtonuk
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:24 pm

Help with define settings for a "standard"

Post by newtonuk »

Hi guys, I'm about to embark on encoding my DVD collection for playback on a 720p plasma TV through my Mac Mini, using Front Row.

I'm using Snapshot 4 of Handbrake on Mac OS X 10.5.5.

So far I've decided on using the AppleTV preset (2500kbps ABR) but tweaking it to use two pass encoding with a turbo first pass.

I would prefer to have a .MP4 file as the result, but I understand if I want to use the movies chapters then I need to have a .M4V file, which defaults to playback through iTunes.

As I really only want to do this exercise once, can anybody recommend any other tweaks that might be beneficial and possibly offer a basic explanation of why? I'm not a code person, so any advanced option strings would be good broken down.

Thanks
rhester
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Posts: 2888
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by rhester »

Actually, I believe the ATV preset in snapshot 4 uses CRF/CQ by default, does it not?

Why do you care what the extension is? Several features require the extension of .m4v for them to function properly. I don't see why that would present an issue or why you'd prefer an extension of .mp4.

Rodney
newtonuk
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:24 pm

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

Post by newtonuk »

Hi Rodney, yes it does. I've just updated the presets and seen the difference.

Well, that puts a whole new kettle of fish on the subject now. I was fairly happy with the settings I had found.

Basically I want to get as good a copy as I can, without keeping the Video_TS folder. Any suggestions?

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

Post by rhester »

Erm...isn't that the whole purpose of this thread?

There is no "best". There is "best for what you intend to use it for". If you are going to be watching all of your encodes on ATV, there are a great many discussions on these forums regarding optimal ATV encoding settings. If not, we can't guess what you will be doing with them, so there is no way to offer advice.

Rodney
newtonuk
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:24 pm

Re: Help with define settings for a "standard"

Post by newtonuk »

newtonuk wrote:Hi guys, I'm about to embark on encoding my DVD collection for playback on a 720p plasma TV through my Mac Mini, using Front Row.

I'm using Snapshot 4 of Handbrake on Mac OS X 10.5.5.

So far I've decided on using the AppleTV preset (2500kbps ABR) but tweaking it to use two pass encoding with a turbo first pass.

I would prefer to have a .MP4 file as the result, but I understand if I want to use the movies chapters then I need to have a .M4V file, which defaults to playback through iTunes.

As I really only want to do this exercise once, can anybody recommend any other tweaks that might be beneficial and possibly offer a basic explanation of why? I'm not a code person, so any advanced option strings would be good broken down.

Thanks
Thanks for your reply again Rodney, I thought I had indicated what my needs were, but I guess I wasn't clear.

I have a 2.0GHz Mac Mini hooked up to my Panasonic TH-37PX70BA TV and I would like to encode my DVD library so that I can get the most out of them (quality over size) through this set up. I have a ReadyNAS Duo connected to my gigabit network which I will use for storage.

Based on everybody's experience, what would be a good starting point to encode my DVDs so that I don't really lose any quality, but gain the flexibility of my Mac Mini media centre?

I suggested in my first post that I wasn't precious over managing the movies only through iTunes and maybe naively said that I would prefer .mp4 or .m4v files. This was only to provide compatibility with other systems (such as my step-son's XBox 360).

So, it would be great to achieve a single file that would give me as near DVD quality as possible that would work on both my Mac Mini and XBox 360.

Thanks for taking the time.
rhester
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by rhester »

You always have to encode to the lowest common denominator - in this case, the 360. For optimal settings for that device, several threads also already exist in the forum on that subject. H.264 with AAC DPL2 audio in a MPEG-4 container is probably your best bet.

Rodney
newtonuk
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:24 pm

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

Post by newtonuk »

Smashing, thank you. Can I be cheeky and ask what your recommendations would be purely for the mini?

I'd love to do just Video_TS folders, but I think I would run out of space to soon.
nightstrm
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by nightstrm »

newtonuk wrote:Smashing, thank you. Can I be cheeky and ask what your recommendations would be purely for the mini?

I'd love to do just Video_TS folders, but I think I would run out of space to soon.
I'd just use the AppleTV preset to be honest, especially with the new dev snapshot.
74c7e5be26a3
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:26 pm

TViX HD TViX M-6500A - Modified AppleTV Preset

Post by 74c7e5be26a3 »

We have a DViCO TViX HD M-6500A (http://www.kjglobal.co.uk/acatalog/TVIX_M-6500A.html) which supports the following:

Formats / Containers: mkv, avi, wmv, mpg, iso, vob, ifo, mp4, asf, tp, trp, ts, m2ts, mov (H.264)
Video Codecs: MPEG 1/2/4, AVI, XVID, WMV9 (MP@HL), H.264 (BP@L3, MP@4.0 and HP@4.0), AVC (HD), VC-1 (MP@HL, AP@L3)
Resolutions: Up to 1920*1080P
Audio: MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, PCM, M4A, AC3, FLAC, WAV

We have a large DVD library (both region 1 NTSC and region 2 PAL) that we would like to get encoded and stored on our NAS. Given that we'll be playing back primarily through the TViX on a 40" 1080P HD TV, and secondly on large LCD TFT monitors through either Quickime or VLC on OS X, XP and Linux, our priorities are as follows:
  • Compatibility with TViX HD M-6500A
  • Compatibility with Quicktime & VLC on OS X, XP & Linux
  • Quality
  • File size (lesser importance)
  • Encoding time (can take as long as is required - don't care much at all)
We started out with the AppleTV preset, and added the level=40 option to the advanced settings to ensure compatibility with the TViX.

Additionally we reduced the video bit rate from 2500 kbps to 2000 kbps, and disabled the turbo second pass. (Does anybody actually know what the turbo second pass does, other than simply speeding up the encoding process?)

After that I looked at the tool tips under the advanced tab, and enabled or tuned any options which looked like they might improve the video quality.

The following is a list of our settings. Any check box options that are not listed below can be assumed to have been unchecked and disabled.

OUTPUT SETTINGS:
> Format: MP4 File
> Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC + AC3 Audio
+ Insert iPod Atom (enabled)

VIDEO:
> Framerate (VFR On): Same as source
> Encoder: x264
> Quality: Average bitrate (kbps) 2000
+ 2-pass encoding (enabled)

PICTURE SETTINGS:
> Anamorphic: Strict
> Crop: Automatic
+ VFR (enabled)
> Deinterlate: Slower
> Denoise: None

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
> Bitrate (kbps): 160
> Sample rate (khz): 48
> Subtitles: None

CHAPTERS:
+ Create chapter markers (enabled)

ADVANCED:
> Reference Frames: 1
+ Mixed References (enabled)
> B-Frames: 3
> Direct Prediction: Spatial
+ Weighted B-Frames (enabled)
+ B-Frame Rate Distortion (enabled)
+ Bidirection Refinement (enabled)
> Motion Estimation Method: Uneven Multi-Hexagon
> Motion Estimation Range: 24
> Subpixel Motion Estimation: 7
> Analysis: All
> Deblocking: Default (0) Default (0)
> Trellis: 2
+ No Fast-P-Skip (enabled)

ADVANCED DETAIL:
bframes=3:ref=1:subq=7:me=umh:no-fast-pskip=1:trellis=2:cabac=0:level=40:analyse=all:mixed-refs=1:weightb=1:bime=1:brdo=1:merange=24:direct=spatial

Does anybody have any comments or suggestions regarding these settings? Is there anything else we could do to get even better quality out of our encodings? Are any of our settings pointless, unnecessary or a poor choice, and if so, why?

Additionally, is there any way to get the HandBrake GUI to give you the full command line to use for HandBrakeCLI rather than having to check each and every option yourself manually? I think this is the right command line for the above settings, but it would be neat to get someone else to run their eyes over it as well:

HandBrakeCLI -i *input* -o *output.m4v* -e x264 -b 2000 -B 160 -R 48 -E aac+ac3 -f mp4 -4 -m -p -V --deinterlace slower --pixelratio --crop autocrop --markers --ipod-atom --longest --two-pass -x bframes=3:ref=1:subq=7:me=umh:no-fast-pskip=1:trellis=2:cabac=0:level=40:analyse=all:mixed-refs=1:weightb=1:bime=1:brdo=1:merange=24:direct=spatial
rhester
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Re: Post Your "Best Settings" here and Why.

Post by rhester »

Turbo first pass makes the first pass quite a bit faster while slightly sacrificing predictive accuracy for the second pass. Pretty much everyone that still does ABR encoding does a turbo first pass (versus full).

That having been said, virtually everyone who doesn't have any sort of artificially low bitrate constraint has switched from ABR to CRF/CQ so the perceived quality becomes consistent (rather than the average bitrate). This means that your output file sizes can vary wildly based on the complexity of the material, but most people prefer that to wildly varying quality. =) CQ percentages of 62-67% appear to be what most have settled on - where you fall in that range is a question of available storage, patience, and how transparent the encodes look to you.

Adding a second or third reference frame will slightly improve quality and compression, and will actually make mixed references do something. :)

Subme of 7 is pretty high - if you don't need it, you should gain back a good bit of encoding performance backing off to 6 without any noticable quality loss.

You only need the iPod atom for first-gen iPod Videos.

Rodney
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