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Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 8:31 pm
by NotHimAgain
I'm a newbie currently running Handbrake 1.1.2 on a Windows 7 64bit Pro machine. I started creating a digital library of all my movies & at the moment i'm in the process of ripping blu-rays which are obviously taking up a ton of space. I think i'll leave any DVD-rips as they are but some or even all of the blu-rays will eventually need to be compressed ... with as little quality loss as possible. I've had a play around and i wondered if rather than tinkering with this & that, others would be able to suggest sweet spot settings.

The end goal will be for it to be played back on my TV via Plex.

My videos are currently in .mkv format.

I've noticed the source file of many/all videos is 1920x1080 yet just putting one movie in to Handbrake right now wants to change that to 1920x800.

Filters and video tab i don't really know anything about so i leave those.

Audio & subtitles matter to me.... First off i need subtitles, as annoying as i know that is to some. I finally figured out how to include those after much trial & error.
As for the audio, what do you guys suggest? I currently have no home cinema setup. It's unlikely i will in the future but it isn't an impossibility. I also have no soundbar although i'm hoping to get one. Now whether that's a bar or a bar and sub i don't know.
My point is - i don't want to put the most basic audio settings in to the video file only for at a later date to have upgraded my sound system and not be able to make the most of it.

To which you may say - just rip the blu-ray again. Well, 1) for so many movies that would take a ridiculous amount of time, so i'd rather include any settings now and 2) It takes 4-10 hours for Handbrake to convert a movie on my PC. I only have time to do things once.

Oh and on the right hand side i would assume "HQ 1080p30 surround" would be the one i should be looking at?

So since i now know how to include subtitles, really what i'm looking for is to shrink the file size without losing the picture & audio quality too much.

Just hoping someone can help me out with this. Thanks.

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 9:49 pm
by mduell
Yes, the HQ 1080p preset is a good starting point.

Adjust the encoder preset to suit your speed preference, and then the RF by a couple points either direction to suit your size/quality preference.

The picture size changes since HB crops off the useless black bars. If you plan on even a soundbar I'd keep the 5.1 audio.

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 8:44 am
by NotHimAgain
What sort of machine would i be looking at for a respectable conversion?
Obviously i don't mean the fastest thing that money can buy, providing you're a millionaire, but something respectable.

My machine is pretty old now and i don't expect it to be anywhere near fast. I built it in 2010 and made a couple changes since then (RAM & hard drive).

AMD Phenom 2 2.6GHz
Nvidia GeForce 460 1GB (i think it's a 460 IIRC)
16GB RAM
256GB Samsung SSD as OS drive

I'm not the most tech savvy person so any more info required just ask but that thing like i said converts videos in around 4-10 hours. I had a 2 hour conversion once but that was probably on a DVD.

What are you guys getting in terms of conversion times? I mean if it's a case of dropping what'd be a 10 hour conversion down to 8 hours it's not worth the effort to me but if 9 years of advancement in computing drops 10 hours to 2 hours then that's a little different.

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 11:56 am
by NotHimAgain
I forgot also -

One major problem i have is that when i've been ripping the movies from the discs i've basically been ticking everything English in MakeMKV. Sure i only need 1 set of subtitles for example but when it often lists 2, 3 etc sets of English subtitles, i don't have the time to rip and find out which one is suitable. Equally doing this for audio causes a problem because some times i end up ripping audio where it's just like the director talking about the movie or something.

That's one issue when you're on a 20min MakeMKV rip but i can't really go trial & erroring on a 10 hour Handbrake conversion.

So how can you tell which the correct audio is & which is the annoying director talking all over the movie for example?

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 1:10 am
by mduell
A contemporary i5 quad core desktop is respectable for Blu-ray conversions. I'm on an Intel 5960X, so I get a bit better than realtime for HD content with moderate settings.

Watch the MakeMKV rip to figure out the correct audio/subs, then pick that one in HB.

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 2:03 am
by Woodstock
The "trial and error" portion does not have to involve the whole file. A five minute chunk is fine for determining whether the quality is up to snuff.

My test in the past has been the initial fight for Gallifrey scene in The Day of the Doctor.

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 10:06 pm
by NotHimAgain
Same Woodstock as the MakeMKV forum?

For the "5 minute chunk" do you just set it up as normal and then stop it after a certain amount of time has passed? (unless you mean 5 minute real time encoding which may be like 10 seconds of a movie file on my PC).

As for watching the MakeMKV rip, often the audio files are the same. I can't remember the exact wording of them but let's say it's something like "DTS English". There could be like 3 of those and i have to scroll down to select the first, then 2nd, then 3rd, but the description is the same.

I'm assuming they would be ordered in the same way in Handbrake drop down menu then?

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 11:28 pm
by Woodstock
The Summary tab lets you limit what is encoded. You can set the range by chapter numbers, seconds, or frames; the "button" is actually a pull-down.

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Sat May 25, 2019 10:31 pm
by NotHimAgain
Ok so i was going to start with a movie and i'm fairly confident on all settings i've selected with the exception of the audio setting.

As i can't link the images here so you can see them i'll just put the link here so you can open it: https://i.imgur.com/jwUPnFl.jpg <--- that's basically the default audio settings.

So obviously that only applies to this one movie. Some movies i have are Asian martial arts movies so they may not even have English but for the most part the movies will be like the one i just linked.

As i say - those 2 entries are the default. I didn't add a second one. I don't really know what codec, bitrate or mixdown to use, so i just left those as default.

I've opened up the drop down to show the options but they all look pretty much the same, even though there's 4 of them.

My aim here is to kind of 'future proof' my video file. I don't currently have a soundbar. The audio comes direct out of my TV speakers. It's unlikely i'll have 5.1 and certainly not 7.1 in the future but who knows. I may move house (unlikely) and change my mind.
The chances of a soundbar though are much greater.


So what do you advise to select to meet my aim?
From the dropdown
the codec
the bitrate
the mixdown?

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Sun May 26, 2019 12:11 am
by mduell
Take the defaults for broad compatibility with your future situation.

If you don't know which source audio track you want to listen to, either take the default or try several in a player.

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Sun May 26, 2019 4:06 pm
by NotHimAgain
mduell wrote: Sun May 26, 2019 12:11 am Take the defaults for broad compatibility with your future situation.

If you don't know which source audio track you want to listen to, either take the default or try several in a player.
So the default would be perfectly fine with a soundbar setup? I wont end up disappointed with a sound that is lacking somewhat?

In Windows when i right click the video file and go to properties, for the original movie it says:
DTS S16 5.1 (Eng), DTS 5.1 (Eng)

I started converting the file yesterday before stopping and making this post. When i look at the entries on that file it says:
AAC 2.0 (Eng), AC3 2.0 (Eng).

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Sun May 26, 2019 4:14 pm
by rollin_eng
Could you please post your HB logs, instructions can be found here:

https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/latest/hel ... y-log.html

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Sun May 26, 2019 6:05 pm
by mduell
NotHimAgain wrote: Sun May 26, 2019 4:06 pm
mduell wrote: Sun May 26, 2019 12:11 am Take the defaults for broad compatibility with your future situation.

If you don't know which source audio track you want to listen to, either take the default or try several in a player.
So the default would be perfectly fine with a soundbar setup? I wont end up disappointed with a sound that is lacking somewhat?
That's why it's the default. Some people are pickier than average for real or perceived differences in sound quality.

NotHimAgain wrote: Sun May 26, 2019 4:06 pmIn Windows when i right click the video file and go to properties, for the original movie it says:
DTS S16 5.1 (Eng), DTS 5.1 (Eng)

I started converting the file yesterday before stopping and making this post. When i look at the entries on that file it says:
AAC 2.0 (Eng), AC3 2.0 (Eng).
That's not a general question, that's a support request regarding a specific encode.

An Activity Log is required for support requests. Please read How-to get an activity log? for details on how and why this should be provided.

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Sun May 26, 2019 6:31 pm
by NotHimAgain
No problem.

Just a question before i do - do i have to go through a full 5 hour encode to get that log or can i just set it up, it creates the log, i can stop the encode & save myself 5 hours & then just post the log here?

Re: Sweet spot for reducing blu rays for TV playback?

Posted: Tue May 28, 2019 1:32 am
by mduell
A log of a short segment of the same source/settings is fine.