Blu-Ray or DVD Universal Preset

[nathug]

Well this may seem a stupid question to some, but I don't own the same disc on Blu-Rays and DVD, and would like to see what others have found.

I've been plying with the latest public release of HB and Blu-ray files ripped from discs I own. In particular 'The Fifth Element' and the first Pirates movie. I've had great results getting this to 720p on the ATV at 1280x720. I've also been experimenting with the regular ATV preset at the min HD size it gives you, and there is a noticeable difference in quality between the 2.

My question however is: Is it worth the time and effort to convert a Blu-ray file down to the Universal preset, would this be better quality than encoding from a DVD file? My guess is that the quality may be better, but is it worth the effort?

Nate

[iJoel]

Better quality, yes.
Worth the effort, subjective, but for me personally, it's too much work unless it's a 720p encode for the ATV & a Universal encode for everything else.
For just a Universal encode, I'd just buy the DVD; they're cheaper, and it's not worth the quality gain IMO unless you encode it for HD, since thats what Blu-ray is in the first place.

[nathug]

OK but what if you already own the Blu-Rays and wish to put them on your iPhone or have them on the AppleTV.

Nate

[nightstrm]

two encodes -- 1 with slightly modified appletv preset, the other with slightly modified universal preset.

Combined in iTunes library as 1 entry using mp4v2.

[iJoel]

two encodes -- 1 with slightly modified appletv preset, the other with slightly modified universal preset.

I completely agree, & it's what I'll be doing when I get an external Blu-Ray drive.
But, just curious, but when you say "slightly modified", what are you referring to?
Are you talking about changing their resolutions (one suited for the iPhone [Universal]
& the other suited for the ATV [AppleTV])?

^__^

[nathug]

I just got one of these, it pretty cool and USB powered too.

http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.p ... cts_id=406

With my HD test etc. I've settled on the normal ATV preset, but putting the Constant Quality down to 55%. The picture is better than a DVD encode, and the file size for a movie like The Fifth Element is under 2gig, which is perfect. Resizing to 1280x720, almost doubled the file size. The picture quality was better, but sitting at around 8 ft from my 32" Panasonic, you could only see a small difference in picture quality. Defiantly not worth the file bloat. It also seemed to run smoother, but that could just be me.

As for the iPhone, if I need a copy I'll just encode it again. However if I encode a DVD I'll use the Universal preset for best of both worlds as I have yet to find a reason not to encode with this setting. Is just perfect!!

One thing I did find was that turning off the Chapters in HB allows the ATV to do the 5min skips of FF and REW. If I keep it on, FF took me to the end of the movie.

Now if only MetaX would put the chapters back!!

nate

[nathug]

two encodes -- 1 with slightly modified appletv preset, the other with slightly modified universal preset.

Combined in iTunes library as 1 entry using mp4v2.

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but how do you do this?

Cheers

Nate

[nightstrm]

two encodes -- 1 with slightly modified appletv preset, the other with slightly modified universal preset.

Combined in iTunes library as 1 entry using mp4v2.

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but how do you do this?

Cheers

Nate

For the presets: http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php ... 258#p50133

To combine them, I use Subler (http://code.google.com/p/subler/) to set a few tags in each encoded file. Both files must have the same unique cnID assigned to it, and the HD encode must have the HD Video (hdvd) atom set to 1. For TV shows, stik (aka media type) must be set to 10, or "TV Shows". For movies, stik must be set to 9, or "Movies" (this was also referred to as "Short Movies" in iTunes versions prior to 8.0, but it was recently changed). I also ensure that all other tags are identical between the two versions -- I'm not actually sure this is 100% necessary, but I recommend it.

[nathug]

Cheers

[nathug]

Can the cnID just be a name or does it have to be a number?

Nate

[nightstrm]

Can the cnID just be a name or does it have to be a number?

Nate

It is always a number from the iTunes Store, so I'd assume it can only be numeric.

[nathug]

So...

I'm guessing once encoded with your settings and all tags etc. are the same. I just drag and drop into one movie file?

Nate

[nightstrm]

So...

I'm guessing once encoded with your settings and all tags etc. are the same. I just drag and drop into one movie file?

Nate

You import them both into iTunes at the same time.

[nathug]

Easy OK last few questions, promise.

You say HD atom set to 1, does the HD check box in subler do this?

Save or Save Optimize?

Can I use metaX first then change the HD and cnID?

OK done, thanks for all this help its great!!

Nate

[nightstrm]

Easy OK last few questions, promise.

You say HD atom set to 1, does the HD check box in subler do this?

Save or Save Optimize?

Can I use metaX first then change the HD and cnID?

OK done, thanks for all this help its great!!

Nate

Yes.

I save optimize.

My workflow is to use MetaX first, since Subler (and mp4v2) can't do the Actor/Director/Producer/Screenwriter tags yet (I'm assured its coming). I don't particularly like what MetaX does to files, and have had problems if I try to use MetaX after Subler.

[nathug]

Thanks again,

Much appreciated!!

Nate

[nathug]

Adding the HD atom with the check box, should my files now show up with the HD symbol next to them on the ATV?

I have a version of Stargate that I created from Blu-ray and used the AppleTV preset as you recommend, but the HD symbol doesn't show up?

Nate

[nathug]

I keep ending up with 2 files in iTunes. This isn't right, right?

Nate

Edit - Fixed!!