Encoding the Oldies - what's your opinion?

General questions or discussion about HandBrake, Video and/or audio transcoding, trends etc.
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richardstephens
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Encoding the Oldies - what's your opinion?

Post by richardstephens »

Quick question:

Just got Deer Hunter and looking to encode of course. It's wide screen format, as most have been converted these days, and meant to have the black lines so I'll avoid anamorphic (correct me if you think I should use anamorphic).

Anyway, with these old classics, is it better to set a high bit rate due to low original quality in the source or can we keep it low (around 1000) because higher rates would not matter?

I think the jury is still out on this one. Share your opinions
video.baba
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Re: Encoding the Oldies - what's your opinion?

Post by video.baba »

richardstephens wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:42 amJust got Deer Hunter and looking to encode of course.
Never seen it, I know, I should be whipped by a 1000 virgins at least a 1,000 lashes! (oh sh*t, sorry! wrong forum ;-)). I can remember my dad coming back from the cinema telling me all about it.
richardstephens wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:42 amso I'll avoid anamorphic (correct me if you think I should use anamorphic).
Well I'd love to correct you if I knew if the source was anamorphic or not.... dvd? blu-ray? I'm sure you'll get replies telling you to post your encode log, this is one of the many occasions it's really needed.
richardstephens wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:42 amAnyway, with these old classics, is it better to set a high bit rate due to low original quality in the source or can we keep it low (around 1000) because higher rates would not matter?
Cool, you seem to have the correct 'mind-frame' but can I ask? Why are you using bit rate mode? Wouldn't you prefer to target quality?
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JohnAStebbins
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Re: Encoding the Oldies - what's your opinion?

Post by JohnAStebbins »

Anyway, with these old classics, is it better to set a high bit rate due to low original quality in the source
Use constant quality encoding. Then you don't need to make adjustments to bitrate. The encoder will choose an appropriate bitrate for the quality you selected. All of HandBrake's presets use constant quality encoding for this reason.

I just finished encoding my bluray James Bond collection, many of which are quite grainy. Light to medium NLMeans denoise filter did wonders for reducing the resulting file size of these without visible loss of quality. But what works for your video depends a lot on the nature of the video.

I also have not watched Deer Hunter, so don't know what the characteristics of that particular film are or how well it was transferred to DVD/BD.
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