Size of 2 MP4s is radically different (bitrate)

General questions or discussion about HandBrake, Video and/or audio transcoding, trends etc.
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Madoron
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Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2022 11:19 pm

Size of 2 MP4s is radically different (bitrate)

Post by Madoron »

I'm trying to decide which version of a file to keep... bitrate/quality question

Hello Handbrake community! This is less about handbrake, and more about video quality... so I hope it's OK to post this here. Apologies in advance if not! I'm hoping to draw on your significantly greater experience.

I have a bunch of video files that I've been slowly but surely converting to the same MP4 format (for ease of playing... I have a lot of Apple gear). I've been using the Apple 2160p HEVC format (which I also understand is H.265... although don't understand what it's sometimes called HEVC and sometimes H.265! As with the MKV files).

Anyway - I accidentally converted a file that was already an MP4 with this setting, and I noticed the file size dropped from 1.3gb to a little over 100mb. Of course, I panicked... as I worried I had suddenly been converting a bunch of files and losing lots of data! I compared the two bitrates in Quicktime... and yep... the smaller file is 2.43MBits/s and the larger one is 32.20MBits/s. So I've lost some data... but... on reading and checking again all the settings (I use constant quality RF at 24 usually), I think I shouldn't have lost much, if any, noticeable data?

I'm trying to preserve these files with as much information as I can - but not at production level standard.

Could anyone confirm I've not messed this project up please? And or double check my settings to see that I'm in the right ball-park? Should I set it to RF 20?

Thanks in advance!
rollin_eng
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Re: Size of 2 MP4s is radically different (bitrate)

Post 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
mduell
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Re: Size of 2 MP4s is radically different (bitrate)

Post by mduell »

Can you see the difference when watching the video?
Madoron
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Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2022 11:19 pm

Re: Size of 2 MP4s is radically different (bitrate)

Post by Madoron »

@mduell - not to my eye... on a laptop with a decent screen (or tablet for that matter). Not tried it on anything like a 4k monitor or anything... could do that. Good idea!

I guess I was more thinking about whether there was anything I might have missed. Or whether I should encode everything at RF20 to try and preserve as much as possible. I guess if I'm not preserving the studio quality file, it's not so important and more important is what's actually visible, as you said?
mduell
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Re: Size of 2 MP4s is radically different (bitrate)

Post by mduell »

If you can't see the difference, what are you "preserving"?
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