Confused by Video RF value

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KSGregg
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:43 am

Confused by Video RF value

Post by KSGregg »

Description of problem or question:

I've burned maybe 1000 movies using an RF value of 18-20 but read that increasing the RF value will provide a better quality version of the burned DVD. One movie at RF 18-20 is a file size of 1,145,575 KB but when I burned the movie again at an RF of 23, the file size is 883,653 KB. I would think the higher RF value would make for a larger file, not a smaller one, or am I just not understanding it properly? I am burning these DVDs to put on my Plex server for streaming in home so I'd like the best quality I can obtain.


Steps to reproduce the problem (If Applicable):




HandBrake version (e.g., 1.0.0):

1.5.1


Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Windows 10 Creators Update):

Windows 10


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Silent_Strider
Enlightened
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Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2019 9:31 pm

Re: Confused by Video RF value

Post by Silent_Strider »

Best quality would be to not transcode any source video.

I think, if you increase the RF, then some details can go missing, which can be helpful at grainy sources, if the image becomes more "clear" and thus would be better compressible.
mduell
Veteran User
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Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:54 pm

Re: Confused by Video RF value

Post by mduell »

KSGregg wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:45 am Description of problem or question:

I've burned maybe 1000 movies using an RF value of 18-20 but read that increasing the RF value will provide a better quality version of the burned DVD. One movie at RF 18-20 is a file size of 1,145,575 KB but when I burned the movie again at an RF of 23, the file size is 883,653 KB. I would think the higher RF value would make for a larger file, not a smaller one, or am I just not understanding it properly? I am burning these DVDs to put on my Plex server for streaming in home so I'd like the best quality I can obtain.
As covered in the documentation, higher RF is lower quality.
KSGregg
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Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:43 am

Re: Confused by Video RF value

Post by KSGregg »

This is why I am confused. The QUALITY setting on the VIDEO tab shows that if you slide it to the left, it is LOWER QUALITY with a lower RF but if you slide it to the right towards HIGHER QUALITY it is a higher RF. If you hover the mouse over the RF it says "SUGGESTED VALUES FOR 18-20 FOR STANDARD DEFINTION SOURCES AND 20-23 FOR HIGH DEFINITION SOURCES"
Silent_Strider
Enlightened
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Re: Confused by Video RF value

Post by Silent_Strider »

the tooltip definitely states "lower values correspond to higher quality"
https://i.imgur.com/fGf72WU.jpg
KSGregg
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:43 am

Re: Confused by Video RF value

Post by KSGregg »

And I am certainly not trying to debate you BUT that same screen grab also says 18-20 for standard definition and 20-23 for higher definition so you can see where I might be seeing conflicting info?
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s55
HandBrake Team
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Re: Confused by Video RF value

Post by s55 »

High Definition source files have more information so you don't need as high a quality setting to achieve good results.
KSGregg
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:43 am

Re: Confused by Video RF value

Post by KSGregg »

I have a lot of movies with special effects that I feel could be better. My QNAP NAS stores all of the movies and I stream them to my TVS. Can you recommend the best video settings then? In your opinion, which is the better quality burn? The movie I did at RF20 (1,145,575 kb) or the same movie at RF 23 (883,653 kb)? My plan WAS to re-burn my movies at what I thought was a higher quality (RF 23) but now I am unsure.
mduell
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Re: Confused by Video RF value

Post by mduell »

KSGregg wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 7:04 pm And I am certainly not trying to debate you BUT that same screen grab also says 18-20 for standard definition and 20-23 for higher definition so you can see where I might be seeing conflicting info?
This is also explained in the documentation.
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