AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Discuss encoding for devices and presets.
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Metasyntactic
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:07 pm

AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by Metasyntactic »

Hi All,

I searched for an answer to this question, but wasn't able to find anything. Hopefully one of you will be able to shed some light on this.

I'm currently using the 'AppleTV' preset to encode my DVDs so that i can serve them from my 'Windows Home Server' to my Xbox360. I chose that preset because of that's what i found when i googled a bit for a good preset for the 360 (but if you guys think i should pick something else, let me know!). Now, one of the things i was curious about was that this preset defaults to one-pass.

Why is that? If i'm not concerned about encoding time, wouldn't two pass make more sense? It would keep the same average bitrate, but would be able to respond better to the highs/lows that it would encounter in some movies.

I would appreciate an explanation here to help me learn more

Thanks!
jbrjake
Veteran User
Posts: 4805
Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 1:38 am

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by jbrjake »

You obviously aren't the recipient, on a daily basis, of harassing emails like these:
It took longer to rip tan watch. It took longer to find a way in your
support board than to finish a bottle of wine
What is all the fuss about handbrake - It's trshed.
It slow and no easily found way to speed things up.

I have two other rippers that work better (although not to mp4). I can
actually rip to another format and convert to mp4 using "visual hub"
in about 1/3 the time.

I tried you because of and article I read somewhere?

I could be doing something wrong but access to your forum for such
questions is as annoying as your software

As a percentage of downloads, I wonder how many are still using
handbrake?

I am not one........ Bye
...and that's only with 1 pass.
Metasyntactic
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:07 pm

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by Metasyntactic »

Well, as you can see, my intent is not to harass, only to learn.

Maybe i should rephrase my original question as:
What would be the upsides to changing this to 2-pass?
What would be the downsides?

For the upsides, i believe that the end quality should be better. The downside is a potentially longer encode.

However, there might be a lot of things i'm missing. like: the AppleTV (or Xbox360) won't accept 2pass'ed content. I doubt that that's the case. But i'm here looking to understand why this choice was made and if i can (or should) override it, or just leave it as the default.

Thanks!
Cavalicious
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Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by Cavalicious »

Don't we have a 360-Preset...or were we just getting feedback to produce one?

Either way, you answered your own question:

Upside quality, Downside speed. 360 will play it either way.
dynaflash
Veteran User
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Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 8:19 pm

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by dynaflash »

I left 2 pass out of the built in AppleTV Preset only because I didn't feel the added encoding time was worth the increase in visual quality for a general purpose preset.

Adding 2 pass to the built in preset will work just fine if you do not mind a longer encode.
Metasyntactic
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:07 pm

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by Metasyntactic »

Cool. Thanks for clearing that up. I thought i might be missing something.

An XBox360 preset would be appreciated :)

Or, alternatively, you could just rename 'AppleTV' to' AppleTV/XBox360', if it is a good preset for that purpose.

I'd be happy to help out if you need anything.
dynaflash
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Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by dynaflash »

Metasyntactic wrote: Or, alternatively, you could just rename 'AppleTV' to' AppleTV/XBox360', if it is a good preset for that purpose.
Or alternatively you could :
1. click on the AppleTV preset
2. click on 2 pass encoding ( or whatever suits your fancy )
3. click on the plus button at the bottom of the presets drawer
4. In the new preset dialogue box name your new preset "AppleTV/XBox360" ( or whatever suits your fancy )
5. chose keep maximum picture sizes
6. save preset

Voila, you now have a nice new preset without waiting for us to do it. ;)

The presets were originally designed for users to "roll their own". We only added some common ones after the fact to help people get started.
Metasyntactic
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:07 pm

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by Metasyntactic »

I'd already done that :)

I was just concerned about all the poor n00bs (like me) who were going to be confused and who would then barrage all of you with my same silly quesions
realityking
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Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by realityking »

Cavalicious wrote:Don't we have a 360-Preset...or were we just getting feedback to produce one?
There is one in the svn but not in the current release (0.9.1).
Metasyntactic
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:07 pm

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by Metasyntactic »

realityking wrote:
Cavalicious wrote:Don't we have a 360-Preset...or were we just getting feedback to produce one?
There is one in the svn but not in the current release (0.9.1).
Could you let me know what that preset is? Or is it not ready yet.

Is the plan to release it in the next Handbrake release?

Thanks!
realityking
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Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by realityking »

The most interesting thing is probably the advanced option string:

Code: Select all

level=40:ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=16:bime=1:weightb=1:brdo=1:direct=auto:b-pyramid=1:me=umh:subq=7:analyse=all:8x8dct=1:trellis=1:no-fast-pskip=1:deblock=-2,-1
H.264 and AAC in a MP4 File.
Chapters are disabled
Anamorphic is on
Bitrate is set to 2000

Yes it will be in 0.9.2.
jbrjake
Veteran User
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Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 1:38 am

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by jbrjake »

Note that that is not a preset intended for dual-use on @tv and 360, it's designed to push the limits of what the 360 can do and it'll probably be nerfed down before release.
Metasyntactic
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:07 pm

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by Metasyntactic »

FWIW, i encoded an action movie using the AppleTV preset (with 2passes instead of 1). It looked good and played great from my XBox360 streaming from my server. So i think i'll just stick with those options for now.

Thanks all for your help.
Laner
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:38 pm

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by Laner »

Not to get too far off topic, but how did you get your 360 to recognize MP4s being served from WHS? That's something I've been unable to do without the help of TVersity.
Metasyntactic
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:07 pm

Re: AppleTV preset. Why 1pass instead of 2?

Post by Metasyntactic »

I just changed the file extension to .avi
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