HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

General questions or discussion about HandBrake, Video and/or audio transcoding, trends etc.
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HandBrake
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HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by HandBrake »

In case you didn't notice, there were a few bugs in HandBrake 0.9.2. This happened because HandBrake has a rather small development team, and a rather smaller number of testers.

To prevent HandBrake 0.9.3 from sharing such an ignominious fate, we have decided to release periodic binary snapshots as it develops. They are windows into HandBrake 0.9.3's current state of development.

These executable snapshots are unsupported, but we are soliciting feedback in the form of thorough bug reports. Be warned. This code is not ready for civilian use. While most of 0.9.2's bugs have been squashed, they have no doubt been succeeded by a newer, haler generation of arthropodic adversaries. It could easily crash on you. It could produce bad output. Some things might not work right. There are all sorts of new things, and there is no documentation for any of them.

If you do not fear living on the bleeding edge, and do not demand stability from your software, download a development snapshot of HandBrake now.

Here's an incomplete summary of the changes:

Snapshot 3 -> Snapshot 4 (r1896)
Core Library
- Converts video in other color spaces to YUV420 (this means DV support)
- Official, standards-based AC3-in-MP4
- Tries to base the AV timing for streams off audio when possible
- Keeps some audio fixes for lost packets in over the air streams from interfering with other sources
- Handles rendering of sources where the picture resolution changes mid-stream (this fixes the long-standing bug reading a particular episode of Doctor Who)
- Wider window for clock references (AV sync)
- Fixed a crash when closing out data for AAC encoding on aborted encodes
- Rejiggered verbose activity log display to be more laconic by default
- Updated x264 to r1016, which means b-rdo and bime are gone and replaced with new subme modes
- DTS and HDMV DTS audio support in streams
- Doesn't show the audio track button on iPhones/iPod Touches unless there's more than 1 track
- Tries to avoid garbage data from AC3 sync by searching for two agreeing packets
- As the MPEG4IP project is defunct, switched to an independently maintained libmp4v2 which has folded in all our cumbersome patches
- Fixed SunOS compilation
- Fixed conflict between maxHeight and maxWidth and loose anamorphic
- Warn in the log when titles are being ignored during scan for lack of audio
- Fixed bug with Slow/Slowest deinterlacing and decomb which could leave a flickering line at the top or bottom of the screen
- Extracts audio and subtitle types from DVD sources, to do things like label commentary tracks
- Better handling of the beginning of AVI and WMV sources that start after time 0
- Optimize MP4 for web download works with AC3 tracks now

Mac GUI
- Nested presets
- Individual activity logs for each encode (stored by default in ~/Application Support/HandBrake, can be co-located with encoded file destination by preference)
- Allows reading from ZFS volumes
- Fixed target size mode. It keeps breaking itself. Maybe it should just be put out of its misery...
- Assorted other improvements

Windows GUI
- Nested presets
- Individual activity logs for each encode
- Slow and slower deinterlacing and decomb work now in Windows
- Added resizeable update window
- Fixed parsing of non-DVD source audio formats
- Restored Copy to Clipboard to the Activity Log Window, among other enhancements to it
- Fixed bug with MKV presets showing up as .m4v
- Assorted other improvements

Linux GUI (GTK)
- Nested presets
- Individual activity logs for each encode
- Allows pending queue items to be removed, and reloaded in the main window for editing
- Better handling of HD previews
- Assorted other improvements

CLI
- Updated presets to the equivalent of the nested ones in the GUIs
- Allows setting custom audio track names in MP4 files
- Allows selection of the COLR atom in MP4 files, between Bt.601 and Bt.709
- Fixed reading of device paths in OS X

A special note on the new presets (they're collapsible-triangle-folder-thing-errific!)
- Deux Six Quatre, Blind, Broke, and Bedlam are gone. They were dead weight.
- iPod Low-Rez is now iPod Classic & iPod Nano
- iPod High-Rez is now iPod Legacy
- iPhone / iPod Touch is now iPhone & iPod Touch, so take care CLI users
- Animation and Television now use the decomb and detelecine (VFR) filters
- High Profile presets now use psy-trellis and the new subme 9 mode with B-frame RD refinement
- AppleTV is now CRF, so sizes will vary with content
- PS3 preset should be fixed
- Constant Quality Rate still needs its quality % lowered, probably

The keen reader is already asking "iPod Legacy? WTF is iPod High-Rez called iPod Legacy now?"

The answer is Universal.

The Universal preset is designed to play on all modern iPods (anything newer than the iPod 5.5G). It also plays on iPhones. It also plays on AppleTVs. It should also play just about anywhere else, hence the name. It is full anamorphic DVD resolution--no tricks with downscaling like stuff from the iTunes Store. It includes chapters, and has the first audio track in both AAC (DPL2 downmixed) and AC3 pass-thru, just like the AppleTV preset. In fact, it should give the same quality as the AppleTV preset, but faster...and at a larger file size. Like the AppleTV preset, it used CRF, so sizes will vary.

Snapshot2 -> Snapshot 3 (r1797)
Core Library:
- Universal input support, utilizing libavcodec from the FFmpeg project for decoding non-MPEG-2 video
- Newer, faster, better version of the x264 codec, including psychovisual optimizations
- Better AV sync through full compliance with the MPEG Standard Target Decoder timing model
- More accurate auto-cropping
- Support for New Zealand and Norwegian HDTV broadcasts (H.264 and AAC-LATM in MPEG-TS)
- Detelecine is now "VFR detelecine" by default, dropping some frames and extending others to make up lost time, old behavior of keeping duplicate frames is enabled by selecting a framerate besides "Same as source"
- Threaded deinterlacing in Slow and Slower modes
- Threaded and entirely rewritten decomb filter
- Better audio resampling interpolator
- Better gamma in QuickTime through the use of the COLR MP4 atom
- Better constant quality encoding when using FFmpeg
- Hopefully better cache and virtual memory performance by recycling buffers that were most recently used instead of least
- Fix for MP4s with "negative duration" errors.
- Set the detelecine filter to work better with PAL by using "loose" breaks
- Fix for missing initial H.264 NAL units, improves reliability of 8x8dct
- Fix for subtitle-scan with XviD encoding
- Fix for crash at the end of 2nd pass using x264
- Deblock filter works now
- Rewritten update system, so the core library can read a portion of Sparkle appcasts.
- Updates for libsamplerate, libogg, xvidcore, libtheora, libmpeg2, lame, faac, and of course ffmpeg and x264.

Mac GUI
- Entirely rewritten and far more flexible queue that can be saved between sessions, capable of preserving queued items after a crash
- Now requires vlc 0.9.xx to read protected dvd's in the users /Applications folder
- Fix for 4x3 loose anamorphic to keep it from downscaling
- Countless other improvements

Windows GUI
- Resolution calculation
- Better preset bar
- Better queue (including queue recovery feature)
- Better activity log window
- Improved UI (layout changes, animated x264 options, DVD drive detection, duration displayed)
- More options - includes support for custom auto name format & starting the CLI minimized
- Countless other improvements

Linux GUI (GTK)
- It's alive!

Known Issues in Snapshot 3
- Possibility of a flickering line at the top or bottom of the frame after Slow or Slower deinterlacing or decombing
- Input bitrate display may be off by a factor of 100 for H.264-in-TS sources
- Constant Quality Rate preset probably needs a lower quality level (60% - 55%)
- With non-DVD sources that don't have AC3 audio, you can't encode 1 input audio track to multiple output audio tracks
- Slow and Slower deinterlacing and decombing are BROKEN in Windows
- QuickTime won't read Xvid-in-MP4 output, although VLC will
- Windows GUI does not detect all audio tracks from non-DVD sources

Snapshot 1 -> Snapshot 2 (r1477)
Core Library:
- Anamorphic PAR for the AVI container
- Allow constant frame rates when they different from the source's frame rate (otherwise pass through the variable MPEG-2 frame durations )
- Decomb filter (selectively deinterlaces when it sees interlacing in the frame)
- Filter bug fixed, that would skip any filters after detelecine, if VFR wasn't enabled
- Loose anamorphic + FFmpeg video bug fixed

Windows GUI:
- Title dropdown list bug fixed
- Missing log file bug fixed

CLI:
- Default audio samplerate changed to 48kHz, audio bitrate changed to 160kbps.
- Samplerate entry bug fixed

0.9.2 -> Snapshot 1 (r1457)
Core Library:
- New audio subsystem (no more AAC+AC3, control each track's codec and settings individually)
- Removed libdvdcss (HandBrake no longer decrypts DVDs on its own, will use VLC to do so if it's available)
- Added Theora encoder
- Fixed x264-in-avi and ffmpeg-in-avi
- Fixed xvid
- More accurate scaling
- Major sync improvements
- Major stream improvements
- AAC+AC3 support in MKV
- MKV seeking fixes
- Make sure subtitles get displayed long enough to read them
- Updated VBV 2-pass and VBV 1-pass patch for x264
- Adaptive Quantization for x264
- Recover from bad preview scans
- Recover from invalid PGNs
- Fixed vorbis bitrate control
- Snapshot builds

Mac:
- New audio interface
- Loads libdvdcss from VLC at runtime if it's present on the user's system
- No more general-purpose "Codecs" menu -- set video and audio codecs individually
- More robust preset system, in preparation for nested presets
- Made 64-bit MP4 file widget more prominent
- Only allow useful x264 options in the advanced tab
- Various fixes and improvements

Windows:
- New x264 tab
- New audio interface
- Various fixes and improvements

CLI:
- New audio interface

HandBrake 0.9.2 was based off revision 1304. A timeline of all those changes and what they entail can be found here: http://trac.handbrake.fr/log/?action=fo ... verbose=on
johnslayer
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by johnslayer »

Great news! Thanks for another great release and for the amazing app. Lots of great stuff in this snapshot.
- DTS and HDMV DTS audio support in streams
Any chance someone can elaborate on this? I am assuming this is NOT passthrough for DTS? Is this just the option of picking the DTS stream to be re-encoded? Just wondering as I am picking up a blu-ray drive soon. Cheers and thanks again!
y2jdmbfan
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by y2jdmbfan »

I am getting a "frmReadDVD.cs - startProc() System.OverflowException:Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow." error with Dr. No DVD ripped to my Hard Drive. It worked fine with Snapshot Build 3, but did not work with 0.92. Is there anyway to fix this? If you need more information please let me know.

Y2J
ccjensen
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by ccjensen »

I've done 4 encodes using the appletv preset, 62% constant quality, loose anamorphic, default decomb, and advanced set to:
ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=3:weightb=1:direct=auto:no-fast-pskip=1:me=umh:subq=7:analyse=all:b-adapt=2

Looking good so far
jbrjake
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by jbrjake »

This isn't a thread for technical support. Please don't force our hands to lock it lest it devolve into a trainwreck like the last snapshot thread.

The only way we are accepting feedback is in the form of thorough bug reports -- the web page where you're downloading the snapshot clearly tells you those bug reports belong in the bug reports forum (*shock*), not this thread.

Unless you have a specific question about what the changes mean -- like how johnslayer is curious about the DTS line in the change set -- or you want to share how you're testing the build -- like how ccjensen is -- you should not be posting here.
johnslayer wrote:
- DTS and HDMV DTS audio support in streams
Any chance someone can elaborate on this? I am assuming this is NOT passthrough for DTS? Is this just the option of picking the DTS stream to be re-encoded
Correct.
Last edited by jbrjake on Mon Nov 03, 2008 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: removed references to deleted posts
SnorreSelmer
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by SnorreSelmer »

Absolutely awesome work people! Too bad it means I'll have to redo all my series again (~2 TB of RipIt rips), but it will all be worth it.
Of course I don't have to do it, I just feel compelled. ;)
nathug
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by nathug »

Hi,

Could you explain a little more about the new universal preset vs the AppleTV preset.

I did some encodings last night with the new version with GREAT results, smaller file size, and a fantastic picture. If I did the same encodes with the universal preset, is there much of a speed difference, as on my MacBook the new preset is taking 3-4 hours? Is the picture the same or worst?

Nate
jbrjake
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by jbrjake »

nathug wrote:Could you explain a little more about the new universal preset vs the AppleTV preset.

is there much of a speed difference

Is the picture the same or worst?
Um, just like I said in the original post:
it should give the same quality as the AppleTV preset, but faster...and at a larger file size.
nathug
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by nathug »

Thanks.

I only ask so we know what to look for to help with feedback for ya.

Nate
rownder
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by rownder »

I have been experimenting with the Universal preset and am very impressed. I just began using Handbrake to convert a 400 DVD collection to be compatible with my new AppleTV. I encoded about 30 discs already with 0.9.2 but think I will be waiting a little longer for this release...

Some results....

I am running on an standard Intel iMac (2.4 GHz w/ 1 GB Ram) with OS X Leopard. With 0.9.2, I was using the AppleTV preset and averaging about 25-30 fps on encodes. File sizes averaged about 2.3 GB.

With the new AppleTV preset, the speed has dropped to about 23 fps, but file sizes have seemed to shrink to about 1.7GB (avg bitrate around 1500-1600). I would say the quality is about the same, if not better, but its tough to judge.

With the Universal preset, I am getting about 28 fps encoding, average bitrates around 1700 and file sizes around 2.5 GB. Again, quality is difficult to judge, but like jbrake stated its nearly indistinguishable from the AppleTV preset.

Both versions look and sound absolutely stunning on an iPhone 3g.

I have a question that I hope is not against the forum rules regarding snapshot builds. About how much would you anticipate the Universal preset changing between now and the next final version release?
jbrjake
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by jbrjake »

rownder wrote:About how much would you anticipate the Universal preset changing between now and the next final version release?
Very little. Because it has to play on the iPod, the possibilities are curtailed. Most of the x264 settings can't be enabled, so there isn't much wiggle room.
Da Man
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by Da Man »

Great new release. One question. Was the problem fixed with chapter markers not being read properly by MetaX due to the chapter marker being placed differently than it was in 0.9.2? Thanks in advance guys.
realityking
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by realityking »

No, this is considered a MetaX bug, not a HandBrake bug.
nathug
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by nathug »

The picture when using the new AppleTV or Universal preset seems to be a little on the bright side compared to the same encoding with the last snapshot. This isn't too much of a problem when viewing on a computer, only slightly noticeable. But, on my Panasonic through an appleTV, these new encodings are forcing the TV to push the automatic darkness setting into pushing it noticeably too bright. I don't have this problem with past encodings, or with any content from Apple or their trailers.

Any ideas?

Nate
nathug
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by nathug »

Just did a comparison with the iPhone too. The picture is a little on the bright side on this also. Its like the brightness has been increased by 2% or something.

Nate
rhester
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by rhester »

*laughs* We can't win.

People complained things were too dark (but only in QuickTime and variants), so we (re-)added the COLR atom to specify the color standard to normalize the colors.

Now people think they are too bright. :)

jbrjake, isn't the color matrix configurable in head now (between 601, 709, and none)?

Rodney
jbrjake
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by jbrjake »

rhester wrote:jbrjake, isn't the color matrix configurable in head now (between 601, 709, and none)?
Yeah. Only in the CLI, though.

Amusingly, I made it configurable due to a thread in the bugs forum, where someone is arguing the opposite point -- that setting COLR makes it too *dark* for their liking.
nathug
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by nathug »

Hi again,

So I went a little further for you guys too. I have a calibrated Panasonic TV professionaly done (and before you ask, NOT by bestbuy), with the AppleTV connected via HDMI. Past AppleTV encodes have looked just as good as running the DVD on an Oppo DVD Player and a PS3 with all the video settings set to full (the default setting in the PS3 limits white level etc. not letting the darks go dark, and the whites go full white!). The dark areas look almost identical.

My first video I noticed it on was 'Baraka', the color on the new build looks great, slightly better than the last build. But the dark areas on the new build are not going to black, they are staying roughly 2% above black. This was the case too with 'Capote', and 'Chicago'.

On my Mac, and Dell laptops it wasn't as noticable, but you know how a laptop screen is, angle it slighlty and it looks great, then in another area really bad.

I put these videos on my iPhone. I always have my screen at 1/2 on the brigtness slider. Again the videos were noticably brighter, and the blacks were not black. The color is great though, and so is the overal quality.

Please don't get me wrong, the new build is by far the best all round quality I have seen, and I was impressed by the last one.

Is there any way to get a test disc encoded to give an acurate test file to calibrate a TV or monitor to? I've read somewhere before that this is not possable within the way encoding works, is this correct? If it does give an acurate result, maybe a tread could be set up to give you guys the results etc? My guess is that some of the feed back you guys have been reciving is from people who have the set up wrong somewhere.

I maybe wrong here. Its your GIG, so take my words however you want.

Cheers

Nate
12bears
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by 12bears »

Delighted with the increased flexibility of the new build regarding it's ability to handle other video formats, particularly in view of the the recent demise of Visualhub.

They only question I had was whether there was the possibility of an ATV preset indended for making the best of HD content.

I know there are certain limitations for ATV relating to framerate, resolution and maximum bitrates, and I think that for the less technically adept (of which I'm probably one), an 'Apple TV HD' preset designed to get the best results, similar to VH's 'Go Nuts' setting for example.

Just a thought.

In the meantime, I'll have a fiddle around myself and post any useful findings.

Cheers
rhester
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by rhester »

The capabilities of a playback device have nothing to do with the input to the encoder. ATV can handle what it can handle, regardless of whether you are trying to transcode HD content, SD content, or YouTube videos. The presets are designed for optimal output _up to the device's capabilities_, so even if you want to convert super-super-super-very-HD-HD content to ATV, the preset will remain the same.

Rodney
edbmdave
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by edbmdave »

I noticed in the new profiles, that the default width box is no longer prepopulated. Ie for the Iphone profiles it would automatically specify 480, for highrez Ipod (Ipod Legacy) it would specifcy 640. These are now blank. Should they be used or is this now part of the built in profile.

I ran the same file through with it blank and then with it filled in the resulting files came out the same in size, but the resolution on the one I left blank came up as 720 x 400. The one I manually specified came up as 480 x 272.

In reviewing the files I could not tell much quality difference, but wanted to check as It would seem to me at 720 x 400 I would suffer a significant loss of video quality over the 480 x 272 resolution.

So. Should the width box be left blank now, and is it handled in the profile? Is the 720 width resolution ok?
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s55
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by s55 »

It's a bug in the wingui. I've since fixed it and it'll be sorted in the next snapshot release.
lone_tree
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by lone_tree »

nathug wrote:Just did a comparison with the iPhone too. The picture is a little on the bright side on this also. Its like the brightness has been increased by 2% or something.

Nate
Have you done any comparisons with the original source? I'm wondering which is encode is closer to the original. The "darker" one or the "lighter" one.

Any insight as to the 59% CRF in the Universal preset? I've typically been doing 68% in the past, but since doing some comparisons, it's hard to tell the difference. The universal is exactly what I've been looking for (my bad for not updating my presets in previous svn builds). Now I don't have to have two versions of my movies for the ATV and the iPhone.

Oh and the detelecine seems to work wonders now. I was having issues before (probably user error). Great work devs.
dynaflash
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by dynaflash »

lone_tree wrote:
nathug wrote:Any insight as to the 59% CRF in the Universal preset? I've typically been doing 68% in the past, but since doing some comparisons, it's hard to tell the difference. The universal is exactly what I've been looking for (my bad for not updating my presets in previous svn builds).
Yup, its called way newer x264 that totally rocks. :)
nathug
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Re: HandBrake Snapshot Build 4

Post by nathug »

I've now done quite a few encodes, and can forgive the slight brightness increase due to that fact that the overall improvement in the picture and the universal compatibility is great. Yet snapshot 3 is much closer brightness wise to the original source. But do a comparison with the overall quality between the 2 snapshots, and the latest wins hands down, I just wish it was a little faster. It does however save me from doing 2 encode one for ATV and the other for iPhone thought, so I guess this is a good trade off.

The only sources I have had big problems with was 'Get Smart' and 'The Da Vinci Code', from files off a hard drive. 'Get Smart' had audio sync issues, the post about this is in the bugs section. But, I did again with Snapshot 3 and this was fine. Da Vinci Code did a full encode and just repeated one scene hald way through the movie for the rest of the movie, I did this direct from the disc and that was fine, so I think my rip here was bad.

Nate
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