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  1. Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post
    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    Well, I will sell you the DVD of Clue... $20 ought to be enough. I will look for it later and post the MediaInfo display from one of its vobs.

    As for the MediaInfo display that you think doesn't make sense, it was from an "anamorphic" DVD, where they store the 852x480 in 720x480 by scrunching it up. If you were to playback that video on a non-anamorphic renderer, then it would look all stretched in the vertical direction. All good widescreen DVDs are anamorphic like that. The non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs are really grainy and pixelated. So anyway, on an anamorphic video, the pixel dimensions are DVD standard 720x480, but the real aspect ratio is given to the renderer, so that it will know how to correctly restore the original images.
    I wouldn't be trying to look clever by offering to sell anyone a clue if I were you. First..... you need to at least convince the mark you own one and so far I don't think anyone in this thread is buying.
    I fully understand anamorphic video. DVDs have two aspect ratios. 16:9 and 4:3 (which includes any black bars). The resolution is always 720x480 (NTSC). Yet after your convoluted process you appear to have ended up with a 720x480 encode with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The only way the final display aspect ratio should change is if you crop some of the video. What's left (720x364 for example) will be stretched out on playback in exactly the same way as the original DVD (the shape of the pixels hasn't changed) and will therefore have a different display aspect ratio (2.35:1 for example).

    Unless you're doing some particularly odd upscaling which increases the vertical resolution without increasing the horizontal resolution to achieve 2.35:1..... or something like that. Is that it? Are you removing the black bars and stretching what's left back out to 480? That'd make sense I guess.... if the conversion software is clever it might change the pixel aspect ratio rather than let you make a mess of the display aspect ratio.... although if that's what's happening I'm not sure what the point of the resizing might be. Or why MediaInfo labels it as NTSC.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    So I tried the PS3 profile in Xilisoft (one of 100s of programs I tried), and it produced the file whose MediaInfo dump is shown above. It has this weird AVC (NTSC) tag that I don't understand. But it WORKS!
    Personally I think it's more likely you were originally using the wrong AVC level or doing something else odd which your media players don't play. Maybe using the PS3 setting you began enforcing encoder restrictions which the standalone players like. Can you post the mediainfo from an encode they won't play? Standalone devices, even Bluray players, are just as unlikely to display anamorphic MP4s correctly as they are to display them properly. We have a couple of Bluray players in this house as well as a couple of TVs with built in media players and only one of the Bluray players displays anamorphic MP4s correctly. Chances are it's the fact your current encodes use an AVC level of 3.0 with one reference frame which lets all your devices play your encodes and the "NTSC" label isn't actually relevant.

    These days, if you encode using standard x264 settings with an AVC level of 4.1 you should be pretty safe when it comes to standalone devices. Older players may require a lower AVC level. The final resolution doesn't matter. Anamorphic video should play but may or may not display correctly. You're basically saying you're unable to encode video in the same way the rest of us do and be able to play it on your devices while the rest of us can, and you seem to be looking for different ways to re-invent the wheel as a result.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    So I am not really interested in the internal workings of DVDs, sorry. I am, you might say, a lay man. And I just want to play my videos on the UPnP renderers in the house. I found a way to do it, and now I am looking for a way to streamline and make the process more efficient. Thats all.
    Which would be to do it the way most people do it. The DVDFab converter is not considered to be particularly good but it rips DVDs fine. You'll invariably come across the odd "problem" DVD when encoding, but 99% of us rip the DVDs to our hard drive and most convert the vob files to MP4 or MKV with a program such as MeGUI, Handbrake, ffcoder, Ripbot or HDConvertToX. Look up the supported media types for your devices and go with the "lowest common denominator" AVC level. Use either anamorphic encoding or convert to square pixels if your playback device doesn't support non-square pixels. That's all you should need to do and it works for the rest of us. Encoding a DVD twice while resizing it twice, as it appears you might be doing, well it's hardly the optimum way to do it. Not to mention encoding using a particular bitrate.... nobody does that anymore. These days it's all quality based encoding.
    Well, if you read my most previous message, you see that my methods vary. In that example, I upscaled the clip to 720p, rather than going back down to 720x480 anamorphic. The problem I have with encoding is that I have a great variety of renderers that must be able to play my videos, and I don't wish to transcode on-the-fly. So I must pick a method that keeps all reasonably happy. This is not easy to do. I thought, at one point, that I had it all solved, then someone in the house bought a new blu-ray player, and it was almost immediately back to square one. It took me a bit of digging to find out what would keep that device happy. Generally speaking MPEG2-TS is what all my devices really would like to have, but I don't particularly like that format, and feel if I convert all my video to it, I will be left with a bunch of obsolete files in a few years. The mobile devices are mostly happy with any sort of mp4 x264 that I have thrown at them. My blu-ray players, 3 different ones -- all Sony, but different ages, are the most picky. They seem pretty happy with almost anything, then they will stutter horribly for no apparant reason. They don't do that if fed MPEG2-TS. So I went looking for some type of mp4 format that would work, that is when I stumbled over the PS3 standard def x264 profile in Xilisoft. It only supports 2 pixel dimensions: 720x480 or 720x576 (I think, PAL anyhow). And it worked. Nary a stutter, always smooth, and with bitrates much higher than had worked previously with other formats. Now understand, this is streaming the video over my LAN, which is quite complex and totally wifi. Some in the family think I shouldn't be able to do it at all. But I do it anyhow. Why does it work? I don't know, but I think it has to do with the NTSC, and I think that has to do with the 720x480 frame size. I did an experiment earlier, just before writing this, and I was able to generate an AVC (NTSC) file from DVDFab, by forcing the dimensions to 720x480... however the video looked horrible... because of bars on the sides (DVDFab wasn't able to do anamorphic). With the anamorphic from Xilisoft I am able to eliminate the side bars. I still get letterbox, but of course, they are necessary. Since I am just pushing the buttons, and don't really understand what I am doing, I could easily be replaced by 100 monkeys... they would get it right just about as fast as I can.
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  2. Well I don't stream video so I can't comment there. To be honest I've never really seen the point. Everyone has thumb drives and/or portable hard drives which the players happily connect to via USB and the wireless setup is kept busy enough with everybody's internet access without throwing streaming into the mix.

    I can tell you there's two Sony Bluray players (S370 and S480) and a Samsung Bluray player in this house. The Sonys are probably better players. I also regularly use a friend's Sony player too (S360 I think). It doesn't have a USB input, but all three Sony players play pretty much everything without stuttering. They never have a problem with my x264/MKV encodes right up to 1080p. As long as I stick to AVC level 4.1 they're fine.

    Maybe it's a bandwidth issue..... someone else may be able to advise you there.... but maybe you need to separate the streaming from the types of video the players will play on their own and work out where the problem actually is. If the ability to stream video has anything to do with it being labelled NTSC I'll be absolutely astounded.
    It doesn't even seem logical to me. Encode "A" might be 720x480 anamorphic with black bars. Encode "B" might be 720x364 anamorphic without the black bars. Why should video "A" play better than video "B" if the same encoder settings were used?

    Your PS3 preset seems to use the Baseline profile and a level of 3.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
    As I said I don't know much about video streaming but I'd be thinking the profile and level being used has more to do with success at streaming than the video dimensions or the "NTSC" label. If the software actually writes the encoder settings to the video steam it'd be interesting to see what other settings it's using. Or alternatively you might be able to look at the x264 configuration to see what settings Xilisoft uses when you select the PS3 profile.

    The thing is.... I know the Sony players will play the video you seem to think they won't. My player plays them all the time. That probably just leaves streaming and bandwidth as being the problem. Personally I think you've reached the wrong conclusion as to what fixes it. I don't see why, once you know what encoder settings need to be used to stream video successfully, you shouldn't be able to rip a DVD to your hard drive and encode it with those settings knowing it'll play, bypassing the need for all the double encoding etc.
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  3. Member yoda313's Avatar
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    This might not be what the poster is looking for but if this all about streaming and no actual physical files are being connected to the players than the poster should look into streaming software.

    tverstiy
    playon
    ps3mediaserver.

    These have been around for quite some time and do work.

    @bootstrap - have you tried streaming a ripped dvd? This wouldn't involve any encoding. It would be transcoded by the streaming software to the target device.

    One note I don't know if these can handle multiple inputs to multiple outputs. It almost seems like you are trying to have different media folders stream to multiple playback units. Are you doing these at the same time? If so I don't know if that will be possible - it probably is but I don't stream enough to know for sure.

    But instead of trying to tailor each video to each device I would take a break from encoding and give streaming a try.

    I've been following your thread for awhile and this might be a useable alternative that might be less frustrating.

    ---------------

    Personally I prefer a direct lan connection to wifi streaming for video. However I still use a G router so N might actually be stable enough for video and possibly hd video but I don't have a n router so I can't say it will from personal experience - others might.

    If you were using "physical" files to play on a dvd/bluray disc in data format or on flash media than you would definitely need to encode specifically for each device. but streaming lets you consider the options of streaming programs to do the transcoding for you.

    Also I'm not sure who mentioned it but you will need to encode to the lowest common denominator in order for one file to play on as many devices as possible. Whatever the lowest profile/value is that is your destination. Than use that to encode your stuff to.

    I think its tunebite that has a "universal mp4" setting. I'm not sure what that is but if you were interested you could google the internet for the full details of that mode. However that "universal" might still be misleading as things like ac3 audio and hd resolution would not always work for each player you are using. If its all sd material than that is ok. - edit tunebite isn't really a standalone converter program - like format factory or handbrake - its meant more for capturing internet video and audio - but what I am getting at is you could see what the actual specs are for the files that are created using that profile.

    One other thing it is generally not a good thing to upscale using software. It is an unneeded conversion. At least personally I'm more than pleased with the upscaling both my ps3 and xbox 360 do. I'm sure upscaling dvd players and bluray players also do a more than adequate job of upscaling sd material.

    Edit - also a downside to streaming of course is you have to have your computer on to do it. That would be a benefit to creating a compatible file for local playback on whatever device you are targeting.

    Edit 2 - also you'd need a relatively powerful computer to do 1080p streaming. Not sure if dtsma would create any complications but this should be transcodable to ac3 by the streaming software I assume.
    Last edited by yoda313; 16th Jun 2012 at 10:32.
    Donatello - The Shredder? Michelangelo - Maybe all that hardware is for making coleslaw?
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  4. Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post
    Well I don't stream video so I can't comment there. To be honest I've never really seen the point. Everyone has thumb drives and/or portable hard drives which the players happily connect to via USB and the wireless setup is kept busy enough with everybody's internet access without throwing streaming into the mix.

    I can tell you there's two Sony Bluray players (S370 and S480) and a Samsung Bluray player in this house. The Sonys are probably better players. I also regularly use a friend's Sony player too (S360 I think). It doesn't have a USB input, but all three Sony players play pretty much everything without stuttering. They never have a problem with my x264/MKV encodes right up to 1080p. As long as I stick to AVC level 4.1 they're fine.

    Maybe it's a bandwidth issue..... someone else may be able to advise you there.... but maybe you need to separate the streaming from the types of video the players will play on their own and work out where the problem actually is. If the ability to stream video has anything to do with it being labelled NTSC I'll be absolutely astounded.
    It doesn't even seem logical to me. Encode "A" might be 720x480 anamorphic with black bars. Encode "B" might be 720x364 anamorphic without the black bars. Why should video "A" play better than video "B" if the same encoder settings were used?

    Your PS3 preset seems to use the Baseline profile and a level of 3.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
    As I said I don't know much about video streaming but I'd be thinking the profile and level being used has more to do with success at streaming than the video dimensions or the "NTSC" label. If the software actually writes the encoder settings to the video steam it'd be interesting to see what other settings it's using. Or alternatively you might be able to look at the x264 configuration to see what settings Xilisoft uses when you select the PS3 profile.

    The thing is.... I know the Sony players will play the video you seem to think they won't. My player plays them all the time. That probably just leaves streaming and bandwidth as being the problem. Personally I think you've reached the wrong conclusion as to what fixes it. I don't see why, once you know what encoder settings need to be used to stream video successfully, you shouldn't be able to rip a DVD to your hard drive and encode it with those settings knowing it'll play, bypassing the need for all the double encoding etc.
    First, not all the renderers have a USB port, like the iPad, for example. So the options are streaming or direct storage on the device. Truth be told, the iPad has always taken whatever has been thrown at it and works well. Wish I could say the same for Sony's blu-ray players.

    Second, the blu-ray players seem to treat video played from thumb drives differently than video streamed, I don't know why. Even burns are treated differently. For example, they won't play a mp4 from a PAL, if it is burned on a blank disc. But they will gladly play it if you stream it to them. Go figure that out!

    Third, the most common format DVD that I own are anamorphic widescreen movies. When you rip them, they are transformed by DVDFab, thru my choice, into 852x360 (or something like that, each is slightly different). I have DVDFab remove unneeded portions, like letterboxing, thru the crop procedure. When I started out, this seemed the most logical to me, as I was not thinking of playback anywhere but on my PC.

    Fourth, when I started getting UPnP devices in the house, I installed several media servers, I can't recall all the ones I tried out, I still have Serviio and PS3 Media Server installed... but I have pretty much settled on PS3 Media Server. Both servers can do on-the-fly transcoding, but I have chosen not to do that, because I do not wish to give-up the cpu hoursepower to do it. I did try it though, and transcoding works well. But remember, at this point I had over 400 videos in mp4 852x360 for viewing on the PC... when I started streaming them, I noticed that some of them would stutter and jerk, while others played smoothly. I was mystified, I did not know why (still don't).

    At first, I thought it was my lan being too slow, so I spent a lot of time upgrading my lan, and it did help some videos, but one persistent problem remained, video encoded in anything other than 720x480 would not fast forward or reverse properly, and sometimes trying to do that would crash the blu-ray. And some videos still stuttered occassionally - but not when you'd think logical (at the high bitrate scenes).

    The first thing that became apparant was that I noticed that the media servers were transcoding to MPEG2-TS, and the documentation they provided indicated that this format was the most compatible. But I could find no program that would convert to it... none of the conversion programs that I found even mentioned it. I had to wiki it to find out what it was. Well, it is a variant of MPEG2 for "transport stream". So I started just converting my stuff to MPEG2, and it worked!! Even high bitrate stuff would stream. But some renderers, some of the mobile stuff, like iPhones, didn't seem to handle MPEG2 well, they had audio sync problems, then my daughter pointed out that the PS3 had audio sync issues with the streamed MPEG2 also. Ahhh... I was ready to pull my hair out!

    Then I stumbled onto the solution thru the PS3 profile for SD x264 in Xilisoft, and it worked well, and no audio sync issues came up! So now I am in the midst of converion to this format. The input files are mostly mp4 852x360 going in and 720x480 coming out. When I look at them with a video editor they still show 852x whatever, but MediaInfo shows them as 720x480, and thats when I figured they were anamorphic! The widescreen image had been squeexed into 720 width by the conversion. Goodbye audio sync problems, goodbye stutterring and jerkiness. Hello happiness.

    The total project time so far is easily over 4 years that I have been loading my DVDs onto this (or prior) computers. When I first started I was using software bought at Best Buy (but then it was banned... and then it was brought back, after some lawsuits). And at first, I didn't store my movies on my PC, but burned backups. My wife says that this is my hobby. I am 66 years old, retired, with 4 grown children (who think I am the oldest geek they have ever seen... they are finally getting hooked on Doctor Who, so they are now becoming more geeky themselves).
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    @bootstrap - it's commendable that you age getting into this stuff and want do what you are doing. However, struggling to understand what your issues are with the good advice you are being given after asking for it?

    Xilisoft is far from the best software out there, and there is free software that will produce rips that are better in terms of filesize and compatibility. I have also been converting a large set of DVDs and TV recordings, and the advice being given here seems pretty much bang on. Rip with DVDFab, and use it to rip only, to get the DVDs to your hard drive. Then convert with a converter of choice. Vidcoder, Handbrake and MeGUI are pretty much the best options. Handbrake is what I now use - a couple of years ago I also used Fairuse Wizard, which isn't bad if you want Xvids instead. Handbrake is updated regularly, and produces good quality at an acceptable filesize.

    Also not sure why you seem to be upscaling SD video to 720p as part of your conversion process? It won't magically create quality that doesn't exist in the source material, and likely won't do a better job of sizing the material to your screen than your player/TV already do. What it will do is create bigger file sizes (for no gain), slow the encoding process, and risk introducing extra issues into the final file.

    @yoda313 - I agree wired is better than wireless for streaming. However, I find wireless N fine for streaming SD video around the house. Both to the bedroom player in the adjacent room to the router, and over a considerably longer distance to the downstairs living room. To date it has been pretty darn solid (once I upgraded to a good router). Haven't tried much with HD, but suspect it would struggle here. Also think it would struggle mightily over a G router.

    @hello_hello - I put my media files on a network because it means that they can be accessed from wherever in the house I want - bedroom, living room or portable device, and (when I finish my upgrade) RAID5 will give some protection against losing the media collection to a drive crash. If people contending for you wireless bandwidth is an issue and the reason you don't use it to stream then you might want to dry what I do. Get a dual-mode dual-radio router and dual-mode dual-radio wireless adapters for your media players (they cost a few tens of dollars extra). Then run two networks, stream films using the 5GHz radio, and leave the 2.4GHz frequency for ipads, ipods and laptops etc. No conflict or interference.
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  6. Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    Second, the blu-ray players seem to treat video played from thumb drives differently than video streamed, I don't know why. Even burns are treated differently. For example, they won't play a mp4 from a PAL, if it is burned on a blank disc. But they will gladly play it if you stream it to them. Go figure that out!
    I can't comment there as I live in PAL land so the Bluray players will play both PAL and NTSC encodes quite happily. Either via USB or disc. I haven't tried streaming.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    But remember, at this point I had over 400 videos in mp4 852x360 for viewing on the PC... when I started streaming them, I noticed that some of them would stutter and jerk, while others played smoothly. I was mystified, I did not know why (still don't).
    Encoder settings?

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    At first, I thought it was my lan being too slow, so I spent a lot of time upgrading my lan, and it did help some videos, but one persistent problem remained, video encoded in anything other than 720x480 would not fast forward or reverse properly, and sometimes trying to do that would crash the blu-ray. And some videos still stuttered occassionally - but not when you'd think logical (at the high bitrate scenes).
    Encoder settings once again, maybe? If memory serves me correctly your 720x480 encodes only use one reference frame and the Baseline prolfile. As the MediaInfo you posted doesn't include the encoder settings I could only guess there's not a huge distance between keyframes. There's probably quite a few encoder settings which your PS3 profile is enforcing which allows you to stream the video and which you could also use while encoding the original vob files with other software. It maybe "just so happens" that the PS3 profile also restricts you to 720x480 but the resolution has nothing to do with the ability to stream.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    Then I stumbled onto the solution thru the PS3 profile for SD x264 in Xilisoft, and it worked well, and no audio sync issues came up! So now I am in the midst of converion to this format. The input files are mostly mp4 852x360 going in and 720x480 coming out. When I look at them with a video editor they still show 852x whatever, but MediaInfo shows them as 720x480, and thats when I figured they were anamorphic! The widescreen image had been squeexed into 720 width by the conversion. Goodbye audio sync problems, goodbye stutterring and jerkiness. Hello happiness.
    It just seems a pity to me you're stuck on the resolution as having solved the problem.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    ....they are finally getting hooked on Doctor Who, so they are now becoming more geeky themselves).
    The new series??? I'm also getting old. Not quite your flavor of old, but old enough to watch some of the "Classic Who" the first time around. Tom Baker was "The" Doctor when I was young. The new series though..... it started off okay but I'm struggling to keep interested now.
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  7. Originally Posted by Chopmeister View Post
    @bootstrap - it's commendable that you age getting into this stuff and want do what you are doing. However, struggling to understand what your issues are with the good advice you are being given after asking for it?

    Xilisoft is far from the best software out there, and there is free software that will produce rips that are better in terms of filesize and compatibility. I have also been converting a large set of DVDs and TV recordings, and the advice being given here seems pretty much bang on. Rip with DVDFab, and use it to rip only, to get the DVDs to your hard drive. Then convert with a converter of choice. Vidcoder, Handbrake and MeGUI are pretty much the best options. Handbrake is what I now use - a couple of years ago I also used Fairuse Wizard, which isn't bad if you want Xvids instead. Handbrake is updated regularly, and produces good quality at an acceptable filesize.

    Also not sure why you seem to be upscaling SD video to 720p as part of your conversion process? It won't magically create quality that doesn't exist in the source material, and likely won't do a better job of sizing the material to your screen than your player/TV already do. What it will do is create bigger file sizes (for no gain), slow the encoding process, and risk introducing extra issues into the final file.

    @yoda313 - I agree wired is better than wireless for streaming. However, I find wireless N fine for streaming SD video around the house. Both to the bedroom player in the adjacent room to the router, and over a considerably longer distance to the downstairs living room. To date it has been pretty darn solid (once I upgraded to a good router). Haven't tried much with HD, but suspect it would struggle here. Also think it would struggle mightily over a G router.

    @hello_hello - I put my media files on a network because it means that they can be accessed from wherever in the house I want - bedroom, living room or portable device, and (when I finish my upgrade) RAID5 will give some protection against losing the media collection to a drive crash. If people contending for you wireless bandwidth is an issue and the reason you don't use it to stream then you might want to dry what I do. Get a dual-mode dual-radio router and dual-mode dual-radio wireless adapters for your media players (they cost a few tens of dollars extra). Then run two networks, stream films using the 5GHz radio, and leave the 2.4GHz frequency for ipads, ipods and laptops etc. No conflict or interference.
    I am trying most of the suggestions I have received here. I do not know why you think I am not!! But frankly most of it is too complicated for me... I download the programs and can't make out what to do. So I give them a try and when the results look worse than what I am getting now, usually with side bars, I don't know what to do. I look around at the programs in bewilderment wondering how to make it do what I want. You'd laugh if you saw me sitting here looking at the screen in utter amazement. I even tried to follow directions given on some web site for doing a simple encode with MeGUI... I am sorry, I got half way thru and was completely lost, even though the site had step by friggin step instructions. Stuff that makes me feel stupid doesn't last too long on my computer. And of course for some strange reason, it makes me angry! Go figure that out!
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  8. Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post
    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    Second, the blu-ray players seem to treat video played from thumb drives differently than video streamed, I don't know why. Even burns are treated differently. For example, they won't play a mp4 from a PAL, if it is burned on a blank disc. But they will gladly play it if you stream it to them. Go figure that out!
    I can't comment there as I live in PAL land so the Bluray players will play both PAL and NTSC encodes quite happily. Either via USB or disc. I haven't tried streaming.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    But remember, at this point I had over 400 videos in mp4 852x360 for viewing on the PC... when I started streaming them, I noticed that some of them would stutter and jerk, while others played smoothly. I was mystified, I did not know why (still don't).
    Encoder settings?

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    At first, I thought it was my lan being too slow, so I spent a lot of time upgrading my lan, and it did help some videos, but one persistent problem remained, video encoded in anything other than 720x480 would not fast forward or reverse properly, and sometimes trying to do that would crash the blu-ray. And some videos still stuttered occassionally - but not when you'd think logical (at the high bitrate scenes).
    Encoder settings once again, maybe? If memory serves me correctly your 720x480 encodes only use one reference frame and the Baseline prolfile. As the MediaInfo you posted doesn't include the encoder settings I could only guess there's not a huge distance between keyframes. There's probably quite a few encoder settings which your PS3 profile is enforcing which allows you to stream the video and which you could also use while encoding the original vob files with other software. It maybe "just so happens" that the PS3 profile also restricts you to 720x480 but the resolution has nothing to do with the ability to stream.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    Then I stumbled onto the solution thru the PS3 profile for SD x264 in Xilisoft, and it worked well, and no audio sync issues came up! So now I am in the midst of converion to this format. The input files are mostly mp4 852x360 going in and 720x480 coming out. When I look at them with a video editor they still show 852x whatever, but MediaInfo shows them as 720x480, and thats when I figured they were anamorphic! The widescreen image had been squeexed into 720 width by the conversion. Goodbye audio sync problems, goodbye stutterring and jerkiness. Hello happiness.
    It just seems a pity to me you're stuck on the resolution as having solved the problem.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    ....they are finally getting hooked on Doctor Who, so they are now becoming more geeky themselves).
    The new series??? I'm also getting old. Not quite your flavor of old, but old enough to watch some of the "Classic Who" the first time around. Tom Baker was "The" Doctor when I was young. The new series though..... it started off okay but I'm struggling to keep interested now.
    Look, I don't understand the questions you are asking me. To be blunt.

    What friggin encoder options? I just ask the program to use a profile, I set the bitrate and thats about it. Some of the programs offer advanced options, but they look like the greek alphabet to me, or internal program variable names... which I am totally unfamiliar with, so I don't touch them. I pretty much stick with the PS3 type profile, sometimes venturing to an iPad profile. But thats it. I figure that iPod/iPhone profiles are too small (whatever that means, I don't know). No program that I have seen offers a profile for UPnP or Sony Blu-ray player, or I would try one of those. I have ventured into trying vob passthroughs (in DVDFab) and MKV remux'es, again in DVDFab, and found the results vary, not always as good as what I was getting just sticking to the PS3 mp4 type profiles.

    I have said it before, here in this forum, 100 monkeys could do what I do, and probably get better results!! Or at least as good.

    I am not afraid to try things. I spend most of my time trying new things, new programs, and my family think I am nuts. I continue to try new things, yesterday for example, I tried AVS Video Converter. It sounded very promising, but it was slow and produced videos with side bars... I really hate side bars. I will go to any length to eliminate them.

    So don't ask what encode options I use or used, I don't even understand what you are asking me. Nothing in these programs is so labeled, that I can find. I stick with bitrates in the range of 3500 to 5000, and 1280x720 for HD, or 720x480 for SD. I crop off all letterbox stuff in DVDFab. I use mostly "auto" settings in the video converter (whichever I am using at the time), if available I use full zoom in the video converter with "keep aspect" ratio, I have found those mean anamorphic widescreen... even simple programs use jargon it takes me a long time to understand.
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  9. @Chopmeister

    Almost forgot. I tried the upscaling because I figured it may offload the blu-ray player, do some of the work offline, as it were. I usually don't do it, just stick to 720x480, even for blu-ray rips. If the movie isn't one of my favorites, it gets pretty quick and dirty treatment, to save space on the hard drive. For example, my daughter bought a blu-ray of some cartoon. I ripped it and down scaled it to SD, she watches it on a SD TV anyhow, so I didn't see the point keeping all those GB tied up for no reason. She was happy as a clam.

    By the by, that is how I judge my work, it the offspring are happy, then I am happy. But when my son, a graphic artist of some kind, comes to visit and the movie he selects stutters and jams the player when he reverses it... well, I am embarrassed. But when he complains about artifacts... well, I just tell him, I am a blind (I am legally blind) old man and can't see the friggin artifacts... and everyone laughs and is happy. He must think that it is a miracle that a blind old man can do a lan and UPnP stuff without his help (asking for his help is a real hard thing to do).

    Now if it is one of my favorite movies, i.e. The Matix or Iron Man, well, I spend A LOT of time and effort to get them looking good. I generally try to get as high a pixel dimension and bitrate as I can, and they take up a lot of room on my hard drive. And some of them, especially The Matrix, get worked on over and over again. I am never content with the results. I watch that movie up close and I can see all the problems from a few inches from the big screen on my computer. So different films are treated differently and my work mode and tools seem to constantly be in flux.
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  10. @Chopmeister

    Okay, just tried Handbrake. I had previously downloaded it, but didn't try it, because I didn't think it would produce the NTSC output I want. Well, it actually ran very well, and produced a good video, but not 720x480. It was something like 720x300. I have tried these over my UPnP setup and all my renderers are happy with it, except for the 3 blu-ray players. They will play it, but have trouble fast forward, or reversing. They jam up and eventually freeze. So I looked thru the Handbrake options and I don't see how to get 720x480. It would be great... if I could. This really brings me back to the start of this thread. The only format that I have found that will work correctly is the NTSC format, which I now understand to be 720x480. I know Xilisoft isn't the best, but so far it is the only 1 that I have figured out how to make work.

    Do you think one of the anamorphic options in Handbrake would help. I was using "Strict". I am afraid that I don't know what those options do.
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  11. Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    What friggin encoder options? I just ask the program to use a profile
    Maybe Xilisoft doesn't write the encoder settings to the video stream. When they are there they can be retrieved using MediaInfo and they'll look something like this:

    cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=19.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

    The profile you're using could be changing many of x264's encoding options. There's others aside from what's above if they're used when encoding. My theory is the PS3 profile is changing the encoder settings, which enables you to stream successfully and 720x480 or "NTSC" probably has nothing to do with it.
    Maybe I'm talking crap.... I never stream video.... or maybe Chopmeister will return to offer tips on streaming and whether he needs to use any particular encoder settings etc.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    Now if it is one of my favorite movies, i.e. The Matix or Iron Man, well, I spend A LOT of time and effort to get them looking good. I generally try to get as high a pixel dimension and bitrate as I can, and they take up a lot of room on my hard drive. And some of them, especially The Matrix, get worked on over and over again. I am never content with the results. I watch that movie up close and I can see all the problems from a few inches from the big screen on my computer. So different films are treated differently and my work mode and tools seem to constantly be in flux.
    I don't know how it'd effect the ability to stream, but I do pretty much the opposite. I use standard x264 settings, the same quality setting (CRF value) each time, no filtering, generally no upscaling, and I convert the vob files or Bluray directly to MP4 or MKV. Rarely do I encode something more than once. Unless I find a particularly odd problem, the quality of the encode relative to the original video is pretty consistent. Using the quality setting I do my encodes are fairly indistinguishable from the original. Of course the file sizes and bitrates vary considerably.... but I'm really only interested in consistant quality.

    There's a forum here dedicated to video streaming. Maybe it'd pay you to start a new thread there, explaining exactly how you're doing it and the problems you're having, and someone who actually streams video themselves may be able to help you. https://forum.videohelp.com/forums/48-Video-Streaming
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  12. Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    I have tried these over my UPnP setup and all my renderers are happy with it, except for the 3 blu-ray players. They will play it, but have trouble fast forward, or reversing. They jam up and eventually freeze.
    Which Handbrake setting did you use when encoding? Did you use one of the Device presets?

    Here's why I think the Bluray players may still be giving you a problem:
    http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint
    A keyframe is a "complete" frame which relies on no others in order to be decoded. They're used when seeking.
    Rather than using the default of 250, a keyint of 23 for 23.976fps video or 25 for 25fps may enable the players to rewind more successfully. Unfortunately though, Handbrake doesn't have an option for changing the keyint setting which I can see. It can be added to the encoder command line manually but I'm not sure how Handbrake does that.
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  13. Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post
    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    I have tried these over my UPnP setup and all my renderers are happy with it, except for the 3 blu-ray players. They will play it, but have trouble fast forward, or reversing. They jam up and eventually freeze.
    Which Handbrake setting did you use when encoding? Did you use one of the Device presets?

    Here's why I think the Bluray players may still be giving you a problem:
    http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint
    A keyframe is a "complete" frame which relies on no others in order to be decoded. They're used when seeking.
    Rather than using the default of 250, a keyint of 23 for 23.976fps video or 25 for 25fps may enable the players to rewind more successfully. Unfortunately though, Handbrake doesn't have an option for changing the keyint setting which I can see. It can be added to the encoder command line manually but I'm not sure how Handbrake does that.
    I used the default settings, except I changed the bitrate to 4000 and the audio stream to the 6 channel option. Otherwise, I changed nothing. Handbrake even asked me to enter the path name, since I didn't put one in... so, of course, I entered a path name. As far as I can tell it was all set to "Normal" and "mp4".

    My son suggested we should give it a play (I wasn't going to because of prior difficulties I had had with these dimensions), and guess what? It WORKED! The previous files that had had the problems all came from DVDFab, so we now assume that it must be caused by some sort of issue with DVDFab.

    So the best advice I have is to avoid using DVDFab to do the mp4 encoding. Either Handbrake or Xilisoft produce playable results, and I do not know why. But DVDFab is now in my dog house. I do not think I will even use it for ripping, I have other alternatives for doing a raw rip.

    Now, if only I could find a program that would do it all in 1 step... as the original thrust of this thread was to find such an all-in-one program. But I guess it doesn't exist. DVDFab came closest, but with now clear flaws.
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  14. Member
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    Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post

    Maybe I'm talking crap.... I never stream video.... or maybe Chopmeister will return to offer tips on streaming and whether he needs to use any particular encoder settings etc.
    Happy to help if I can, although my skill and knowledge pale into insignificance compared to some of the regulars here. Most of what I know I got from reading posts here. My process is pretty straightforward.

    1. Rip the DVD to a hard drive. I use DVDFab for a commercial DVD to rip to a folder (it copes best with copy protection) or DVD Decrypter for TV recordings from my DVD recorder (force of habit and they aren't copy protected, plus it rips to ISO fast and reliably).

    2. Open the folder/ISO with handbrake. Select regular/normal profile, set encoding to constant quality at a setting between 19-21 (depending on source quality, whether it's an action film, and how much I care about it).

    3. Click go (or queue them up if I'm doing an overnight batch encode)

    That's about it. If I want xvids I use fairuse wizard at (usually) a bitrate of 1000-1200, bit it's a bit obsolete and I don't use it much nowadays. If I want to crop I use vidcoder as a frontend to handbrake, because of its preview ability. This produced files that are of a reasonable size, and play nicely on my desktop, laptop and both my WD TV Live media players. I tried a number of other software packages and converting workflows but, to be honest, they weren't as easy, fast, or reliable in terms of output.

    @bootstrap - one thought, it might be your blu ray players that are the issue? Some of them aren't too great in terms of the file formats and parameters they will cope with. You might want to try something more robust, like one of the WD Live players I have. Cheap, networkable, well supported, and pretty comprehensive in what they will play. Crappy remote and butt-ugly menus though.
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  15. Okay, Handbrake is my 1-stop solution!

    It will rip DVDs and convert to a very nice MP4 all in one step.

    Yes, it doesn't do DRM... but I don't need that. I use other tools to handle DRM. No need to discuss that here... Google is your friend.
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  16. I'm pretty sure most encoder software will work directly with the files on a disc if you have something like DVDFab or AnyDVD running in the background. But......

    If the video is being read from the optical drive then the optical drive will be working for the whole encoding process..... rather than the 15 minutes it might take on average to rip a DVD to the hard drive first.
    If you've ever experienced problems with ripping a disc due to it being scratched or due to the copy protection etc you'll no doubt have experienced reason number two for ripping DVDs to the hard drive before encoding them.
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  17. Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post
    I'm pretty sure most encoder software will work directly with the files on a disc if you have something like DVDFab or AnyDVD running in the background. But......

    If the video is being read from the optical drive then the optical drive will be working for the whole encoding process..... rather than the 15 minutes it might take on average to rip a DVD to the hard drive first.
    If you've ever experienced problems with ripping a disc due to it being scratched or due to the copy protection etc you'll no doubt have experienced reason number two for ripping DVDs to the hard drive before encoding them.
    I used to do that. I used to rip to a VIDEO_TS folder first, then transcode from the hard drive. I still have many many VIDEO_TS folders that I haven't had a chance to transcode yet... I have found that it takes about as long, on my system, to just transcode from the dvd to the hard drive, as it does to rip to the hard drive. And, I don't have any more VIDEO_TS folders piling up on me. Just too many DVDs and not enough time.

    In the old days, when I had less computer HP, I think that ripping then transcoding seperately made sense... but not now... not for me anyway. That is why I started this thread, to find a 1-step answer. And I have! HandBrake is just what the doctor ordered.

    And DVDFab always complained about my DRM program, and that used to really annoy me... good riddance!

    And, I am finding that HandBrake, besides producing excellent results, is FASTER than my previous transcoder, and produces smaller mp4 files for the same quality! What have I been thinking? Not giving HandBrake a go sooner!

    And the HandBrake online manual... well, that alone is worth the price of admission! My goodness, I have never seen it explained so well, so concisely-- and surprise surprise, I think some of it sunk in!

    I am embarrassed now... I think I've been gushing!
    Last edited by Bootstrap; 18th Jun 2012 at 21:01.
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  18. Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    I have found that it takes about as long, on my system, to just transcode from the dvd to the hard drive, as it does to rip to the hard drive.
    I find that a little hard to believe but, even if true, it's a recipe for wearing out your DVD-RW drive well before its time. It's never a good idea to let the DVD player work the whole time a conversion is going on.
    And DVDFab always complained about my DRM program, and that used to really annoy me.
    Since DVDFab HD Decrypter can break encryption all by itself, there's no need to run a different decrypter (AnyDVD or whatever) in the background at the same time. It stands to reason that they may conflict with each other. For the same reason my PowerDVD refuses to play a DVD at the same time it's open in DVD Decrypter.
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  19. Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    I used to do that. I used to rip to a VIDEO_TS folder first, then transcode from the hard drive. I still have many many VIDEO_TS folders that I haven't had a chance to transcode yet... I have found that it takes about as long, on my system, to just transcode from the dvd to the hard drive, as it does to rip to the hard drive. And, I don't have any more VIDEO_TS folders piling up on me. Just too many DVDs and not enough time.
    I don't know whether you've got a very slow DVD drive or a very fast CPU, but it'd take me on average around 15 minutes to rip a DVD (movie only). Converting it using x264 to MKV probably takes anywhere from 90 minutes onwards, depending on which x264 speed preset I use.
    A few years ago, while DVD burners were really cheap, I bought a new one every now and then. As a result I've got two PCs, both with four DVD burners. Both PCs also run RAID hard drives (four hard drives with two drives per RAID volume). As a result, if I rip two DVDs to one RAID volume and two DVDs to the second RAID volume I can rip four DVDs at a time without the PC feeling like it's doing anything. Or in other words, between the two PCs I can rip eight DVDs in around twenty minutes. It's easy to set up multiple encoding jobs, add them to the job queue, and let the PC convert to it's hearts content while I'm in bed. If I encoded as I ripped I'd never get anything done.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    In the old days, when I had less computer HP, I think that ripping then transcoding seperately made sense... but not now... not for me anyway. That is why I started this thread, to find a 1-step answer. And I have! HandBrake is just what the doctor ordered.
    Well I can't say I've ever encoded directly from a disc. I assume it transfers data fast enough not to be slowing down the encoding process? Each to their own..... I'd just be paranoid of hitting a problem section on the disc while encoding, and I must admit I could happily not listen to the DVD drive noise for hours.

    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    And, I am finding that HandBrake, besides producing excellent results, is FASTER than my previous transcoder, and produces smaller mp4 files for the same quality! What have I been thinking? Not giving HandBrake a go sooner!
    You may have been slowing the encoding down by encoding video which took more CPU power to decode as you'd also encoded it while ripping. Or maybe Xilisoft isn't very good. It uses the x264 encoder doesn't it? I can't really tell you why one would be faster than the other.


    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    And the HandBrade online manual... well, that alone is worth the price of admission! My goodness, I have never seen it explained so well, so concisely-- and surprise surprise, I think some of it sunk in!
    Well you're putting together a ripping/encoding system which works for you, so that's the main thing. Have fun!
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  20. Originally Posted by manono View Post
    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    I have found that it takes about as long, on my system, to just transcode from the dvd to the hard drive, as it does to rip to the hard drive.
    I find that a little hard to believe but, even if true, it's a recipe for wearing out your DVD-RW drive well before its time. It's never a good idea to let the DVD player work the whole time a conversion is going on.
    And DVDFab always complained about my DRM program, and that used to really annoy me.
    Since DVDFab HD Decrypter can break encryption all by itself, there's no need to run a different decrypter (AnyDVD or whatever) in the background at the same time. It stands to reason that they may conflict with each other. For the same reason my PowerDVD refuses to play a DVD at the same time it's open in DVD Decrypter.
    All of this is moot. I have a good DVD drive, it has been working in my system for just over 2 years. I had to clean it out a few times, it got clogged with dust. But a can of compressed air fixed it right up. I am happy with it. The drives are cheap, my time is cheap too, but in short supply. If the drive fails, I will buy another, they are easy to replace. My system is totally homebrew, so I can take it apart and put it together without anyone's help.

    As for DVDFab and its complaints... I was actually banned from the DVDFab forum for even mentioning the name of the other program. I didn't complain, it is their program and they can write it as they wish, but I do not have to like it. As Mr Cash said about that job he didn't like, they can take that program and shove it!

    Using a DVD ripper, such as DVD Decrypter (which I still have the original installed on my system), it takes about 20 minutes to rip an average DVD, sometimes less, sometimes more. And the optical drive is not running all the time with DVD Decrypter, it blinks the green light on and off slowly. With HandBrake, it runs that green light nearly steady with hardly any blink. Now of course, DVD Decrypter hardly uses any cpu, and HandBrake is banging all my 8 cores to the max. So there is a BIG difference in cpu usage. I have to keep a tight eye on the temps... I run software to monitor cpu temps, RealTemp, and also another program to monitor drive temps, SmartDrive, I think it is called. And my last rip with HandBrake took about 16 minutes!
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  21. Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    Using a DVD ripper, such as DVD Decrypter (which I still have the original installed on my system), it takes about 20 minutes to rip an average DVD, sometimes less, sometimes more. And the optical drive is not running all the time with DVD Decrypter, it blinks the green light on and off slowly. With HandBrake, it runs that green light nearly steady with hardly any blink.
    I can't say I've paid much attention to the green light situation but I'd assume a steady green LED means the drive is working harder.

    Mind you 16 minutes to convert with Handbrake..... that seems pretty good to me assuming you're just using x264's default settings. It takes this quad core PC over an hour, and the dual core..... it's relegated to Xvid only. I've really got to update one of them soon......
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  22. Banned
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    Wow.....
    I can't believe people are still.... encouraging ? this..... Ummmm..... person.......

    I had to fight urges to post on the first page as I have a tendency to be a bit "rough" but the more the OP post's and the more I read....
    OY VEY!!!!

    He has no clue and seem's to want to argue every bit of information given.

    If you know so much, then why are you here asking Q's ?
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  23. Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post
    Originally Posted by Bootstrap View Post
    Using a DVD ripper, such as DVD Decrypter (which I still have the original installed on my system), it takes about 20 minutes to rip an average DVD, sometimes less, sometimes more. And the optical drive is not running all the time with DVD Decrypter, it blinks the green light on and off slowly. With HandBrake, it runs that green light nearly steady with hardly any blink.
    I can't say I've paid much attention to the green light situation but I'd assume a steady green LED means the drive is working harder.

    Mind you 16 minutes to convert with Handbrake..... that seems pretty good to me assuming you're just using x264's default settings. It takes this quad core PC over an hour, and the dual core..... it's relegated to Xvid only. I've really got to update one of them soon......
    I am running an i7-920 oc'd to 3.5ghz with 12gb ram with an ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 mobo. I took some of my lump sum and put together my dream machine (at the time, it was the most machine I could afford... course, time marches on...) As I write this I am ripping, with HB in the background, from my DVD player, a movie called Blue Streak. HB says the elapsed time is currently 6:04 and the time remaining is 4:40... something. It is ripping from disc to mp4 using "Normal" preset and RF=18... "loose" anamorphic, and the default downmix to Dolby Prologic II @ 160k bitrate (the default, I think).

    I couldn't be more pleased.

    Yes, the green light being almost solid means it is working hard, but I figure it has got to read the disc anyhow, and even if I was just copying it to my hard drive, with no decrypting or transcoding, it couldn't be a whole lot faster. Of course, my cpu would be a lot cooler, right now RealTemp says I am pushing 67 C on the cpu temp. I try to keep it under 70 C, if it gets over that, I try to use the Affinity command to cut back the cores in use.
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  24. Originally Posted by Noahtuck View Post
    Wow.....
    I can't believe people are still.... encouraging ? this..... Ummmm..... person.......

    I had to fight urges to post on the first page as I have a tendency to be a bit "rough" but the more the OP post's and the more I read....
    OY VEY!!!!

    He has no clue and seem's to want to argue every bit of information given.

    If you know so much, then why are you here asking Q's ?
    Nobody knows it all!! I got my question asked and answered. No complaints here. I think this is a great forum!!
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  25. If you can convert as fast as you can rip it's probably not working the DVD drive any harder than ripping only. I'm envious.... although I've been promising myself I'll upgrade this PC next week for around two years..... maybe I should actually do it. I bought the replacement hard drives for it a year ago and they're still sitting on my desk....

    If you'll be doing a lot of converting it might pay to invest in a third party CPU cooler. Something basic will do. Well it'll be better than the Intel stock cooler. I bought a Coolermaster TX3 because they're cheap (actually it might be a Hyper 212, I can't remember and they look very similar) and you don't need to pull the motherboard out of the case to install it. My Q9450 is slightly overclocked at 3.2Ghz and when the CPU is running flat out it rarely goes much over 50 degrees, whereas it'd run at 70 degrees or more on a hot day with the Intel cooler. It wasn't the temperature which bothered me so much, it was listening to the Intel fan running flat out. The Coolermaster is much quieter.

    For the record (although I haven't use Handbrake much) I think "loose anamorphic" is the option which gets Handbrake to resize the video to mod16 dimensions after cropping (if need be). It shouldn't mess with the aspect ratio of the picture but you'll always get video dimensions divisible by 16. "Strict anamorphic" just encodes "as-is" after cropping so you may end up with non-mod16 dimensions such as 716x476 etc. Theoretically strict anamorphic should be better because there's no resizing involved but if it's only a small amount of resizing I can't pick the difference.
    At least that's how I think Handbrake works..... personally I use the MeGUI equivalent of Handbrake's strict anamorphic.
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  26. @hello_hello

    Yes, you should upgrade! I am envious of my 2 sons (both adults, and from what I can tell, a lot smarter than their old man), they both have setup new computers within the last year... and have systems based on newer Intel technology. Moore's Law makes computers obsolete fast, and mine is 2 years old, and already feels old. Anyways, my sons' systems are both watercooled. When I set mine up, that was still pretty rare. In my system, I choose an aftermarket air cooler, I forget the name of it, but it is a huge dust magnet, and has 2 fans that push-pull the air thru it. It really works good, but installing it, I thought I was going to break my new mobo. I have to blow it out, my whole system, twice a year... I live in Arizona, and it is very dusty, and the whole thing acts like a big dust filter.

    Of course, I have just been using HandBrake for 2 days, so I am still learning, last night my wife noticed one of the vids I converted had a lot of fuzziness. I took a look at it in VLC, using single frame advance (a trick learned lurking here), and it had comb effects all thru it. I guess it is the 2nd vid where I have been able to see such, the 2nd being an old movie a few years ago, but I didn't know then what it was. Anyhow, lurking in this forum has taught me alot. So I reran the conversion and turned on "Slow" deinterlace. That worked "a treat". But it slowed down the conversion by a factor of about 50 percent. So I read some more in the HandBrake manual, and they seem to push the "Decomb" filter. So I tried it, and it worked too, but maybe didn't compress the vid quite as well. But it was slow too. So I guess I won't be leaving any of those filters on unless really necessary.
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  27. Hey Bootstrap, slightly off topic but since I have the i7 920 although I have the standard Asus P6T, I'd like to overclock to 3.5ghz
    but since I am somewhat computer illiterate, at least I know how to get into the mobo settngs.
    Could you tell me your settings to change to get the overclock? Or a link with the info would do.
    I don't care to push overclock too high, just a safe margin that would give it more pep.
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  28. Originally Posted by Steve(MS) View Post
    Hey Bootstrap, slightly off topic but since I have the i7 920 although I have the standard Asus P6T, I'd like to overclock to 3.5ghz
    but since I am somewhat computer illiterate, at least I know how to get into the mobo settngs.
    Could you tell me your settings to change to get the overclock? Or a link with the info would do.
    I don't care to push overclock too high, just a safe margin that would give it more pep.
    It has been awhile since I setup my system. So I hesitate to give any advice. You must be very careful with the voltages, the 920 is very sensitive to internal voltage differences -- there are at least 2 different buses within the chip that can be changed... generally the higher the clock rate, the higher these must be nudged, but they must stay within a certain value of each other. I really don't remember all the details. But one thing I do remember is that the ASUS bios will adjust alot of the values on its own (or try to at any rate), but I had to 1) keep the voltages tight, 2) adjust my memory parms by trial and error. At first I got change happy and changed too much, the more you can leave to the bios to do automatically the better. I got all my info for doing it off of the TomsHardware website. I don't know if they still have those articles online or not, but that is a really great place to start looking. The other place are the forums dedicated to oc'ing... again memory fails me, but I located them thru Google.

    Hope this helps.
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  29. @Chopmeister

    Or any experienced HandBrake user...

    I have run into a snag with HandBrake. All of the videos that I have done, around 20 so far, work great with VLC on my PC, everything as it should be, as far as I can tell. But some of the videos, not all, display on my TVs stretched vertically. When I look at the MediaInfo, the aspect ratio looks correct, usually 2.40:1, but the video is displaying as if it wasn't anamorphic. The vids that work right are stored non-anamorphic, 852x356, or something like that. The vids with a width of 720, thus anamorphic, are stretched upon display. As if the renderer doesn't realize it is anamorphic. VLC, on the otherhand, decodes the anamorphic video correctly. Any ideas how to correct this?
    Last edited by Bootstrap; 19th Jun 2012 at 20:16.
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  30. The good news... I have only lost time... the bad news, I will have to redo all 20 of those videos... they are actually ALL playing as if not anamorphic on my blu-ray players. All other renderers work fine. All my Apple and PC based renderers play the correct aspect ratio, but the Sony blu-ray players stretch the output vertically... as if not anamorphic. All are anamorphic, so all need to be reprocessed by Xilisoft. What a waste of time!
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