ripbot/ handbrake profiles help!!

[jamesj84]

The settings i currently use when converting my bd files to MKV
profile: high
avc: 4.1
cq: between 19.5 & 21.5

now with the setting normal, slow, slower. Whas the difference with slow, slower etc. what do they gain.

[jagabo]

Slower settings --> slightly smaller files

In the Normal to Placebo range the difference is only a few percent with most material.

[jamesj84]

are slower settings better quality aswell. i would have thought they be larger

[jagabo]

When using CRF (constant quality) encoding, mostly what you are doing with the slower settings is letting x264 spend more time looking for ways to compress the file more.

There is a very slight quality improvement with the slower presets as some settings like subme use more advanced methods to improve quality. You probably won't notice unless you look at enlarged still frames side-by-side with the source.

[jamesj84]

ok thank you. that makes it a lot clearer. cheers

[fritzi93]

Just to add, the difference in file size between Normal (medium) default speed and say, Ultrafast, can be considerable. For example, on some movies the final file size can be ~12 GB (Ultrafast) or ~9 GB (Normal). It's highly unpredictable though. I usually use crf 20 in my Ripbot encodes. The trade-off is that on my machine, an Ultrafast encode will generally complete in under an hour, versus over 3 hours at default speed.

Now I know Dark Shikari has said a slower encode at the same crf will be slightly higher quality than a faster encode, but it's damn hard to tell just by viewing.

I'd say one should use the slowest preset that's endurable. But slower than the default is a case of diminishing returns. After a good deal of trying out various presets and tunings, I like Default speed and tune Film most of the time. For animation and sources with heavy grain there are Animation and Grain tunes available as well.

Try it out and see for yourself what you prefer. Good luck.