Need help making a new MKV to match existing ones...

[hazay19]

Hello Everyone,

There is a DVD series that I own that I want to convert to mkv. It has 3 seasons and I was fortunate enough to download the first 2 seasons in excellent quality (h264), but I would like to encode the third and final season to match the first two. I would like to keep the first two seasons to save time and my cpu, but I want to do this 3rd season as a hobby and learn some things while I'm at it. The first two seasons were done using a program called automkv, but I plan on using handbrake and I was wondering which settings I could use in handbrake to match those used in automkv. I'm a newbie and by no means no to a lot of this stuff, just the technical stuff regards to the video and audio bitrates, as I would like to match the existing mkvs as good as possible, but within reason. Below, I have posted an nfo that I got when I downloaded one of the episodes, so I was wondering which of this information I need to pay most attention to. Finally, I would like to know if I didn't have this nfo and just clicked the media information menu in vlc, how I could use that information to match that video in handbrake... Thank you very much and please provide links to any reading that you believe could be very helpful... I don't expect to be spoonfed and am willing to do some reading... just want to be pointed in the read direction and reverse engineer my learning based on your answers. Thank you very much in advance.

General
Complete name :
Format : Matroska
File size : 696 MiB
Duration : 55mn 2s
Overall bit rate : 1 767 Kbps
Movie name : Done with AutoMKV 0.98.2 http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=140178
Encoded date : UTC 2009-12-21 17:44:29
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.4.1 ('Use Me') built on Dec 5 2008 15:43:32
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Muxing mode : Container profile=Unknown@4.0
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 54mn 59s
Bit rate : 1 348 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 1 380 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Original display aspect ratio : 1.500
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Standard : NTSC
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.163
Stream size : 530 MiB (76%)
Title : EP5
Writing library : x264 core 65 r1083 09e76c9
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy_rd=1.1:0.0 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=0 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=1380 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=25000 / vbv_bufsize=14000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 55mn 2s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 151 MiB (22%)
Language : English
Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 1
00:01:37.100 : en:Chapter 2
00:12:49.834 : en:Chapter 3
00:23:29.301 : en:Chapter 4
00:30:16.001 : en:Chapter 5
00:39:50.835 : en:Chapter 6
00:46:52.168 : en:Chapter 7

[Baldrick]

Start by reading GUIDES, http://www.dvd-guides.com/guides/dvdrip/235-convert-dvd-to-h264-mkv-mp4-using-handbrake . And after you know the basic you can start adjusting all advanced settings under video. Use also already made high quality encoding profiles. But to get best control you probably need to switch to MeGUI.