Newbie Handbrake settings

[andrewarles]

Hi

Apologies for asking another question regarding converting DVD/Blurays to mkv’s, but after reading a lot of articles, I’m still not sure that what I’m doing is the best way (for me).

I have around 200 DVD’s and 150 Blueray’s that I want to convert to mkv’s. All DVD’s have been ripped with CloneDVD2.

My aim is to have a high quality video, as near to the original quality for viewing on a 3 metre home cinema screen (although at present I have a 48” full hd television). I’m highly impressed by the mkv quality, but I would like to make sure that before I convert 350 films I’m on the right track.

I use the default settings for DVD’s that use codec H.264, constant quality RF:20.

Using a variable bitrate is as expected giving very different compressions, and on the 12 films I have done I get compressions from 22% to 48%.

Fight Club - 6,76 1,5 22% (original size, new size, compression)
Entrapment - 5,37 1,2 22%
Apollo - 13 6,45 1,94 30%
Fast & Furious - 2 5,04 1,7 34%
Ice Age 1 - 3,01 1,04 35%
Back to the Future 2 - 6,17 2,21 36%
Fast & Furious 1 - 4,65 1,78 38%
Back to the Future 3 - 6,08 2,41 40%
A Sharks Tail - 3,77 1,52 40%
Ice Age 2 - 3,84 1,61 42%
Dinosaurs - 2,76 1,22 44%
Back to the Future 1 - 5,48 2,61 48%

I tried applying the Denoise filter on Back to the Future 1 but it didn’t make a big difference, 48% to 43%.

Should I be changing any of these settings or any other default settings, or should I stick with the basic Handbrake settings ?

Thanks

Andrew

[aedipuss]

if you like handbrake you might give vidcoder a look. it's a frontend gui for it that allows easy setup, a way to save presets you make and a queue for multiple files.

the only thing i would change in your case is i prefer a constant quality setting of 18. bigger files but i'm not worried about the sizes.

[andrewarles]

Thanks for your reply.

Is there a visible difference between 20 and 18 on a big screen ?

When I start converting Blurays should I use the recommended setting of 22 ?

Andrew

[aedipuss]

to each his own, i think it makes better looking video. it's just my preference, from the various settings i've tried, and like i said i'm not at all concerned about file size.

[dragonkeeper]

I agree with Aedipuss constant quality of 18 is where it's at, the only time i do any additional filtering is when i have a noisy source. At which point i try to smooth out the picture, and do minor color correction. In a noisy source this helps compressibility quite a bit.

[andrewarles]

Would you use 18 for Blu-ray's as well ?

[aedipuss]

i use 18 for anything i make. my home video dlna fileserver system has 10TB of storage so size isn't a problem.

[andrewarles]

I agree with Aedipuss constant quality of 18 is where it's at, the only time i do any additional filtering is when i have a noisy source. At which point i try to smooth out the picture, and do minor color correction. In a noisy source this helps compressibility quite a bit.

What filter settings do you use for a noisy source ?

[andrewarles]

i use 18 for anything i make. my home video dlna fileserver system has 10TB of storage so size isn't a problem.

What's your 10TB system setup ?

[aedipuss]

2 - plextor px-nas4's. each with 4 - 2TB hard drives in raid5.

[dragonkeeper]

Thanks for your reply.

Is there a visible difference between 20 and 18 on a big screen ?

When I start converting Blurays should I use the recommended setting of 22 ?

Andrew

What do you called big screen? I have a 52" plasma in the bedroom and i can tell a slight difference in the quality. When I play the same movie on my 120" HD projector the difference becomes more obvious.


I use 18 on everything, size is not an issues for me I currently have 7TB of space will soon be adding another 2, the current set up I'm using pretty much allows me to to continue to upscale the amount of storage i have.

These units can be daisy'd chained together. Allowing you to group hard drives in units of four. I've heard of people using 2 of these or a similar product and have 16TB of space.

http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/ad5sahpm-ea.asp

[dragonkeeper]

I agree with Aedipuss constant quality of 18 is where it's at, the only time i do any additional filtering is when i have a noisy source. At which point i try to smooth out the picture, and do minor color correction. In a noisy source this helps compressibility quite a bit.

What filter settings do you use for a noisy source ?

It all depends on the source, if its a bad DVD conversion some older movies are, 60's & 70's and early 80's. The color will look a bit washed out i use tweak. If there is banding in the source i use GradFunkMirror. Convolution3d is also a good general use smoother.

Like i said just depends on the source.