Handbrake stopped reducing file size

[hpcampr]

I've been using Handbrake before but something in settings must have gotten changed. Now with a video:

Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Aspect ratio: 1.7778
Format: H264
Bitrate: 15977 kbps
Frames per second: 29.970
Selected codec: ffh264

It's putting out the same or in a few cases a slightly larger file than the original. Any tips on how the settings should be to be look pretty much like the original but smaller? Thanks

[Ant_G]

change your x264 preset to the slowest you can bear, very fast preset most likely minimum compression
rise the constant quality RF to higher value you can accept,
higher value give more compression but the quality will drop

or just use hevc, x265

[hpcampr]

change your x264 preset to the slowest you can bear, very fast preset most likely minimum compression
rise the constant quality RF to higher value you can accept,
higher value give more compression but the quality will drop

or just use hevc, x265

Thanks for the reply. Do you mean change video codec from H.264 (x.264) to H.265 (x.265)? I don't recall what settings I was using before but it was doing pretty good. I could see some noise in the sky but not much, other than that it looked pretty similar to my eye.

[Ant_G]

hevc(x265) can reduce the file size significantly because its cut almost half of the bitrate compared to x264 codec to achieve more or less same quality, the drawback of it is hevc(x265) not supported by many devices (yet), if you plan to make your video as compatible as possible to many devices, tweaking x264 setting will be the best option you can take

[jagabo]

There won't be much size difference between veryfast and any of the slower x264 presets. In fact, fast and faster will probably turn out larger than veryfast. At placebo files will probably be about 10 percent smaller (and take forever to encode).

The way to reduce the file size with Rate Factor based encoding is to increase the RF value.

But in all likelihood you didn't change anything. It's just that the files you're starting with now are more heavily compressed than the files you were re-compressing before.

x265 can give you a smaller file size than x264 with the same quality, or conversely a higher quality at the same file size, but there isn't a direct correspondence between the RF values. I.e. RF=20 with x265 doesn't necessarily give the same file size as RF=20 with x264, nor will it give the same "quality". You'll just have to find a value you like.

[hpcampr]

Thanks for the replies. I tried it with the h265 and it went from 4.200 to 3.600 gb. I'm attaching the video stats from this and another one I did with Handbrake that went from 4.2gb to 2.2. Not sure if this gives a hint as to what I did different.

[jagabo]

Use MediaInfo in full text mode to see the encoding metadata that x264 and x265 include in the file. Compare your current x264 settings to settings from your older encodings.

[strawberryshortcake]

Use MediaInfo in full text mode to see the encoding metadata that x264 and x265 include in the file. Compare your current x264 settings to settings from your older encodings.

Out of curiosity (may or may not help the original poster), but if bitrate x duration = file size. Plus, additional filters or advanced setting manipulation adds to encode time, what could be the reason why MeGUI was able to compress a video to a smaller file size with a better quality (less pixelation artifacts) compared to vidcoder/handbrake at default setting for all three.

Example: (This is off the top of my head and about a month back, so I'm probably not going to remember all the nitty gritty details.)

MeGUI 600k bitrate default setting only changing to veryslow encoding) file size 115 mb
Vidcoder/Handbrake ~800bitrate default setting only changing to veryslow encoding) file size 175mb

I know that doesn't give anyone much information to go on, but there was one particular scene that had ridiculous amount of pixelation. At roughly those specifications above, I was able to get rid of most of the pixelation, but there was still some faint pixelation with Vidcoder/Handbrake.

My test a couple months ago was only changing the bitrate. I don't believe I even touched any of the advanced settings.

MeGUI was also faster to process. If MeGUI was using additional filter in its default setting, wouldn't it have taken longer to encode (compared to vidcoder/handbrake) if "filters" adds to the encode time? Not really that important anymore as I'm moving onto Avisynth/AVSPmod (I think MeGUI also uses Avisynth), but it's been on my mind as to why a lower bitrate with MeGUI resulted in a better picture quality, and faster might I add.

I had to bump up bitrate in vidcoder/handbrake to even remotely getting it close the quality (pixelation) of what MeGUI churned out. This is when I completely moved away from vidcoder/handbrake.

[jagabo]

Without samples and settings it's difficult to speculate why you were seeing those differences. There are too many variables. Different encoders run at different speeds and some compress better than others. Assuming you used the same encoder in MeGUI and Handbrake (x264?) the h.264 encoding itself will run at the same speed when using the same settings (maybe minor variations depending on the exact version used) and would deliver the same quality (given the same source/filtering). Regarding other filtering you may have used, some filters are fast some are slow. Regarding quality, different videos require different bitrates to retain quality. Larger frame sizes require more bitrate. Higher frame rates require more bitrate. More noise requires more bitrate. More motion/action (anything that causes pixels to change from one frame to the next) requires more bitrate. Real world video requires more bitrate than cartoons. This is why many encoders now support quality based encoding rather than bitrate based encoding. One video may look fine at 1000 kbps. Another may require 10,000 kbps.

[hpcampr]

No time to work on videos for a bit but I'll be checking back here for the best way when I do. Thanks