Noob in need of some help with large MP4 files

[Casey_Jones]

Hi guys.

I have a bunch of videos in FLV format that I have used FLVExtract then Yamb to change the container to MP4.
Resulting videos are perfect in quality, like the original content, but the file size is far too large.
I've tried re-encoding videos over the years using handbrake, etc, and am never really impressed with my end result. Either the audio goes out of sync, or the file size decrease doesn't warrant the loss in quality.

I have about 50 files that will ultimately need to get re-encoded, so something with a batch ability would be great.
What I'm wondering is, how do I get the small file sizes, but keep the quality near what it currently is? I've seen a lot of encodes online, and for the file size, are simply amazing. How is this done?

Here is the info for the MP4 file:

General
Complete name : File
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 1.98 GiB
Duration : 1h 52mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 505 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2012-10-05 15:25:55
Tagged date : UTC 2012-10-05 15:25:55
Writing application : Yamb 2.1.0.0 [http://yamb.unite-video.com]

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1h 52mn
Bit rate : 2 246 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 8 082 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 24.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.102
Stream size : 1.77 GiB (90%)
Encoded date : UTC 2012-10-05 15:25:55
Tagged date : UTC 2012-10-05 15:29:32
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 1h 52mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 267 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 207 MiB (10%)
Encoded date : UTC 2012-10-05 15:29:05
Tagged date : UTC 2012-10-05 15:29:32

Thanks guys!

[jagabo]

That bitrate is already pretty low. Unless you're willing to reduce the frame size you're not going to get it lower without loss of quality. And of course, the frame size is a part of the quality, so you're still won't really be retaining quality. You're just trading off resolution to get a lower bitrate.

[Casey_Jones]

Oh wow. Ok.

So I guess my question is, how are people online putting up 1080p blu ray rips at 700mb, and you really can't tell they aren't blu ray?

Magic? haha

[jagabo]

So I guess my question is, how are people online putting up 1080p blu ray rips at 700mb

They're not.

One thing to keep in mind though: some videos compress better than others. Cartoons and anime are usually much more compressible than live action film.

[AlanHK]

You could save 100 MB or so by reducing the audio rate. 256 kbps AAC is very high quality.
128 or even 64 is fine for most purposes, unless it's a concert video.

[jagabo]

Other things to consider:

Compressing a 20 GB Blu-ray rip directly to 700MB file will give you better quality than compressing it first to a 2 GB file then compressing that 2 GB file to a 700MB file.

x264 is good enough that if you didn't see the original Blu-ray video you might think a 700MB x264 video looks pretty good. But if you had the original to compare to you would see that all the small low contrast detail (like film grain, fuzzy shirts, stucco walls, etc.) is gone, sharp edges have gotten rougher, there is more posterization, and there are more blocky artifacts.