Lossless conversion with Handbrake?

[jagabo]

Sounds like your telling me I'm wrong and that I have no rights to expect to get a answer to my question

You should not expect an answer to a question you didn't ask. Nowhere in your first post did you ask what settings you should use to get lossless encoding in handbrake. The title of the thread, "Lossless conversion with Handbrake?", is vague.

[jagabo]

Profile must be set to High 4:4:4 if it doesn't get set by handbrake automatically.

No, his source is DVD MPEG 2, so it's YUV 4:2:0.

[WBFAir]

if you had read the first replay carefully you would have figured out that cfr0(lossless) conversion of your 1GB vob would end up with file size of about 16GB. the rest that followed was a polite attempt to get you to realize that would be a great waste of hard drive space and to suggest alternatives. you were treated with kid gloves. if you wish to make use of the vast amount of knowledge available here i would advise growing a thicker skin. if you piss off the long time helpers here you won't get the best answers.

not to jump on the use something else bandwagon too hard, but you might like vidcoder which is a frontend gui for handbrake. it makes repetitive use easier with presets you can modify and save once you find what you like.

Not trying to piss off anyone here, but I think if you look, regardless of the technical points which is not the point here I keep trying to make at least on this point this thread had been taken too, I think I had been pretty nice with the person with the issues....I repeatedly asked an quite politely for all this to not go the way it kept going, and to have it stop and pretty politely I think. But none of that was respected at all.

As well I took a better way by going to the mods instead of going vulgar or nasty and direct attacks at anyone and all along have tried way more then I should have had too, to explain myself.

All in all, I think I that's all pretty kid gloves for me considering I have been forced to be on such a level of defensive all for just getting up this morning and asking a simple question.

[jagabo]

So with handbrake if I don't want to loose any of the quality...in the video tab, do I just run that Quality slider all the way to the right where I get that "Warning: RF 0 is Lossless!"

I'll grant that is something of a question though it doesn't end with a question mark. Yes. x264 (C)RF=0 is the only lossless compression method available in Handbrake. As noted earlier you must be careful about some of the video processing settings to be sure they don't cause losses. But given that x264 at CRF=0 is going to be larger than your MPEG source and isn't going to play on your Roku, and there's otherwise no good reason to convert MPEG 2 to x264 lossless, do you still need to know what those settings are?

[aedipuss]

if you had read the first replay carefully you would have figured out that cfr0(lossless) conversion of your 1GB vob would end up with file size of about 16GB. the rest that followed was a polite attempt to get you to realize that would be a great waste of hard drive space and to suggest alternatives. you were treated with kid gloves. if you wish to make use of the vast amount of knowledge available here i would advise growing a thicker skin. if you piss off the long time helpers here you won't get the best answers.

not to jump on the use something else bandwagon too hard, but you might like vidcoder which is a frontend gui for handbrake. it makes repetitive use easier with presets you can modify and save once you find what you like.

Not trying to piss off anyone here, but I think if you look, regardless of the technical points which is not the point here I keep trying to make at least on this point this thread had been taken too, I think I had been pretty nice with the person with the issues....I repeatedly asked an quite politely for all this to not go the way it kept going, and to have it stop and pretty politely I think. But none of that was respected at all.

As well I took a better way by going to the mods instead of going vulgar or nasty and direct attacks at anyone and all along have tried way more then I should have had too, to explain myself.

All in all, I think I that's all pretty kid gloves for me considering I have been forced to be on such a level of defensive all for just getting up this morning and asking a simple question.

well from the point of the people here there were no "attacks". your question was answered in the first reply. you refused to acknowledge it. continuing from there other things were suggested as the lossless question had already been answered. it seems you are looking for answers to questions you didn't ask.

p.s. don't piss off baldrick. he owns this site.

[_Al_]

Profile must be set to High 4:4:4 if it doesn't get set by handbrake automatically.

No, his source is DVD MPEG 2, so it's YUV 4:2:0.

oh, ok, I'm feeding it through debugmode frame server, I'd get error, it is uncompressed.

[WBFAir]

Sounds like your telling me I'm wrong and that I have no rights to expect to get a answer to my question

You should not expect an answer to a question you didn't ask. Nowhere in your first post did you ask what settings you should use to get lossless encoding in handbrake. The title of the thread, "Lossless conversion with Handbrake?", is vague.

All the things you can say J, is pointless.

It all boils down to you made a reply, I thanked you for that an explained that was not quite what I was looking for, and asked if others might be able to give me this.

All in all, its not my fault if you personally can't get from what I wrote what I mean, and if you are told you are not answering it, and then told this repeatedly, and then when you are being observed by the poster you are just turning this personal and asked to leave it alone....you just do.

All through out this thing, this has been personal for you and it still is and you still will not let it go, all you care about is being vindicated for your personal issues here.

This for you from very early on is nothing one bit about the point to this post but about your issues, and all this refusal to let it go...is all just continuing proof of that.

[_Al_]

I apologize in advance for daring to post in your thread again

Is lossless compression with RF set to zero that you suggested yourself in your first post working for you or not?

[WBFAir]

well from the point of the people here there were no "attacks". your question was answered in the first reply. you refused to acknowledge it. continuing from there other things were suggested as the lossless question had already been answered. it seems you are looking for answers to questions you didn't ask.

p.s. don't piss off baldrick. he owns this site.

I am not trying to piss of him....or anyone at all for that matter, I just wish all this stuff over nothing to do with the point for my original post would stop, and could stop so I could stop having to defending it too.

Actually I really wish this whole thing would stop and I really wish this board had a way to close this thread by me.

[WBFAir]

I apologize in advance for daring to post in your thread again

Is lossless compression with RF set to zero that you suggested yourself in your first post working for you or not?

I appreciate that Al, but don't have to say it that way...an thank you for at least asking.

Actually with all this stuff of which like I said, is the kind of thing that will do stuff like this...actually I haven't even had a chance to try.

I guess to some end I was hoping for some personal recommendations of a slider setting of a happy medium or maybe something like 2 gave me this size, but 1 or 0 double that and I don't think is needed or any others feedback that might have played with the idea and what experiences they might have had size/quality wise with any particular settings of the slider or any others might have been nice or the way I would have hoped this might have gone, although I can gather that here not to many have tried this.

Again, size is not the biggest thing I am worried about, especially considering the size I am starting with, but would reserve that upon the results.

But have gotten to the point I hope if all this mess is over that I might try and without any other thoughts or experience on any other slider settings, I guess I'll give zero a try and go from that.

As well to just add, I apologize to most here for most of this. At least from my side is not what I wanted at all, an or hoped it would go....but I guess when you ask for things to stop and do so politely several times and especially when you see all that taking a thread to a place of no hope by those refusing to do so, you just try to deal with that as best as you can, which is all I was trying to do.

[aedipuss]

well start over. to me it looks like your definition of lossless is not the video definition of an absolutely perfect copy, but a personal one that may mean - it looks just as good as the original. correct me if i'm wrong. if so i'd start with a crf of 15. it shouldn't take too long to encode and view. if it's not good enough go down 2 or 3 and try again. there is an inverse relationship between crf and file size so the smaller the crf the bigger the end result. find your own comfort zone as no one else has your equipment or eyes.

[WBFAir]

As mentioned I think in the OP, I am not all the knowing of a lot of this.

Although I have been down many many technical roads over my 50 some odd years to be well knowing in a lot of things, the setting up of my video collection to run on my Rokus while it has been great for the eventual results, for all this conversion stuff its incredible an diverse enough I think to say that a lot of people are always learning.

But a lot of it has been very time consuming and it seems like for every new angle I have to go at, it means a new program to have to learn.

Already I have spent the past two months learning Handbrake and through a ton of rather time consuming trials and errors, have finally gotten at least what I know works for me as far as my stuff, down to a standard few options to have to play with to get certain known and to work results.

But again, for instance, found a few weeks ago a Blu-Ray format even Handbrake could not handle, so had to learn all about Ripbot, and then just last week was trying to work with cutting an trimming some mp4's and spent a bunch of time playing with Avimux only to find out it wouldn't trim as I needed so then had to learn about Video to Video Converter.

All in all I'm not trying to cry here or not pay my dues so to speak, but playing with an learning a whole new program just to make a singular and probably only one time thing of a 18min vid of a home movie DVD is not something I feel is warranted unless absolutely needed.

As well to mention, I don't know how many of you guys have the same, but I have found some stuff just works better with a Roku/Plex set up I have and handbrake seems to be the one that does at least from my experiences. Where as for instance that Ripbot program while it actually did make the mkv file, the files it has done have been rather fickle with my stuff. An man oh man did they take long to make only to find this out.

Now do you guys want to hear all this every time I make a post so that you know all this...or even once? I don't think so. Plus length is always the kiss of death for any post you hope to get help with

Or on another point, do I even know why all this works this way enough to even come close to discuss it point per point either so can be understood....no.

Plus on top of even these things there is other stuff, but I think this is long enough I would think. Least I'm guessing no one has enjoyed all this reading have they?

All in all I just thought a simple, thanks but that's not quite what I was looking for should have simply been enough to just get past that.....at least that's what I thought.

Anyway, to get to your question, in my mind I was just thinking and as it seems to be mentioned this way for most of what I read, that you do not loose any of the quality as one you are not compressing anything, or mainly two, removing anything to make it smaller. All in all the vids I'm working with are again, home movies. They are ones I took years ago at an air show with actually a hand held digital camera, that from way back then I combined and made into a DVD.

At this point I don't even have the original files so I copied the main movie from the one DVD I have to my hardrive but being off the DVD, its not in a mp4.

Anyway, point being I really could use keeping all the quality I can get as the raw file is not the best.

But as I mention, its only 18min long so I was just thinking if I go the full lossless route with HandBrake (an please lets not go through that again as I think its been covered), while this might get me the lossless and thus best results, sure I was wondering how big that might make the file as it talks about that and how it can be compounded, in the program.

But then too, I have a 3TB drive so space while is of some concern, its not my biggest and something I would be willing to trade off some if a bigger file got me the best quality.

So guess mainly just overall, was just looking to use HandBrake and in a way to give me the best results as what I was starting with wasn't all that great to begin with. But sure, if that meant it would be 80gigs that would have to be considered and if maybe 5 or 3 was 10 or 8, and no noticeable loss, maybe that could do. But at 1 gig to start, is it going to be a 2000kb file (?), as I wonder really what that will look like. So all in all was just hoping for talks like that.

Anyway, you kinda know the rest.

[Steve(MS)]

Try handbrake @ 15 and see how it looks to you.
The whole problem in this thread seems you didn't quite know how to word your question.
The thing is when asking on the forum about an absolute lossless, those were going to be the responses you would get.
Really though, you should read the forum more as guys like jagabo and all the others in the post are very learned when it comes to a/v.
Point being, take more time to read threads related to what you want....use search features or even search engines with "forum.videohelp.com".

[_Al_]

I cannot believe that Roku would not play perfectly regular mpeg2 by the DVD specification book . Is that true? Did you try it? If you tried it, audio might be a problem. It is home made dvd, maybe you have PCM. Avidemux would fix it. You load DVD , fix just audio, not video, export with mpeg2 muxer.

I see now, no mpeg2 on Roku. http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=44139&sid=b2ace6d6a71a5094a47375ecdb11d7a3&start=0 It is from 2011, maybe it is still true.

[WBFAir]

I cannot believe that Roku would not play perfectly regular mpeg2 by the DVD specification book . Is that true? Did you try it? If you tried it, audio might be a problem. It is home made dvd, maybe you have PCM. Avidemux would fix it. You load DVD , fix just audio, not video, export with mpeg2 muxer.

As far as I know, Roku's alone play only mkv's and mp4s. Their pretty strict on that from what I've read. Remember we are talking about a $50.00 to $100.00 device and one that is mainly meant for other things. So all in all, I think thats pretty good for that little to get even this capability in too.

With Plex there is a transcoder to make them into those I guess you would say from something else so in a way you could say with that, you could use more. But from what I've read & depending on a lot of variables, it can take some pretty raw power to do so on the fly (remember this is a streaming re-encode) and for me all depending on a lot of things I really don't know of which either.

But for me I actually have gotten away nicely without needing any of that by my encodes just being what they are as I have gone by what is recommended by the people who work with Rokus and myPlex.

This then lets me get away with using a pretty cheap laptop as my media server and when all done right, it works nice...and I already know how.

[_Al_]

But if there is mpeg2 inside of mkv it will not play it also. Second input http://www.makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6627 if you used that recomended makemkv, it would not work also I guess

mkv is just container, there could be anything inside, mpeg2, H.264, DivX ...
MP4 is container also. There is H.264 video inside and audio. Handbrake encodes H.264 video and muxes it into mp4 container.

I use WDTV player, there is last model available wdtv streamer available in best buy, those models play almost anything, but sure, it is around $100, not a solution, just info. There is more of those players available, not just WDTV Live models, but that WDTV you can get in a store and simply return it for some reason.

[WBFAir]

Try handbrake @ 15 and see how it looks to you.
The whole problem in this thread seems you didn't quite know how to word your question.
The thing is when asking on the forum about an absolute lossless, those were going to be the responses you would get.
Really though, you should read the forum more as guys like jagabo and all the others in the post are very learned when it comes to a/v.
Point being, take more time to read threads related to what you want....use search features or even search engines with "forum.videohelp.com".

With all due respect, if you read my above, there were lots of stuff that was involved.

Again, I had my reasons and a simple thanks, but thats not what I'm looking for should have been taken and if it had, none of this would have happened. "Thats" where it went wrong. Trust me, I have been on tons of boards and no matter how you write stuff, someone is not going to read it right.

Best thing you can do is keep it simple and sweet and will tell as well as I have been on the top side of many topics in many other places, newbies often make many mistakes in their post and I know I at least always cut them some slack and not hold them at fault for these. Everyone makes mistakes in the begging an most pros who have been around a long time usually have ability to understand how to properly handle that.

All in all too I've been on a lot of boards and seen how sometimes credit for past stuff some how is thought that equals there is no longer a need for some to do things properly. Or that that person has lots of buddies that will gang up on you, or not answer your posts in the future, so you should allow that.

Really shouldn't be that way and if someone tells you, your not helping, you should just take that and be done with it.

But again, I guess some if they have had a long history maybe of being used to a certain way, might not like to hear that. Again, in short order an not by me this went completely off course and seems so many keep coming back to it was a point of technical an it wasn't. For all I saw, was just all quite of personal issues actually.

What I know of or knew or originally said was not relevant, in the end I told someone they were not helping and in fact hurting and if they would just please stop what they were doing.

What ever the case maybe other, that should have been respected.

But it wasn't and to look at it as that was OK all just because of other past things...makes that OK and allowed?

It shouldn't, least thats the way I saw it.

[WBFAir]

But if there is mpeg2 inside of mkv it will not play it also. Second input http://www.makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6627 if you used that recomended makemkv, it would not work also I guess

mkv is just container, there could be anything inside, mpeg2, H.264, DivX ...
MP4 is container also. There is H.264 video inside and audio. Handbrake encodes H.264 video and muxes it into mp4 container.

I use WDTV player, there is last model available wdtv streamer available in best buy, those models play almost anything, but sure, it is around $100, not a solution, just info. There is more of those players available, not just WDTV Live models, but that WDTV you can get in a store and simply return it for some reason.

Yeah I really don't know all for sure.

From the little playing I have done with this stuff, I have learned what the word container means.

But is kinda going back to my point of playing around with stuff as what will I find in using something else? Will work or not, or work really well or have some if even slight issues? An again I really don't know enough about all this to even discuss it upfront either. But think to say it was safe to say I was pretty sure what is going to work with this specific setup was not considered in the initial reply, as how could as I didn't write 5 paragraphs to explain that.

Anyway, am repeating myself I know but is going back to my point of for what little I know for me, I know what does work as far as in using Handbrake and so is my surest, quickest way to do it. An if so why break what's not broken.

[manono]

I have some home movie DVD vids that I just want to convert from this format to mkv with the parameters I use with Handbrake as I know these work well with my Roku player and the myPlex channel I have on it for all my other move DVD's & Blu-Rays.

But for the home movie DVD vids, they are already small enough an for other reasons longer to get into, I have no need for reducing the size of these, I just want them in the right format..

I just stumbled across this and didn't read the whole thing but MakeMKV will just repackage the DVD audio and video into an MKV with no reencoding. Can't get any more lossless than that. It plays fine through Plex to a Roku box and then to a TV. I use Plex to a Roku 3.

I know what does work as far as in using Handbrake and so is my surest, quickest way to do it.

No, MakeMKV is.

Edit: Now I see Baldrick already suggested MakeMKV earlier, but for some reason you seem married to Handbrake? Any particular reason? Don't think his suggestion will work for you? I can attest it does as I have a DVD repackaged as an MKV on my computer right now that I used Plex to send to my Roku box just yesterday. Worked great.

Edit again: Reading some more I notice others have made the same suggestion. You'd really rather make a much bigger file just to reencode as lossless x264? Kind of hard to understand. With an 18 minute DVD you could have tried both methods by now, I think, and then have decided for yourself which method made more sense.

[_Al_]

Well, I'd do something . Encode it RF20, RF15, RF10,and it will be more clear what you are going to use.

Roku player will not handle mpeg2 even in mkv looks like it http://www.makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6627

[manono]

Roku player will not handle mpeg2 even in mkv looks like it...

That guy is using the USB drive. WBFair and I are streaming through Plex and I already wrote it works well.

[WBFAir]

I have some home movie DVD vids that I just want to convert from this format to mkv with the parameters I use with Handbrake as I know these work well with my Roku player and the myPlex channel I have on it for all my other move DVD's & Blu-Rays.

But for the home movie DVD vids, they are already small enough an for other reasons longer to get into, I have no need for reducing the size of these, I just want them in the right format..

I just stumbled across this and didn't read the whole thing but MakeMKV will just repackage the DVD audio and video into an MKV with no reencoding. Can't get any more lossless than that. It plays fine through Plex to a Roku box and then to a TV. I use Plex to a Roku 3.

I know what does work as far as in using Handbrake and so is my surest, quickest way to do it.

No, MakeMKV is.

Edit: Now I see Baldrick already suggested MakeMKV earlier, but for some reason you seem married to Handbrake? Any particular reason? Don't think his suggestion will work for you? I can attest it does as I have a DVD repackaged as an MKV on my computer right now that I used Plex to send to my Roku box just yesterday. Worked great.

Edit again: Reading some more I notice others have made the same suggestion. You'd really rather make a much bigger file just to reencode as lossless x264? Kind of hard to understand. With an 18 minute DVD you could have tried both methods by now, I think, and then have decided for yourself which method made more sense.

Again here is something like I'm talking about and guess I have to type some more.

(boy wish I was getting paid for all this)

For me I have three dif setups, one flat screen with a full SS and all run via HDMI stuff, that is all run from a Roku3 via hardwired Cat5.

Then I have a CRT TV running off an older Roku HD, which I used as the TV only has RC inputs for both sound an vid. But then in this location I also have a older SS amp but its older so has no HDMI. All in all I got the HD as I was hoping to splice off some SS possibilities via a HDMI to optic converter, but found this would not happen as once a HDMI is plugged into a Roku, it kills the RC vid out, so no TV.

Anyway, so for this setup, its RC sound split that I sometimes us the SS amp for, but not all the time. Anyway, so with this it can matter of what sound encoded I use. Oh also as the HD has no Ethernet plug, I have to use Wifi and so if there is any place any fickleness of a file is a issue, its the worst here. All in all I have had some files actually lock up this Roku and had quite a hard time getting it rebooted.

Then the third setup is also a CRT TV with only RC inputs an only one set to boot, but no SS. For that one I have a Roku XS as I needed the Cat5 as it was to far away from the Router. But as the TV has only RC inputs, had to go with this one as was the only one with a Cat5 and RC output possibilities. But as well, had to run that RC through a switch as with the TV only having one, was only way to get my one last VCR running to it, and as I have older VHS holiday tapes, I still need that.

At any rate, to mention this switch is not that great and so files played to this Roku can be issues too if they are fickle on both vid but also sound. In the next few months I plan to actually get a Flat screen so that will go away, and then I can run HDMI to it at least an hope to get that better

Anyway, as I mentioned, for all the vids I have done, I have learned what works with all these various setups for both vid but not only that, sound. An especially with the sound encoders that make sure the sound works, or gives me the best SS on the two systems with still being sure I get reg 2 channel needed for the 3rd setup.

Which oddly an like for instance, for some reasons means I have to put two audio tracks on there, and also make sure if there is a SS, its the first one on it. But then with some of this is a only 2ch, I need to be sure to not make it pass through, but have something like a version of Dolby so the 2nd SS system will work with that, or with some, have had to get it working in some other way.

Now tell me manono, do you know if with using MakeMKV, what for sure will work with all these setups..I mean for sure like how I know in Handbrake?

As well with handbrake, even on my first try if it goes wrong, I know how to try the various setups and get test results from that, and when I do how to read those in MediaInfo and as best and so as quickest of what to do if I don't get things right for all of these for what else to try in Handbrake as alternatives.

So tell me, can you tell me all of those things and just how to do them as quickly per each issue I might find as well as I know them in Handbrake?

[manono]

Now tell me manno, do you know if with using MakeMKV, what for sure will work with all these setups..I mean for sure like how I know in Handbrake?

I haven't a clue as I'm sending to a single Sony LCD TV set with a part wired and part wireless setup, using HDMI only. As I suggested before, just how long will it take you to test it out? The video is only 18 minutes long (correct me if I'm wrong). And if it's longer, just do a 5 minute or so section. Testing is so easy I don't know why you haven't done it already, rather than writing all these long-winded posts, many of them berating people for trying to help and suggesting what might be better alternatives.

Then go ahead and make a lossless x264 video and decide for yourself if you're happy with the way it balloons the filesize.

[WBFAir]

Now tell me manno, do you know if with using MakeMKV, what for sure will work with all these setups..I mean for sure like how I know in Handbrake?

I haven't a clue as I'm sending to a single Sony LCD TV set with a part wired and part wireless setup, using HDMI only. As I suggested before, just how long will it take you to test it out? The video is only 18 minutes long (correct me if I'm wrong). And if it's longer, just do a 5 minute or so section. Testing is so easy I don't know why you haven't done it already, rather than writing all these long-winded posts, many of them berating people for trying to help and suggesting what might be better alternatives.

Then go ahead and make a lossless x264 video and decide for yourself if you're happy with the way it balloons the filesize.

Basically is my point, I don't know why everyone first has to get all nutty when they read any of this first to tell me not to use handbrake. Then its so funny as now you tell me how when I try to explain why so that you know, now I get...why are you waisting so much time explaining.

Why, I guess because it couldn't just be taken at face value that I just want to use Handbrake, thats why. An I'm not trying to berate anyone, what good is that going to do me. Seems like just everyone cops some major attitude if I will not take their suggestions and that has nothing to do with me. I'm not that actor in any of this, I'm just reacting to all the issues people are having with me just wanting to use simply Handbrake.

Guess my question is, why can I just be left to use what I like without it just be taken in such a personal an offended way when I won't?

Think that option would have saved us all a lot of issues, but just doesn't seem to be able to be done and now I've spent a lot of time, you've an others spent a lot of time, your probably ticked at me, and I'm certainly not any happier.

So perhaps we can all not be this way by just not just continuing to go down these personal roads.

Seems like would be the simplest way to not have any issues to me.

[DB83]

Joining the party quite late - but I do like reading a good 'discussion' - the real issue here is the definition of terms and your apparent ignorance of their meanings.

But, in your OP you stated that your interpretation of the term 'lossless' was akin to 'without ferther loss of quality'. That being said, if you simply follow the advice given and attempt to wrap the mpg from the dvd WITHOUT ADDITIONAL PROCESSING into a mkv then that is what you will have.

In all the 'discussion' I can see no attempt on your part to do this. If that does not work then that is the time to ask for more assistance rather than just 'mouth off'

Handbrake will inevitably involve additional processing so you defeat your original goal without leaving first base.

[WBFAir]

Really I would love to continue any discussion of what adjustments can be made in Handbrake with anyone, like I have been doing with Al for instance.

But if all or in any part anyone wants to go over anything else of the past of this thread of who's at fault or for what of any of it, not that I'm going back on any of my writings or conclusions, but its been discussed and decided and is pointless to discuss it any further.

Or as well is the same for any talk of what else to use other then handbrake.

Its done...and is a closed point and any discussion of anything else is just more of a pointless same.

All in all I know a thread like this is a moth to a flame for people who would just love a fight, but just like for the first one of this I asked, I am asking politely that any of those interested in that talk please move on if that is what you want.

I'm sure there are many other threads you can do this in, but this one has had enough.

[jagabo]

home movie DVD vids

Those are almost certainly interlaced. For best results do not deinterlace or resize the frame vertically, the interlacing will get screwed up. (Cropping is ok as long as the top border is cropped by a mod 4 value -- oh, also as long as the Roku doesn't have frame size restrictions). Encode interlaced. Handbrake doesn't natively support that. You have to specify it in the Extra Options box. tff or bff, depending on your source.

If your Roku boxes don't play interlaced h.264 properly you'll have to deinterlace and live with the resulting problems. If you need to retain smooth motion try the Bob option (and see if the Roku will play 60 fps h.264). Otherwise use the slowest setting you can bear.

Kerry56 covered the RF settings already in post #12. I might add that there's little point in going to less than RF=12 because you won't really see any difference, but the file sizes will balloon. If you're primarily interested in video quality you probably won't be happy with anything over 22 or so. At ~18 (the range that most picky people use) you will see a little posterization, especially in dark areas, moving edges may get rough (though they're probably already rough from the MPEG 2 compression of your source).

[WBFAir]

home movie DVD vids

Those are almost certainly interlaced. For best results do not deinterlace or resize the frame vertically, the interlacing will get screwed up. (Cropping is ok as long as the top border is cropped by a mod 4 value -- oh, also as long as the Roku doesn't have frame size restrictions).

Thanks for the heads up, in looking at the org, yes it is interlaced. The custom profile in HB I have been using with success had deinterlace selected as off and in checked my already encoded working well files and I found no listing for that, so assume are off too.

Have run a 120 sec test file and tried it in the systems and looks good. Have attached btw way below both MediaInfo report on both the org VOB file, and the 120 sec test for this and further reply.

If your Roku boxes don't play interlaced h.264 properly you'll have to deinterlace and live with the resulting problems. If you need to retain smooth motion try the Bob option (and see if the Roku will play 60 fps h.264). Otherwise use the slowest setting you can bear.

Just to mention for sake of knowing, I would assume that is does as the like in what I mentioned above.

Kerry56 covered the RF settings already in post #12. I might add that there's little point in going to less than RF=12 because you won't really see any difference, but the file sizes will balloon. If you're primarily interested in video quality you probably won't be happy with anything over 22 or so. At ~18 (the range that most picky people use) you will see a little posterization, especially in dark areas, moving edges may get rough (though they're probably already rough from the MPEG 2 compression of your source).

As mentioned, I have done a quick little test run and posted a MediaInfo file below.

I tried several and I don't know if what I am looking at for this is the best indicator, but am looking at the over bitrate of the resulting file (?).

In the original, it has this info in other ways, but as can be seen, the overall bit rate is listed as about 7, 533 Kbps

In doing the 120 sec test files and might assume the eventual result might be dif, I tried 15 on the slider, and that gave me a OBR of 2,986, 10 = 6,386 an 8 = around 8,300.

So tried 9 and that gave me the one below of 7,319.

Which again, will have to do a full encode, but seems like its at least the closet for the OBR number.

Btw I did try zero and that gave me a 18.5 Mbps..little too much.

Also to mention, the org VOB file is listed in Win 7 at 1,024,000 kb size and time is 18:33 min.

The 120 sec file at the 9 setting is 107,195 kb

So if that stays maybe around the same for the full encode for the 18.5 time, all that should come out about as close to the same KB. Would suspect some increase as it will have two audio tracks.

Anyway is all pure speculation and just have to do a run and see what happens.

Overall though it seems like a setting of 9 in this case, if all this does actually pan out is not going to mean I'm loosing much overall bit rate, and should make it about the same size as a conversion, but with all the other encoding things that I know will work.

Will do a test run tonight and report should anyone care about the results.

[jagabo]

Your original video is encoded interlaced but that doesn't mean the frames actually contain interlaced video. You need to check the video by using a bob deinterlacer and stepping through the video field by field (frame by frame after the bob). Find a section with moderate continuous motion. If every field is different you have interlaced video. If pairs of fields are the same you have progressive video encoded interlaced. If you see fields repeating in a 3:2 pattern you have telecined film. If the source of that video was 8mm film you'll probably see longer repeat patterns.

Your x264 encoded video is encoded progressive. If the MPEG 2 source was really interlaced you should see comb artifacts when you watch the x264 video. Because the player won't know to show the video one field at a time.

The size of your x264 encoded files will depend very heavily on the nature of the source video. When using CRF encoding there can be a several fold difference in bitrate/size between noisy video and clean video. Also still shots, compress much better than action shots. Etc. Interlaced encoding isn't as efficient as progressive encoding.

[_Al_]

That guy is using the USB drive. WBFair and I are streaming through Plex and I already wrote it works well.

I believe it works, but I also believed we are talking about some about super-duper quality he likes to watch, where not even CRF15 seems to cut it. So live transcoding with that low crf would not work. But never mind.