Handbrake settings for perfect DVD -> 2GB?

[figarow]

I rip my DVD's straight to .MKV using MakeMKV (no loss). The files are around 5GB-8GB. I'm wanting to use handbrake to convert them to around 2GB (don't care about the container). What i need is as perfect as possible to the source quality. I'm watching on a modern PC with 20" LCD Monitor up close. I have experimented but everything around the 2GB mark gives me artifacts / blotches in dark scenes. Please help!

[sanlyn]

I rip my DVD's straight to .MKV using MakeMKV (no loss). The files are around 5GB-8GB. I'm wanting to use handbrake to convert them to around 2GB (don't care about the container). What i need is as perfect as possible to the source quality. I'm watching on a modern PC with 20" LCD Monitor up close. I have experimented but everything around the 2GB mark gives me artifacts / blotches in dark scenes. Please help!

No, you're not dreaming: those really are artifacts/blotches and other garbage. and not just in dark scenes, but everywhere.

Here's the deal:
higher bitrate= larger file = higher quality.
Lower bitrate = smaller file = less quality.
Ridiculously low bitrate = really small files = pure video garbage.

To reduce an 8GB file to 2GB, reduce the amount of data that describes the video down to 1/4 the amount of original data. I should also mention that you don't "convert" to a smaller size, you re-encode to a smaller size. If you think video encoding is like ZIP or RAR, you couldn't be more off-track.

There is no way around it.

[figarow]

There is no way around it.

Many thanks for the reply, that kind of confirms what i was thinking although i was romanticizing the thought of somehow overcoming it with a glorious setting lol. Oh well i seem to lose most of the visible "loss" when i hit 3-4Gb i guess i will be upgrading the HDD sooner than i think

[Krispy Kritter]

Give Vidcoder a shot (just a gui frontend for handbrake). There are several guides for setup. My mp4 conversions range from 1.5-2.5. Tweak quality to suit your desires.

[redwudz]

I use VidCoder for DVD>MKV (H.264) conversions. I use a CQ of 19.3 and that gives me about 1.5 > 2.0 GB files. I use AC3 pass through and set Detelecine and Decomb to default. Everything else to default. Try it. You can convert directly from a DVD in one of your drives to a MKV file. If it's not good enough, lower the CQ. But you will get a much larger file.

I don't see much in the way of artifacts.

[johns0]

For dvds i use a CQ of 16 in handbrake and get around 2-2.5 GB size with no added artifacts such as moiring in dark scenes.

[Hoser Rob]

Bitrate is just the beginning when it comes to "perfect" encodes.

Always use high profile unless you're going to play it on a device that doesn't support it, and enable 8X8 DCT.

There are a lot of good h.264 settings ... that's where the quality really is in that format ... but they're quite complex. And there aren't any great "one size fits all" ones. Frankly, for users who aren't pretty knowledgeable, ripping without re encoding and buying more HDs looks pretty good. But there are good guides out there if you want to dip your toe in, and pretty good preset guides.

[_Al_]

Bitrate is just the beginning when it comes to "perfect" encodes.

Always use high profile unless you're going to play it on a device that doesn't support it, and enable 8X8 DCT.

There are a lot of good h.264 settings ... that's where the quality really is in that format ... but they're quite complex. And there aren't any great "one size fits all" ones. Frankly, for users who aren't pretty knowledgeable, ripping without re encoding and buying more HDs looks pretty good. But there are good guides out there if you want to dip your toe in, and pretty good preset guides.

He has a problems in dark scenes, that is his problem, there is no miracle settings for that, you just have to force encoder to give it a lots of bitrate in there or keep noise or introduce noise, because using 2pass or regular CRF - x264 will try to save bitrate in scenes like that. Goal is to lift bitrate in those scenes, low CRF value and you limit buffers. Those buffer limits will worsen quality, but in clear, nice scene or action scene it will not be perceived as nuisance.

Using zones can be handy also, but it is like in every day life, you want to improve something a little bit you have to work twice that hard, it becomes less efficient.

[jagabo]

Yes you can use --aq-strength=1.8 (use a value from about 1.6 to 2.0) to shift bitrate into dark areas to prevent posterization artifacts there. But in the end, you'll need more bitrate overall.

In Handbrake enter "aq-mode=2:aq-strength=1.8" (without the quotes) in the Extra Options box for the x264 encoder .

[_Al_]

I have example here, two very short videos, one "shady" with gradients, that tends to pixelate after encoding, so we want bitrate to be bigger, second video bright daylight, outdoor, nicely lit, both SD videos, resulting volumes:

------------------------------------------------shady video ------- normal video
CRF 16-------------------------------------------6880--------------------13503
CRF17--------------------------------------------5740--------------------11547
CRF18--------------------------------------------4817---------------------9877
CRF18 + aq-strebgth 1.8---------------------7903---------------------8976
CRF18 + aq-strength 1.8 + aq-mode 2 ---6049--------------------10005

so aq-strength alone works well, it distributed more bitrate in those "shady" scenes, but not in a nice daylight scene,
but aq-mode 2 (as oppose default 1) had a counterproductive effect just where it needed to be applied for that "shady" video

and second observation, using just aq-strength 1.8 gave less bitrate for nice lit, daylight scene then not using it (default 1)

values are not bitrates in graph but volume of resulted file, bitrates are spread evenly so it matches volume for video

[hogger129]

Use the older version - 0.9.5 I think? - and it has an option where you can specify an approximate output size.

The only problems I have is that video/audio is out of sync, but you can use MKVMergeGUI to get them lined up right.