Advice on converting UK TV Channel5HD freeview videos & finding current br?

[jagabo]

Ah, ok, so I shouldn't set Handbrake to use the same framerate as the source if I'm deinterlacing then? I should use 50fps and either set the frame size to 1920x1080 (if it plays ok on the TVs) or 1280x720 if not?

Yes.

And I'll stick with yadif. In Handbrake do I keep interlace detection to default and yadif > preset to default, or do I need to change those? And I'm testing them with crf as 22, seems to be good quality on the other tests I did at that.

Set Yadif to Bob.

[Emanef]

Thanks, I'll have a go with those settings

[Emanef]

OK, so I've done a batch converting a load of Little Princess episodes from Channel 5 HD. I've converting using the following settings;
Yadiff > Bob
Framerate 50FPS
Constant Quality 22.5 (22 had the new filesize a bit larger than the original, 22 had it a fair bit smaller, so I guessed that 22.5 gave a similar filesize!)

I also set audio to -4 gain, just as the volume of CH5 broadcasts seems quite higher than most of the other stuff we have (mostly CBeebies downloads via get_iplayer) and when it's on shuffle the CH5 shows blare out compared to the rest.

Looking at mediainfo, it's showing the framerates as varying, mostly between 29 and 38 FPS, and when I drop one of the newer files into Bitrate Viewer it doesn't like the files. How can I tell if the new ones are now deinterlaced?

I've uploaded the original and converted versions of one episode if that helps;
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qxbhh09fsi0kzty/Little%20Princess.S04E01.Gilbot.mp4?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b0s63kjjyryk8z9/Little%20Princess.S04e01.Gilbot%20%281080P50...-4%29.mp4?dl=0

[DB83]

If I might interject.


Back in reply #22 I posted a 'conversion' of one of your clips which, after updating the software, did play at a constant frame-rate. I did ask if this clip played on your firestick. There was no specific reply although you might have inferred the negative. For my own satisfaction could you confirm or otherwise.


Yet it seems that whatever you try is not producing results. Without wishing sound facetious your little girl could have grown out of this stuff before you get it working


Might I suggest a much simpler solution. Take your original recordings and burn them to re-writable dvd. Once your daughter has seen these you can re-use the dvd for more episodes. But good blank media is quite cheap so you can always use normal disks and keep them for future viewing.

[Emanef]

You may very well be right about that.....!

I made a mistake with those, I selected peak framerate 50 instead of constant 50, which was why I was getting varied frame rates. I've just redone one at constant and it is now 50fps, and I've checked and it played back fine on the TVs (including our cheap 23" Samsung telly in the kitchen) so I think I've got there.

There are loads of shows and episodes I've recorded and I wanted to just get a good setting I can use across them all, so at least hopefully now the hard part is done, just need to let my computer get to work on all the others!

Thanks for all the help (and quick replies too!), at least I've learnt a bit more about it, even if most of it is still a field of mines....!

Edit: And, sorry, yes, your conversion did play ok on the stick

[netspud2k]

For what it's worth here's my "opinion"

From what you have said, you really don't need anything more than 720p, unless you like wasting space on your NAS, and I guessing if the target audience doesn't care that much about quality and you're not watching, better to save the space.

It's also pointless having anything higher that 25fps, again no one will see the difference, and again you are wasting space.

And a massive bitrate, is only likely to cause problems on lower power players. I have noticed when I stream across a LAN HD TV to a roku/plex combo, there are buffering issues (mostly down to the hardware), the broadcast stuff is not very compressed, and the bitrate is just not needed, especially not with modern codecs.

so I would recommend:
MP4 container (most supported, perhaps not the best, but more than good enough for what you have described)
h264 video (H265 is better, but less support)
AAC (2 channel) audio (oddly better supported than mp3)
720p
I have had no problems with VBR (smaller files again, but can be lower quality)
See what suits you for your bitrate, but at 720p you would have to put a pretty big bitrate on to break stuff, which just isn't needed.
If you check online they are suggesting 2.5K to 4k on the above setup, but for cartoons I might go even lower, depends how much space you want to save.

One thing that will make a nice difference is the speed you encode at, don't use the fast stuff, that is just throwing quality away.
Hope this is helpful, but you already have a bunch of very good advice.

Net

[DB83]

And, sorry, yes, your conversion did play ok on the stick

Which might have saved you a whole lot of time/work. And hair-loss.

[TimA-C]

Just to add my 2 penneth. Everytime I use Avidemux to edit and mux a recording directly to mp4 then I always seem to have problems with playback - usually down to a reported variable framerate - so I now edit & mux to .mkv. If I need an mp4 then I just copy and mux the mkv file to an mp4 file. It seems to work.

My preference is to use VideoRedo and just output whatever I need.

If I'm re-encoding then I tend to use Vidcoder as it's quick & easy, and I can crop off borders and logos etc. and choose to either leave them cropped or replace the cropped borders with new ones - something I could never manage in Handbrake.

[Emanef]

For what it's worth here's my "opinion"

From what you have said, you really don't need anything more than 720p, unless you like wasting space on your NAS, and I guessing if the target audience doesn't care that much about quality and you're not watching, better to save the space.

It's also pointless having anything higher that 25fps, again no one will see the difference, and again you are wasting space.

And a massive bitrate, is only likely to cause problems on lower power players. I have noticed when I stream across a LAN HD TV to a roku/plex combo, there are buffering issues (mostly down to the hardware), the broadcast stuff is not very compressed, and the bitrate is just not needed, especially not with modern codecs.

Thanks for the reply. The reason I've gone for 50fps is because the original recordings are interlaced and my Fire Stick crashes when it tries to play them, and from what I've been advised on here and from googling, if I deinterlace but stick with 25fps it could be juddery and not very smooth on movement.

Re bitrate, they're not high bitrate anyway, even the originals are mostly around average bitrate of 3500/3500kb/s, and looking at the 50fps conversions they're in the region of 1300/1500kbps.

I usually set encode preset to medium for my own stuff and I've been using it for these as well, prefer to have it take longer for better quality.

[netspud2k]

Whatever works for you. Sounds like you have a working solution, which is great. I have never experienced judders after sampling down to 25fps, perhaps I am lucky, a little blind or both .

I am glad you have a working solution you are happy with. I am juggling Tb's or video data, so every byte counts, and running out of physical space to just add more drives. Also my wife ever finds out what I have spent on hard disc, they will be bounced off my head

[jagabo]

The difference between true 50p and 25p is visible any time there's a panning shot. Watch the attached video full screen -- the top line (25p) flickers badly, the bottom line is glassy smooth (on a 50p screen). It won't make any difference with film based material which is just 24p sped up to 25p, they'll both look just as bad.