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Best format to rip TV Shows from DVD into?

S

secretpact

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 24, 2007
271
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'm using handbrake to rip some of my TV Shows on DVD to my hard drive. I did the entire first disc in the default "Television" preset. This setting is .mkv and H.264. The problem I discovered is that VLC player stutters while playing these files. I don't want to use quicktime either because it doesn't load instantely, it takes a while for the bar to fill up (I know I can start the beginning of the video immediately, but if I want to skip to the end I have to wait a while.)

So what is the best format/codec to use while ripping TV Shows? I want to maximize quality. Thanks!
 
After lots and lots of tweaking this is the best setup so far for DVD-rips. I spent a long time researching and tweaking the "Advanced" section for best results.

6d557125.png


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9fa60804.png


Plays perfectly in iTunes.
 
CBR 65% is wasteful using newer builds of Handbrake/x264. 59-62% is generally considered transparent.

Personally, I'd just use the Universal preset and be done with it.
 
Chase R said:
After lots and lots of tweaking this is the best setup so far for DVD-rips. I spent a long time researching and tweaking the "Advanced" section for best results.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. What format do you use? I don't plan on playing my shows in iTunes. I want to use VLC or Quicktime.
 
secretpact said:
Thanks for the tip. What format do you use? I don't plan on playing my shows in iTunes. I want to use VLC or Quicktime.
Click to expand...

I use the H.264 codec and then I use a .mp4 extension rather than a .m4v. That way when you go to open them it won't default to iTunes, it will open them in Quicktime which plays them fine (same as playing them in iTunes).

NightStorm said:
CBR 65% is wasteful using newer builds of Handbrake/x264. 59-62% is generally considered transparent.

Personally, I'd just use the Universal preset and be done with it.
Click to expand...

The universal preset doesn't have all of the tweaks to the advanced section. It will still work but it's possible to have a smaller file at higher quality with the right tweaks to to this section rather than using the "Universal" preset. And thanks for the tip on CBR, I'll have to give that a try.
 
Chase R said:
I use the H.264 codec and then I use a .mp4 extension rather than a .m4v. That way when you go to open them it won't default to iTunes, it will open them in Quicktime which plays them fine (same as playing them in iTunes).
Click to expand...

Just click on a m4v file, Get Info, and choose to have all such files open in QT. That way you can keep your files as m4v, which iTunes needs in order to handle the AC3 passthru audio properly. I'd recommend the same thing to the OP, in case he ever decides to use iTunes in the future. In fact, why not just use iTunes? Yeah, it's a resource hog, but it remembers where you left off when viewing your video files.
 
NightStorm said:
CBR 65% is wasteful using newer builds of Handbrake/x264. 59-62% is generally considered transparent.

Personally, I'd just use the Universal preset and be done with it.
Click to expand...

I usually do 65 too. I'll try lower. one of the first movies I converted for ATV was the first Harry Potter. There's a scene at the start at night that was very blocky on 62%, so I tried 65% and it was a lot better.
 
spice weasel said:
Just click on a m4v file, Get Info, and choose to have all such files open in QT. That way you can keep your files as m4v, which iTunes needs in order to handle the AC3 passthru audio properly. I'd recommend the same thing to the OP, in case he ever decides to use iTunes in the future. In fact, why not just use iTunes? Yeah, it's a resource hog, but it remembers where you left off when viewing your video files.
Click to expand...

Oh ok, I never knew that iTunes actually needed .m4v to handle the audio properly. Can I just rename all my .mp4 file extensions to .m4v and be good?
 
Chase R said:
Oh ok, I never knew that iTunes actually needed .m4v to handle the audio properly. Can I just rename all my .mp4 file extensions to .m4v and be good?
Click to expand...

Do you use those settings above for everything or just TV?
 
Chase R, I finished a test converting of a video and there are horizontal lines that appear whenever there's motion. Other than that the video is good, but it is a big problem in my opinion.

Here is an example:


(Look at his hand)
 
secretpact said:
Chase R, I finished a test converting of a video and there are horizontal lines that appear whenever there's motion. Other than that the video is good, but it is a big problem in my opinion.

Here is an example:


(Look at his hand)
Click to expand...

Is decomb on default?
 
Actually, I don't know if it was on or off. I will make sure it's on for my next test. Thanks!
 
secretpact said:
Chase R, I finished a test converting of a video and there are horizontal lines that appear whenever there's motion. Other than that the video is good, but it is a big problem in my opinion.

Here is an example:


(Look at his hand)
Click to expand...

Those lines are because the original source is interlaced. You can get rid of those lines by turning on the de-interlace filter or by setting the de-comb filter to "default". Make sure you check the picture setting before each encode.
 
Should decomb always be turned on? I notice that the defaults for most of the presets have decomb and deinterlace off.
 
secretpact said:
Should decomb always be turned on? I notice that the defaults for most of the presets have decomb and deinterlace off.
Click to expand...

You can leave the decomb filter on. It's a selective deinterlacing filter; which means that it only will deinterlace content that is interlaced.
 
I just did it with my Mad Men DVD and it looks like the converting has made the video darker. Take a look:

Original:


Converted:


Anyone know a fix?
 
Excuse my ignorance of Handbrake, I still use MTR and MPEG StreamClip.

Does no-one use the average bit-rate, for TV anyway ? TV Shows can be considered "disposable" so why use a high bitrate (or percentage) to encode ?
I run my TV shows through at 1100kb/s video 128kb/s audio, sometimes lower for older shows. Sure it's not like my movie rips (at 3000kb/s), but am I really going to watch that episode of CSI again ? or enough to care about the quality ?

You'd have to be a trekkie to worry about picture quality on all your episodes of TNG.

No disrespect to anyone, but just wondering.

Just out of interest, what does the average bit rate come out at if you use 62% ?
 
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