Best handbrake settings for good playback on ATV?

[daytimeninja]

If I wanted to rip a few of my dvds into my iTunes collection using handbrake, and have them able to run on ATV with the same quality as the dvd, what setting should I use? I'm new to this and don't understand what some of the settings do such as what adjusting the bitrate does decomb and deinterlace, etc.

thanks for all the help.

 

[rWally]

If I wanted to rip a few of my dvds into my iTunes collection using handbrake, and have them able to run on ATV with the same quality as the dvd, what setting should I use? I'm new to this and don't understand what some of the settings do such as what adjusting the bitrate does decomb and deinterlace, etc.

thanks for all the help.

Just use the appleTV preset in handbrake and you should be good to go. The encodes come out looking pretty close to the original DVD.

 

[daytimeninja]

Okay thanks.

Can anyone tell me what these settings do?

 

[Chad H]

I usually leave audio alone and use the Apple TV preset. I think its set to 2500 average bitrate. I usually leave it at that and set to a 2 pass encode. Seems to help a little. It will take longer though.

 

[VTMac]

I usually leave audio alone and use the Apple TV preset. I think its set to 2500 average bitrate. I usually leave it at that and set to a 2 pass encode. Seems to help a little. It will take longer though.

Unless you're using an old version of Handbrake, that is not correct. The default setting for AppleTV is Constant Quality 59%. Bottomline, for the uninitiated, just use the AppleTV preset and you'll likely be very happy. If you want a little (and I do mean little) more quality and are willing to trade a bit more time / space to do the encode, you can bump up form 59% to 62/63%.

 

[rWally]

Okay thanks.

Can anyone tell me what these settings do?

I'd recommend reading the handbrake wiki to understand all the different settings. It's much easier than someone here trying to summarize it for you.

http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/HandBrakeGuide

 

[mynewromantica]

I would recommend decombing also. It helps to make any movement look much smoother.

 

[Chad H]

Unless you're using an old version of Handbrake, that is not correct. The default setting for AppleTV is Constant Quality 59%. Bottomline, for the uninitiated, just use the AppleTV preset and you'll likely be very happy. If you want a little (and I do mean little) more quality and are willing to trade a bit more time / space to do the encode, you can bump up form 59% to 62/63%.

Yes by default you can click "averate bitrate" and its set to 2500 only on Apple TV preset. I have the newest version of Handbrake. You have three choices. "Constant quality", "Constant bitrate", and "Size".

 

[dynaflash]

However, switching to 2500 abr is *not* the AppleTV preset in Handbrake. The encodes will likely come out looking worse at a larger file size than clicking the AppleTV preset and leaving it as is, 59% constant quality and all.

Once you change anything after choosing a preset then its no longer using the preset.

Decomb is an excellent filter for picking up partially interlaced sources and deinterlacing/ blending them. It only removes the combing from such sources. On a completely progressive ( non interlaced ) source it makes no difference whatsoever.

Note: though you can make you're encodes visually tranparent to the source for all practical intents and purposes, it can never be an exact copy of the source since any compression is lossy by definition. However you can get it so close the loss is indistinguishable to the human eye.

 

[dynaflash]

Yes by default you can click "averate bitrate" and its set to 2500 only on Apple TV preset. I have the newest version of Handbrake.

If you click on the AppleTV preset in 0.9.3 or the developer snapshot and the Average Bitrate is chosen, you need to manually update you're built in presets (note, the developer snapshot automatically updates the built in presets).

 

[Shuttleworth]

Decomb is an excellent filter for picking up partially interlaced sources and deinterlacing/ blending them. It only removes the combing from such sources. On a completely progressive ( non interlaced ) source it makes no difference whatsoever.

Would you always see partial interlacing in the preview?
Also, if the source is completely progressive, would it take longer with decomb selected than not selected?

 

[dynaflash]

Would you always see partial interlacing in the preview?

In the still preview, maybe ... it depends if the frame is interlaced in one of the ten previews hb selects. In the dev snapshot you can set how many previews you wish to see up to 30 which give you a better chance of detecting an interlaced frame. Though it's still not foolproof.

Also, if the source is completely progressive, would it take longer with decomb selected than not selected?

Slightly, though not much. The decomb detection algorithm is still run, but the slower yadif deinterlacer or blending algorithm never gets called. So basically with no interlaced frames it might be just a tad slower, but will get increasingly slower depending on the number of interlaced frames it detects since it will either deinterlace or blend those frames which takes more time.

Note: decomb is however always faster than yadif deinterlacing every frame.

In general Decomb is a win/win unless you are certain you're source is not interlaced at all. Decomb is described in much greater detail by it's developer in the user guide.

 

[Shuttleworth]

Thanks very much for that, I'll have another look at the guide, it starts to mean more the more practice you get with HB