DVD Movie Rips Pixelated when watching on ATV

[glennsan]

I have started to rip my favorite action movies via handbrake and copied them into iTunes for viewing on the ATV. Most are fine viewing but I just watched "Gladiator" and "Matrix" and in a lot of what are the special effects scenes they would show pixel squares in various areas of the tv. This does not happen when I watch the same ripped movies in iTunes on my 3 year old iMac or any HD movies I purchased from the iTunes store and watch on the ATV.

If this pixeling is just a limitation of the ATV I can deal with it but if there is something I might be doing wrong in ripping with handbrake and the new ATV setting please let me know. Also, if anyone has an idea on some other software to use that would not have these issues I am all ears and would purchase it as well. Thank you.

Glennsan

(OT Please remember the need in Haiti if you have discretionary income available. Thank you again.)

 

[spinnerlys]

You have to do a 2-pass encoding in Handbrake, in the first pass the image gets analyzed for fast movements, in the seconds that analization is applied to the proper encoding.

I made the sam mistake when I first used Handbrake.

image of older version of Handbrake, but the option is still there

 

[glennsan]

You have to do a 2-pass encoding in Handbrake, in the first pass the image gets analyzed for fast movements, in the seconds that analization is applied to the proper encoding.

I made the same mistake when I first used Handbrake.

image of older version of Handbrake, but the option is still there

I am trying it again with the 2 pass setting. It is not an option with the standard new preset but I found it under the legacy setting.

Thank you.

Glennsan

 

[tbayrgs]

You have to do a 2-pass encoding in Handbrake, in the first pass the image gets analyzed for fast movements, in the seconds that analization is applied to the proper encoding.

I made the sam mistake when I first used Handbrake.

image of older version of Handbrake, but the option is still there

2-pass encoding is not necessary. It may have been beneficial in older versions of HB but the quality you get out of the current version with the provided presets is excellent. All 2 pass encoding will do is make the encode take twice as long and unnecessarily increase the file size.

Just make sure you have the latest version of HB and try encoding with the Apple TV preset settings--select a chapter to encode in a movie where you noticed pixelation to test it out.

I had the same problem after they updated to version 0.9.4--was using a slightly modified Apple Universal setting. Turns out I needed to add a modifier to the Advanced Option String (weight p=0) that caused the problem on the Apple TV--I believe the latest build has that modification included. I previously used Universal as Apple TV settings wouldn't work for viewing on the iPhone. As that has since changed, I just go with the Apple TV preset when encoding my DVDs rips and the quality is great.

 

[spinnerlys]

2-pass encoding is not necessary. It may have been beneficial in older versions of HB but the quality you get out of the current version with the provided presets is excellent. All 2 pass encoding will do is make the encode take twice as long and unnecessarily increase the file size.

Just make sure you have the latest version of HB and try encoding with the Apple TV preset settings--select a chapter to encode in a movie where you noticed pixelation to test it out.

I had the same problem after they updated to version 0.9.4--was using a slightly modified Apple Universal setting. Turns out I needed to add a modifier to the Advanced Option String (weight p=0) that caused the problem on the Apple TV--I believe the latest build has that modification included. I previously used Universal as Apple TV settings wouldn't work for viewing on the iPhone. As that has since changed, I just go with the Apple TV preset when encoding my DVDs rips and the quality is great.

That's good to know, will try it out with my next DVD.

But do I have to use a preset or can I use my own settings?

 

[VTMac]

That's good to know, will try it out with my next DVD.

But I have to use a preset or can I use my own settings?

You can use your own settings, but honestly it's doubtful that they are better than the new presets. The new presets are excellent. If you want even more quality, search for posts by Dynaflash with his presets. It's a simple mod to the default ATV preset. Adds a little more encode time, but it is as close to indistinguishable from DVD as you can get.

 

[roidy]

I use the AppleTV preset in Handbrake 0.9.4 svn3036 with the following changes:-

No Fast-P-Skip Checked -- Can help with banding on solid colors eg skyes. It will slow down the encode but I think it's worth it.
No DCT-Decimate Checked -- Can help to stop Handbrake destroying subtle detail like film grain, it will increase the file size but I think its worth it.
Deblocking -1 -1 -- I think the default values of 0 0 make the encodes far to soft and blury.

I use a Constant Quality setting of between 59-62 percent. 2 pass is only useful if you need to hit a certain bitrate or filesize.

As someone has already said make sure Weighted B-Frames is off as it caused video corruption problem on the AppleTV.

These are my own personal choose of settings and I'm sure people will say you don't need this and why have you set that but I have spent a great deal of time testing different settings and these give me constantly good results over a wide range of different video sources.

 

[glennsan]

I am trying it again with the 2 pass setting. It is not an option with the standard new preset but I found it under the legacy setting.

Thank you.

Glennsan

Watched a little of the new rip. It looks better but the file size is now 4GB. Not sure it is worth it since I do have the DVD. Will play around some more with the other items mentioned. Thank you.

Glennsan

 

[steve knight]

I had the same issue watching dvds on my mac then on appletv and they sucked. well they are good now with the default appletv settings

 

[roidy]

Watched a little of the new rip. It looks better but the file size is now 4GB. Not sure it is worth it since I do have the DVD. Will play around some more with the other items mentioned. Thank you.

Glennsan

With the settings I posted my encodes are indistinguishable from the original DVD and come out at a size of between 1.5 and 2Gb. 4Gb is far to large.

 

[jkrellner]

A new problem with latest Apple TV software update?

I noticed that my movies have started pixelating after installing software version 3.0.2. When I watch the same movies on my Mac no pixelation - but on the apple TV it does pixelate.

Has anyone else noticed this? I don't think it is related to handbrake settings.

-John