DVD to Apple TV - Quality suffers?

[BobVB]

If you explore the handbrake forums you will find a number of threads about TV 2.0 encoding - I have found that using the constant quality settings at 70% gives me a great DVD using the Advanced settings being developed in these forum threads. I used to use 2 pass at a calculated bitrate of 0.18 bits per pixel, but find constant quality gives me a better product.

It does take longer than even a 2 pass but I really only want to do these once. Actually watching all my TV series box sets now that I can put them on tv and have them nicely organized by program-season-episode.

 

[kagharaht]

No need for 2 pass.

Just did my test on my Superbit Fifth Element. Forget 2 pass, just go for 66-68 Constant Quality. The job will get done much faster and the results are awesome.

 

[thunderclap]

Just did my test on my Superbit Fifth Element. Forget 2 pass, just go for 66-68 Constant Quality. The job will get done much faster and the results are awesome.

How is the file size?

 

[kagharaht]

How is the file size?

I did a 66 of Beowulf, came out 2.01gb, movie is 1:54 long. Setting at 68 came out at 2.85gb.

I also did 66 with Contact, came out 2.37gb, movie is 2:29 long.

I'm still playing around Fifth Element, but I may end up doing it at 66 in the end for most everything.

 

[KakaduDreamer]

I did a 66 of Beowulf, came out 2.01gb, movie is 1:54 long. Setting at 68 came out at 2.85gb.

I also did 66 with Contact, came out 2.37gb, movie is 2:29 long.

I'm still playing around Fifth Element, but I may end up doing it at 66 in the end for most everything.

Perhaps a dumb question but...what happens if you set the Constant Quality value to 75%? 85%? Dear God, what about...100% ? Of course, I'm expecting the file size to be huge but at those higher percentage values will the encoding produce a file with an output at or near DVD quality?

Just wondering... You know, before I start dabbling in using this CQ setting vs. Avg Bitrate @ 2500, the latter which I've been using while ripping + encoding nearly 50 DVDs.

For the record, I'm quite pleased with the default Apple TV preset options in HB, but when using those I have noticed some "softness" on some movies, in certain scenes...so anything I can do to push it closer to the original DVD viewing experience, I'm willing to consider other options... And with the number of DVDs I've already ripped/encoded, I'm inclined to only go back and re-do the "exceptional" ones -- LOTR, Master and Commnder, Gladiator, etc.

 

[kagharaht]

Perhaps a dumb question but...what happens if you set the Constant Quality value to 75%? 85%? Dear God, what about...100% ? Of course, I'm expecting the file size to be huge but at those higher percentage values will the encoding produce a file with an output at or near DVD quality?

Just wondering... You know, before I start dabbling in using this CQ setting vs. Avg Bitrate @ 2500, the latter which I've been using while ripping + encoding nearly 50 DVDs.

For the record, I'm quite pleased with the default Apple TV preset options in HB, but when using those I have noticed some "softness" on some movies, in certain scenes...so anything I can do to push it closer to the original DVD viewing experience, I'm willing to consider other options... And with the number of DVDs I've already ripped/encoded, I'm inclined to only go back and re-do the "exceptional" ones -- LOTR, Master and Commnder, Gladiator, etc.

The file size really vary like crazy using CQ ( CRF h264 ). So some mediocre films can end up 2.9 to 3gb at time while some good action can be much lower. So if you want to be consistent 2 pass AVB is the way to go around 1800 - 2500 and keep file size low.

 

[dynaflash]

The constant quality slider is linear, but the actual values passed to x264 is very non linear. So, for dvd 70% - 72% is generally considered transparent to source. Go above that at all and sizes balloon like crazy for little or no return. At 100% you will likely end up with a file greater than the source in size and bitrate. Crazy I know, but true. Realize CRF leaves x264 to do whatever it has to to get to a given visual quality. So a very grainy, and complex movie can end up with a very high bitrate for the same quality as a clean source which end up at half the bitrate. Using 68% I have ended up with bitrates from 1800 to 4000. So ymmv. typically though they end up in the 2000 to 2500 range.

For grainy / noisy sources, using weak denoise in the picture settings will bring it back down very nicely.

 

[Scarpad]

I mainly rip tv shows for my ATV, but I want to maintain the ability to watch them on my Ipod's and Itouch, I find if I use the Ipod Hirez setting with anamorphic Checked, 2 pass, with 1500 bitrate thay look beautiful on my ATV, and Hour show clocks in under 600 megs, and fantastic on all my ipods, to me this is the sweet spot to maintain compatibility, my ATV is hooked up to a 46" Sony Bravia LCD and upconverted to 1080p.

 

[thunderclap]

...my ATV is hooked up to a 46" Sony Bravia LCD and upconverted to 1080p.

Your television handles the upconversion? I thought it was primarily the HD players that did it.

 

[Scarpad]

Your television handles the upconversion? I thought it was primarily the HD players that did it.

It Depends if you set the ATV to 720p then the set will handle the upconversion, if you set the ATV to 1080 p then it handles te upconversion.

 

[Cave Man]

I ripped my DVD of Fifth Element in Superbit format.

{Drool...}

 

[thunderclap]

It Depends if you set the ATV to 720p then the set will handle the upconversion, if you set the ATV to 1080 p then it handles te upconversion.

Is it better to let the ATV handle the upconversion or the television? I was originally going to hook mine up through the component input since I don't have any available HDMI ports available on the television. But then I read the ATV won't display at 1080p. However, I also read that some users experience poor picture quality from converted DVD's when using the HDMI port and letting the ATV handle the upconversion.

So which is better for converted DVD's? 1080p HDMI with the ATV handling the upconversion, or 720p component with the television handling the upconversion?

 

[thunderclap]

I find the Apple TV setting to be very good, but it is a softer image to my eyes.

As a newbie to this, I ripped Star Wars into Apple TV, but I left out the subtitles. When we got to the cantina scene with Greedo, I realized the subtitles were missing, so we switched to the DVD. This type of switch showed me that there was a clear difference in sharpness. I have an Oppo 980, which does a nice job upconverting. Sharpness on the TV and player are set to zero.

Apple TV just seems soft to me. OTOH, maybe I just need to add sharpness to the Apple TV in general. When I rent SD movies, I have to increase sharpness on those in order to feel as though the image is not blurry.

Anyone else think that ripped SD DVDs are kind of soft?

You're not the only one. I just got my ATV today and I've been doing some tests with it. I'm streaming the media to the ATV instead of synching. The ATV is connected via component and I've tried both 720p and 1080i but both result in a slightly software picture. I haven't had a chance to try an HDMI connection yet though. That may improve the quality. Anyone?

The way I've been converting my DVD's is ripping them using Mac the Ripper the then encoding with Handbrake because of the possibility of incorporating subtitles and two audio tracks (main soundtrack and commentary). I've set the video bitrate to H.264, 2-pass encode (first fast) with an average bitrate of 2000. Does anyone think bumping it up to 2500 will help the image at all?