Encoding with Handbrake 2017 iMac?

[EugW]

On a second note, I would love to have my ATV 3 play MKV files. I watch my movies through my Yamaha receiver which can play DTS audio. What software do you recommend? Is there any software that can transcode the DTS in the MKV? Right now I am converting from DTS to AC3.

Apple TV 2 if jailbroken can run Infuse for MKV playback but there are some issues these days. It’s a bit buggy and the hardware is a little underpowered.

Apple TV 4 and Apple TV 4K both play MKV with Infuse. No jailbreaking required. DTS is also supported.

Apple TV 3 is the worst of the bunch. It is useless for MKV because you can’t jailbreak it and you can’t run Infuse natively.

 

[dpriest]

Apple TV 2 if jailbroken can run Infuse for native MKV playback but there are some issues these days.

Apple TV 4 and Apple TV 4K both play native MKV with Infuse. No jailbreaking required.

Apple TV is useless for MKV because you can’t jailbreak it and you can’t run Infuse natively.

Your response "Apple TV is useless for MKV because you can’t jailbreak it and you can’t run Infuse natively" I would assume you meant the ATV 3 can't be jailbroken? If so, that's a bummer. I am so fed up with Apple. It's time to get with the program and do what the competition is doing by supporting DTS and Dolby Atmos as well. They say it's a licensing thing. Their competition has been doing it for years... That's why I will not upgrade to the new ATV.

 

[EugW]

Your response "Apple TV is useless for MKV because you can’t jailbreak it and you can’t run Infuse natively" I would assume you meant the ATV 3 can't be jailbroken? If so, that's a bummer. I am so fed up with Apple. It's time to get with the program and do what the competition is doing by supporting DTS and Dolby Atmos as well. They say it's a licensing thing. Their competition has been doing it for years... That's why I will not upgrade to the new ATV.

Yes I meant Apple TV 3. I corrected the post later.

Infuse includes a DTS licence so if you pay for Infuse, MKV DTS works fine.

 

[dpriest]

Yes I meant Apple TV 3. I corrected the post later.

Infuse includes a DTS licence so if you pay for Infuse, MKV DTS works fine.

Well, it's a mute point because ATV 3 Can't be jail broken. Did you hear that Apple?! Infuse includes a DTS license for paying customers.

 

[Trebuin]

I finally got around to test encoding & man the iMac pro is a beast. It's nice to see a full movie at HQ, with grain x265 encode in only 30 mins.

 

[Synchro3]

One can stream MKV files directly to Apple TV with this App: https://beamer-app.com

No jailbreak and no encoding needed.

 

[Trebuin]

One can stream MKV files directly to Apple TV with this App: https://beamer-app.com

No jailbreak and no encoding needed.

I recommend Infuse like many others do here. Basically, I'm running a hard drive attached to an ASUS router with SMB. I could run streaming software, but the quality is usually much worse than streaming the source material. Infuse does the decoding & reads the files via SMB just fine.

 

[EugW]

Well, it's a mute point because ATV 3 Can't be jail broken. Did you hear that Apple?! Infuse includes a DTS license for paying customers.

If you like Apple TV, just get one of the newer ones. They're just way, way better than ATV 3, which isn't surprising since ATV 3 is almost 5 years old now.

If the only reason you're transcoding your videos is for ATV3, you're really wasting your time. A real-time transcoder would work, but better is just to use a player that can play it natively.

BTW, Infuse will play back h.265, but ATV 4 with A8 CPU isn't quite fast enough for some content. The ATV 4K with A10X Fusion is way, way faster. Both A8 and A10X Fusion have hardware h.264 support of course, but A10X Fusion also has hardware h.265 HEVC decode support.

 

[dpriest]

If you like Apple TV, just get one of the newer ones. They're just way, way better than ATV 3, which isn't surprising since ATV 3 is almost 5 years old now.

If the only reason you're transcoding your videos is for ATV3, you're really wasting your time. A real-time transcoder would work, but better is just to use a player that can play it natively.

BTW, Infuse will play back h.265, but ATV 4 with A8 CPU isn't quite fast enough for some content. The ATV 4K with A10X Fusion is way, way faster. Both A8 and A10X Fusion have hardware h.264 support of course, but A10X Fusion also has hardware h.265 HEVC decode support.

How does this Infusion work with the cover art compared to iTunes? I have a large movie collection in iTunes and I like being able to scroll through movies with a description and cover art. What are your thoughts about Apple supporting other audio besides AC3 with the next ATV?

 

[EugW]

How does this Infusion work with the cover art compared to iTunes? I have a large movie collection in iTunes and I like being able to scroll through movies with a description and cover art. What are your thoughts about Apple supporting other audio besides AC3 with the next ATV?

I've not really paid that much attention to the nuances of cover art differences of different software. Part of the reason is that while Infuse does well with cover art, the consistency of the display of the cover art will be wholly dependent on how the cover art is included with the file. However, the interface looks like this:

https://firecore.com/infuse

As for audio formats, I actually buy Blu-ray and 4K UHD discs for Atmos tracks for example. I have a 5.1.2 Atmos setup at home. The video quality is noticeably better too. But then again, my primary viewing room is a dedicated home theatre, with 90" image out of a Sony VPL-HW45ES 1080p projector. While I have watched some MKV files and iTunes MP4 files on that system, I use them more for watching on my computer or my iPad.

 

[diamond3]

I finally got around to test encoding & man the iMac pro is a beast. It's nice to see a full movie at HQ, with grain x265 encode in only 30 mins.

What settings? What are you using to encode? I'd be interested in comparing some things because technically the iMac Pro doesn't have a lot of the h265 encoding features builtin to the processor. Plus, I'm getting 3 hours of encode time, sometimes a little less depending on the movie.

 

[Trebuin]

What settings? What are you using to encode? I'd be interested in comparing some things because technically the iMac Pro doesn't have a lot of the h265 encoding features builtin to the processor. Plus, I'm getting 3 hours of encode time, sometimes a little less depending on the movie.

I would love to compare some stuff, I’ll send you the link to one of the videos I tested & my settings in a bit. Spending time with my wife right now.

 

[Synchro3]

I recommend Infuse like many others do here. Basically, I'm running a hard drive attached to an ASUS router with SMB. I could run streaming software, but the quality is usually much worse than streaming the source material. Infuse does the decoding & reads the files via SMB just fine.

I don't see any decrease of the footage (1080p) with the Beamer app.

 

[FredT2]

I would love to compare some stuff, I’ll send you the link to one of the videos I tested & my settings in a bit. Spending time with my wife right now.

Me too, please.

 

[dpriest]

I would love to compare some stuff, I’ll send you the link to one of the videos I tested & my settings in a bit. Spending time with my wife right now.

Can you please send to me also?

 

[Trebuin]

Me too, please.

Can you please send to me also?

Hello, Download handbrake (I'm using 1.0.7 (2017040900)) & set it up like this:
1) download the test file: http://4kmedia.org/samsung-sensational-picture-uhd-4k-demo/
(this is a 4k video good enough to transcode to 1080p or 4k for this test purpose)
2) download & import the profile I attached, this will get most of the work done, select the profile after you import the video
3) FPS should be same as source (it's a 60fps video, but leave it same as source)
4) verify Variable Framerate
5) verify tune is set to grain
6) verify video is set to H.265 (x265)
7) verify quality set to constant quality RF 24
8) switch to the picture tab & adjust the storage size to 1920 x 1080 (I'm only testing 1080 for now)
9) all the rest of the settings should not need any changes (everything should have been good on the file I uploaded.

after the encode is done, select "window" dropdown & select "activity window"
Mine showed this:
encoded 7110 frames in 306.44s (23.20 fps), 6026.97 kb/s, Avg QP:32.44

Edit (I did not set to grain and the numbers above are incorrect):

Corrected numbers:
encoded 7110 frames in 443.10s (16.05 fps), 8496.98 kb/s, Avg QP:26.01

 

[FredT2]

Hello, Download handbrake (I'm using 1.0.7 (2017040900)) & set it up like this:
1) download the test file: http://4kmedia.org/samsung-sensational-picture-uhd-4k-demo/
(this is a 4k video good enough to transcode to 1080p or 4k for this test purpose)
2) download & import the profile I attached, this will get most of the work done, select the profile after you import the video
3) FPS should be same as source (it's a 60fps video, but leave it same as source)
4) verify Variable Framerate
5) verify tune is set to grain
6) verify video is set to H.265 (x265)
7) verify quality set to constant quality RF 24
8) switch to the picture tab & adjust the storage size to 1920 x 1080 (I'm only testing 1080 for now)
9) all the rest of the settings should not need any changes (everything should have been good on the file I uploaded.

after the encode is done, select "window" dropdown & select "activity window"
Mine showed this:
encoded 7110 frames in 306.44s (23.20 fps), 6026.97 kb/s, Avg QP:32.44

Thank you!! This is the test I've been waiting for. I ran it on my 2014 i7 iMac with the following results:

7110 frames in 938.32s (7.58 fps), 8496.98 kb/s, Avg QP:26.01

So, the iMac Pro was three times as fast. It really is a beast!

 

[Trebuin]

Thank you!! This is the test I've been waiting for. I ran it on my 2014 i7 iMac with the following results:

7110 frames in 938.32s (7.58 fps), 8496.98 kb/s, Avg QP:26.01

So, the iMac Pro was three times as fast. It really is a beast!

If you want, you can try intel quick sync (QS) & see if you can match the quality. I'd like to see if QS on the 2017 would catch up to the pro. On another note, the pro is ridiculously quite, despite putting off enough heat to warm my den a little.

 

[FredT2]

If you want, you can try intel quick sync (QS) & see if you can match the quality. I'd like to see if QS on the 2017 would catch up to the pro. On another note, the pro is ridiculously quite, despite putting off enough heat to warm my den a little.

How would I do that?

On that other note, as I'm sure you're aware, my iMac is not ridiculously quiet when running Handbrake.

 

[Trebuin]

How would I do that?

On that other note, as I'm sure you're aware, my iMac is not ridiculously quiet when running Handbrake.

If you look on the video tab (middle pane), you can adjust the video encoder. The problem is I don't know if QS is set for x264 or x265. Since I don't have a compatible Mac, I really can't help you out to find that out. If the quality slider drops out, that shows how restricted it is. In theory, there should be a QS x264 & a QS x265. go with tQS x265 if you see it. I would love to see some screenshots.

Edit: it should be H265 (Intel QSV)

 

[FredT2]

If you look on the video tab (middle pane), you can adjust the video encoder. The problem is I don't know if QS is set for x264 or x265. Since I don't have a compatible Mac, I really can't help you out to find that out. If the quality slider drops out, that shows how restricted it is. In theory, there should be a QS x264 & a QS x265. go with tQS x265 if you see it. I would love to see some screenshots.

Edit: it should be H265 (Intel QSV)

Apparently Handbrake doesn't use QuickSync on Mac except for processors with Intel HD graphics. So for me the only Video Encoder options are H.264, H.285, MPEG-4, or MPEG-2. I ran with H.264 encoder, and job was much faster: 18.75 fps. Can you do the same with your iMac Pro?

 

[diamond3]

Apparently Handbrake doesn't use QuickSync on Mac except for processors with Intel HD graphics. So for me the only Video Encoder options are H.264, H.285, MPEG-4, or MPEG-2. I ran with H.264 encoder, and job was much faster: 18.75 fps. Can you do the same with your iMac Pro?

You can always encode with H264. One of the main benefits with H265 is file size for the quality. It's close to half the file size of a comparable quality H264 which adds up if you have a lot of videos.
[doublepost=1515510221][/doublepost]

Thank you!! This is the test I've been waiting for. I ran it on my 2014 i7 iMac with the following results:

7110 frames in 938.32s (7.58 fps), 8496.98 kb/s, Avg QP:26.01

So, the iMac Pro was three times as fast. It really is a beast!

Was that using H264 or h265? My 2017 iMac wasn't able to process that test as fast so I'm curious if you did something wrong with the settings he suggested.

2017 iMac i7, 40gb ram, Radeon 575 4gb card: encoded 7110 frames in 2371.22s (3.00 fps), 36972.98 kb/s, Avg QP:21.15 (using public version)

2017 iMac i7, 40gb ram, Radeon 580 8gb card: encoded 7110 frames in 2276.09s (3.12 fps) (using the nightly build)

 

[Trebuin]

Apparently Handbrake doesn't use QuickSync on Mac except for processors with Intel HD graphics. So for me the only Video Encoder options are H.264, H.285, MPEG-4, or MPEG-2. I ran with H.264 encoder, and job was much faster: 18.75 fps. Can you do the same with your iMac Pro?

Yes, I can only encode those options...MKV container will add a few more for you, but h.265 is the best bang for your buck.

Edit: also, it looks like you didn't select the profile after you selected the video. Could you double check that?

 

[leadfeet]

Hello, Download handbrake (I'm using 1.0.7 (2017040900)) & set it up like this:
1) download the test file: http://4kmedia.org/samsung-sensational-picture-uhd-4k-demo/
(this is a 4k video good enough to transcode to 1080p or 4k for this test purpose)
2) download & import the profile I attached, this will get most of the work done, select the profile after you import the video
3) FPS should be same as source (it's a 60fps video, but leave it same as source)
4) verify Variable Framerate
5) verify tune is set to grain
6) verify video is set to H.265 (x265)
7) verify quality set to constant quality RF 24
8) switch to the picture tab & adjust the storage size to 1920 x 1080 (I'm only testing 1080 for now)
9) all the rest of the settings should not need any changes (everything should have been good on the file I uploaded.

after the encode is done, select "window" dropdown & select "activity window"
Mine showed this:
encoded 7110 frames in 306.44s (23.20 fps), 6026.97 kb/s, Avg QP:32.44

--------------
As a point of reference, I ran this same test on a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 - 3.3Ghz 6 core, 32G, HD5770, 1T 850 Evo:

encoded 7110 frames in 965.09 (7.37 fps), 8466.47 kb/s, Avg QP:26.42

Basically the same as 2017 iMac i7, some posts up, but 3x slower than the iMac Pro.

 

[diamond3]

--------------
As a point of reference, I ran this same test on a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 - 3.3Ghz 6 core, 32G, HD5770, 1T 850 Evo:

encoded 7110 frames in 965.09 (7.37 fps), 8466.47 kb/s, Avg QP:26.42

Basically the same as 2017 iMac i7, some posts up, but 3x slower than the iMac Pro.

That's faster than my 2017 iMac i7. Since I've tested two different 2017 i7 iMacs, I think he must have had a different option on the encoding selecting. I'm getting just over 3fps.