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gimmeiphone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 25, 2007
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been reading and reading but still not too sure i have it right. Im ripping some SD DVD's and want the best quality i can get without having to make full disc rips. I have set it to high profile, using mkv and have the RF at 18, i just hate it when the blockiness appears in dark scenes and what not, is the way im already doing it the best im going to get?
 
im not sure about the blockiness issue, but I generally use Universal preset without much adjustment. And has been fine without any stuttering, blockiness or compressed video quality, they look relatively close to DVD quality (some are depending on how the dvd was produced)

I;ve been fiddling with handbrake for about 2 years now and the only issue I come across is low audio volume on most presets. The video quality is acceptable like I mentioned before.


I generally use MKV for Blu-ray encodes, but have you tried other presets with better results? MKV should be fine for DVD but personally prefer the universal and m4v files
 
im not sure about the blockiness issue, but I generally use Universal preset without much adjustment. And has been fine without any stuttering, blockiness or compressed video quality, they look relatively close to DVD quality (some are depending on how the dvd was produced)

I;ve been fiddling with handbrake for about 2 years now and the only issue I come across is low audio volume on most presets. The video quality is acceptable like I mentioned before.


I generally use MKV for Blu-ray encodes, but have you tried other presets with better results? MKV should be fine for DVD but personally prefer the universal and m4v files

What does MKV have to do with anything? It doesn't alter the quality of the output, since it's just a container...
 
trying high profile, rf 19 (tried 18 but no distinguishable diff for me) just wondering how i add subtitles for foreign language parts of the film? like when buzz speaks spanish in toy story?
 
just wondering how i add subtitles for foreign language parts of the film? like when buzz speaks spanish in toy story?

Go into the subtitles tab and add English subtitles. Click on the box that says "Forced only". That will trigger the subtitles only in foreign language sections.
 
I use the Universal setting under the Apple presets, no complaints so far after a long time.
 
Go into the subtitles tab and add English subtitles. Click on the box that says "Forced only". That will trigger the subtitles only in foreign language sections.

So this would be the best selection for any film that has a foreign language in it? Whether a full film or on that has a limited section like Toy Story?
 
i tried that but i cant remember if it did nothing, or had subtitles all the way through :s
 
nope tried all the settings, none of which work to get the subs on in foreign spoken parts
 
I use the Universal setting under the Apple presets, earlier I said I had no complaints but now I remember. Some of the parts where subtitles are needed like in Star Wars and Lord of the Rings have no subtitles where another language is spoken. I'll try that other method but somebody said it didn't work for them.
 
i tried the apple universal setting but on the big screen the quality was a bit lesser than the high profile setting, which im using now, have messed with some of the advanced settings that supposedly increase quality, plus if i put it in an mkv container im hoping that if a solution comes along to the subs i can somehow pop em in later
 
i tried the apple universal setting but on the big screen the quality was a bit lesser than the high profile setting, which im using now, have messed with some of the advanced settings that supposedly increase quality, plus if i put it in an mkv container im hoping that if a solution comes along to the subs i can somehow pop em in later

For compatibility reasons, I usually avoid mkv. If you want to add or remove soft subs, it is trivial to download the .srt and pop it into your video file using subler. As for blockyness, again, be sure to select "No DCT Decimate". Likewise, if you want improved quality, use uneven hexagon option. If you are starting with high profile, uneven hexagon is the only setting that I normally change. If you want to go crazy, set it to QPRD in all frames, trellis to 2, and change the default from spatial to automatic... but be prepared for the encode to take much longer.
 
nope tried all the settings, none of which work to get the subs on in foreign spoken parts

Search for threads discussing subtitles - there's a lot of 'em in here.

Bottom line, HB cannot read the subs from the source material, so you have to pull the subtitle (*.srt) file from the DVD or find it on the 'net (there are plenty of sources), and add it to your clip by going to the subtitle tab and clicking the add External srt option.

However, HB will only give you a soft subtitle, like closed captioning, so you have to turn on subtitles when watching the movie. Also, unless you have a "forced only" or "non-English only" srt file, it will have subs for all dialog. You can sometimes find non-English only srt files on the 'net, and people more clever than I can pull the non-English only file from the DVD. Otherwise, you have to edit the file to take out the English dialog subs so that only the non-English remains (this can be done using Jubler - which is free).

If you want to get very clever, there are ways to burn in subs to the picture, so you do not have to turn on the subtitles to see them. There is an explanation of how to do that in this forum, but it does require the forced only subtitle track as a starting point.
 
Search for threads discussing subtitles - there's a lot of 'em in here.

Bottom line, HB cannot read the subs from the source material, so you have to pull the subtitle (*.srt) file from the DVD or find it on the 'net (there are plenty of sources), and add it to your clip by going to the subtitle tab and clicking the add External srt option.

However, HB will only give you a soft subtitle, like closed captioning, so you have to turn on subtitles when watching the movie. Also, unless you have a "forced only" or "non-English only" srt file, it will have subs for all dialog. You can sometimes find non-English only srt files on the 'net, and people more clever than I can pull the non-English only file from the DVD. Otherwise, you have to edit the file to take out the English dialog subs so that only the non-English remains (this can be done using Jubler - which is free).

If you want to get very clever, there are ways to burn in subs to the picture, so you do not have to turn on the subtitles to see them. There is an explanation of how to do that in this forum, but it does require the forced only subtitle track as a starting point.

You can also use textedit to edit .srt files
 
Search for threads discussing subtitles - there's a lot of 'em in here.

Bottom line, HB cannot read the subs from the source material, so you have to pull the subtitle (*.srt) file from the DVD or find it on the 'net (there are plenty of sources), and add it to your clip by going to the subtitle tab and clicking the add External srt option.

However, HB will only give you a soft subtitle, like closed captioning, so you have to turn on subtitles when watching the movie. Also, unless you have a "forced only" or "non-English only" srt file, it will have subs for all dialog. You can sometimes find non-English only srt files on the 'net, and people more clever than I can pull the non-English only file from the DVD. Otherwise, you have to edit the file to take out the English dialog subs so that only the non-English remains (this can be done using Jubler - which is free).

If you want to get very clever, there are ways to burn in subs to the picture, so you do not have to turn on the subtitles to see them. There is an explanation of how to do that in this forum, but it does require the forced only subtitle track as a starting point.


I thought subtitles were only an issue for BluRay?? I have no direct BluRay experience, but I can tell you for DVDs, I've never encountered a situation where selecting forced only did not encode the sub title properly. Works every time for me.
 
Ive used textedit as well as jubler...the moment I touch the srt file, it no longer works in subler or mkvtools. Absolutely nothing shows up. Pain in the butt! And yes, the 'forced' option in HB is the only time its worked for me.

I often edit .srt and then mux it back into the m4v using subler. Not once has it refused to work. I'm on Mac OS 10.6 using textedit. I can't think any reason why it would fail to work for you.
 
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