Handbrake - Need some help if possible

[toolbox]

Hi all, this type of area i have no idea so i need some help.

I have a couple of dvds that i would like to put onto my apple tv. Now i have mac the ripper to get the content off the dvd which works fine. But handbrake i have no idea how to use. I no that it has presets but which preset are you using?

there is legacy which has the Appletv legacy and under Apple it has Apple TV

What is the difference? I have tried both appletv legacy / apple tv and i am getting like a 4:3 display on my tv and it also has artifacts and the picture turns funny colours but the sound is perfect.

Basically i would like a DVD quality rip. All the times i have used handbrake the picture is crap.

cheers

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Hi all, this type of area i have no idea so i need some help.

I have a couple of dvds that i would like to put onto my apple tv. Now i have mac the ripper to get the content off the dvd which works fine. But handbrake i have no idea how to use. I no that it has presets but which preset are you using?

there is legacy which has the Appletv legacy and under Apple it has Apple TV

What is the difference? I have tried both appletv legacy / apple tv and i am getting like a 4:3 display on my tv and it also has artifacts and the picture turns funny colours but the sound is perfect.

Basically i would like a DVD quality rip. All the times i have used handbrake the picture is crap.

cheers

Handbrake should be able to yield a picture very near the original DVD quality.

Use the non-legacy preset (legacy refers to "old" preset from previous versions). You can tweak video quality with the slider. The Handbrake site has a lot of information about ways to max out the quality of the picture from a DVD rip. One is sliding the quality slider up from the default to about 62%.

Handbrake is taking a compressed format on the DVD, then rendering it to re-compress it into an .m4v fiile. Any time you re-compress a compressed format, some image quality will be lost. However, Handbrake tends to yield a picture that is far from "crap", often fooling users into believing it is as good as the DVD version.

If you are using the Handbrake preset, and the DVD is not 4:3 native, Handbrake should crop the resulting file to whatever aspect ratio it is on the DVD. For example, if you are ripping a 16:9 widescreen movie, the resulting .m4v should be 16:9 (rectangle), not 4:3 (square). I've found that some DVD's that are not "enhanced for widescreen televisions" (anamorphic) will sometimes render as a 4:3 picture with the black bars at the top & bottom, but most of the time Handbrake will crop out the black bars, yielding a "just the movie" render. When you play this back on your TV (assuming you have a widescreen TV), black bars may be inserted to preserve the aspect ratio. For example, if you rip an anamorphic DVD that is even wider than 16:9, then try to play it back on a 16:9 widescreen TV, black bars will be added to the top & bottom to preserve the full width (aspect ratio) of the movie.

If you are watching on a 4:3 TV, naturally everything will render in 4:3, and widescreen DVD rips will simply have bigger black bars at the top & bottom of the screen.

One more thing, assuming you've plugged your apple TV into a fresh jack on the set, make sure your TV is not set for 4:3 playback (thus forcing any input on that jack to show as 4:3). This would be something to check in your TV menus, not Handbrake or apple TV.

 

[toolbox]

Thanks heeps for the reply. Yes the TV is 16:9 and the apple tv connects VIA HDMI.

I think you may have highlighted a very good point there that perhaps some of the dvds i have been playing around with perhaps are not in the 16:9 ratio but the 4:3 ratio instead

However i am still getting like lines and blotches on the screen, like you would say in a pirated movie or one downloaded of the net that your trying ot watch with bad bandwidth Bit like that

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

However i am still getting like lines and blotches on the screen, like you would say in a pirated movie or one downloaded of the net that your trying ot watch with bad bandwidth Bit like that

1. Are you selecting the TV preset (not the legacy one) in Handbrake for these encodes?
2. Are you tweaking the quality slide up a bit from default, moving it to about 62%?
3. Are you sure these lines & blotches are not in the DVD version?

If yes to all 3, try playing the movie in Quicktime on your computer. Are the same lines & blotches there? This experiment could rule out the Handbrake output and make us focus more on the TV, cabling, etc.

Try playing some of the iTunes video content such as a number of trailers on your TV. Do they look great or do you also see lines & blotches in those sources?

 

[rayward]

Thanks heeps for the reply. Yes the TV is 16:9 and the apple tv connects VIA HDMI.

I think you may have highlighted a very good point there that perhaps some of the dvds i have been playing around with perhaps are not in the 16:9 ratio but the 4:3 ratio instead

However i am still getting like lines and blotches on the screen, like you would say in a pirated movie or one downloaded of the net that your trying ot watch with bad bandwidth Bit like that

This may be a problem with your original rip, rather than Handbrake. I am consistently pleased with the quality of Handbrake encodes, including 720p encodes of Blu Ray rips which look (and sound) amazing.

For regular DVD rips, I use VLC (FWIW, I have the 64-bit versions of both HB and VLC, but that should not make any difference to the end product). Try downloading VLC (it's free), and then ripping a DVD directly through HB. VLC is used by HB to rip the DVD and HB encodes it on the fly. I use the standard Apple TV preset without any tweaks. I have never had any bad rips/encodes with this tandem, and the output looks great.

One point to note is that you need to update the presets every time you download a new version of Handbrake. If you've upgraded to the new version, but didn't update the presets, then you aren't getting the correct settings when you select one.

 

[mstrze]

I highly recommend this stickied thread at the top of the forum:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/805573/

Outlines everything and includes scripts and automation to make this foolproof. I just run a service/script that takes my movies and makes exquisite versions of my DVD content for AppleTV. I am amazed at the quality of preset that Mac.Jedi has programmed into the scripts. I am sure it's also because my AppleTV is hooked up via HDMI, but my DVD content looks much better than when I polay it through my DVD player.

The scripting also includes the ability to do a batch rip and encode at various scheduled times when your computer might have some down time (overnigfht for example) and also scripts to help with adding movie and TV show info including poster/title graphics.

Unless you really want to mess with the various settings in handbrake...give the mac.jedi stuff a try, you won't be disappointed.

 

[watups]

RipIt

Try RipIt easy quick and just as good of quality as Handbrake.

 

[mjwilcox]

This may be a problem with your original rip, rather than Handbrake. I am consistently pleased with the quality of Handbrake encodes, including 720p encodes of Blu Ray rips which look (and sound) amazing.

Could you tell me how you set HB to make 720P files from BluRay rips? I have the discs ripped, but am having a heck of a time getting 720P out of HB 0.9.5.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[kbmoney]

Could you tell me how you set HB to make 720P files from BluRay rips? I have the discs ripped, but am having a heck of a time getting 720P out of HB 0.9.5.

Thanks,

Mike

Mike if you are converting BluRay's and using the AppleTV 2 preset within handbrake it will make it 720p.

If you don't have an AppleTV just click on Picture Settings and change the width to 1280. The height should change automatically to 720 or under.

KB

 

[mjwilcox]

Mike if you are converting BluRay's and using the AppleTV 2 preset within handbrake it will make it 720p.

If you don't have an AppleTV just click on Picture Settings and change the width to 1280. The height should change automatically to 720 or under.

KB

I've tried this method, the Apple TV 2 preset, and another preset from Kristine in another thread. At least on the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith I only get two seconds or so of video, then it freezes but I still appear to have the audio from what I have moved around to. Can go forward to later chapters but the video remains frozen. I do have the larg file size checked as well.

Same output file works fine on my iPad2

Edited to add - Same result on first episode of National Parks - America's Greatest Idea.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[rayward]

I've tried this method, the Apple TV 2 preset, and another preset from Kristine in another thread. At least on the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith I only get two seconds or so of video, then it freezes but I still appear to have the audio from what I have moved around to. Can go forward to later chapters but the video remains frozen. I do have the larg file size checked as well.

Same output file works fine on my iPad2

Edited to add - Same result on first episode of National Parks - America's Greatest Idea.

Thanks,

Mike

When this happens it's almost always down to the bitrate. First off, do you have a 1st or 2nd generation ATV? If 1st gen. then the ATV2 preset will cause this to happen on all your encodes, as the newer unit can handle a much higher bitrate than the old one, and the presets recognise this.

If ATV1: use the ATV1 preset, go to Picture Settings, select "Custom" anamorphic, then set the resolution to 1280 x 720 (don't worry about the original aspect, the anamorphic setting ensures you get the properly sized picture). Encode away.

If ATV2: slide the bitrate RF factor down a click or two (which means a higher number - I know it sounds backwards) and re-encode. This is simply trial and error, but this will back off the peak bitrate moments and will allow for smooth playback.

BTW, the "Custom" anamorphic setting "trick" works for either preset. If your source file has a wider aspect than 1280, this gives you an ATV-friendly file with full 720 vertically, but a greater width. Up to circa 1600 if the source aspect is full, cinema blockbuster width. If you don't do this, Handbrake will lower the vertical resolution to fit the image into a maximum width of 1280. I do this all the time, and my 1st gen. ATVs happily play the resultant files.

 

[mjwilcox]

When this happens it's almost always down to the bitrate. First off, do you have a 1st or 2nd generation ATV? If 1st gen. then the ATV2 preset will cause this to happen on all your encodes, as the newer unit can handle a much higher bitrate than the old one, and the presets recognise this.

If ATV1: use the ATV1 preset, go to Picture Settings, select "Custom" anamorphic, then set the resolution to 1280 x 720 (don't worry about the original aspect, the anamorphic setting ensures you get the properly sized picture). Encode away.

If ATV2: slide the bitrate RF factor down a click or two (which means a higher number - I know it sounds backwards) and re-encode. This is simply trial and error, but this will back off the peak bitrate moments and will allow for smooth playback.

BTW, the "Custom" anamorphic setting "trick" works for either preset. If your source file has a wider aspect than 1280, this gives you an ATV-friendly file with full 720 vertically, but a greater width. Up to circa 1600 if the source aspect is full, cinema blockbuster width. If you don't do this, Handbrake will lower the vertical resolution to fit the image into a maximum width of 1280. I do this all the time, and my 1st gen. ATVs happily play the resultant files.

And this is what did it! Same file works on my iPad2 so I only need to make one file.

Thanks a bunch,

Mike