leave the atv at 720 or 1080?

[Keebler]

Hi folks,

So I've ripped a few movies using HB for the atv.

Finally got my 50" panny installed yesterday, but some of the movies look blah - brightness is like hot spots in some areas (ie. toby maguire's face in spiderman) and the colours look a bit washed.

Now i realize this has alot to do with the settings, but i used the universal setting, 2800 kpbs, 2 pass w/turbo. I didn't change any other settings.

Other movies didn't look as sharp either.

So, I know I might need to re-encode some (not a biggee as I held off doing them all just for this reason), but also, I changed my atv setting to 1080 and wondering if i should change it back to 720?

Would that make a difference?

Cheers,
keebler

 

[spice weasel]

Have you adjusted your TVs brightness, color, contrast, etc. settings? Most HDTVs look like crap out of the box. You need to calibrate it.

Also, you are trying to upscale 480p content to a 50" 1080p screen, so it's not going to look hi-def no matter what you do.

Calibrate your screen, then pop in the source DVD and watch a bit of it. Then play the HB encode and see if there is a huge difference in color, etc. If there is, then tweak your settings in HB.

The ATV should be set to whatever your screen resolution is.

 

[bohbot16]

1. Why did you change the Handbrake preset? That may be part of the problem.

2. Let your fancy TV do as much of the upscaling as possible.

 

[Keebler]

Have you adjusted your TVs brightness, color, contrast, etc. settings? Most HDTVs look like crap out of the box. You need to calibrate it.

Also, you are trying to upscale 480p content to a 50" 1080p screen, so it's not going to look hi-def no matter what you do.

Calibrate your screen, then pop in the source DVD and watch a bit of it. Then play the HB encode and see if there is a huge difference in color, etc. If there is, then tweak your settings in HB.

The ATV should be set to whatever your screen resolution is.

thanks spice weasel. I'll try those suggestions. They did calibrate the screen and to be honest, I haven't made the time to read the manual before I try anything

bohbot, all i did was to increase the kbps which should theoretically help the image by pumping or allowing more data into the file. I'll try just the preset.

the fun begins..


Thanks folks,
Keebler

 

[spice weasel]

I should add that if you want the most "bang for your buck," so-to-speak, out of HB, use the Apple TV preset and bump up the quality slider to 61 or 62%. I assume you are using the Universal preset because you want to be able to play your movies on an iPod or iPhone, but, as good as the resultant encodes looks, I don't think they are as good as the Apple TV preset - especially on larger screens. I encode everything for the Apple TV, and then do a second encode for my iPhone for anything I want to be portable.

 

[NightStorm]

Now i realize this has alot to do with the settings, but i used the universal setting, 2800 kpbs, 2 pass w/turbo. I didn't change any other settings.

Then you really didn't use the Universal preset. Use the stock Universal preset, and bump the CQ value to 61-62%.

I should add that if you want the most "bang for your buck," so-to-speak, out of HB, use the Apple TV preset and bump up the quality slider to 61 or 62%. I assume you are using the Universal preset because you want to be able to play your movies on an iPod or iPhone, but, as good as the resultant encodes looks, I don't think they are as good as the Apple TV preset - especially on larger screens. I encode everything for the Apple TV, and then do a second encode for my iPhone for anything I want to be portable.

The stock .9.3 AppleTV and Universal presets should output very similar quality... the AppleTV preset encode would be smaller thanks to some of the advanced x264 options that it can use (ex. b-frames), at the expense of compatibility.

 

[Keebler]

Then you really didn't use the Universal preset. Use the stock Universal preset, and bump the CQ value to 61-62%.


The stock .9.3 AppleTV and Universal presets should output very similar quality... the AppleTV preset would be smaller thanks to some of the advanced x264 options that it can use (ex. b-frames).

thanks guys.

I'm going to run saving private ryan right now just using the appletv format.
I thought they were virtually the same, but now i know.

wuhoo!

Thanks,
Keebler

 

[janstett]

If I'm not mistaken (going back to ATV launch here) the ATV isn't really capable of true 1080 (I think I read that it's actually line doubled 540p), therefore the best native resolution you can get out of it is 720p.

Also keep in mind the native resolution of your TV. Your TV is probably 1080 but smaller LCDs, etc. are either 720p or some odd computer resolution between 1080 and 720 (which means you will never see content displayed in its native resolution).

 

[NightStorm]

If I'm not mistaken (going back to ATV launch here) the ATV isn't really capable of true 1080 (I think I read that it's actually line doubled 540p), therefore the best native resolution you can get out of it is 720p.

Also keep in mind the native resolution of your TV. Your TV is probably 1080 but smaller LCDs, etc. are either 720p or some odd computer resolution between 1080 and 720 (which means you will never see content displayed in its native resolution).

The AppleTV can output up to 1080p, it does not have the power to decode content higher than 720p. If you tell the AppleTV to output 1080p, it upscales the 720p content accordingly. You should set the AppleTV to match the native resolution of your output display.

 

[Keebler]

one final question about the atv preset.

Should the picture settings be loose, strict or aspect ratio checkmarked?

I added 1 movie, chose the atv preset and the picture setting was loose, added another movie, choose the atv preset and the aspect radio box was checkmarked? So I added a 3rd movie to the batch without changing the atv preset and the picture setting was changed again.

Am I going nuts or should it not be doing that?

Cheers,
keebler

 

[NightStorm]

one final question about the atv preset.

Should the picture settings be loose, strict or aspect ratio checkmarked?

I added 1 movie, chose the atv preset and the picture setting was loose, added another movie, choose the atv preset and the aspect radio box was checkmarked? So I added a 3rd movie to the batch without changing the atv preset and the picture setting was changed again.

Am I going nuts or should it not be doing that?

Cheers,
keebler

I'm 99% sure the preset uses Loose Anamorphic...not sure what is causing the behavior you are seeing.

 

[bohbot16]

Maybe you need to update your built-in presets