Please help, Want a conversion help, for playing on PS3, Apple TV, maybe iPhone 3GS

[MrMister111]

hi

I am sick of messing about with different options, presets etc etc to get a DVD conversion to play on my PS3, Apple TV, an maybe iPhone 3GS.

I have an iMac Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 2Gb RAM, I have used handbrake, WinXDVD ripper, and numerous others. I can get a file to play, but something is always not right with it for me, eg takes too long to convert if I use Handbrake inbuilt Apple TV preset , I only get about 12-15fps conversion speed on my iMac - too slow. I altered the advanced string (with help from a Handbrake developer), and although it is faster 80-90fs, the playback on my PS3 was "ghosty" / slow motion kind of look. or the file sizes are way to big for my liking, eg 2hr20m movie came out at 2Gb.

I want decent quality for playback on 40" LCD TV, but nothing to gloss, not bothered about HD quality, something decent enough to watch for the kids, me etc.

So what I'm after is someone with a similar setup to mine, Apple TV, PS3, and what methods, hardware, tips, tricks, software etc they use.

please please help
cheers

 

[wysinawyg]

Well I bought a Core i7 iMac which means I now get 40ish fps with a better quality smaller file than the AppleTV preset.

Unfortunately if you can't just upgrade the hardware there isn't any option but deciding how much you can live with a compromise on:

Speed
Size
Quality

I'm definitely not aware of anyone having a "better" encoder than Handbrake (maybe Compressor is better optimised?).

So you need to decide, could you live with 30 fps? If so then you need to start unpeeling the options from the advanced string you got given so that the quality goes up and the speed comes down without hammering file size.

Have you tried the Universal preset? That is supposed to be a bit faster than AppleTV I think at the expense of a bit less quality and a bit bigger files.

 

[spice weasel]

Have you tried the Universal preset? That is supposed to be a bit faster than AppleTV I think at the expense of a bit less quality and a bit bigger files.

Yes, go with the Universal preset. It will work on the AppleTV, iPods and iPhones, and the PS3. Files are a bit bigger, but you get more compatibility.

As for the time it takes, well that's dependent on your processor. Short of buying a faster machine, there's no way around it.

 

[dynaflash]

I'm definitely not aware of anyone having a "better" encoder than Handbrake (maybe Compressor is better optimised?).

Probably true. x264 is pretty much the cutting edge.

Have you tried the Universal preset? That is supposed to be a bit faster than AppleTV I think at the expense of a bit less quality and a bit bigger files.

Not much faster but definitely the universal preset has a larger file size given the same quality due to the atv supporting bframes.