Preparing my Videos for AppleTV/iPod/iPhone

[bensparrow]

Hi everyone!
I know most of this will have already been covered by various other threads scattered across the forums but I was hoping some of you more experienced users could answer a few questions for me briefly..

So over the last year, Ive been amassing a nice little collection of videos (movies/tv shows/music videos) from various sources onto my Macbook.. DVD rips, Internet download etc in a mixture of formats, though mainly .avi.. I recently invested in an iPhone (loving it) and hopefully and AppleTV soon.
I want to prepare/convert all these videos and incorporate them into my iTunes library.. From what Ive read around in researching this, the Apple Universal preset in Handbrake is exactly what I want, a format that will look great on my Sony 20" Bravia TV and on my iPhone when Im out and about..
So I presume I should be running my files though this? My questions are, is the quality of this format sufficient? How long should it take? And what effect will it have in the file size?
After this I want to tag them, Im a bit of a stickler for it! I hear a lot of people talk about MetaX.. How does this work, is it better than just adding info and artwork yourself in the Get Info pane? Do I use MetaX before or after adding the converted file to iTunes? Also does MetaX work for TV shows as well? If not any suggestions as what I should be using for those?
Anyway I think thats all my questions for now, any advice/tips/guidance would be greatly appreciated..
Regards..

 

[Bickity]

Sounds like you have already done your homework. I also have the iPhone and Apple TV combo and use the Handbrake Universal preset. It works great for both (40" Bravia), a true dream since I was ripping two versions before. Use MetaX to tag before coping into iTunes, it makes one slick user experience. It does work for TV shows also, I just did Curb Your Enthusiasm. You might want to hold off on that Apple TV purchase, rumors are flying around about an update in February. I am looking to buy another for the kids.

 

[bensparrow]

Thanks for your reply.. Helped clear a few things up for me.. Just wondering what file size people are getting from say a 700MB Movie or a 350MB TV show using the Universal present?..

 

[macrazee]

The 'Universal' Preset is genius. It's great.

I always set the bitrate at 2500, run 2 passes on the encoding. Resulting files average 2GB and the quality is tremendous. They play great on everything from my little iPod Nano to my 52" LCD. You can fool with the bitrate if you like to try and keep the file sizes down, but just keep an eye on the quality. There's a point of diminishing return.