Remux or Convert?

[jlove385]

Hi everyone,

I hear a lot of talk here about remuxing via Subler. Normally I just convert my 1080p movies using Handbrake's Apple TV 2 preset and up the picture quality settings to 1080p to prevent the downgrading to 720p. Is this a good practice? Would it be better to simply remux movies?

 

[jlove385]

Shameful bump.

 

[jlove385]

One last try...

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Assuming your goal is quality over file sizes, remuxing would be better as it doesn't involve re-encoding the video file (just putting the same quality video file inside an TV-friendly container). Remuxing is also a lot faster (because it's not re-encoding, just repackaging the video file). There are some people who are saying that these "high bitrate" files are playing perfectly fine- even on the TV2 since the most recent software update.

Some might say going the Handbrake route is best because then you can create an optimized file at 720p which is the max that is going to flow out of the box to the HDTV. Others might say remux at 1080p so that you are future-proofed for when you want to replace that generation with an TV3+. Still others might ask if you want to rip your BDs now and then rip them again later? If so, rip them now and Handbrake them into a nice small 720p file. Then, later re-rip for 1080p playback when you upgrade to TV3+.

The downside to remuxing 1080p from BD is that the resulting file is typically huge compared to re-encoding it through Handbrake (to either 1080p or 720p).

If your goal is 1080p files (even though your TV2 can't push 1080p out to the HDTV), you may want to just be patient until the Handbrake team can get an TV3 and develop a preset for it. Then, you might use that preset for optimized 1080p files (that may play fine on the TV2 at 720p). But even that will need to be tested.

Otherwise, if you are happy with the TV2, cranking up the video size to 1080p isn't doing much for you except maybe making the video file bigger: you may just want to optimize for 720p until you need to replace the "2" with a "3+".

 

[jlove385]

Thanks for the reply!

So if I want to get the best quality video, then remuxing is the way to go? Is it possible for the remuxed file to be bigger than the original?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yes, remux moves the file into a new wrapper (no re-encode). Handbrake re-encodes it (throwing out data) to yield that balance of quality and (smaller) file sizes.

I don't think a remux can be bigger than the original. What I believe it's doing is taking the exact same video file and wrapping it as an (MP4) .m4v file. If you are dropping in the other stuff for TV, you're injecting an AC3 audio file for surround sound and a stereo file so that it plays on non-surround stuff. This dual track audio might cause a tight, movie-only rip to seem like it's getting a little bigger (but it's not like its a huge amount).

 

[jlove385]

Do you know what type of data is removed that makes the files so much smaller when converting via Handbrake?

 

[dagamer34]

Do you know what type of data is removed that makes the files so much smaller when converting via Handbrake?

They take out the extras. The problem I see is that some movies have their mt2s files chopped up to the point that it's impossible to get a linear file that contains the entire movie.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Do you know what type of data is removed that makes the files so much smaller when converting via Handbrake?

Not extras (that's in the rip). Compression typically tosses out fine detail. There's also a shift from what is usually a high Mbps playback to a low(er) Mbps. Handbrake does a great job in that often it's very hard to notice the difference between the much bigger, higher Mbps original and the Handbrake file.

 

[Sedulous]

Yes, you'll see the greatest file size difference after handbrake if the original had a lot of fine detail like film grain. But unless file size is an issue, you'd preserve quality by remuxing.