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What are ppl's arguments for their preferred hanbrake appletv preset?

What do you guys mean by "nightlies" or "nightly build" ?

I downloaded handbrake a few weeks ago, and regularly check for updates. Is that what you mean, or is there a place where I can get a more recent build ?
 
Ripped straight from the handbrake forums http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=18266

"There's been a lot of questions lately about encoding for Apple's latest crop of A4 based devices. The settings below are the best practice for encoding for the iPad, iPhone 4, and :apple:tv 2 from any source (DVD, Bluray, HDTV, etc).

First step is to download the nightly, which fixes a number of known bugs and adds the iPad preset which should be your starting point.

Video tab: Most people are happy with Rate Factors (RF) of 19 to 22 for DVD sources and 21 to 25 for HD sources. Going lower is largely a waste of bits. Find what pleases you.

Picture size: If you're encoding only for iPhone 4, drop the width to 960. If you're encoding for iPad and iPhone, leave the width alone. If you want one encode for :apple:tv (and any other devices or not), raise the width to 1280.

Filters: If your source is interlaced, add decomb default. If your source is telecined, add detelecine default. If you don't understand the words you're reading, set them both to default; they're generally safe but will slow down your encode a bit.

Audio: If you have 5.1 sound connected to your :apple:tv, add AC3 passthrough (or AC3 encoding if it's a DTS source) as the second audio track.

That's all you need to do for a high quality, high efficiency encode that will work on all your A4 devices."

I respect this advice and have been using it to encode flawlessly to my :apple:TV2
 
JRoDDz said:
Ripped straight from the handbrake forums http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=18266

"There's been a lot of questions lately about encoding for Apple's latest crop of A4 based devices. The settings below are the best practice for encoding for the iPad, iPhone 4, and :apple:tv 2 from any source (DVD, Bluray, HDTV, etc).

First step is to download the nightly, which fixes a number of known bugs and adds the iPad preset which should be your starting point.

Video tab: Most people are happy with Rate Factors (RF) of 19 to 22 for DVD sources and 21 to 25 for HD sources. Going lower is largely a waste of bits. Find what pleases you.

Picture size: If you're encoding only for iPhone 4, drop the width to 960. If you're encoding for iPad and iPhone, leave the width alone. If you want one encode for :apple:tv (and any other devices or not), raise the width to 1280.

Filters: If your source is interlaced, add decomb default. If your source is telecined, add detelecine default. If you don't understand the words you're reading, set them both to default; they're generally safe but will slow down your encode a bit.

Audio: If you have 5.1 sound connected to your :apple:tv, add AC3 passthrough (or AC3 encoding if it's a DTS source) as the second audio track.

That's all you need to do for a high quality, high efficiency encode that will work on all your A4 devices."

I respect this advice and have been using it to encode flawlessly to my :apple:TV2
Click to expand...

Should I use those settings even if I have a French Apple TV 2 ? Should I keep framerate (FPS) as 29.97 (NTSC video), or will I have problem with that ?

Also, if I only want to encode for the Apple TV and no other device, should I still use the iPad preset, or should I use the AppleTV 2 preset ?

Thanks a lot.
 
JRoDDz said:
Video tab: Most people are happy with Rate Factors (RF) of 19 to 22 for DVD sources and 21 to 25 for HD sources. Going lower is largely a waste of bits. Find what pleases you.



I respect this advice and have been using it to encode flawlessly to my :apple:TV2
Click to expand...

Why is it that when I change the RF from 20 to something like 23 or 25 when "Apple TV 2" is selected, the file size gets smaller?? If it is as you say and 21 to 25 for HD, then shouldn't the file size get bigger when encoding with a larger number? And shouldn't the image quality be better? Instead, I did an episode of 30 Rock that was originally 183.6MB, put it to RF 23, and it came out like 76MB. Then I changed it to RF 25 and it went down to 64.6MB in size. Does that sound right to you? I am trying it on the default of 20 right now. Just wondered about this RF stuff and the file size that comes out.

EDIT: At RF 20, the file size ends up 103.2MB and it actually looks a lot better than the RF 25 or 23. So, I am wondering, were your identifiers backwards and you meant HD where you said DVD and vice versa?
 
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steveken said:
Why is it that when I change the RF from 20 to something like 23 or 25 when "Apple TV 2" is selected, the file size gets smaller?? If it is as you say and 21 to 25 for HD, then shouldn't the file size get bigger when encoding with a larger number? And shouldn't the image quality be better? Instead, I did an episode of 30 Rock that was originally 183.6MB, put it to RF 23, and it came out like 76MB. Then I changed it to RF 25 and it went down to 64.6MB in size. Does that sound right to you? I am trying it on the default of 20 right now. Just wondered about this RF stuff and the file size that comes out.

EDIT: At RF 20, the file size ends up 103.2MB and it actually looks a lot better than the RF 25 or 23. So, I am wondering, were your identifiers backwards and you meant HD where you said DVD and vice versa?
Click to expand...

The lower RF gives the better quality, and higher size file. If you read around about RF I'm sure it will help you understand.
 
ashy7 said:
The lower RF gives the better quality, and higher size file. If you read around about RF I'm sure it will help you understand.
Click to expand...

Oh, ok, I suppose that makes sense. But doesn't it degrade the HD material to encode it with the bigger RF value? That's what it would seem like to me.

In all honesty, I know you are right, I should have searched for the definition of RF or something on here. It was just very late when I was doing this as a test, so I thought it would just be quicker to play with the values and post that statement on here rather than do a few searches. :) Plus, it was at a point where I should have taken out my contacts a few hours earlier, so it was just my being lazy. Sorry about that.

My question about degrading the HD material is still a valid question though, right?

EDIT: Also, there is something I noticed when using handbrake to convert avi's to m4v's. I noticed that handbrake makes the videos a little bit darker than the original file. Is there a way to adjust something so that there isn't a loss of brightness in the output file? It can kind of take a little away from the scene if it makes it too dark.
 
Last edited:
steveken said:
My question about degrading the HD material is still a valid question though, right?
Click to expand...

Did you read the HandBrake user guide at all?
https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/ConstantQuality

For the constant quality setting it's all about getting the best picture possible for the lowest file size. I you want the best quality use MakeMKV and you will have a exact copy of the BlueRay source but it will be 20+ gigs. Use HandBrake if you want to cut that file size in half and have a picture that is usually indistinguishable from the source.
 
harpster said:
Did you read the HandBrake user guide at all?
https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/ConstantQuality

For the constant quality setting it's all about getting the best picture possible for the lowest file size. I you want the best quality use MakeMKV and you will have a exact copy of the BlueRay source but it will be 20+ gigs. Use HandBrake if you want to cut that file size in half and have a picture that is usually indistinguishable from the source.
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were talking about copying Blu-Ray's here. I thought we were talking about converting stuff for use on the 2nd gen Apple TV in general. All I am attempting to do is get some avi's that I have converted into m4v or mp4 so I can play them back on the Apple TV and not see a lot of difference in quality. Also to see if I can figure out why the resultant file looks a bit darker than the original.
 
steveken said:
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were talking about copying Blu-Ray's here. I thought we were talking about converting stuff for use on the 2nd gen Apple TV in general. All I am attempting to do is get some avi's that I have converted into m4v or mp4 so I can play them back on the Apple TV and not see a lot of difference in quality. Also to see if I can figure out why the resultant file looks a bit darker than the original.
Click to expand...

I really do recommend giving the settings in post 3 a go. That is what I use and I am very happy with the results.
 
ashy7 said:
I really do recommend giving the settings in post 3 a go. That is what I use and I am very happy with the results.
Click to expand...

Yup. I created a new preset in HB called "AppleTV HD" with those settings. I run it through iFlicks to tag it and I am very happy with the results. Small(ish) file sizes for the BluRay and very good quality too.
 
canyonblue737 said:
For A4 CPU devices (iPhone/iPad/AppleTV2) the following is OUTSTANDING:

1. High Profile [Best setting in Handbrake, but doesn't work on iPhone 3G or the old Apple TV]
2. RF of 19 for DVD, 20-22 for Bluray. [Smaller numbers are HIGHER quality, but lower than 18 gets no real increase in the quality you can see but will quickly exceed the original size of the DVD or Bluray, don't do it! These values create great transfers with reasonable, in some cases outstandingly small sizes, I use 20 for Bluray as I don't mind using a bit more space, but 21-22 are good too, try it.]
3. Framerate NTSC 29.97 and check the "Peak Framerate Box" [This tells Handbrake to use the NATIVE frame rate of the source unless it exceeds 29.97 in which case it would limit it to 29.97 which makes sure you stay compatible.]
4. Check the "Large File" box. [This helps with compatibility if your file exceeds 4GB, in most cases it won't.]
5. Add second audio track under Audio tab for Passthrough or DTS conversion if you are using the Apple TV connected to a surround system. [Important if you ever intend to use the file with a surround system, otherwise omit this.]
6. Under picture tab select "Anamorphic" and "Strict" for DVD, or "Anamorphic NONE" and set the width to 1280 for Bluray with the keep ratio box checked. [Experts now feels Strict is better than Loose Anamorphic for DVD (that's a change from the past) and there is no Anamorphic for Blurays so turn it off. 1280 for Blurays makes your files 720p for size and compatibility, ATV2 will convert 1080p files but there are hiccups that make it not worth try to push beyond the stated spec.]
7. Add detelcine, decomb filters for DVD, *NO* filters for Bluray. [DVDs can use a bit of help from the filters, which only kick in if they feel they are needed, while Bluray sources are so clean you actually hurt the image and slow encoding if you leave them on.]

Really incredible, small but beautiful files from this much better than the current presets.
Click to expand...

Using these settings also, but I am using: Framerate 25 (PAL Film/Video) with Peak Framerate (VFR) checked (as I am in Australia and we use the PAL format). One Blu-Ray takes around two hours on my 15" i5 Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM.

This is my workflow for converting Blu-Ray movies on my Macbook Pro (I have an external Sony Blu-Ray burner to do this).
  1. Rip Blu-Ray movie to an MKV file using MakeMKV (currently free).
  2. Add to the encoding queue in Handbrake using my custom preset (I call it AppleTV 2 Custom).
  3. Lastly, add movies into iFlicks (use 'flatten to Quicktime movie setting') to add the metadata and have movies automatically added into iTunes.
On the AppleTV 2, all movies will show with correct titles, artwork, summary of movie etc.
 
Constant Quality And File Sizes

After trawling thru these forums I think i've finally stetted on Handbrake settings that i'm happy converting all my Blu-Ray with! My question now is, and i'm sorry if it's been answered somewhere here before, why when I used the constant quality setting are there huge differences in the size of the final files? I understand that different movies will produce variances because of the amount of action, whether it's grainy, animation etc, but I just wanted to make sure that i'm still getting the same quality final file, no matter what the difference in file size is. Do I need to change the RF value depending on the film being encoded, or does keeping the value the same give me a constant quality from one film to the next. Hope this makes sense, thanks in advance :)
 
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