Average 1080p Blu-Ray HB Encoded Movie Size?

fridgeymonster3 · Oct 24, 2012

I have been using Handbrake to encode my Blu-ray MKV rips using the ATV3 setting. After encoding 205 BR rips, the average movie size is 5.1 GB and the median size is 4.61 GB. What is everyone else's average BR encode using the ATV3 setting in Handbrake? I assume the average should be pretty similar if using the ATV3 setting without changes.

HobeSoundDarryl · Oct 24, 2012

You are correct. Of course, you'll get variances in this answer depending on what people have encoded. For example, if someone's library is mostly epics and/or lengthy movies, their "average" is probably going to be bigger. I've got some individual encodes that have broken 20GB but others are smaller than your averages. People who are also encoding TV shows, short films, etc might average a good bit less than your numbers.

If I was trying to estimate hard drive capacity for storing a library, I'd probably use a number more like about 9-10GB per BD (so every 100 BD movies need about 1TB of storage).

fridgeymonster3 · Oct 24, 2012

HobeSoundDarryl said:
You are correct. Of course, you'll get variances in this answer depending on what people have encoded. For example, if someone's library is mostly epics and/or lengthy movies, their "average" is probably going to be bigger. I've got some individual encodes that have broken 20GB but others are smaller than your averages. People who are also encoding TV shows, short films, etc might average a good bit less than your numbers.

If I was trying to estimate hard drive capacity for storing a library, I'd probably use a number more like about 9-10GB per BD (so every 100 BD movies need about 1TB of storage).

Yeah, I have a range from around 2.5GB to 17GB per movie. I understand TV shows are different, I'm just curious about full-length movies. I'm not worried about hard drive capacity, as I have 9TB dedicated for my media files, although you never know how quickly that'll fill up.

Lance-AR · Oct 24, 2012

iTunes lists my collection at 14.5 days of playtime and 1074.11 GB. That's a little over 3GB per hour using the high setting in HandBrake.

The current winner is Saving Private Ryan at 26.04 GB.

Michael CM1 · Oct 24, 2012

OP, do you have recommendations for brand of drive and software to use for the process? I want to rip my BDs but am too afraid to drop money on these external drives since I don't personally know anybody with one. I use HB with DVDs, but do I need something else to get the file off the BD?

phoenixsan · Oct 25, 2012

I had....

encoded near 85 BR movies with the ATV3 setting. And reading this post I want to share my data:

Average 8.5 GB per movie. So, maybe you do well allocating 10 GB por movie, even in the case you dont use the full space. Only for estimations/accounts....

andymodem · Oct 25, 2012

My average movie size is 4.05GB for my ATV3 library, but I change the CQ setting to 22.

fridgeymonster3 · Oct 25, 2012

Michael CM1 said:
OP, do you have recommendations for brand of drive and software to use for the process? I want to rip my BDs but am too afraid to drop money on these external drives since I don't personally know anybody with one. I use HB with DVDs, but do I need something else to get the file off the BD?

Since I have a Mac Pro, I installed an internal LG Blu-Ray drive. I believe any external BR drive will work too. I use MakeMKV to rip the BR and then HB to encode it.

The only time it can get tricky is with subtitles for non-English portions of the movie. For those, I use MKVtools to extract all subtitles, then I use BDSup2Sub to read through the subtitles to pick the correct one and then export the correct subtitle as an IDX format (For HB compatibility), and then I use mkvtoolnix to remux the original BR MKV rip with the IDX subtitle, then lastly use HB to encode for Apple TV3 and select the inserted IDX under the subtitle section. There are threads on here helping with the process.

phoenixsan said:
encoded near 85 BR movies with the ATV3 setting. And reading this post I want to share my data:

Average 8.5 GB per movie. So, maybe you do well allocating 10 GB por movie, even in the case you dont use the full space. Only for estimations/accounts....

I think my average is a little low. I haven't re-ripped all of my BRs. For some, I have taken previously encoded MKVs and just encoded them using the ATV3 setting; therefore, those aren't coming from the initial rip and seem to be a bit smaller. They still look and sound good enough for me though.

WebHead · Oct 25, 2012

Pardon my ignorance, but can anyone shed light on why there is the wild variation in HD encodes vs. SD encodes in HandBrake. I understand the effects of grain etc, but why does that account for so much vs. SD encodes?

And what measures does Apple use to keep its HD file sizes down? Is it compromising on quality?

My movie encodes range mainly from 6-16GB, but I'm also getting 4GB for a single 48-minute episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (possibly because of the preponderance of space scenes?)

WebHead · Nov 1, 2012

WebHead said:
And what measures does Apple use to keep its HD file sizes down? Is it compromising on quality?

For instance, I just noticed that an episode of Hell on Wheels I encoded in 1080p is less than half the size on the iTunes Store.

How would one get similar results in HandBrake? Just turn down the RF?

WebHead said:
My movie encodes range mainly from 6-16GB, but I'm also getting 4GB for a single 48-minute episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (possibly because of the preponderance of space scenes?)

That turned out to be because I had loose anamorphic enabled and it was stretching the picture to fill the space. Turning on strict cut down the file size some.

Fed · Nov 2, 2012

Do you encode these on a Mac, OP? If so, may I ask what external blu-ray drive you're using? Seeing as you've done 205 rips, I'd be inclined to purchase it!

Jim.R · Nov 2, 2012

WebHead said:
For instance, I just noticed that an episode of Hell on Wheels I encoded in 1080p is less than half the size on the iTunes Store.
How would one get similar results in HandBrake? Just turn down the RF?

The iTunes files will have been encoded by the studio from the original uncompressed film. this means that they can turn up the compression higher without causing compression artefacts in the resulting file which gives them a smaller file size.

The Blu Ray you're converting is a compressed version of the original film. Compressing an already compressed file leads to artefacts being introduced much more easily (think of it a photocopying a photocopy). this means that the compression can't be turned up as much without compromising the quality, leading to larger file sizes.

Scarpad · Nov 2, 2012

I can tell you alot of those advanced settings makes a great deal of difference depending on how they are set, but would'nt begin to be able to tell you how to set them. I've seen a number of encodes of 1080p movies that are under 2 gb and they look phenominal, but I don't think the enoders are using Handbrake they are using individual tools to encode the audio and video, and they are using multiple passes.

I've pretty much stuck with encoding to 720p, more than enough for the ipad's 9.7inch screen , still looks great on my 50" plasma thru ATV, and the file sizes are more reasonable.

fridgeymonster3 · Nov 2, 2012

Fed said:
Do you encode these on a Mac, OP? If so, may I ask what external blu-ray drive you're using? Seeing as you've done 205 rips, I'd be inclined to purchase it!

I have a Mac Pro and have installed an internal LG blu-ray drive. Works wonderfully, but I've heard that external drives work just as well.

jtrenthacker · Nov 2, 2012

I average 8-9gb for typical two hour movie.

WebHead · Nov 10, 2012

Jim.R said:
The iTunes files will have been encoded by the studio from the original uncompressed film. this means that they can turn up the compression higher without causing compression artefacts in the resulting file which gives them a smaller file size.

The Blu Ray you're converting is a compressed version of the original film. Compressing an already compressed file leads to artefacts being introduced much more easily (think of it a photocopying a photocopy). this means that the compression can't be turned up as much without compromising the quality, leading to larger file sizes.

Thanks for the explanation, I figured that might be a factor!

Pyromonkey83 · Nov 10, 2012

Most of my 1080p files run around 4-7GB depending on length of the movie, and my 720p movies go from 2-4GB.

I personally don't use the CQ function as it often varies wildly in file size and sometimes sends bitrates out of control. I use 2 pass variable bitrate encoding with average bitrates of 4800 for 1080p and 2800 for 720p. This keeps file sizes in manageable sizes and looks fantastic on my 55" Samsung TV.

This method ends up being roughly 1.9GB per hour on 720p, and 2.7GB per hour in 1080p. I also keep 2 audio tracks, one as AAC CoreAudio Dolby Pro Logic II 192kbps, and a second Audio track of AC3 True 6 channel surround at 448 kbps. I know that the Dolby can be reduced to 160 with a negligible loss of quality, but I can tell a bit of a difference when I turn the volume up, primarily in the bass. Also, the extra 32kbps means an extra 9 MB on the file size for a 2 hour movie so big whoopdiedoo.

WebHead · Nov 11, 2012

BTW don't suppose anyone knows what compression tool Apple uses for the iTunes Store?

Darby67 · Nov 11, 2012

WebHead said:
BTW don't suppose anyone knows what compression tool Apple uses for the iTunes Store?

Likely proprietary with the Fairplay protection scheme.

NightStorm · Nov 11, 2012

WebHead said:
BTW don't suppose anyone knows what compression tool Apple uses for the iTunes Store?

I can guarantee it isn't Handbrake with a commercial Bluray.

Average 1080p Blu-Ray HB Encoded Movie Size?

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