1080p Handbrake settings for new Apple TV?

rayward · Mar 9, 2012

kagharaht said:
I think I've worked out the details on converting. Now the question on how many version for all these devices. I currently have ATV2, iPad2 and iPhone4. No iPS. I would rather have just one file for all these devices.

Any thoughts with this workflow? I will use ATV2 Preset, CQ19 or 18 and 1080p for all three devices. Also I stream to ATV2 with Airport Extreme 5th with 5ghz strictly used for ATV2.

I think all those devices (if there's a doubt about any it's the iPhone 4), can handle the 1080p file. The rationale for different versions is file size - which is most likely a bigger issue for the iPhone than the other devices. If you do not plan to put many movies on your phone, then go ahead an code to 1080p and you should be good to go (previous caveat regarding the iP4 applies).

I will need something less than a 1080p version of movies because my ATV1s would fry themselves trying to play that type of file. I also like to have a 544p version for my iPhone 4S, so that I can get more choices on there (it's a 32GB model). Of course, this means that two (or maybe three now) versions of the same movie increase the size of my library exponentially, so that's a further consideration especially if I have two levels of "HD" in addition to the "SD".

Assuming your iPhone 4 is up to the job of playing a 1080p file, then you're good to go with one version. It's all about where you want your storage crunch to be.

kagharaht · Mar 9, 2012

rayward said:
I think all those devices (if there's a doubt about any it's the iPhone 4), can handle the 1080p file. The rationale for different versions is file size - which is most likely a bigger issue for the iPhone than the other devices. If you do not plan to put many movies on your phone, then go ahead an code to 1080p and you should be good to go (previous caveat regarding the iP4 applies).

I will need something less than a 1080p version of movies because my ATV1s would fry themselves trying to play that type of file. I also like to have a 544p version for my iPhone 4S, so that I can get more choices on there (it's a 32GB model). Of course, this means that two (or maybe three now) versions of the same movie increase the size of my library exponentially, so that's a further consideration especially if I have two levels of "HD" in addition to the "SD".

Assuming your iPhone 4 is up to the job of playing a 1080p file, then you're good to go with one version. It's all about where you want your storage crunch to be.

Good advice. I'm okay with not watching movies on the iPhone 4. I take my iPad2 with me everywhere I go.

dynaflash · Mar 9, 2012

kagharaht said:
Any thoughts with this workflow? I will use ATV2 Preset, CQ19 or 18 and 1080p for all three devices. Also I stream to ATV2 with Airport Extreme 5th with 5ghz strictly used for ATV2.

imo cq 18 and maybe even 19 is on the high side for a 1080p source. Do a few short tests at 20, 19 and 18 and see how it works on each device. HB has point to point encoding so you could do a ten minute encode... to really test how it works pick a source that is very complex with a lot of action. A still dark scene will not tell you how it will work as the encoder will use a very low bitrate on that scene. You want a lot of action and complex motion which will cause the encoder to jump the bitrate up to maintain the specified quality.

kagharaht · Mar 9, 2012

dynaflash said:
imo cq 18 and maybe even 19 is on the high side for a 1080p source. Do a few short tests at 20, 19 and 18 and see how it works on each device. HB has point to point encoding so you could do a ten minute encode... to really test how it works pick a source that is very complex with a lot of action. A still dark scene will not tell you how it will work as the encoder will use a very low bitrate on that scene. You want a lot of action and complex motion which will cause the encoder to jump the bitrate up to maintain the specified quality.

I have the Blu-Ray Extended of Sucker Punch. I think it will be good source to test. I know its intentionally grainy. I will pick the action scene on the train where they fight their way through the bots. Reminds me of a similar scene on 300, but on Super Overdrive!

Eimoaotl · Mar 9, 2012

rayward said:
I'm on a Mac, and I use MakeMKV to rip my BDs. On either Mac or PC, once the movie is ripped, the process is the same: transcode with HandBrake, add metadata and copy to iTunes. The only time it gets more complicated than that is when you have forced subs that aren't burned in to the original video. There's plenty of threads in here about how to navigate that issue.

Thank you for the input. I appreciate it.

HobeSoundDarryl · Mar 9, 2012

BlackMangoTree said:
SInce the last update to the AppleTV2 it can now play back 1080p 25mb encoded from a bluray using the "High Profile"preset in Handbrake. SO i assume the AppleTV3 can do this too.

BMT, I recall back when :apple:

TV2 first came out, you were one with keen enough eyes (or Apple objectivity) to be able to see the stuttering when it was trying to play 1080p (downconverted to 720p) video. Is the above statement one of fact- as in things look great on your :apple:

TV2 now with 1080p content up to 25Mbps- or are you restating what you are reading in these threads?

If you are testing media at 25Mbps and seeing smooth play, I'd take that as very encouraging because you seemed to have a more eye for the stutters vs. most of the crowd back then who claimed/pretended that there was no stutters.

And yes, I'd read this discovery like you are- that the :apple:

TV3 should at least be able to match whatever the :apple:

TV2 can handle with the new software.

kagharaht · Mar 9, 2012

ATV3 wifi speed

I do plan on getting ATV3. Hopefully the new one will connect faster than 65mbps. For some reason, even if the ATV2 is as close as 1 foot away from the Airport Extreme, it can only connect as fast as 65mbs. While my MacBook Pro connects up to 300mbps.

Bill.the.Cat · Mar 9, 2012

dynaflash said:
HB has point to point encoding so you could do a ten minute encode...

Just for my own edification, what is point to point encoding? Thanks!

dynaflash · Mar 9, 2012

Bill.the.Cat said:
Just for my own edification, what is point to point encoding? Thanks!

where chapters are .. you can also switch to second to seconds or frames to frames. This allows you to only encode a part of a flat file (like an mkv or whatever).

kagharaht · Mar 9, 2012

dynaflash said:
imo cq 18 and maybe even 19 is on the high side for a 1080p source. Do a few short tests at 20, 19 and 18 and see how it works on each device. HB has point to point encoding so you could do a ten minute encode... to really test how it works pick a source that is very complex with a lot of action. A still dark scene will not tell you how it will work as the encoder will use a very low bitrate on that scene. You want a lot of action and complex motion which will cause the encoder to jump the bitrate up to maintain the specified quality.

Looks like 18 is good for me. I have a 60" Sharp that I just bought this year. Testing with 20, 19, 18 and 16 just for kicks. Where as 16 is as close to the mkv file image as possible, it will give you the same or slightly bigger file. CQ20 will give you a really tiny file but the image isn't so good on that 60" screen size. 18 seems to be the sweet spot for me for 1080p. Still pretty big GB size compared to 720p but less than half of that mkv file. Plus if you plan on streaming only, the smaller file size is easier on the network. Thanks for the tips again.

Bill.the.Cat · Mar 9, 2012

dynaflash said:
where chapters are .. you can also switch to second to seconds or frames to frames. This allows you to only encode a part of a flat file (like an mkv or whatever).

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the explanation.

WebHead · Mar 9, 2012

Blaquespell said:
I think he's talking about the advanced features their specs now display on the Apple TV page, High profile vs. Main profile on the 2nd generation Apple TV and the file size comparison of older 720p movies vs. the newer 1080p ones in the iTunes store.

For the record though, Handbrake has had the ability to use more advanced encoding all along. CABAC and 8x8 Transform in the Apple TV 2 preset enable High profile already. Apple is typically very conservative with their specs when it comes to the Apple TV. I've been throwing High@L4.1 content at it for a year now using Handbrake. Apple is basically playing catch up at this point.

Thanks, I guess I was asking if HandBrake's compression is as efficient as Apple's "new" technique, but maybe it's not so "new" after all.

rick98761 · Mar 9, 2012

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dynaflash said:
rick98761 said:

I currently store all my bluray movies on my home server in mkv format. I would like to use apple tv 3 on the televisions in my house. The only thing I am wondering about is, is it possible to keep the audio loseless? I don't really care what format it is held in, but I would like to retain all quality.

Click to expand...

well ,your audio is not *lossless* but i know what you mean, you want to pass thru the audio from your source. if the audio is ac3 then you can just pass it through with something like hb. If its dts ... you would have to encode it to ac3 afaik. Again that is assuming the atv 3 has only ac3 passthru. Again ... no one has one yet so we don't know but I would be very surprised if the atv 3 allowed dts in a mp4.

Dts-ma and Dolby true hd are the lossless tracks on a Blu-ray disc. I'm looking for a way to retain that quality.

BlackMangoTree · Mar 9, 2012

HobeSoundDarryl said:
BMT, I recall back when TV2 first came out, you were one with keen enough eyes (or Apple objectivity) to be able to see the stuttering when it was trying to play 1080p (downconverted to 720p) video. Is the above statement one of fact- as in things look great on your TV2 now with 1080p content up to 25Mbps- or are you restating what you are reading in these threads?

If you are testing media at 25Mbps and seeing smooth play, I'd take that as very encouraging because you seemed to have a more eye for the stutters vs. most of the crowd back then who claimed/pretended that there was no stutters.

And yes, I'd read this discovery like you are- that the TV3 should at least be able to match whatever the TV2 can handle with the new software.

When the Apple TV2 was first released, movies would stutter when the file had fully buffered onto the device, this issue was fixed. 1080p has always dropped frames, not watchable at all. Since the last update the AppleTV2 now can play back very taxing 1080p encodes perfectly imo.

HobeSoundDarryl · Mar 10, 2012

BMT, thanks for the update. That's very encouraging!

wshell · Mar 10, 2012

Help with 1080p encoding

jaysue said:
If you're truly anxious to get started, I'd use the ATV2 preset, then up the resolution under Picture Settings to 1920 x 1080, making sure the "Keep Aspect Ratio" box is checked. That'll get you a 1080p encode, but it may be at a lower quality than the ATV3 can handle.

Now I just converted a Blu-ray using the Apple TV 2 preset and changed the Animorphic to custom, checked the keep ratio box and changed the height to 1080 and width to 1280 and used an average bit rate of 3900 and it seemed to play fine, choppy in iTunes though, but smooth on the Apple TV, now can I up the width to 1920? is there any other settings i'm missing? constant quality maybe? and would it be really better than the 720 encode?[/QUOTE]

How do I change the pre settings to a higher setting like 1920x1080? mine won't let me go above 720x480?!?!

paulisme · Mar 10, 2012

I tried encoding with the Apple 2 preset but with 1920 specified for the width, but it took forever to buffer when streaming to my Apple TV via wi-fi (I gave up after about 10 minutes). Is anyone else experiencing this?

kagharaht · Mar 10, 2012

paulisme said:
I tried encoding with the Apple 2 preset but with 1920 specified for the width, but it took forever to buffer when streaming to my Apple TV via wi-fi (I gave up after about 10 minutes). Is anyone else experiencing this?

I used cq18. My ATV2 connects at 65mbps on my Airport Extreme 5th gen wifi. 5ghz channel only used by ATV2, iTunes server connected 1gb ethernet on Axtreme.

Movie loads up fast and plays completely. Progress bar stays well ahead of current playhead.

dynaflash · Mar 11, 2012

wshell said:
Now I just converted a Blu-ray using the Apple TV 2 preset and changed the Animorphic to custom, checked the keep ratio box and changed the height to 1080 and width to 1280 and used an average bit rate of 3900 and it seemed to play fine, choppy in iTunes though, but smooth on the Apple TV, now can I up the width to 1920? is there any other settings i'm missing? constant quality maybe? and would it be really better than the 720 encode?

How do I change the pre settings to a higher setting like 1920x1080? mine won't let me go above 720x480?!?![/QUOTE]

Sounds like you are using a dvd source in which case you cannot size up past the source since there is no point in doing so.

Edit: well you can with custom anamorphic. but 720 to 1920 is a heck of stretch..

pilot1226 · Mar 11, 2012

I'm trying to re-handbrake some of my old favorite movies, such as the classic James Bond films (Mr. Connery!) but it seems like it's stopping after the first chapter.

I looked at the options, and Title is set to 01:49:54 and it says Chapters 1 through 33; not sure what's going on.

For reference, it's Goldfinger (DVD) and it's stopping right after the Gin Rummy pool scene in Miami.

I tried re-ripping it with Mactheripper on my iBook, but it seems to still be the same problem. Could it be a rip problem? I correctly picked the correct title and I picked the proper region.

Thoughts?

dynaflash · Mar 11, 2012

pilot1226 said:
I'm trying to re-handbrake some of my old favorite movies, such as the classic James Bond films (Mr. Connery!) but it seems like it's stopping after the first chapter.

I looked at the options, and Title is set to 01:49:54 and it says Chapters 1 through 33; not sure what's going on.

For reference, it's Goldfinger (DVD) and it's stopping right after the Gin Rummy pool scene in Miami.

I tried re-ripping it with Mactheripper on my iBook, but it seems to still be the same problem. Could it be a rip problem? I correctly picked the correct title and I picked the proper region.

Thoughts?

without a pastebin of the activity log from hb linked here to see ... nope ... no thoughts.

pilot1226 · Mar 12, 2012

dynaflash said:
without a pastebin of the activity log from hb linked here to see ... nope ... no thoughts.

I've found a few Google results of a few people having similar issues after upgrading to 0.9.6. I'll try rolling back to 0.9.5 and see if that's any better. I have logging turned on now, so if 0.9.5 doesn't work, I'll paste the log in a bit.

Thanks.

pilot1226 · Mar 12, 2012

Update: Yup, it was 0.9.6; changing back to 0.9.5 worked fine. No problems.

NightStorm · Mar 12, 2012

pilot1226 said:
Update: Yup, it was 0.9.6; changing back to 0.9.5 worked fine. No problems.

Well, that sure doesn't help to fix whatever potential bug you may have run across.

pilot1226 · Mar 12, 2012

NightStorm said:
Well, that sure doesn't help to fix whatever potential bug you may have run across.

Correct. I already upgraded back to 0.9.6 to create another failure, going to send the log to Handbrake forums. Didn't think this forum really cared about that stuff.

1080p Handbrake settings for new Apple TV?

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