1080p Handbrake settings for new Apple TV?

Skoopman · Jun 3, 2012

Quotenfrau said:
sadly there is no present for ATV3

can somebody contact the devs (bug tracker)?

"High Profile" is for ATV3.

Does anybody here have issues with memory usage? Everytime I convert something my inactive memory spikes up until the RAM is full and the system pages out like crazy. I have no idea how to fix it, I tried different ffmpeg version, but no luck.

dynaflash · Jun 4, 2012

Quotenfrau said:
sadly there is no present for ATV3

can somebody contact the devs (bug tracker)?

No need to "contact the devs" and lack of a preset isn't a bug anyway.

we have a "bug fix release" that is being worked on which will also include a built in atv 3 preset. No eta on it though.

as has been said previously you can just use the high profile preset. The built in will be very close to that.

If you want it pretty much exact, I believe I posted it exactly previously in this thread.

The DRis · Jun 6, 2012

To get a high quality version of my DVD are you using High profile right off of the DVD? Or are you converting a .mkv file?

mic j · Jun 6, 2012

The DRis said:
To get a high quality version of my DVD are you using High profile right off of the DVD? Or are you converting a .mkv file?

The mkv will have the same "quality" as the dvd so it doesn't matter which one you use...from a video quality perspective.

macness · Jun 6, 2012

Tech Help

Question: so if i download HD movies or blue ray rips does the quality depend on how i convert them?
usually to watch them on my mac i just use VLC player, but now i have an apple tv. what is the best way to watch those downloaded movies on my apple tv and still maintain the quality??

The DRis · Jun 6, 2012

mic j said:
The mkv will have the same "quality" as the dvd so it doesn't matter which one you use...from a video quality perspective.

From what I have read that is what I understood. I just started on my collection converting them to play on the ATV. I started with my daughters movies, Lion King, Tangled, Little Mermaid, etc. I figured it is faster to copy using makemkv then set up a queue in Handbrake then to do each disc in handbrake. I'll play with the settings and tweek some things until I find just the right way to do it before I start on the movies I want.

I'm not going to lie, this is much more complicated then I originally thought it would be.

mic j · Jun 6, 2012

The DRis said:
From what I have read that is what I understood. I just started on my collection converting them to play on the ATV. I started with my daughters movies, Lion King, Tangled, Little Mermaid, etc. I figured it is faster to copy using makemkv then set up a queue in Handbrake then to do each disc in handbrake. I'll play with the settings and tweek some things until I find just the right way to do it before I start on the movies I want.

I'm not going to lie, this is much more complicated then I originally thought it would be.

It really doesn't have to be that complicated. Use Handbrake High Profile setting plus check "Web Optimize". Make that a preset. Use makemkv to create the base file,then use your HB preset to compress. That's really all there is to it. The resulting file will look good on an aTV, iPad, whatever.

I will say that sometimes animations (particularly older ones) are a little trickier than regular movies because they sometimes need decombing. Often it is best to do a small sample of an animation to see if the decombing filter needs to be turned on to eliminate it.

Oh, and I go the mkv route because MakeMKV it is free and removes the encryption more consistently that HB will do for a dvd.

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macness said:
Question: so if i download HD movies or blue ray rips does the quality depend on how i convert them?
usually to watch them on my mac i just use VLC player, but now i have an apple tv. what is the best way to watch those downloaded movies on my apple tv and still maintain the quality??

Until the aTV is jailbroken or Mountain Lion mirroring is a reality they have to be in an mp4 format for the aTV to play them. IMHO the best way to get there and maintain quality is to either change the container to an mp4 using Subler or MP4Tools or convert to mp4 using Handbrake using the High Profile setting. Changing the container will only work if the original codec used the video stream is h.264. If it is anything else it will need transcoding to h.264.

The DRis · Jun 6, 2012

mic j said:
It really doesn't have to be that complicated. Use Handbrake High Profile setting plus check "Web Optimize". Make that a preset. Use makemkv to create the base file,then use your HB preset to compress. That's really all there is to it. The resulting file will look good on an aTV, iPad, whatever.

I will say that sometimes animations (particularly older ones) are a little trickier than regular movies because they sometimes need decombing. Often it is best to do a small sample of an animation to see if the decombing filter needs to be turned on to eliminate it.

Oh, and I go the mkv route because MakeMKV it is free and removes the encryption more consistently that HB will do for a dvd.

Ok, thanks for the tips. I'll try a few tonight and see what I can come up with. I tend to over think things. People are talking about bit rate and FPS and all this other stuff and it got me wondering if I was doing it wrong.

The only other thing I would do is add soft subtitles and metadata. That's done in Subler right?

So my process (so far):
1) Copy using makemkv
2) Transcode using HB
3) Add Subtitles, cover art, and metadata using subler

mic j · Jun 6, 2012

The DRis said:
Ok, thanks for the tips. I'll try a few tonight and see what I can come up with. I tend to over think things. People are talking about bit rate and FPS and all this other stuff and it got me wondering if I was doing it wrong.

The only other thing I would do is add soft subtitles and metadata. That's done in Subler right?

So my process (so far):
1) Copy using makemkv
2) Transcode using HB (High Profile + web optimized, RF=20)
3) Add Subtitles, cover art, and metadata using subler

That's basically it.

Don't get all caught up in the technicalities with HB. I did that a couple years ago and every rip was different and subpar most of the time. As transcoding program it has improved hugely over the last couple years. I will warn you that the encode time using High Profile is large. That's the price you pay for quality. It does result in a smaller file size compared to the aTV2 preset.

Finally, if you can, save transcodes needing subtitles till the last. Subtitles can still get a little complicated as there are multiple options on how to do them, depending on what your requirements are. Get your basic process down first...get comfortable...then do subtitles.

The DRis · Jun 6, 2012

mic j said:
That's basically it.

Don't get all caught up in the technicalities with HB. I did that a couple years ago and every rip was different and subpar most of the time. As transcoding program it has improved hugely over the last couple years. I will warn you that the encode time using High Profile is large. That's the price you pay for quality. It does result in a smaller file size compared to the aTV2 preset.

Finally, if you can, save transcodes needing subtitles till the last. Subtitles can still get a little complicated as there are multiple options on how to do them, depending on what your requirements are. Get your basic process down first...get comfortable...then do subtitles.

How long are we talking for High Profile? Using the aTV2 and iPad 2 presets it took about 1 hr 20 mins per encode.

I would like all my movies to have soft subtitles. I don't know why, I just prefer them on, but I want the option to turn them off.

mic j · Jun 6, 2012

The DRis said:
How long are we talking for High Profile? Using the aTV2 and iPad 2 presets it took about 1 hr 20 mins per encode.

I would like all my movies to have soft subtitles. I don't know why, I just prefer them on, but I want the option to turn them off.

How long really depends on the source, Bluray vs regular dvd, grainy vs clean, long vs short, dark vs light, and of course computer horsepower. For some BR's I have encoded over 20 hours, some 10. Usually 2-3 hours for a regular dvd.

You can always add soft subtitles later. Basically, you will need an srt file containing the subtitle text. You can either get that file by finding it on the internet as a download or make it yourself using Subler (don't discard the mkv file as it contains the subtitle vob file which Subler uses to perform OCR on and create the srt file). Once you have the srt, you just add it as a track to the mp4 file using Subler.

Richdmoore · Jun 6, 2012

Just as a side note, if you want to watch these videos on the new iPad (and other apple portable devices) soft subtitles won't work. Handbrake (nightly build) works great to hard burn subtitles though.

Maybe you can burn the forced subs in (for example the foreign language in avatar/boardwalk empire), and then use subler to put soft subs in for the non-forced subtitles.

If you only use an apple tv (or am willing to reencode later for portable devices) sticking with soft subtitles will work fine. I usually switch between the Atv at home and iPad during my very frequent business trips, so I never actually know which device I will get to watch the movie on.

The DRis · Jun 6, 2012

mic j said:
How long really depends on the source, Bluray vs regular dvd, grainy vs clean, long vs short, dark vs light, and of course computer horsepower. For some BR's I have encoded over 20 hours, some 10. Usually 2-3 hours for a regular dvd.

You can always add soft subtitles later. Basically, you will need an srt file containing the subtitle text. You can either get that file by finding it on the internet as a download or make it yourself using Subler (don't discard the mkv file as it contains the subtitle vob file which Subler uses to perform OCR on and create the srt file). Once you have the srt, you just add it as a track to the mp4 file using Subler.

I don't have a Blu-ray player in the house yet. Was a supporter of HD-DVD and I'm still bitter that Blu-ray won out. So my library right now is only DVD's. I won't toss the .mkv's ever after I'm done with the transcoding for aTV. I'm looking at getting a 4-drive NAS so storage won't be a problem.

2-3 hrs?! Holy crap. Two night before our recent trip to Hawaii I set up the HB queue and put a fan in front of my MBP. Kept it nice and cool. I have a 2010 MBP 13" with a Core 2 Duo and 8GM of RAM. Looks like I'll either be getting one of those fans for underneath the computer or a small fan I can set on the desktop. Set up a queue for 2-3 videos a night and let it go.

Richdmoore said:
Just as a side note, if you want to watch these videos on the new iPad (and other apple portable devices) soft subtitles won't work. Handbrake (nightly build) works great to hard burn subtitles though.

Maybe you can burn the forced subs in (for example the foreign language in avatar/boardwalk empire), and then use subler to put soft subs in for the non-forced subtitles.

Yeah, I don't care for subtitles so much on the iPad, more for when I'm watching them on the TV. Can't always have the sound up loud enough to hear all the dialogue.

I did Avatar for the trip. Other than the fact it cut the movie off 3/4's of the way through, I didn't check anything for subtitles and it had the forgein subtitles already.

mic j · Jun 6, 2012

Richdmoore said:
Just as a side note, if you want to watch these videos on the new iPad (and other apple portable devices) soft subtitles won't work. Handbrake (nightly build) works great to hard burn subtitles though.

Maybe you can burn the forced subs in (for example the foreign language in avatar/boardwalk empire), and then use subler to put soft subs in for the non-forced subtitles.

If you only use an apple tv (or am willing to reencode later for portable devices) sticking with soft subtitles will work fine. I usually switch between the Atv at home and iPad during my very frequent business trips, so I never actually know which device I will get to watch the movie on.

I have soft subs working for our iPad 2. Something has changed with "the new" iPad?

Also, the regular build of HB will burn in subtitles, no need for the nightly build. Now if you want to burn in forced subtitles, you need the nightly build.

----------

The DRis said:
I don't have a Blu-ray player in the house yet. Was a supporter of HD-DVD and I'm still bitter that Blu-ray won out. So my library right now is only DVD's. I won't toss the .mkv's ever after I'm done with the transcoding for aTV. I'm looking at getting a 4-drive NAS so storage won't be a problem.

2-3 hrs?! Holy crap. Two night before our recent trip to Hawaii I set up the HB queue and put a fan in front of my MBP. Kept it nice and cool. I have a 2010 MBP 13" with a Core 2 Duo and 8GM of RAM. Looks like I'll either be getting one of those fans for underneath the computer or a small fan I can set on the desktop. Set up a queue for 2-3 videos a night and let it go.

No need to put a fan on it. The processor automatically throttles back if the temperature gets too high. I know...it feels really hot, but the processors are made to run at high temps. Another reason to let it go overnight...so it's not sitting on your lap.

Richdmoore · Jun 6, 2012

The DRis said:
I don't have a Blu-ray player in the house yet. Was a supporter of HD-DVD and I'm still bitter that Blu-ray won out. So my library right now is only DVD's. I won't toss the .mkv's ever after I'm done with the transcoding for aTV. I'm looking at getting a 4-drive NAS so storage won't be a problem.

The first thing I did was convert my 20 or so HD-DVD to apple tv format. Since it is a dead format, it makes since to go ahead and convert them to MKV or aTV.

The way I encoded them was I ran them thru makemkv, using a xbox 360 HD-DVD drive with my iMac. After that I ran them thru handbrake, using the Bluray settings earlier in this thread. The one caution is that HD-DVD subtitles are not compatible with handbrake (at least for hard burning.)

The only HD-DVD I owned that I needed subtitles (and thus was unable to convert) was Letters from Iwo Jima, which is only has Japanese audio, but with English subtitles. (I had to obtain a bluray copy and convert it instead.)

I had disc errors on Pulse, Carlito's Way 2: Rise to power, but those movies were awful anyway. Also, for some reason I was able to rip U-571 the first time, but I think the disc might have been bad, after a hard drive failure I was not able to rerip it.

At some point I need to dispose of my extra hd-dvd drive, unless I find more cheap movies in that format to trade/buy.

----------

mic j said:
I have soft subs working for our iPad 2. Something has changed with "the new" iPad?

Also, the regular build of HB will burn in subtitles, no need for the nightly build. Now if you want to burn in forced subtitles, you need the nightly build.

No need to put a fan on it. The processor automatically throttles back if the temperature gets too high. I know...it feels really hot, but the processors are made to run at high temps. Another reason to let it go overnight...so it's not sitting on your lap.

I actually haven't tried soft subtitles on the iPad, my info may be out of date. The reason I recommended the nightly build is that it will also convert Blu-ray subtitles, which the official release version will not currently.

If you only use DVD and don't convert bluray, it's not an issue, the nightly build is not needed.

I did have an experience on my older 2007 core 2 macbook, where in clamshell mode using handbrake to convert HD video (indycar video captures) it actually got so hot the computer would just turn off. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. That being said, it was very unusual situation, and simply running it open was enough to remedy the problem. I think a more modern macbook (metal vs plastic) would not have an issue.

mic j · Jun 6, 2012

Richdmoore said:
The first thing I did was convert my 20 or so HD-DVD to apple tv format. Since it is a dead format, it makes since to go ahead and convert them to MKV or aTV.

The way I encoded them was I ran them thru makemkv, using a xbox 360 HD-DVD drive with my iMac. After that I ran them thru handbrake, using the Bluray settings earlier in this thread. The one caution is that HD-DVD subtitles are not compatible with handbrake (at least for hard burning.)

The only HD-DVD I owned that I needed subtitles (and thus was unable to convert) was Letters from Iwo Jima, which is only has Japanese audio, but with English subtitles. (I had to obtain a bluray copy and convert it instead.)

I had disc errors on Pulse, Carlito's Way 2: Rise to power, but those movies were awful anyway. Also, for some reason I was able to rip U-571 the first time, but I think the disc might have been bad, after a hard drive failure I was not able to rerip it.

At some point I need to dispose of my extra hd-dvd drive, unless I find more cheap movies in that format to trade/buy.

----------

I actually haven't tried soft subtitles on the iPad, my info may be out of date. The reason I recommended the nightly build is that it will also convert Blu-ray subtitles, which the official release version will not currently.

If you only use DVD and don't convert bluray, it's not an issue, the nightly build is not needed.

I did have an experience on my older 2007 core 2 macbook, where in clamshell mode using handbrake to convert HD video (indycar video captures) it actually got so hot the computer would just turn off. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. That being said, it was very unusual situation, and simply running it open was enough to remedy the problem. I think a more modern macbook (metal vs plastic) would not have an issue.

yep, the newer ones cannot be run in clamshell mode, probably because of the exact experience you had. In a way it's too bad because I would love to leave my Mac sitting closed and iTunes running for the aTV. But, no can do.

I don't think DRIs is converting HD-DVD's just regular dvd's. I have no experience with the conversion of HD-DVDs and subtitles, so I will defer to your experience in that area.

The DRis · Jun 7, 2012

Richdmoore said:
The first thing I did was convert my 20 or so HD-DVD to apple tv format. Since it is a dead format, it makes since to go ahead and convert them to MKV or aTV.

The way I encoded them was I ran them thru makemkv, using a xbox 360 HD-DVD drive with my iMac. After that I ran them thru handbrake, using the Bluray settings earlier in this thread. The one caution is that HD-DVD subtitles are not compatible with handbrake (at least for hard burning.)

The only HD-DVD I owned that I needed subtitles (and thus was unable to convert) was Letters from Iwo Jima, which is only has Japanese audio, but with English subtitles. (I had to obtain a bluray copy and convert it instead.)

I had disc errors on Pulse, Carlito's Way 2: Rise to power, but those movies were awful anyway. Also, for some reason I was able to rip U-571 the first time, but I think the disc might have been bad, after a hard drive failure I was not able to rerip it.

At some point I need to dispose of my extra hd-dvd drive, unless I find more cheap movies in that format to trade/buy.

----------

I actually haven't tried soft subtitles on the iPad, my info may be out of date. The reason I recommended the nightly build is that it will also convert Blu-ray subtitles, which the official release version will not currently.

If you only use DVD and don't convert bluray, it's not an issue, the nightly build is not needed.

I did have an experience on my older 2007 core 2 macbook, where in clamshell mode using handbrake to convert HD video (indycar video captures) it actually got so hot the computer would just turn off. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. That being said, it was very unusual situation, and simply running it open was enough to remedy the problem. I think a more modern macbook (metal vs plastic) would not have an issue.

How did you hook up your Xbox 360 drive? That's what I have, was it just plug and play?

mic j said:
yep, the newer ones cannot be run in clamshell mode, probably because of the exact experience you had. In a way it's too bad because I would love to leave my Mac sitting closed and iTunes running for the aTV. But, no can do.

I don't think DRIs is converting HD-DVD's just regular dvd's. I have no experience with the conversion of HD-DVDs and subtitles, so I will defer to your experience in that area.

For now yes all I'm doing is DVD. Thinking about getting an external Blu-Ray reader, but since I have zero Blu-Ray's it isn't a priority any time soon.

Richdmoore · Jun 7, 2012

The DRis said:
How did you hook up your Xbox 360 drive? That's what I have, was it just plug and play?

For now yes all I'm doing is DVD. Thinking about getting an external Blu-Ray reader, but since I have zero Blu-Ray's it isn't a priority any time soon.

Yes, simply hook up the Xbox drive, then use makemkv to read the hd-DVD drive. No drivers are needed. If you want an apple tv file, use handbrake to convert from there.

Oh, and I am using lion now, but I did this also with snow leopard. I think it works on leopard and tiger as well.

The DRis · Jun 7, 2012

Richdmoore said:
Yes, simply hook up the Xbox drive, then use makemkv to read the hd-DVD drive. No drivers are needed. If you want an apple tv file, use handbrake to convert from there.

Oh, and I am using lion now, but I did this also with snow leopard. I think it works on leopard and tiger as well.

Sweet, I'm on Lion as well. I will have to test this out tonight. That is awesome!

Richdmoore · Jun 7, 2012

The DRis said:
Sweet, I'm on Lion as well. I will have to test this out tonight. That is awesome!

Just to bring it back on topic, I use the same settings I would for bluray with the mkv file... With the exception of doing a foreign subtitle search, since handbrake (and almost every other program) can't read the subtitle stream.

I guess the only solution would be to find them online and put them in as soft subtitles. Like I said it was just one disc that I had an issue with.

andymodem · Jun 12, 2012

Anyone know if the 10.6.3 iTunes update allows the iPad 2 to see 1080p movies via home sharing?

x-evil-x · Dec 25, 2012

Richdmoore said:
Yes, simply hook up the Xbox drive, then use makemkv to read the hd-DVD drive. No drivers are needed. If you want an apple tv file, use handbrake to convert from there.

Oh, and I am using lion now, but I did this also with snow leopard. I think it works on leopard and tiger as well.

could i use my hddvd player? i dont have the xbox one

Richdmoore · Dec 25, 2012

x-evil-x said:
could i use my hddvd player? i dont have the xbox one

You need a USB hddvd drive, most popular was the xbox drive, but any should work.

x-evil-x · Dec 25, 2012

Richdmoore said:
You need a USB hddvd drive, most popular was the xbox drive, but any should work.

Does that mean I can use my ps3 to transfer blu rays?

Richdmoore · Dec 25, 2012

No, No, No.

Makemkv works with internal, FireWire, or other computer connected drives. Those drives can be HD-DVD, Blu-ray, or DVD.

The internal Xbox 360 drive does not natively play HD-DVD discs. Microsoft made an accessory HD-DVD drive that connected via standard USB. Soon after they were sold, people figured out that they could simply connect the drives to their computer instead (via usb) allowing then to rip the discs.

Basically you need to use a drive that is either internal to the Mac, or attaches via USB/FireWire. A set top player will not work, you need a drive designed to hook to a computer.

1080p Handbrake settings for new Apple TV?

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