Handbrake now has an AppleTV 3 preset

Ideal handbrake settings for iphone, ipad and ATV3?

So, I'm a total newb when it comes to ripping DVD's. I have been reading as much as possible on forums to educate myself, but I still have a few questions. I would like to watch my ripped files on my iphone, ipad (retina), and ATV3. I have my handbrake settings for each device modified from their default settings with web-optimized checked, and anamorphic set to strict. All other settings remain unchanged.

Using these settings results in an ipad file that is approximately 3/4 the size of the ATV3 file, which seems about right. The thing that seems strange to me is that the iphone file size is the same as the ipad file. I would think that these would be smaller than the ipad files?

I guess my real question is: what are the best settings for these three devices? Also, is there any reason to rip a lossless version as well, or am I just wasting hard-drive space? I'm planning on ripping our collection of DVDs, and I'd like to get it 'right' the first time if at all possible.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

dynaflash said:

Personally, I use strict on everything. You should see no difference.

Click to expand...

Dynaflash, I'm using strict on everything and is actually better.

I have two questions:
1. about the use of RF vs. average bit rate and 2 pass encode.
On DVD I'm using 2500 kbps with two 2 pass encoding. Will RF=20 on a DVD get a better final quality instead?

2. web optimized will impact on the image quality or just handle to have the metadata in the beginning of the file?

I'm using atv3 setup with web optimized checked and 2500 kbps with two 2 pass encoding. Will you suggest another setup thinking in a best quality? I don't care about file size but have to be reasonable size.

I have ATV3 and all my data is on an iMac 27" I7, 12TB thunderbolt drive, all network is 1Gbps wired.

dante.martins said:

Dynaflash, I'm using strict on everything and is actually better.

I have two questions:
1. about the use of RF vs. average bit rate and 2 pass encode.
On DVD I'm using 2500 kbps with two 2 pass encoding. Will RF=20 on a DVD get a better final quality instead?

Click to expand...

Yes ... it should and at a lower bitrate depending on the source.

dante.martins said:

2. web optimized will impact on the image quality or just handle to have the metadata in the beginning of the file?

Click to expand...

No impact on video quality. No downside besides muxing time.

dante.martins said:

I'm using atv3 setup with web optimized checked and 2500 kbps with two 2 pass encoding. Will you suggest another setup thinking in a best quality? I don't care about file size but have to be reasonable size.

Click to expand...

Yes, the atv 3 preset. Abr is not of use in your case.

What is the highest quality setting that the Apple TV 3 can handle? Size is not an issue for me

CLI presets

Hi,

are CLI HandBrake presets the same as GUI?

I'm in the process of encoding my BR library for ATV3 (and iPad) on MacMini with BatchRipEncode scripts... I want to force english subtitles... and here is my custom HB priest:

-e x264 -q 19.0 -r 30 --pfr -a 1,1 -E faac,copy:ac3 -B 192,192 -6 dpl2,auto -R Auto,Auto -D 0.0,0.0 --audio-copy-mask aac,ac3,dtshd,dts,mp3 --audio-fallback ffac3 -f mp4 -4 -X 1920 -Y 1080 --decomb=fast --strict-anamorphic --modulus 2 -m --x264-preset medium --h264-profile high --h264-level 4.0 --optimize --subtitle 1 --subtitle-burn --native-language eng

I've changed:
- strict for anamorphic
- q at 19 (will there be any differnece at all to20)?
- added optimize for web optimisation
Is this the same as using GUI that you are discussing?

Best,
V.

High Profile vs. Apple TV 3 for Mac Mini

Question for you: What profile is going to be the best quality, High Profile or Apple TV 3 when I'm watching the movie on a big screen TV played by a Mac Mini?

If the quality is similar, is there much of a difference in file size?

Which do you recommend?

Thank you very much. for your help!

jayhawk11 said:

Just like the title says. Handbrake now has an AppleTV 3 preset. Here's the build notes:

Handbrake MacGUI Build #874 Changes

Big thanks to Dynaflash for the hard work on this!

Click to expand...

Speed is not of concern

mic j said:

Use the aTV 3 preset. Set picture to anamorphic strict. Check Web Optimize. Save this as a preset (make it default if you wish). It's a very high quality setting optimized for wifi streaming, but be prepared to invest a fair amount of time. Transcoding can be slow and is highly CPU power dependent. aTV3 preset is basically: highest quality, smallest file, slowest transcode. No need to play with any other aspects of HB.

Click to expand...

I've been reading the forum but slow is all relative. I'm running a 3.4Ghz quad i7 and frankly I don't care if each transcode takes 8 hours (atv3 setting takes ~2 hours). In fact I was using the old-school method of "very slow" settings until I realized that the output would not play on ATV3 until I lowered the reference frames to 15. This allowed movies to play on the apple tv but there was severe artifacts.

My goal: I want to increase the quality of outputted file at the cost of a longer transcode. What settings might I consider changing from the default atv3?
Thanks!

PhRossD said:

In fact I was using the old-school method of "very slow" settings until I realized that the output would not play on ATV3 until I lowered the reference frames to 15. This allowed movies to play on the apple tv but there was severe artifacts.

My goal: I want to increase the quality of outputted file at the cost of a longer transcode. What settings might I consider changing from the default atv3?
Thanks!

Click to expand...

Severe artifacts? With the ATV3 preset? That shouldn't be happening. What's your source that your encoding and how big is your TV?

If you want higher quality, you can drag the RF slider to 16-18, but below that is, in my opinion, a waste of time and CPU cycles.

Idgit said:

Severe artifacts? With the ATV3 preset? That shouldn't be happening. What's your source that your encoding and how big is your TV?

If you want higher quality, you can drag the RF slider to 16-18, but below that is, in my opinion, a waste of time and CPU cycles.

Click to expand...

No, the artifacts happen using "very slow" settings that handbrake recommended back in the day. Ignore that. ATV3 works fine. I want to improve upon the given ATV3 preset at the cost of 'time'. The RF slider trades file size for quality. What options trade encode time for quality? Granted there is a limit to this, but if an 8 hour encode time can increase the quality of the burn, or shrink the output file (so I move the RF) than its worth it to me.

My "very slow" settings (see below) would take a RF 20 blu-ray and give me a ~5 Gb file whereas atv3 RF20 yields 7.5 Gb.

Very slow: "ref=15:bframes=8:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:me=umh:merange=24:subq=10:rc-lookahead=60:analyse=all:trellis=2"

Or alternatively, what is wrong with my current settings that is causing artifacts on ATV3?
Thanks!

Lots of info on Handbrake's website.

https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki#DocumentationHelp

https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/ConstantQuality

dynaflash said:

Yes ... it should and at a lower bitrate depending on the source.

No impact on video quality. No downside besides muxing time.

Yes, the atv 3 preset. Abr is not of use in your case.

Click to expand...

I am resurecting this thread a bit, but I found out there is a new version out. I was wondering if we should upgrade, or stick with the .9 version? Any new features for the mac OSX for use with Retna iPad/iPhone/Retna iMac? (I saw some kind of intel hardware encoding has been added, but it was listed as windows only.)

The new version has more retina artworks/icons

Plus a lot of improvements to the presets system, the new audio/subtitles defaults are really useful if you are doing batch encodings.

You should try it, if you find something you don't like you can just revert to 0.9.9, or report every issue you find on the handbrake forum .

Ok, so I'm trying to convert my DVD and Blu-ray movies for my Apple TV 3 using the Apple TV 3 preset, i been looking around for new settings so should i keep the 30fps and use the variable frame rate or use same as source and use constant frame rate, and what about tune settings, i also heard to use film for my movies, i would like these to be kind of universal for some of my other players, I've read so many different options i'm going crazy so any help be be great, thanks.

I use an altered version of the ATV 3 reset, that keeps framerate set to the original file.

VideoBeagle said:

I use an altered version of the ATV 3 reset, that keeps framerate set to the original file.

Click to expand...

What do you change/use in your settings?

I have just encoded a 10GB movie using the Apple TV 3 preset, didn't touch anything and its shrunk the movie down to just under 4GB?

Have I lost quality that much or not? Judging by the file size it has shrunk too, it feels as though its now converted into a low quality movie going by the file size?

What settings should I be altering?