iPod Handbrake Question

Josephkyles said:

OK, I know there has been a lot of discussion about Handbrake, and what is the best way to encode or rip your DVDs. All of this discussion has left me utterly confused. So, what I would like to know is What settings does iTunes use for their videos? I mean, how do they encode their videos for us to download? There videos seem to have the best balance of quality and size. To make things simple for me I just want to imitate iTunes' method. Thanks.

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I don't have access to iTunes movies but I do know a thing or two about them.

1. They are encoded in H.264. The current pre-release of handbrake supports the "new" h.264 profile universally (on both PPC and intel)

2. They are encoded in 640x*** resolution (this is part of the "new" H.264 profile).

3. Don't know for sure about bitrate + passes...

Joshua.

MacinJosh said:

1. They are encoded in H.264. The current pre-release of handbrake supports the "new" h.264 profile universally (on both PPC and intel)

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Is that knocking about the evil interweb anywhere?

Josephkyles said:

?

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I'd like to get my hands on the pre-release and be able to rip my movies faster, rather than having to use iSquint.
Edit:
These steps may help you in ripping

Josephkyles said:

There is going to be a new Handbrake out soon?

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According to MacinJosh there is.

More HandBreak Questions

I have read references to this utility on this site many times. My curiosity finally got the better of me and so I looked it up. I can see how it would be useful. When I travel, I often take several DVD's with me. It would be nice to transport them without having to pack the actual disks. I do have a couple questions.

Does HandBreak defeat the Macrovision encoding? Is it against the rules to copy your DVD's this way? How much compression can it actually do? Is there degradation of the original quality? Approximately how long does it take to rip a 2 hour DVD?

Thanks.
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Further Handbrake development is dead in the water at the moment. Those looking for the "newer" builds of Handbrake in beta testing form should google MediaFork, as they've picked up where Handbrake left off.

Don't forget Handbrake Lite as an alternative GUI for no-brainer iPod conversions.

Lastly, those who want to encode for those "whatever" generation iPods that support H.264 encodes at 640X..., ffmpegx makes it even less taxing on your brain with a preset in version 0.0.9x (0.0.9x r2).

To answer the original poster's question, your encode specs are determined by your iPod's ability to play the older or newer profiles, as you stated you want the video playable on both your handheld as well as your television.

Keeping things under 1G, a Handbrake encode from SD WS DVD to H.264/AAC for monitor and/or television viewing would be somewhere in the area of 704X384 @ 1200kbits/sec (2-pass).
The resulting file for both Fifth-G iPod and television would be 640X352 @ 800kbits/sec (2-pass) with AAC 48000 Hz @96kbps.

People like you are the reason I don't reply much. You've received a good bit of information from other posters. God forbid you should explore their input and respond with questions that imply you've taken some time to digest, reflect and experiment.

Google ffmpegx and knock yourself out.

Download Handbrake and use the following settings:

.mp4 file format
MPEG-4/AAC encoding
1500kbps average video bit rate
128kbps average audio bit rate
640x*** resolution (the *** are the vertical resolution, it changes according to the ratio of the film)
2-pass encoding (optional, it increases quality but takes twice as long)

You could choose to find the new pre-release version of Handbrake that supports the new H.264 baseline profile Apple uses in it's new 640x*** content but H.264 encoding takes much longer and in my opinion doesn't really make up for the extra time with better quality. Yes it's better but it's not THAT much better.

The above settings work on the iPod, in iTunes and should work with the iTV.