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HandBrake ripping compatibility tests

C

cowm007

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 2, 2005
195
0
cohibadad said:
question cowm007, you encoded with multiple language audio tracks. Is there a way to choose which of those tracks plays on :apple:TV?
Click to expand...

I haven't been able to find a quick/easy method to use the alternative track on the TV. It's easy in Quicktime/iTunes or even the iPhone because there's a button for it, but even selecting the audio track you want in iTunes and streaming to the TV doesn't work.

The way I've gotten around this is use the program "Dumpster" to enable/disable audio tracks in the file. It's kinda tricky though and not really user-friendly as you have to decide what audio track you want before syncing to the TV. Apple really should add this support soon.
 
tkermit

tkermit

macrumors 68040
Feb 20, 2004
3,582
2,909
Another way is to open the movie file in Quicktime (Pro) and then under 'Properties' delete all but one audio track. Now save it as a reference file, which will only be a few KBs ...

You can import the reference file into iTunes and this way have access to a specific language.

Now, I don't have an Apple TV but this works with Front Row at least...
 
ipoddin

ipoddin

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2004
1,118
178
Los Angeles
Alright, I'm confused about the aspect ratios and when to use anamorphic or not.

So I'm ripping Saving Private Ryan using the settings described here. The source says it's 720x480. If I check anamorphic strict it says output is 716x480 and anamorphic 848x480. So what does output mean versus the anamorphic setting and why are the two different?

If I don't rip anamorphic and keep aspect ratio the source is still 720x480 but output is 720x400. Why's that? And if I uncheck keep aspect ratio and bump up height to 480 so output matches the source, the picture looks "squeezed"

Note the DVD box says the movie is shot 1.85:1 which I know is standard widescreen whereas anamorphic is 2.35:1.

Confused, please help.
 
ipoddin

ipoddin

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2004
1,118
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tkermit said:
The Handbrake wiki does a really good job explaining the concept. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. So if I understand it correctly, it's typically better to rip in anamorphic if when ripping non-anamorphic and keeping the aspect ratio checked the height is reduced to 400. According to the wiki:

When Anamorphic is disabled, HandBrake corrects the aspect ratio by maintaining the width and squishing the height to match. The result looks like this:

This is very similar to what happens when you play a DVD on a standard 4:3 television. The only difference is, HandBrake leaves the width at 720, instead of reducing it to 640. So it divides 720 by the aspect ratio, giving you output dimensions of 720*404. (If you're testing me on this and you get a width of 704 or a height of 400, please see the Macroblock Appendix.)

Of course, that means you're reducing the vertical line count from 480p to 404p... a significant reduction in picture quality.

There are other ways to go about encoding the anamorphic video, in order to keep that from happening.
Click to expand...

Is this an accurate understanding?
 
tkermit

tkermit

macrumors 68040
Feb 20, 2004
3,582
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ipoddin said:
...
Is this an accurate understanding?
Click to expand...

basically, yeah.
The gist of it is that, by enabling anamorphic encoding, with (most) widescreen movies you get to keep the full resolution of your source while having to store less pixels than are later displayed.

The alternative is to either reduce the source's vertical pixel count (=> information loss) or bump up the overall resolution, which will lead to higher space requirements.
 
D

dan3L

macrumors newbie
Nov 2, 2007
28
0
Handbrake settings

Superman07 said:
Any updates here? I tried a show at iTouch defaults, then changed to AAC+AC3. The one I tried with 2500kbps, and the other at 1500kbps. I felt that the former was significatly better, but it was 1GB for a 45 minute episode, which amounts to a LOT of HD space when you have a lot of individual episodes. The second came in at 650mb...I may try 2000 and see where at gets me, but it's taking an hour a pop so it's becoming very time consuming just to tinker around with. :(
Click to expand...

I am preparing movies for an upcoming ATV purchase. Using My Mac I am not seeing a really consistent result from changing the bit rate. I ran a older B&W movie at 1500 and got a VHS quality result. At 2500 it was better. When doing a 90's era movie 1500 looked looked poor. In doing another similar movie, 1500 produced an excellent result. Most of what I have done is 1500 and look pretty good, but once again, I don't see the cookie cutter quality similarity I was hoping for. Clearly some movies will be better subjects that other.

Does anyone know the math on this stuff?
 
ipoddin

ipoddin

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2004
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One other question on this. I understand these settings allow you to play a file on both the :apple:TV and iPhone. Besides that, what's the difference between this and the :apple:TV settings? If I don't care about the iPhone compatibility for a particular movie, would I be better off just using the :apple:TV preset?
 
ipoddin

ipoddin

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2004
1,118
178
Los Angeles
sblasl said:
dynaflash

Have you come up with HandBrake "optimum" settings for :apple:TV only? If so can you share what you are using?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

There is an :apple:TV only preset in handbrake. That relates to my question of what the advantages are of using it versus the hybrid approach described in this thread.
 
cohibadad

cohibadad

macrumors 6502a
Jul 21, 2007
893
5
ipoddin said:
There is an :apple:TV only preset in handbrake. That relates to my question of what the advantages are of using it versus the hybrid approach described in this thread.
Click to expand...

In another thread, I think dynaflash said the :apple:TV preset took advantage of some advanced H264 functions that :apple:TV could handle but breaks iPod compatibility.
 
ipoddin

ipoddin

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2004
1,118
178
Los Angeles
cohibadad said:
In another thread, I think dynaflash said the :apple:TV preset took advantage of some advanced H264 functions that :apple:TV could handle but breaks iPod compatibility.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm just wondering what that is to determine if it's worth giving up iphone compatibility.
 
John.B

John.B

macrumors 601
Jan 15, 2008
4,193
705
Holocene Epoch
I think where most people are at with this is that iPhone/iTouch compatibility isn't doesn't take a lot away from the quality and adding both audio streams doesn't add a huge amount of size. From there its just a matter of deciding the bitrate you want to encode at and the whole two-pass and interlacing things.
 
S

SpaceJello

macrumors 6502
Dec 2, 2006
441
83
Hey first off, awesome thread, been keeping it up the past few days. I have started converting my movies using ipod High and 2500 kbs with 2 pass ac3/acc.

I don't have an apple tv so can't tell the quality, but on my computer screen, it is comparable to the original dvd. I mostly watch them on itunes and my iphone.

I have tried using 5000 kbs but that came out to be an additional gig on a SD 1.5 hours movie. Little difference in quality but overall its not light and day.

Curious what are other's kbs settings etc?
 
W

wanchaiman

macrumors newbie
Feb 16, 2008
19
0
Does anamorphic make a big difference?

I have been using the iPod high-rez setting and upping the resolution to 720xn (keeping aspect ratio) and the bit rate to 2000.

Quality wise into my 43" plasma, I cannot tell the difference between this and the ATV preset.

Will there be a big difference in video quality if I add Strict Anamorphic? Or will I only see that with a bigger screen?
 
D

dynaflash

macrumors 68020
Mar 27, 2003
2,119
8
cohibadad said:
In another thread, I think dynaflash said the :apple:TV preset took advantage of some advanced H264 functions that :apple:TV could handle but breaks iPod compatibility.
Click to expand...

bframes is a biggie, the iPods cannot handle them. I am also a fan of strict anamorphic. The iPods cannot handle it ( I dont think so anyway).
 
D

dynaflash

macrumors 68020
Mar 27, 2003
2,119
8
sblasl said:
dynaflash

Have you come up with HandBrake "optimum" settings for :apple:TV only? If so can you share what you are using?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Well, "optimium" is a pretty broad term. A few of us are stress testing the atv settings wise just like we did for v1 here http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4878 I think we are getting pretty close to its limits, but its tedious at best. As eddyg points out, its using crf which is awesome, but can be unpredictable depending on the source, but when used correctly its really awesome. High bitrate during complex action scenes while very low bitrate during slow simple scenes that don't need it.
 
D

dynaflash

macrumors 68020
Mar 27, 2003
2,119
8
Um, for those of you starting out with the iPod preset then jacking up the bitrate, be sure you are also changing the vbv settings in the Advanced Panel.They are directly related to the average bitrate you use. Or try removing them altogether if you want. Though you then risk the chance of local bitrate spikes that could cause your iPod to drop frames on playback for complex scenes.
 
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