As far as I can tell, Handbrake's Strict setting will take the exact visible frame of the DVD image and copy it no matter what.
This is good because you get the exact screen dimensions as the DVD, but bad because sometimes the dimensions don't divide evenly by 16, and when that happens the encoding becomes less efficient and compression may suffer.
On the other hand, Handbrakes' Loose setting will adjust the image size to a figure that does divide evenly by 16. This is good because you get efficient encoding with better compression, but bad because it's scaling down the image.
For example, I am looking at "This Film is Not Yet Rated" on DVD. The "Source" is reported in Handbrake as 720x480.
Using the strict setting, Handbrake wants to encode at 718x364 (638x364 strict anamorphic).
Under the loose setting, it wants to encode at 720x368 (645x368 loose anamorphic).
So, what does this mean, really? How does a 720x480 source go down to 720x 368 anyway? What happens to the 112 rows of pixels in my height? I thought anamorphic was essentially a width-altering technology(?)
Which setting should I be using if I want the best possible picture that will play over tv and iPod Touch/iPhone?
This is good because you get the exact screen dimensions as the DVD, but bad because sometimes the dimensions don't divide evenly by 16, and when that happens the encoding becomes less efficient and compression may suffer.
On the other hand, Handbrakes' Loose setting will adjust the image size to a figure that does divide evenly by 16. This is good because you get efficient encoding with better compression, but bad because it's scaling down the image.
For example, I am looking at "This Film is Not Yet Rated" on DVD. The "Source" is reported in Handbrake as 720x480.
Using the strict setting, Handbrake wants to encode at 718x364 (638x364 strict anamorphic).
Under the loose setting, it wants to encode at 720x368 (645x368 loose anamorphic).
So, what does this mean, really? How does a 720x480 source go down to 720x 368 anyway? What happens to the 112 rows of pixels in my height? I thought anamorphic was essentially a width-altering technology(?)
Which setting should I be using if I want the best possible picture that will play over tv and iPod Touch/iPhone?