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iPad 3 and Handbrake

C

CIA

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 17, 2003
657
460
In theory the new iPad might have a very high res screen. Greater then 1080p content.
We have a long weekend ahead of us here in the USA, and I have a few 16 core MacPros that otherwise will be sitting idle until Tuesday morning. I was looking to re-encode some of my HD videos into a true HD format for the supposed iPad 3. (Some .mkv, some straight Blu-Ray .m2ts rips)
So using the iPad 2 hardware as a base, what is the MAX settings that you can set in handbrake that will play back? Most of my HD video is encoded for iPad using the iPad setting, which while ok, does shrink the video down to fit nicely on a 1024x768 screen. I still have my 1080 masters, so figured I could re-encode them at the high res for the theoretical iPad 3 in advance.

Right now I'm using:
ref=6:bframes=6:subq=10:mixed-refs=0:weightb=0:trellis=2:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:me=tesa:analyse=all:merange=48

My only area of doubt is the "Reference Frames" and "Maximum B-Frames" settings. How high can I push these?
I usually set them to 2 pass encodes with file size either 2048MB or 3072MB. Most are the usual 90 min to 2 hour movies.

Before you all start off with "Just use defaults it looks fine". I don't care about "Fine". I got horsepower and time, so would like to set it to the max possible regardless of if you can see a difference. Just play along with me on this. Thanks!
 
A

Aidoneus

macrumors 6502
Aug 3, 2009
323
82
Use the Apple TV 2 preset, bump the resolution up to 1080 vertical lines, and the CQ slider to 18. That will get you video which is indistinguishable from the source.
 
macAllen

macAllen

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2009
309
56
Las Vegas
Aidoneus said:
Use the Apple TV 2 preset, bump the resolution up to 1080 vertical lines, and the CQ slider to 18. That will get you video which is indistinguishable from the source.
Click to expand...

Could you please elaborate, explain in detail? When you say "CQ" do you mean the Constant Quality Slider? If so, why 18? Is it because the lower the number the better, same quality of source?
 
C

CIA

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 17, 2003
657
460
macAllen said:
Could you please elaborate, explain in detail? When you say "CQ" do you mean the Constant Quality Slider? If so, why 18? Is it because the lower the number the better, same quality of source?
Click to expand...

Yes, the CQ slider is that. The lower the number, the better the quality. Careful, file sizes can get big quick!
 
macAllen

macAllen

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2009
309
56
Las Vegas
CIA said:
Yes, the CQ slider is that. The lower the number, the better the quality. Careful, file sizes can get big quick!
Click to expand...

So basically this (pic), right? Well besides it being 720 rather 1080…
 

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S

shortcut3d

macrumors 65816
Aug 24, 2011
1,112
15
I've been encoding my favorite titles to 1080p. I use Handbrake 0.96 Apple TV 2 preset and simply bump the resolution up to 1920 from 1280 on the video tab. No other changes. I could not distinguish between CQ 20 and 18 other than file size. I did notice going from 720p to 1080p the detail in dark scenes got better. The file size is 3 times as large and encoding is 1/3 as fast.

I used my 27" iMac for reference. The new iPad screen is still too small to issues in the picture. Most movies so far have scaled very well from 720p to the new iPad retina display. 1080p is better as noted above in dark action movies, but you would be hard pressed to notice the difference in a lot of content because film is just not that sharp. But when you do come across an ultra sharp movie its like looking at a moving glossy photo. Uncanny.
 
Y

Yggbert

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2011
158
16
You don't really need a new special preset, I converted a 720P episode of 30 Rock using the AppleTV2 preset and it looked fantastic. For 1080P just set it to 1920x1080 and pick a semi-decent bit-rate and you'll be fine. I doubt there's anything to be gained by having the resolution upped to 2048x1536 on content not natively at that resolution. The upscaling seems very good to me using AVPlayer.

TL;DR use ATV2, and change the resolution to 1920x1080 if you're converting 1080P material.
 
shenan1982

shenan1982

macrumors 68040
Nov 23, 2011
3,641
80
Yggbert said:
You don't really need a new special preset, I converted a 720P episode of 30 Rock using the AppleTV2 preset and it looked fantastic. For 1080P just set it to 1920x1080 and pick a semi-decent bit-rate and you'll be fine. I doubt there's anything to be gained by having the resolution upped to 2048x1536 on content not natively at that resolution. The upscaling seems very good to me using AVPlayer.

TL;DR use ATV2, and change the resolution to 1920x1080 if you're converting 1080P material.
Click to expand...

AvPlayer doesn't seem to like flv files... any player I can get that'll play them without conversion?
 
J

jason221

macrumors 6502
Jun 26, 2009
400
0
If the video files you guys are converting are .mkv, don't use Handbrake. It takes way too much time. Use something like MKVTools. It takes much, much less time since it's not actually converting any video, just putting it in an mp4 container. The only thing you may need to convert is audio if it's DTS since iPad doesn't support DTS audio.

For full BluRay discs, though, Handbrake is probably best.
 
shenan1982

shenan1982

macrumors 68040
Nov 23, 2011
3,641
80
jason221 said:
If the video files you guys are converting are .mkv, don't use Handbrake. It takes way too much time. Use something like MKVTools. It takes much, much less time since it's not actually converting any video, just putting it in an mp4 container. The only thing you may need to convert is audio if it's DTS since iPad doesn't support DTS audio.

For full BluRay discs, though, Handbrake is probably best.
Click to expand...

That link says MKVTools is "coming soon" lol
 
Macman45

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
Macman45 said:
^^

Whats the average file size of your 180p output for an average length movie?
Click to expand...

Lots of people here working on just that...Remember the golden rule...you CAN'T improve upon what you start with, audio notwithstanding. Some people (myself included) dislike watching movies in 16:9 dispute the high res. It's a waste of screen (IMO) so I'm working on the best compromise I can find...It takes a while, And all tastes differ, I'm sure plenty of HB settings will be posted over the next few weeks.
 
shenan1982

shenan1982

macrumors 68040
Nov 23, 2011
3,641
80
Macman45 said:
Lots of people here working on just that...Remember the golden rule...you CAN'T improve upon what you start with, audio notwithstanding. Some people (myself included) dislike watching movies in 16:9 dispute the high res. It's a waste of screen (IMO) so I'm working on the best compromise I can find...It takes a while, And all tastes differ, I'm sure plenty of HB settings will be posted over the next few weeks.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on that one, I'd rather see it take most\all of the screen, even if it loses a little bit in the process. If I wanted to watch it on a 6 inch diagonal I'd just watch it on my phone, haha.

If you come up with ideal settings for a full screen, please do share :)
 
M

Mak47

macrumors 6502a
Mar 27, 2011
751
32
Harrisburg, PA
I've been using Handbrake to convert Blu Ray rips for the new iPad and new ATV. Going from .mkv to .m4v takes forever, but seems to work very well.

From the presets menu, I'm choosing "High Profile" under the "Regular" heading. I've played around with some other settings, including bumping up the CQ slider from ATV2 etc. The difference is indistinguishable. This setting reduces the file size dramatically, anywhere from 75-83%, but even through the new ATV doesn't appear to have lost much quality.

Dark gradients are the only area that are questionable--and that's only on a full-size TV. On the iPad itself those losses are imperceptible as the screen is smaller and the pixels are packed much more densely.

Others may be pickier than me, but I can't detect any quality loss (though I'm sure it's there) on the new iPad with these videos.

----------
Macman45 said:
^^

Whats the average file size of your 180p output for an average length movie?
Click to expand...

It's going to vary based on the movie. Time length is a major determining factor, but for example, animated movies tend to convert to smaller files than live action counterparts at the same length.

I'm seeing file size reductions in the realm of 74-83%. Most are converting to about 3-4GB for a 90 minute film, 5-6GB for 120 minutes. They're still large files, but nothing compared to the originals.
 
Macman45

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
shenan1982 said:
I'm with you on that one, I'd rather see it take most\all of the screen, even if it loses a little bit in the process. If I wanted to watch it on a 6 inch diagonal I'd just watch it on my phone, haha.

If you come up with ideal settings for a full screen, please do share :)
Click to expand...

I'm on my third rip now...Still getting what I would call half a screen...Im now messing with a couple of Anamorphic custom settings...Preview on my iMac is filling the specified canvas ( iPad window if you like) but it's not WYSIWYG so it's going to take a while

The quality is great...File size for a 1 hour 40 min. movie is running at around 1.5 GB...Not bad considering yesterday I ripped the past Lord Of The Ring trilogy ( I know it's 180 mins.) at 18GB:eek: Looked FANTASTIC, but still used half the screen. We will get there..:)
 
D

dmylrea

macrumors 601
Sep 27, 2005
4,795
6,842
Where, in Handbrake, do you set the output resolution? I can see what my input picture res is, but not where to modify what my output is (horizontal and vertical).
 
S

shortcut3d

macrumors 65816
Aug 24, 2011
1,112
15
shenan1982 said:
Mine's greyed out
Click to expand...

Using the Apple TV 2 Preset as my base, on the video tab I adjusted the width to 1920. It appear greyed out but is not, just use the arrows. See screen shot below.

----

My file size is 7GB (Rango) - 11GB (Avatar) for 1080p. This is 3x the Apple TV 2 preset in Handbrake. A far cry more than Engadget's reports minimal increase in size for iTunes 1080p.

I'm testing settings in an Apple TV 3 thread that say to check Web Optimization and add the following string to the Advanced box:

vbv-bufsize=31250:vbv-maxrate=25000
 

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