BluRay Ripping, MakeMKV and Handbrake

[taylord22]

How are people getting most files at 5GB with the ATV3 Preset? I ripped the Town using that Preset which came in at 13GB...am I doing something wrong?

Also, is 30 min about the average time for MKV to copy a BD over? I have a 14X LG, and MKV is hitting 7.5x at its very highest with 4.5-5x being the average.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by taylord22

How are people getting most files at 5GB with the ATV3 Preset? I ripped the Town using that Preset which came in at 13GB...am I doing something wrong?

Also, is 30 min about the average time for MKV to copy a BD over? I have a 14X LG, and MKV is hitting 7.5x at its very highest with 4.5-5x being the average.

Most of my BR's are around 10GB. I think 5GB is a very optimistic estimate for a BR. Most of my regular dvd's are around 1GB.

Your MakeMKV ripping time is not unusual.

[taylord22]

Originally Posted by mic j

Most of my BR's are around 10GB. I think 5GB is a very optimistic estimate for a BR. Most of my regular dvd's are around 1GB.

Your MakeMKV ripping time is not unusual.

Ah, well that makes me feel better. My first rip was on Saturday, so this is all pretty new...today, Handbrake went from taking 2hrs to encode a movie (using ATV3 presets) to 56hrs...I can't figure out why/if it's normal/if I've done something horribly wrong.

I have the 2012 i5 IMac and handbrake is taking up 97% of my cpu resources according to iStat...I knew it would be high, but wasn't expecting it to be that high.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by taylord22

Ah, well that makes me feel better. My first rip was on Saturday, so this is all pretty new...today, Handbrake went from taking 2hrs to encode a movie (using ATV3 presets) to 56hrs...I can't figure out why/if it's normal/if I've done something horribly wrong.

I have the 2012 i5 IMac and handbrake is taking up 97% of my cpu resources according to iStat...I knew it would be high, but wasn't expecting it to be that high.

First off, I think something is wrong if it's taking 56 hours. I have a 2009 duo core (so we're talking old) MBP. I transcoded the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring EE, combining both BR's from the set into single mkv and it took a little over 24 hours to transcode to mp4 using Handbrake. You are using MakeMKV to generate the mkv that HB transcodes, right?

As for CPU usage, HB is designed to use as much CPU as is available. So 97% is pretty normal (and I assume you are talking 97% of total available CPU as you have multiple cores and it will use all of them). However, it plays very nice, so if you start running other programs, it will gladly give up the CPU they need to run properly (although sometimes just a tad slower).

[taylord22]

Originally Posted by mic j

First off, I think something is wrong if it's taking 56 hours. I have a 2009 duo core (so we're talking old) MBP. I transcoded the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring EE, combining both BR's from the set into single mkv and it took a little over 24 hours to transcode to mp4 using Handbrake. You are using MakeMKV to generate the mkv that HB transcodes, right?

As for CPU usage, HB is designed to use as much CPU as is available. So 97% is pretty normal (and I assume you are talking 97% of total available CPU as you have multiple cores and it will use all of them). However, it plays very nice, so if you start running other programs, it will gladly give up the CPU they need to run properly (although sometimes just a tad slower).

Yep, using MakeMKV to generate an MKV than initiating transmission, using Apple TV3 presets and setting slider to 18 (vs. 20).

The previous 2 nights I was transcoding 2.5hr movies anywhere from 2-4hrs...not sure what happened.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by taylord22

Yep, using MakeMKV to generate an MKV than initiating transmission, using Apple TV3 presets and setting slider to 18 (vs. 20).

The previous 2 nights I was transcoding 2.5hr movies anywhere from 2-4hrs...not sure what happened.

Yep, the previous nights transcodes should be your benchmark.

[thebignewt]

Not trying to hijack the thread but I just got an ATV3. I've used HB to rip DVDs not BDs, and used to use the ATV2 setting (I don't have the latest HB but I'll get it). My question is this: I'll use the ATV3 setting but is there any way to rip the 5.1 Dolby soundtrack versus stereo, and if so how do I do that. I have a 65" Samsung ES8000 TV that's almost new. Thanks.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by thebignewt

Not trying to hijack the thread but I just got an ATV3. I've used HB to rip DVDs not BDs, and used to use the ATV2 setting (I don't have the latest HB but I'll get it). My question is this: I'll use the ATV3 setting but is there any way to rip the 5.1 Dolby soundtrack versus stereo, and if so how do I do that. I have a 65" Samsung ES8000 TV that's almost new. Thanks.

Maybe I don't understand your question, but the aTV3 preset (and I thought the atV2 preset as well) will automatically include the 5.1 audio track, if there is one. It will also downmix the 5.1 to a Dolby Prologic stereo track and include it in the mp4.

[dynaflash]

Originally Posted by mic j

the aTV3 preset (and I thought the atV2 preset as well) will automatically include the 5.1 audio track, if there is one. It will also downmix the 5.1 to a Dolby Prologic stereo track and include it in the mp4.

Correct, in fact all of the ATV presets (even atv 1) and also the Apple Universal preset use the same audio track layout. 1. 2 channel aac dpl2 and 2. AC3 5.1

[taylord22]

Originally Posted by mic j

Yep, the previous nights transcodes should be your benchmark.

Any idea how to remedy that? I don't have a gauge on how finicky of a program handbrake is...I assume I should start with a cpu restart, but I don't know how to proceed from there should the problem remain

[dynaflash]

Originally Posted by taylord22

Any idea how to remedy that? I don't have a gauge on how finicky of a program handbrake is...I assume I should start with a cpu restart, but I don't know how to proceed from there should the problem remain

Are you by chance on Mountain Lion ?

[thebignewt]

Originally Posted by mic j

Maybe I don't understand your question, but the aTV3 preset (and I thought the atV2 preset as well) will automatically include the 5.1 audio track, if there is one. It will also downmix the 5.1 to a Dolby Prologic stereo track and include it in the mp4.

Thanks, maybe I knew that. Another question: if there's 2 soundtracks in the file how do I select? On my BD player there's a menu page with the option (5.1 or stereo). But running the file from iTunes there's no way to choose. Does my AVR automatically pick the 5.1 track if there are 2 on there?

[taylord22]

Originally Posted by dynaflash

Are you by chance on Mountain Lion ?

Yes. New model 27" iMac with i5 w/Mountain Lion

[dynaflash]

Originally Posted by taylord22

Yes. New model 27" iMac with i5 w/Mountain Lion

Well, is it possible that that long eta was caused by ML putting your computer to sleep while HB was running ?

There is a patch going into HB to handle ML 's extremely aggressive power management https://reviews.handbrake.fr/r/348/

[Nunyabinez]

Originally Posted by taylord22

Yes. New model 27" iMac with i5 w/Mountain Lion

There are a number of factors and you should use some kind of structured troubleshooting. Of course the first step is a reboot. Then try the file again. If it still is going long, rip a different file and try that. If that file has the same problem then you'll have to get more creative. I could see there being a problem with the MKV file. It is possible that Make MKV ripped it poorly and I have seen Handbrake struggle with a damaged source file. Anyway, what you describe is uncommon, and you'll have to start eliminating some potential causes. Then we might be able to help you more.

[Nunyabinez]

Originally Posted by taylord22

Yep, using MakeMKV to generate an MKV than initiating transmission, using Apple TV3 presets and setting slider to 18 (vs. 20).

The previous 2 nights I was transcoding 2.5hr movies anywhere from 2-4hrs...not sure what happened.

Changing the quality level can dramatically change your file size. I find that the default setting is sufficient for me and the material that I transcode. I would only move it to better quality if there was some content that showed visible differences between the BD and Handbrake. If you are going to adjust the quality slider, I would suggest that you pick a chapter that would benefit from the higher quality and then run it at 20 and at 18 and then AB the files. I have a very hard time telling the difference between the source and 20 for my stuff. I think that the defaults are a very good compromise between size and quality, but your eyes may be better than mine and you may have more available disk space.

[DaveGee]

Originally Posted by hackers79

Hi Robsta2142

No, I am only selecting the main title and the lossless audio. I did The Dark Knight last night and the file size of that MKV is 37.5GB.

This is really odd then if your's are that different??

The Dark Knight you say?

Well unless I'm mistaken that movie is a lot longer than the 90 minute (1 1/2 hour) movie the other poster was commenting on... The Dark Knight is over 2 and 1/2 hours I think. ( 1 hour longer ) that should explain the larger file size you saw.

I remember because I just rewatched TDK and I commented about two hours in... 'Man this is a long movie'

Edit after rereading the post he did say the average file size after ripping 105 movies from 1.5 to 3 hours ...but I'd be willing to bet that a very large majority of those 105 were under 2 hours.

[JMEANS]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

There's a lot of good advice in this thread so I'll offer just a few comments that haven't been said...

OP, aiming for a target file size is not really a great way to think about preserving video quality. In video compression, it's not so much the size of the file but the quality of the compressor. For example, I shoot a lot of AVCHD 1080p with a camcorder. A AVHHD video clip might be 1GB. However, I can convert it to prores and it might become 10GB. Is the picture quality 10X better in the latter? No, it's just the same.

You are correct in thinking about quality over minimizing file size however. And with this in mind, I would suggest using the HB "high profile" setting which is a little slower than the TV3 preset because it is doing a few extra things to retain quality at an even smaller file size. TV3 will play "high profile" files just fine.

I'm a bit of a max quality chaser myself, so I choose "high profile" and slide the CQ to 19 (from the default of 20). It's probably visual overkill (I'm not sure I can see the difference of 20 vs. 19) but the net file size difference is not enough to make me worry about the possible waste. End result, MKV files sizes of 25-35GB might be shrunk to 5-15GB. It's hard to see any difference from original to this version (for my eyes).

If maintaining the exact same quality as the BD is important, you have to keep the video portion of the file size "as is" and only downconverting the audio to DD. Then a 35GB MKV might be shrunk to only 32-33GB in the TV file. This would use tools like Subler and MKV tools instead of Handbrake.

In my experience though, Handbrake, High Profile, CQ=19 is an excellent default choice for the vast majority of conversions. File sizes are shrunk to about 25% of the original (but varies widely film to film) and quality seems to be just about the same.

And just be clear with your preferred use of the 'high profile' settings you still achieve the same 1080p file output as the 'ATV3' preset correct ?

[jmpage2]

High Profile and ATV 3 presets are very similar. However, the high profile preset will crop your original source by default, whereas by default ATV3 preset does a 1:1 aspect ratio mapping with no cropping.

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yes JMEANS, 1080p output.

In my testing, HP seems to yield just a slightly smaller file head-to-head than TV3. The Handbrake guys say the latter is basically HP with some tweaks. From what I've read from others, there is a belief that TV3 profile finishes a little faster than the HP head-to-head but I haven't verified that myself.

Overall, both yield an excellent picture in a much smaller file size from the source. I did a few head-to-head tests early on and just settled into using HP, CQ = 19 (for most movies but sliding it up a few notches for old grainy stuff). Works great!

[dynaflash]

Originally Posted by jmpage2

High Profile and ATV 3 presets are very similar. However, the high profile preset will crop your original source by default, whereas by default ATV3 preset does a 1:1 aspect ratio mapping with no cropping.

Er, no. Both use Auto Crop. There are no HB built in presets that do not use auto crop.

----------

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

The Handbrake guys say the latter is basically HP with some tweaks.

As far as the encoder options, its HP without the rc-lookahead (which in testing took more cpu cycles and yielded no visual quality benefit).

As far as the filters atv3 uses decomb (currently its the only preset that uses decomb, which they all should but thats another matter.... ) and loose anamorphic with modulus 2 (which is more accurate than HP's mod 16.

So, yes the ATV3 preset might be a touch faster to encode with (again, same exact source for comparison) with no perceptible visual quality difference ( in fact non at all perceptible or not).

[Macman45]

Originally Posted by taylord22

How are people getting most files at 5GB with the ATV3 Preset? I ripped the Town using that Preset which came in at 13GB...am I doing something wrong?

Also, is 30 min about the average time for MKV to copy a BD over? I have a 14X LG, and MKV is hitting 7.5x at its very highest with 4.5-5x being the average.

Make sure you have " large file size" un-ticked, but now that I'm ripping my Blu Ray stuff, I'm not using Handbrake much...MKV and another app I can't mention here seem to give me more control over the output. An example of a few recent rips are 3D wildlife and natural history stuff....they are not long about 47 mins. Each or around that...I get top quality ATV and IPad rips with file sizes of around 750MB.

[dynaflash]

Originally Posted by Macman45

Make sure you have " large file size" un-ticked ...

Er, why ? It has no affect on the final file size. But does create a 64 bit mp4 which means it *can* be over 4GB. If you untick it and the mp4 is going to be over 4GB it will break the file upon muxing.

Leave it ticked.

[Robsta2142]

Originally Posted by DaveGee

The Dark Knight you say?

Well unless I'm mistaken that movie is a lot longer than the 90 minute (1 1/2 hour) movie the other poster was commenting on... The Dark Knight is over 2 and 1/2 hours I think. ( 1 hour longer ) that should explain the larger file size you saw.

I remember because I just rewatched TDK and I commented about two hours in... 'Man this is a long movie'

Edit after rereading the post he did say the average file size after ripping 105 movies from 1.5 to 3 hours ...but I'd be willing to bet that a very large majority of those 105 were under 2 hours.

The average film length was 1h 59m and 20 seconds lol. But yeah seriously the OP should just go ahead and rip all of his blu-rays and not do anything to them. They will average out at a file size that he wants and assuming his media player can decode the lossless audio and relevant video codecs he shouldn't have to do anything to them. If in the very rare instance all of his films happen to average at 3 hours long and 35GB size he can always transcode them afterwards to the desired size. No time wasted then.

[Fed]

I bought an external blu-ray drive the other week and began ripping various television shows. I used MakeMKV to rip the full source to disk and then Handbrake's 'High Profile' setting to condense it down a little. Fortunately I have plenty of space in my NAS to hold the full rip and encode, so storage isn't much of an issue for me. But the HP setting brings an episode of Girls (my other half's ) from 6.5GB to 1.2GB. Excellent quality via the Western Digital Live TV.