Max Quality settings on handbrake to Stream to Apple Tv?

slickrick298 said:

I have an Apple TV 3, and am trying to have it be my home theater media center. ... Which settings do I need to use on handbrake to have it be the best picture, and best sound? I would like to preserve true 5.1 surround sound as well. Also, file size is not really important (I plan on having several external hard drives to store everything and then everything imported into Itunes).

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If it were me I would use the AppleTV 3 preset.

Handbrake Setting for DVD to Apple TV

I use the Apple TV3 preset. However I modify the preset settings slightly. I decrease the RF Quality setting from 20 to 19 or so. Decreasing this number increases the quality of the final video, so it also increases the space taken up by the video and possibly the processing time. The RF setting numbers are logarithmic, so the change from 20 to 19 is actually significant. At this setting I am finding that the output video takes up nearly 1 GB per hour of video. You can try this yourself and see if you think the change in final video quality is worth it.

Leave the audio the same is it is for the atv 3 preset. that includes a second AC 3 5.1 track (provided the source has it) for the atv 3 to use. In regard to RF value, for dvd I'd bump it up as said to 19 if you don't like the default 20. for HD sources 20 should be fine. Note that a lower RF (Higher Quality) will result in a higher bitrate / larger file which may or may not stream as well depending on your network.

If you want the best possible audio/video quality, the best way to achieve this is to "remux" instead of re-encode. remuxing essentially copies the video files directly and puts it into mp4 format instead of mkv.

For DVDs, the best way to do this is to use MakeMKV to rip them, then use Subler to remux the resulting file. Subler will also re-encode your audio to put into formats the Apple TV can recognize.

To explain further, lets take this example. You have a document in Microsoft Word you need to have on both yellow and white paper. There are technically two ways to do this.


Way 1 (re-encoding with handbrake):

1. Print the document on white paper
2. Scan your document into a scanner
3. Reprint off the scanned document through a printer

This way will of course work, however you will lose quality through the scanning and reprinting process. This is unavoidable and will always result in degradation of the original source.

Way 2 (remuxing with Subler):

1. Print the document onto white Paper
2. Dye the other piece of paper yellow.
3. Print the document onto the yellow piece of paper

This is obviously completely unrealistic as a physical example, but work with me here. This would preserve the original quality of the document, and change the paper to yellow as is needed. You would have the same original document and same quality, and no degradation would be caused from scanning the document.


I hope this answers your question, and helps with what you want to do.

Also, there is nothing horribly wrong with using Handbrake, but if you want the best quality you can get, this is the way to do it.


EDIT: Dont listen to me I'm wrong =]

The above is great for if you decide to move on to ripping Blu Rays though.

Pyromonkey83 said:

For DVDs, the best way to do this is to use MakeMKV to rip them, then use Subler to remux the resulting file. Subler will also re-encode your audio to put into formats the Apple TV can recognize.

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Wrong. DVDs use MPEG2 video which the ATV can't play, you'll need to re-encode using Handbrake (or similar) into H.264 video.

dynaflash said:

Leave the audio the same is it is for the atv 3 preset. that includes a second AC 3 5.1 track (provided the source has it) for the atv 3 to use. In regard to RF value, for dvd I'd bump it up as said to 19 if you don't like the default 20. for HD sources 20 should be fine. Note that a lower RF (Higher Quality) will result in a higher bitrate / larger file which may or may not stream as well depending on your network.

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Do this. Although he doesn't publicise it, dynaflash is one of the Handbrake developers so he knows what he's talking about.

Jim.R said:

Wrong. DVDs use MPEG2 video which the ATV can't play, you'll need to re-encode using Handbrake (or similar) into H.264 video.

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Weird... Ive done my entire collection of Stargate Atlantis episodes this way and never had a problem with my ATV2. Everything else I rip is blu-ray though so I cant confirm that with DVD movies, just TV shows. Why would they be different though?

Jim.R said:

Wrong. DVDs use MPEG2 video which the ATV can't play, you'll need to re-encode using Handbrake (or similar) into H.264 video.

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Exactly. DVD's must be transcoded to H.264, unlike (most: read non-VC-1) BD discs. The latter can, in many cases, be streamed directly to an AppleTV (preferably over a wired connection because of the comparatively large bitrate).